JPH05104372A - Numerical control working machine provided with carrier robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To replace a tool at the time of expire of life, and to supply a material to be processed, without stopping the working, by using the same carrier robot. CONSTITUTION:A robot interface buffer 13 for storing a data on vacancy condition of a robot as well as a tool life notifying data from a numerical controller 1, is provided between the numerical controller 1 and a machine robot control part 15, to achieve good timing for exchanging tools as well as for operating the robot. Since the supply of a material to be worked as well as tools exchange can be carried out at good timing, a number of materials are continuously worked unmanned.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tool change of a numerically controlled machine tool equipped with a transfer robot for transferring a processing tool or a workpiece.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a machine to which the present invention is applied. Reference numeral 30 is a machine tool (lathe), 21 is a turret for mounting tools in the machine tool 30, and commands are given by a machining program. The pockets 22 to 27 for accommodating a plurality of tools 35 to 40 are provided so that the command tools described above can be mounted in advance. Reference numeral 18 is a workpiece in the machine tool, 19 is a claw of a chuck in the machine tool for fixing the workpiece 18, 20
Is a spindle, 34 is a machine tool 30 and a tool magazine 33.
A transfer robot that reciprocates between the claw magazine 43 and the pallet 45 to transfer a workpiece, a tool, or a chuck, 33 is a tool magazine that is mounted on the turret 21 or a tool magazine that stores a tool that has reached the end of its life, 43 Is a claw magazine that stores the claws of a used chuck and claws that will be used in the future, and 45 is a processed workpiece or a pallet that stores a workpiece that will be processed in the future. In the figure, 18a-1
8d is a processed work piece or a work piece to be processed in the future stored in the pallet 45, and 41 and 42 are stored in the tool magazine 33. , 44 are claws of used chucks or chucks of chucks used in the future, which are stored in the claw magazine 43.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view showing a conventional control method of a numerical controller for controlling the machine tool 30. 1 is a numerical controller, 2 is a machining program, 3 is tool data having information of all tools, Reference numeral 4 is a program analysis processing unit for analyzing the machining program 2, and 6 is turret tool data having information on tools attached to the turret 21. For example, when the turret 21 is rotated for tool replacement, the turret 21 is rotated.
It is used by the program analysis processing unit 4 to calculate data for retracting the turret 21 to a position where the tool attached to the chuck does not collide with the chuck jaws. Reference numeral 7 is a command block analysis processing unit that creates axis control data for moving the motor 14 and machine control data based on the analysis data of the program analysis processing unit 4, and also has a tool life check processing function described later. is doing. 9 is each axis control processing unit,
Reference numeral 10 is a machine I / F control processing unit, 11 is machine interface data for exchanging data between the numerical controller 1 and the machine 30 / robot 34, 12 is a buffer into which a tool change completion signal or the like is input, 14 Is a motor for driving each axis of the machine tool, and 15 is a mechanical robot controller.

Next, the processing of the conventional numerical control apparatus and the operation of the machine at the time of tool exchange will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. The program 2 for processing the workpiece 18 is analyzed by the program analysis processing unit 4 and passed to the command block analysis processing unit 7 as a command block. When there is a tool command in the machining program 2, the program analysis processing unit 4 performs the processing shown in FIG.

FIG. 10 shows a processing flow of tool exchange disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 02-205449. First, the life data of the tool designated by the machining program 2 (hereinafter referred to as the command tool) is taken out from the tool data 3. FIG. 12 shows an example of the tool data 3, and the tool data 3 includes the shape data 4 for each tool.
8, tool diameter and cutting edge R data 49, rotary hand data 50,
Data such as the cutting amount / cutting angle data 51 and the number of blades / blade angle data 52 are stored in the order of the tool number 46, and the spare tool group number data 47 indicating the group of spare tools and the current wear of the tool are stored. Wear correction data 53 indicating the amount, maximum wear data 54 indicating the maximum wear amount of the tool, life data 55 indicating the machining time and the number of machining which is the life of the tool, use data indicating the current use time and the use number 56 and the like are also stored. In the case of wear, the tool life is judged to be the tool life if the wear amount of the wear correction data 53 exceeds the wear amount of the maximum wear data 54.
When the usage data 56 exceeds the life data 55 in terms of time and number of tools, the tool is considered to be the life.

When the command tool reaches the end of its life in step 118, the tool having the same spare tool group number data 47 as the command tool in the tool data 3 is selected (step 119). That is, this selected tool becomes a spare tool for the command tool. Then, for the selected tool (the spare tool group number data 47 is the same), the service life is determined again in the order of the tool number 46, and this is repeated. When a tool whose life is not found is found, an instruction to replace the spare tool is output to the command block analysis processing unit 7 (step 1
20). By these processes, even if the command tool reaches the end of its life, it is automatically switched to the spare tool in advance.

