JPH057234Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a workpiece loading/unloading device suitable for sequentially supplying and discharging workpieces to and from a plurality of processing devices.

(Prior Art) Generally, the work of loading and unloading workpieces into and out of processing equipment often becomes a bottleneck in improving productivity. For example, when heat-treating a workpiece, a conveyor is provided, a number of processing devices are arranged along this conveyor, and in front of the conveyor, a feeding device and a discharge device for the workpiece are provided. Then, the discharge device lowers the processed workpiece onto the conveyor and sends it to the next process, and then the supply device operates to feed the unprocessed workpiece onto the conveyor.

Since such a conveyor is used, high productivity is expected, but since the feeding device and the discharging device are operated alternately, there is a lot of time loss, and no significant improvement in productivity can be expected. In addition, the equipment has the disadvantage of being complicated and large, and furthermore, since unprocessed and processed products are transported by the same conveyor to a large number of processing equipment, control becomes extremely complicated.
There are inconveniences that impede productivity improvement.

As a device for solving such inconveniences, an invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 152039/1983 is known. This is a loading/unloading device that uses levers of different lengths with different fulcrums to carry in and out without interfering with each other, thereby reducing unnecessary movement and increasing productivity. However, this device has disadvantages in that the relative rotational position of both levers is complicated, the driving device is complicated, and it is difficult to use a conveyor, so it is not suitable for mass production of small parts.

(Problems to be solved by the invention) As mentioned above, the method using a conveyor has good productivity, but since feeding and discharging are performed using separate devices, it takes time and the device becomes complicated. Control of the conveyor is also complicated. In addition, the drive device using a lever is complicated, and the use of a conveyor requires complicated flow control, which is disadvantageous in that it is not suitable for mass production.

The present invention has been made to eliminate the above-mentioned disadvantages, and an object of the present invention is to provide a workpiece loading/unloading device that uses a conveyor, has a simple configuration, and has high productivity.

(Means and effects for solving the problem) The present invention includes a conveyor for conveying workpieces,
A transfer device that transfers a single separated workpiece onto a conveyor, and a plurality of processing devices that are installed along the conveyor to temporarily support the workpiece. A fixed receiver is provided so as to be movable and stop along the conveyor, and the workpieces are successively stopped facing the fixed receiver, and the finished workpieces on the fixed receiver are returned to the conveyor while being conveyed. This is a workpiece loading/unloading device that is equipped with a moving supply/discharge device that supplies unprocessed workpieces to a fixed receiver. Since one movable supply/discharge device sequentially moves the supply/discharge to each processing device, the structure is simple, control is easy, and productivity is improved.

(Example) Hereinafter, details of the present invention will be explained with reference to an example shown in FIGS. 1 to 9.

1 and 2 are a plan view and a front view schematically showing the overall structure of this embodiment, and the workpiece 1 in this embodiment is a rod-shaped member as a vehicle part,
This is a loading/unloading device for supplying and discharging this to and from a heating device that heat-processes it.

11 is a transfer conveyor device, 12 is a transfer device for transferring one workpiece 1 to this transfer conveyor device, 13 is a fixed receiver, and eight processing devices are arranged along the transfer conveyor 11. (Heating device) 14
Eight of them are provided facing each other. 15 is a pushing device, and 16 is a moving supply/discharge device.

Next, each part will be explained. In FIGS. 1 and 2, the conveyor device 11 is shown in FIGS.
A drive section 23 consisting of a motor, a drive sprocket, etc. is mounted on the pedestal 21.

A transport conveyor 25 is constructed by stretching a plurality of chains 24, . . . at intervals.
The transport direction is the direction of arrow 26.

Further, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the details of the transfer device 12 include a stock conveyor 31 running perpendicular to the conveyor 25 and a transfer mechanism 32.

A single workpiece 1 is supplied to the stock conveyor 31 from a separation device (not shown), conveys it in the direction of an arrow 33, and positions the workpiece 1 at a predetermined position.
A workpiece arrival detector 34 is provided here and sends out an electrical signal when the workpiece arrives. A transfer mechanism 32 is provided above the stock conveyor 31.

Reference numeral 35 denotes a support rail body, from which a feed cart 36 is movably suspended via wheels, and this is attached to a chain 38 of a drive chain body 37 provided on the upper part of the support rail body 35. .
Then, due to the reciprocating movement of the chain 38, the direction of the arrow 39, that is, the conveyance direction 26 of the conveyor 25 is
advance and retreat along the

A gate 4 that opens and closes on the lower surface of this feed truck 36
0 is installed and the gate cylinder device 4
1 opens and closes. And stock conveyor 31
The workpiece 1 is sent to the machine, and the arrival detector 34 detects this and outputs a signal indicating that the workpiece 1 is present. Next, the chain 38 of the drive chain body 37 is activated by a transport command from a control device (not shown).
The feed truck 36 moves in the direction of an arrow 39.

