JPH0592342A - Carrying device for long workpiece - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To position a workpiece in a vertical direction only through the ordinary feed operation of a chain conveyor by loading a long workpiece on a supporting table drawn by a chain conveyor for carrying it, and slidingly moving the supporting table relatively to a horizontal reference table. CONSTITUTION:In a machine tool to machine a long workpiece 6 such as the chassis frame of a large type vehicle by a machining center 2 having a spindle 8 on which a drill 9 or the like is detachably mounted, the workpiece 6 is positioned in its feed direction by engaging a positioning jig 3 mounted at its tip with plural sets of positioning devices 4 provided in the feed direction of the workpiece at each interval of a distance shorter than the distance in the feed direction of the processing range of the machining center 2. The workpiece 6 is carried through a carrying device 5 formed of an endless chain conveyor 12 and plural number of supporting tables 21 fixed to it, and the workpiece 6 within a processing range is pressedland fixed to a horizontal reference table 17 by the actuation of a hydraulic cylinder 22 and machined.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for transporting a long work piece, and more particularly, to a plurality of support bases that are pulled by an endless chain conveyor to load and convey a long work piece.
By sliding on the horizontal reference table provided in the processing section, it is possible to automatically position the long workpiece in the height direction by normal feeding operation without any special operation. The present invention relates to an apparatus for conveying a long work piece, in which work efficiency is significantly improved.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A long work piece such as a chassis frame of a vehicle, particularly a large vehicle such as a truck, has a length that greatly exceeds the processing range of a processing machine, for example, 6 to 12 times, and is therefore small. It cannot be processed by mounting it on a processing jig once like parts.

Therefore, conventionally, the processing of the long workpiece is
A plurality of single-axis drilling machines are arranged along the roller conveyor, and the guide bush of the split-type jig mounted on the single-axis drilling machine performs drilling while guiding the cutting tool such as a drill. The workpiece was transported by hand.

However, according to the conventional processing method, the split-type jig has to be reassembled each time the type of the work is changed, and the split-type jig has a large work piece. The larger and heavier it is, the more the assembling work is not only a heavy burden on the worker, but also the work efficiency is lowered. Further, it is a difficult task to manually feed a heavy work piece while positioning it on a roller conveyor, and there is a drawback in that the processing accuracy also varies due to operator fatigue.

Further, the long work piece is set on a split-type jig attached to each of a plurality of independent single-axis drilling machines, and is divided into a plurality of times to be processed. The error in the installation position of the drilling machine and the error in the horizontal reference table for each single-axis drilling machine directly affect the processing accuracy of the work piece, and it is difficult to improve the processing accuracy to some extent. ..

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art. The purpose of the present invention is to cut a long workpiece with a machining machine such as a machining center. By dividing into multiple processing sections within the processable range and performing processing sequentially for each processing section, it is possible to process all the processing points of the workpiece with one processing machine with a relatively small processing range. There is also a need to reduce the burden on workers by eliminating the need for a plurality of split-type jigs and to reduce the number of workers, resulting in significant labor saving.

Still another object is to provide a plurality of positioning devices in the feed direction of the workpiece, and the positioning device is used as a positioning jig attached to the tip of the workpiece conveyed by an endless chain conveyor. By sequentially engaging and positioning in the feed direction, the long workpiece in the machining section is pressed against two reference planes orthogonal to the feed direction and positioned to machine one by one machining section. The object is to improve the processing quality by enabling extremely high-precision processing regardless of the expansion and contraction of the chain conveyor that conveys the workpiece, even for a long object that greatly exceeds the processing range of the processing machine.

Still another object is to load and convey a long work piece on a support table towed by an endless chain conveyor, and to mount the support table on a horizontal reference table arranged in a processing section. By sliding it, it is possible to automatically position the workpiece in the height direction only by the normal feeding operation of the chain conveyor without performing any special operation. It is to greatly improve.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In summary, the present invention (Claim 1) is divided into a plurality of processing sections and sequentially transferred while being conveyed.
A plurality of support bases, each of which is loaded with a long work piece to be processed in each processing section and is moved by being pulled by an endless chain conveyor on a guide roller, and the support bases mounted in the processing section are mounted. A horizontal reference stand for positioning the workpiece in the processing section in the height direction is provided. Further, the present invention (Claim 2) has a length capable of stacking at least two long workpieces, which are divided into a plurality of processing sections and sequentially processed one by one while being conveyed, and are wound on a sprocket. An endless chain conveyor that is hung and moves, a plurality of supports that are loaded with the workpieces and are moved by being pulled by the chain conveyor on the guide rollers, and the supports that are arranged in the processing section. And a horizontal reference stand for mounting and positioning the workpiece in the height section in the height direction.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. 1 to 4, a long workpiece carrier 5 according to the present invention includes a support base 21 and a horizontal reference base 17.
And an endless chain conveyor 12.