The tool exchange command output to the command block analysis processing unit 7 is output to the mechanical robot control unit 15 via the machine interface control processing unit 10. When the spare tool is in the tool magazine 33, the transfer robot 34 is driven to replace the tool. When the tool is actually changed on the machine, a completion flag is returned to the machine interface data 11, and the machine interface control processing unit 10 receives the completion flag and the turret tool data 6 is received.
To update.

FIG. 13 shows a display example of the turret tool data 6. The turret 21 has pockets 22 to 27 in which the tools 35 to 40 instructed by the machining program can be stored in advance, and each pocket 22 to 27 has a number 59. FIG. 13 shows the mounting state, and the mounting tool number data 46 corresponds to the pocket number data 60. This allows you to know which tool is installed in which pocket.

Next, the tool life check process performed by the command block analysis processing unit 7 will be described with reference to FIG. When the command block analysis processing unit 7 receives the end of one program (a program for processing one workpiece) from the program analysis processing unit 4, the tool block analysis processing unit 7 checks the life of each tool used for the next processing as shown in FIG. I do. First, the leading tool 57 of the tool data 3 is used as a check tool (step 1
21), the process is performed until all the tools in the tool data 3 are checked (step 122). The check tool receives the above-mentioned tool life check (step 123), and if it is not the life, the next tool in the tool data 3 is set as the check tool,
When the tool life is reached, it is searched whether or not there is a spare tool for the tool after the check tool of the tool data 3 (step 124),
If it exists, the check tool is deactivated and the next tool in the tool data 3 is set as the check tool (step 125). If there is no spare tool, further machining cannot be performed and an error is output (step 126).

[0010]

Conventional transfer robot 3
Since the numerically controlled machine tool equipped with No. 4 is configured as described above, even if the spare tool of the life tool is in the turret 21, the spare tools are selected in the order of the tool number 46, so that an extra transfer robot is used. 34 operations sometimes occurred. For example, in FIG. 12, a spare tool (tool number 46, tool number 2) whose tool life is not 1 is located on the side of the tool magazine 33, and a tool number 46, tool tool life 1 (tool number 46). Of 5
Tool) is on the turret 21 side, tool number 4
When the tool 1 in 6 is commanded and the tool is at the end of its life, in the past, spare tools are selected in the order of tool numbers,
Spare tools on the tool magazine 33 side (tool number 46
No. 2 tool) was selected (it is necessary to drive the transfer robot 34).

Further, in the conventional apparatus, since the tool change command is output without sufficiently grasping the state of the transfer robot 34, when the continuous processing operation of a plurality of work pieces is performed, the next work piece is conveyed. When the robot 34 holds it and makes it stand by,
There was a problem that the spare tool could not be exchanged with the tool magazine 21 and the machine stopped.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and preferentially selects a spare tool for a life tool from the tool data in the machine and prevents the robot from supplying the workpiece. An object of the present invention is to provide a numerical control machine tool equipped with a transfer robot capable of exchanging tools with a non-use tool magazine.

[0013]

A numerically controlled machine tool equipped with a transfer robot according to the first aspect of the invention has a spare tool magazine outside the machine and a spare tool storage inside the machine. In a numerically controlled machine tool equipped with a transfer robot that mounts and processes the tools in the spare tool magazine on the machine, when the tool change command is issued and the command tool is at the end of life, the spare tool data in the machine is given priority for checking. When a spare tool having a non-lifetime is stored in the machine, a transport robot is provided which has means for continuing the processing with the spare tool.

A numerically controlled machine tool equipped with a transfer robot according to a second aspect of the invention is equipped with a spare tool magazine installed outside the machine, and a transfer robot for carrying out tool transfer and operations other than the tool transfer. In a numerically controlled machine tool equipped with a transfer robot that mounts and processes the tools in the spare tool magazine on the machine by the transfer robot, a robot interface for storing empty state data of the robot and tool life notification data from the numerical controller. When checking the service life of the buffer and the tool used for machining, when the check tool has reached the end of its life, refer to the robot empty state data in the robot interface buffer above. If not, the tool life notification data is written in the robot interface buffer above. Together and stores the data is obtained by the structure and means for continuing the processing in the current tool.

[0015]

According to the means of the first aspect of the present invention, when the tool reaches the end of its life, the spare tool which does not have the life of the tool data in the machine is preferentially selected, not the order of the tool data, so that the spare tool exists in the machine. If so, a preliminary tool change command is issued regardless of the state of the transfer robot.