The workpiece 1 moves together with the gate 39, and when it eventually reaches the conveyor 25, the gate cylinder device 41 is actuated by the detector 42, and the gate body 40 is activated.
opens. At this time, the gate body 40 and the conveyor 2
Workpiece 1 is moving at the same speed as workpiece 5.
is transferred onto the conveyor 25 while maintaining its posture extremely smoothly.

The gate body 40 further moves to a predetermined position, stops, and retreats again to return to the initial position. When the detector 43 confirms this, the gate body 40 closes.

The fixed receivers 13 are made of a V-groove-shaped member with an opening at the top, and are provided above the conveyor 25 in a direction perpendicular thereto. It faces the device 14. Heating devices 14 as processing devices facing these are installed at eight stations along the conveyor 25, respectively. It is equipped with a heating coil body 45 (Fig. 5), into which the workpiece 1 is inserted, heated for a certain period of time, and then fixed and received by a stopper/pushing rod 46 (Fig. 6) located behind the coil body 45. Push it out onto the body 13. Further, the fixed receiver 13 is provided with a plurality of notches 81 for operating the movable supply/discharge device 16, which will be described later.

As shown in FIG. 7, the pushing device 15 is a device for pushing the workpiece 1 supported by the fixed receiver 13 into the heating coil body 45 of the heating device 14.
That is, a pair of support rail bodies 51, 51 are provided above and along the conveyor 25. A push cart 52 is movably attached to these via wheels. A slide guide portion 53 is formed at the lower part of the pusher carriage 52, and a pusher slider 54 is held in the slide guide portion 53 so as to be movable back and forth. Further, a push-in air cylinder device 55 is attached to the slide guide portion 53, and the push-in slider 54 moves forward and backward by the operation of its piston. A push-in head 56 is detachably attached to the tip of the push-in slider 54, and the workpiece 1 on the fixed receiver 13 is pushed into the heating coil body 45 as the push-in head 56 moves forward. Pushed 2
After a second, the pushing head 56 retreats and the pushing carriage 5
2 moves to the center position of the next heating coil body 45. The stop position is detected by the cart position detector 57 and the cart is stopped.

Next, the mobile supply/discharge device 16 will be explained with reference mainly to FIGS. 8 and 9.

The moving supply/discharge device 16 is composed of a moving mechanism 61 that is movably provided below the conveyor 25, and a supply/discharge mechanism 62 that is attached to the moving mechanism 61 and moves integrally with the moving mechanism 61. The moving mechanism 61 is placed on supply/discharge rail bodies 65, 65, which are laid on the floor below the conveyor 25 through the front of the processing equipment 14, .
It is constructed by movably mounting a movable cart 66 with wheels.

Then, a supply/discharge moving motor 67 on the moving cart 66
The movable cart 66 is thereby driven back and forth. Note that a supply/discharge position detector 68 is attached to detect a stop position, which will be described later. The supply/discharge mechanism 62 is
A supporting bracket 71 is attached to the moving carriage 66, one end of which is fixed, and the other end is fixed to the moving carriage 66 diagonally upward. A guide body 72 on the other side is attached, and a discharge receiver 73 is movably fitted therein.

A V-groove shaped receiving portion 7 is provided at the upper end of this discharge receiving body 73.
4 is formed, which supports the machined workpiece 1. This discharge receiver 73 is driven by an air cylinder device 75, and at the uppermost end, the receiver 74 is located near the fixed receiver 13.
At the lowest end, it is below the conveyor 25. Further, one end portion of an arm-shaped lifting body 77 is rotatably attached to the support bracket 71. A V-shaped support 78 is formed at the upper end of the lifting body 77, and this supports the unprocessed workpiece 1.

Behind this support part 78 (left side in Fig. 9)
is a contact portion 79 projecting upward, and the lifting body 77 is rotated in the vertical direction by an air cylinder device 80. At the uppermost end, the bearing part 78 is located in the vicinity of the fixed receiver 13 and on the opposite side from the receiver part 74, and the abutment part 79 projects through the aforementioned notch 81 in the fixed receiver 13. Also, at the bottom,
The support portion 78 faces the conveyance surface 25a, and this support portion 78 also serves as a stable body that receives the workpiece 1 being conveyed and aligns the posture of the workpiece 1. Furthermore, a transfer body 82 is rotatably attached to the support bracket 71 coaxially with the lifting body 77, and its distal end forms a mating portion 83. This transfer body 82 is also driven in the vertical direction by an air cylinder device 84, and the supply section 83 is close to the support section 78 at the uppermost end, and is below the conveyance surface at the lowermost end.