First, the basic structure of the processing device 1 for processing a long workpiece will be described. Mainly referring to FIG.
Is for performing processing such as drilling on a long workpiece 6 such as a chassis frame of a large vehicle, and is arranged in the front-rear direction and above so that processing from three directions can be performed at the same time. This is a known machining center in which a drill 9 is mounted on a spindle shaft 8 which is rotationally driven by a motor (not shown), and the spindle shaft 8 has a dimension of about 1050 mm in the feed direction of the workpiece 6 indicated by an imaginary line 10 in the drawing.
The holes 6 can be moved independently of each other within the range of (1) to perform drilling at any position within the processing range of the workpiece 6.

Further, various kinds of cutting tools such as end mills are supplied to the spindle shaft 8 by a cutting tool supplying device (not shown), and various kinds of machining can be performed by automatically exchanging the drill 9 and the like.

The positioning jig 3 is for positioning the workpiece 6 in the feed direction prior to processing.
A base portion 3a, a positioning portion 3b, and a workpiece stacking portion 3c are formed. An endless chain conveyor 12 is fixed to the base portion 3a with bolts 13 so as to move together with the chain conveyor 12.

Both sides of the positioning portion 3b are, for example, 90 °.
Is formed in a convex shape at an angle of, and is positioned by engaging with the positioning device 4. The workpiece stacking portion 3c has a rectangular parallelepiped shape that rises upward from the positioning portion 3b, and the upper surface 3d has a flat surface on which the workpiece 6 can be stacked.

A reference pin 14 having a chamfered end is fixed to the upper surface 3d.
Is fitted into a positioning hole 6a formed in the workpiece 6, and the positioning jig 3 and the workpiece 6 are relatively positioned to be loaded on the workpiece loading portion 3c.

The lower surface 3e and the upper surface 3d of the positioning jig 3 are parallel to each other, and the dimension from the lower surface 3e to the upper surface 3d is
For example, when the positioning jig 3 processed with high accuracy of about ± 0.01 mm is placed on the horizontal reference table 17 whose position with the cutting tool 9 of the processing machine 2 is adjusted and fixed, 6 is automatically positioned in the height direction.

The positioning device 4 is for positioning the workpiece 6 by engaging with the positioning portion 3b of the positioning jig 3 in FIG. A plurality of units are arranged facing each other on each side of the workpiece 6 at a distance smaller than the machining range of about 1050 mm in the feeding direction 2, for example, every 1000 mm.

The movable block 15 of the positioning device 4 is fitted in a dovetail groove 16a formed in the base 16 and is indicated by an arrow B or C.
It is slidable in the direction (FIG. 3), and the tip portion 15a is formed in a concave shape at an angle of 90 ° and engages with the positioning portion 3b of the positioning jig 3 to position the positioning jig 3 with high accuracy. It is designed to be positioned.

A piston rod 19 of a fluid pressure cylinder 18 is fixed to the movable block 15, and a pressure fluid is supplied from a pressure fluid supply source (not shown) for operation.
The movable block 15 is moved in the direction of arrow B or C to engage with the positioning portion 3b, or is moved in the opposite direction to release the engagement.

The transport device 5 is for transporting the workpiece 6, and has an endless length having a length capable of stacking at least two long workpieces 6 wound around the sprocket 20. The chain conveyor 12 has a plurality of supports 21
Are fixed by bolts 13.

A drive chain 34, which is wound around a drive sprocket 33 fixed to a rotation shaft 32 of a motor 31, is wound around the sprocket 20, and by rotating the motor 31, the endless chain conveyor 1
It is designed to run 2.

The support base 21 is arranged on a plurality of guide rollers 22 arranged in the feed direction of the workpiece 6, and the motor 3
By rotating the sprocket 20 by 1, the endless chain conveyor 12 is caused to travel, and the workpieces 6 stacked on the support table 21 are smoothly conveyed.

The height of the support base 21 is determined by the positioning jig 3
Similarly to the above, since it is processed with high accuracy of, for example, about ± 0.01 mm, the support table 21 is pulled by the endless chain conveyor 12 and placed on the horizontal reference table 17 arranged in the processing section (L). When mounted, the workpiece 6 is positioned in the height direction.