Since the means in the second invention can grasp the empty state of the transfer robot by referring to the contents of the robot interface buffer, it is checked during continuous machining, for example, when the robot grips the next workpiece. Let the tool continue to work, not the tool life. In addition, since the transfer robot can be notified of the occurrence of a tool that has a lifetime,
The transfer robot interrupts the retrieval of the next workpiece and waits for a tool change.

[0017]

【Example】

Example 1. An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing a control method of the numerical control apparatus for controlling the machine of FIG. 8 in the present invention. In the drawing, 2 is a machining program, 3 is tool data having information of all tools, and 4 is a program analysis processing section. Reference numeral 5 is a tool indexing processing section according to the state of the robot in the program analysis processing section 4, 6 is turret tool data similar to the conventional one, 7 is a command block analysis processing section, and 8 is a command block analysis processing section 7. A tool life check processing unit according to the state of the robot, 9 each axis control processing unit, 10 a machine I / F control processing unit, and 11 for exchanging data between the numerical control device 1 and the machine 30 / robot 34. Machine interface data, 12 is a buffer for inputting a tool change completion signal and the like, 13 is a robot interface buffer, 14 is a motor for driving each axis of the machine tool, 1 Is a mechanical robot control unit.

FIG. 2 shows the robot interface buffer 1
3 is an explanatory view showing the contents of 3, and 16 is a numerical controller 1 when it is necessary to replace a tool in the tool magazine 33 with a spare tool.
The tool life notification data output from the robot controller 15 to the robot controller 15 side is the robot preparation completion data 17 that the robot controller 15 side informs the numerical controller 1 of the empty state of the robot 34.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIGS. When the machining program 2 has a tool exchange command, the tool indexing processing unit 5 in the program analysis processing unit 4 performs processing according to the flow of FIG. First, it is checked whether the command tool (initially the command tool in the machining program 2) is at the end of life (step 103), and if it is not at the end of life, a tool replacement command is output (step 108). If there is another tool on the turret 21 if it has reached the end of its life (step 10
4), a tool is selected from the turret tool data 6 (step 105), and it is checked whether the selected tool belongs to the same spare group 47 (step 106). These (Step 1
04 to 106) is repeated, and when the spare tool of the command tool is attached to the turret 21, that tool is set as the selected tool (step 107). Then, in step 103, it is checked whether or not the selected tool selected in step 107 has a life. If it is not, the tool replacement command is output (step 108). If the selected tool selected in step 107 has reached the end of life, step 1
Moving to 04, steps 104 to 107 are repeated.

Then, in step 104, when there is no other investigation tool in the turret 21, or when there is no other tool in the turret 21, the robot preparation completion data 17 in the robot interface buffer 13 is checked (step 100), If the robot 34 is ready (empty), the tool can be exchanged, and the preliminary tool indexing from the tool data 3 (step 102) is performed.
Then, the life of the spare tool is judged (step 1
01), this is repeated. When a tool whose life is not found is found, an instruction to replace the spare tool is output to the command block analysis processing unit 7. In addition, the flow of FIG.
There is a command tool and its spare tool inside, and the turret 21
When there is at least a command tool in the flow, the command tool has a life, and the turret 21 has no spare tool, and the robot 34 is not ready, there is a spare tool in the tool magazine 33 that has not a life. Also, the replacement command of the command tool itself, which is commanded by the machining program, is output. If the command tool is at the end of its life, and the spare tools are present in the turret 21 but all of the spare tools are at the end of life, and the robot 34 is not ready,
Even if there is a spare tool in the tool magazine 33 that has not reached the end of its life, the replacement command for the last checked spare tool in the turret 21 is output to the command block analysis processing unit 7.

By these processes, the preliminary tool of the turret 21 is preferentially extracted. For example, in FIG. 5, the robot 3
4 is not ready and the command tool 28 has reached the end of its life, the spare tool 29 which is not the life of the tool 28 is replaced by the turret 21.
If there is a spare tool in the tool magazine 33 whose tool life is smaller than the spare tool 29 in the tool data 3 and has a tool life of 46, the tool 29 is selected by the flow of FIG. Further, as shown in FIG. 6, when the robot 34 is ready, the command tool 31 has reached the end of its life, and the tool magazine 33 has a spare tool 32 that has not reached the end of life, the spare tool 32 in the tool magazine 33 is selected and the robot 34 is selected. The tool is changed by.