Next, the mutual relationship between the above-mentioned discharge receiver 73, lifting body 77, and receiving body 82 will be described.

When the discharge receiver 73 first rises and stops at the uppermost end, the lifting body 77 immediately lifts the unprocessed workpiece 1.
The contact portion 79 rises and reaches the vicinity of the top end.
passes through the notch 81 of the fixed receiver 13, comes into contact with the processed workpiece 1, and is pushed out. The extruded workpiece 1 falls onto the receiving portion 74 of the discharge receiver 73 and is supported, and the discharge receiver 73 immediately retreats and descends to place the workpiece 1 on the conveyor 25. On the other hand, as soon as the lifting body 77 reaches the uppermost end, the transfer body 8
2 rises and reaches the top.

As a result, the lifting body 72 immediately retreats and descends, but at this time, the unprocessed workpiece 1 supported by the support portion 78 is supported by the supply portion 83 and the contact portion 79 of the transfer body 82 and remains there. , followed by the contact part 7
By lowering 9, the workpiece 1 is dropped and fed into the fixed receiver 13. In addition, these air cylinders 7
5, 80, and 84 are provided with detectors at both ends, and each operation is sequentially controlled by their outputs.

Although this embodiment is constructed as described above, the overall operation will be briefly described.

Assuming that production is currently continuing smoothly, the unprocessed workpieces 1 are sequentially transferred from the transfer device 12 onto the conveyor 25 according to an external command.

When the transported workpiece 1 reaches the support part 83, it is detected by the detector 85, and the supply/discharge mechanism 62 is activated in accordance with the above-mentioned order, and the fixed receiver 13 is detected by the detector 85.
The processed workpiece 1 inside is passed to the next process, and the unprocessed workpiece 1 is entered. The movable supply/discharge device 16 then moves to the next processing device 14. On the other hand, the workpiece 1 in the fixed receiver 13 is inserted into the heating device 14 and processed by the operation of the pushing device 15. When the insertion is completed, the pushing device 15 moves in front of the next processing device 14. The unprocessed workpiece 1 and the processed workpiece 1 are exchanged by the same operation for the second heating device 14, and in the same manner, the movable supply/discharge device 1
6 and the pushing device 15 move in front of the next processing device 14 and wait. When the workpiece 1 is replaced with the eighth processing device 14 in this way, the moving supply/discharge device 16 and the pushing device 15 are transferred to the first processing device 14.
The process returns to the second processing device 14.

In this embodiment, the processing device is a heating device, but is not limited to this and may be any general processing device. Furthermore, the drive of each part is not limited to the air cylinder device, but may be any other drive device.

(Effects) As detailed above, the loading/unloading device of the present invention is a moving feeding device that continuously performs both supplying and unloading the workpiece to the solid receiver.
There is no need to separately provide a feeding device and a discharging device, so the device is simple and there is no waste in operation. In addition, since one supply/discharge device is moved and sequentially supplies and discharges to each processing device, the device becomes extremely compact and simple. Furthermore, various excellent effects such as easier control of the supply of workpieces to the conveyor are achieved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of the same, FIG. 3 is a front view of a transfer device of the embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a front view of the main parts of the processing apparatus in this embodiment, FIG. 6 is a side view of the main parts of the processing apparatus, and FIG. 7 is a front view of the pushing apparatus of the embodiment. FIG. 8 is a plan view of a main part of the mobile supply/discharge device according to the embodiment, and FIG. 9 is a front view thereof. 1... Workpiece, 11... Conveyor device,
12...Transfer device, 13...Fixed receiver, 16...
...Mobile supply/discharge device, 25...Transport conveyor, 61...
...Movement mechanism, 62... Supply/discharge mechanism, 73... Discharge receiver, 77... Lifting body, 78... Support part, 79
...Abutment part, 82...Transfer body.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] A transport conveyor, a transfer device that transfers the workpiece to one end of the transport conveyor, a plurality of fixed receivers that temporarily support the workpiece for supply and discharge, and is movable along the transport conveyor. and a moving mechanism that sequentially stops facing the fixed receiver, and a moving supply/discharge device installed in the moving mechanism and having a supply/discharge mechanism for supplying and discharging the workpiece to the fixed receiver. Equipment for loading and unloading workpieces.