Next, the operation of the tool life check processing unit 8 performed by the command block analysis processing unit 7 will be described with reference to FIG. When the command block analysis processing unit 7 receives the end of one program (a program for processing one workpiece) from the program analysis processing unit 4, the tool block analysis processing unit 7 checks the life of each tool used as shown in FIG. The flow in FIG. 4 is also a flow in the case where the tool data 3 includes the command tool and its spare tool, and the turret 21 has at least the command tool. First, the leading tool 57 of the tool data 3 is used as a check tool (step 109), and the processing is performed until all the tools of the tool data 3 are checked (step 110). The check tool receives the tool life check described in the related art (step 111). If it is not life, the next tool in the tool data 3 is set as a check tool, and if it is life, it is checked whether the spare tool is in the turret 21 ( Step 112)
If so, the check tool will reach the end of its life (Step 1
13).

If there is no spare tool in the turret 21, it is next checked whether or not there is a spare tool in the tool magazine 33 (step 114). The tool information of the tool magazine 33 is
Among the tools in the tool data 3, the turret tool data 6 does not exist. If it does not exist in the tool magazine 33, a tool life error is output (step 117). When the spare tool is present in the tool magazine, the robot preparation completion data 17 in the robot interface buffer 13 is checked (step 115), and if the robot 34 is ready, the checked tool is at the end of its life (step 113). A tool replacement request is output to the tool life notification data 16 in the robot interface buffer 13, and a request for tool replacement by the robot 34 is issued to the robot controller 15 side (step 116). Here, the check tool subjected to the processing of step 116 is not made to have a life until the next tool life check processing.

As a result, when the robot 34 is already waiting with the next workpiece 18a, as shown in FIG.
The machining tool 31 has reached the end of life, and the spare tool 33 has the turret 2
Even if the tool magazine 33 does not exist in 1, the robot preparation completion data 17 in the robot interface buffer 13
Since the preparation has not been completed, the tool 31 does not reach the end of its life and the next workpiece 18a is also processed by the tool 31. However, by outputting the tool change request to the tool life notification data 16 of the robot interface buffer 13, the process of taking the next workpiece 18 to the pallet 45 is interrupted, and the robot 34 prepares for the tool change (robot). Ready data 41 is complete).

In the above embodiment, the transfer robot is used for exchanging the tool and transferring the workpiece. However, in the first invention, the robots may be independent and have the same effect. Play. Further, the example of the machine is a lathe, but other machine tools may be used.

[0026]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention, when the command tool is at the end of its life, the numerical controller gives priority to checking the tool data in the machine and gives priority to the spare tool in the machine. Since it is configured to be used, unnecessary movement of the transfer robot is eliminated.

According to the second aspect of the invention, during continuous machining of the tool used, for example, when the robot is performing an operation other than tool conveyance (for example, when the next workpiece is gripped).
Since it is configured to continue the machining without invalidating the check tool, even if the robot cannot be used for tool conveyance during the machining, the machining is not stopped and the unmanned operation can be performed. In addition, since the transfer robot can be notified of the occurrence of a tool that has reached the end of its life, the transfer robot can be interrupted in the next process and placed in a standby state for tool replacement, and can quickly and automatically return to normal machining. Will be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a control flow of a numerical controller according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of robot interface data according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a tool indexing process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a tool life check process according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a tool exchange in the turret according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing a tool exchange with a tool magazine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view showing continuous processing of a work piece according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a configuration diagram of a machine tool and a transfer robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a control flow of a conventional numerical controller.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a conventional tool indexing process.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a conventional tool life check process.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of tool data.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of tool data in the turret.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Numerical control device 2 Machining program 3 Tool data 4 Program analysis processing section 5 Tool index processing section according to robot status 6 Turret tool data 7 Command block analysis processing section 8 Tool life check processing section depending on robot status 10 Machine interface control processing 11 Machine interface data 13 Robot interface buffer 15 Mechanical robot controller

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A numerically controlled machine having a spare tool magazine outside the machine, a spare tool storage section inside the machine, and a transfer robot for mounting and processing the tools in the spare tool magazine on the machine by a transfer robot. When a tool change command is issued at the machine and the command tool is at the end of its life, the spare tool data in the machine is prioritized to be checked, and when a spare tool that has no life is stored in the machine, the spare tool is used for machining. A numerically controlled machine tool equipped with a transfer robot having means for continuing the operation. 2. A spare tool magazine installed outside the machine, and a carrying robot for carrying tools and operations other than the carrying of the tools, wherein the carrying robot mounts and processes the tools in the spare tool magazine on the machine. In a numerically controlled machine tool equipped with a transfer robot, the robot interface buffer that stores the empty state data of the robot and the tool life notification data from the numerical controller, and the check tool for checking the tool life used for machining When it is at the end of life, the robot idle state data in the robot interface buffer is referred to, and if the robot is idle, the check tool is set as the life. If not, the tool life notification data is stored in the robot interface buffer. With a means to continue machining with the current tool Numerically controlled machine tool equipped with a different transport robot.