Further, mainly referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, a clamp member that is rotatable about a pin 24 in a processing portion of the processing machine 2 by expanding and contracting a piston rod 23 of a fluid pressure cylinder 22. A clamp device 30 composed of four sets of clamp mechanisms 26 including 25 is provided, and a pressure fluid is supplied to the fluid pressure cylinder 22 to operate the fluid pressure cylinder 22 so that the workpiece 6 within the machining range is moved to the horizontal reference table 17. (Direction of arrow D) and the vertical reference table 2 fixed to the base 16
After pressing (direction of arrow E) 8 and fixing in the horizontal and vertical directions, the drill 9 is moved in the direction of arrow F to process the workpiece 6.

The present invention is configured as described above,
The operation will be described below. 1 to 4, the case of processing a vehicle chassis frame 6 having a length of about 13 m, which is an example of a workpiece, will be described. The reference pin 14 is fitted into the positioning hole 6a of the chassis frame 6 processed in the previous step. Positioning jig 3 and chassis frame 6
And are relatively positioned, and are loaded on the support base 21 of the transport device 5.

Then, the motor 31 rotates the sprocket 20 through the rotary shaft 32, the drive sprocket 33, and the drive chain 34, and the endless chain conveyor 12 is moved to position the chassis frame 6 loaded on the support base 21. 3 is conveyed to a position facing the first positioning device 4.

Next, a pressure fluid is supplied from a pressure fluid supply source (not shown) to the pair of fluid pressure cylinders 18 of the first positioning device 4, and the movable block 15 is moved in the directions of arrows B and C to form a concave shape. The front end portion 15a is engaged with the convex portion of the positioning portion 3b to position the chassis frame 6 in the carrying direction.

Here, the positioning jig 3 includes the positioning portion 3
Even if the relative position is slightly misaligned before the engagement due to the engagement between the convex part of b and the concave tip part 15a of the movable block 15, this can be corrected and mechanically adjusted to a predetermined position accurately. Since the chassis frame 6 is accurately positioned by the chain conveyor 12, it is sufficient to stop the chassis frame 6 at a position where the convex portion of the positioning portion 3b and the distal end portion 15a of the movable block 15 face each other, and thus the accuracy is not so high. Not.

Then, the fluid pressure cylinders 22 of the four sets of the clamp mechanism 26 of the clamp device 30 are operated, the clamp member 25 is rotated about the pin 24 as the center of rotation, and the chassis frame 6 in the machining section is moved to the horizontal reference table 17 and The horizontal and vertical positions are fixed by pressing the vertical reference table 28 in the directions of arrows D and E, respectively. Then, while automatically exchanging the cutting tool such as the drill 9, the cutting tool is fed in the direction of the arrow F and the machining within the machining range of 1050 mm is simultaneously performed from three directions, and the machining within the first machining section is completed.

Next, the fluid pressure cylinder 18 and the fluid pressure cylinder 22 are operated in the opposite direction to the above, and the positioning jig 3 is moved.
After releasing the fixation of the chassis frame 6, the chain conveyor 12 is operated again to move the positioning jig 3 and the support base 21 smoothly on the guide roller 22 to a position facing the second positioning device 4. The 1000 mm chassis frame 6 is moved together with the positioning jig 3 and stopped.

Then, the fluid pressure cylinder 18 and the fluid pressure cylinder 22 are actuated, and the chassis frame 6 is positioned and fixed in the feed direction and in the horizontal and vertical directions orthogonal thereto, in exactly the same manner as described above, and the second machining section is fixed. Process inside.

As described above, the chassis frame 6 is machined while sequentially positioning and fixing it for each machining section, and the long chassis frame 6 is divided into 13 machining sections and sequentially machined, and the machining machine 2 having a machining range of 1050 mm is machined. Can be used to machine all parts of the chassis frame 6 that are 13 times as long as the machining range.

The chassis frame 6 is positioned by fixing the positioning jig 3 into which the reference pin 14 fits in the positioning hole 6a by the positioning device 4, so that the chassis frame 6 may be divided into a plurality of machining sections for machining. Instead, the machining reference in the feed direction of the chassis frame 6 is always the positioning hole 6a, and the positioning can be performed with high accuracy regardless of the extension or stop position of the chain conveyor 12.

Further, positioning of the chassis frame 6 in the horizontal and vertical directions orthogonal to the feeding direction is performed by the chassis frame 6
The horizontal reference stand 17 and the vertical reference stand 2
The chassis frame 6 can be processed with extremely high accuracy because the chassis frame 6 is pressed and positioned to position the chassis frame 6.

Further, referring to FIG. 4, the length of the endless chain conveyor 12 is at least 2 times the chassis frame 6.
Since it has a stackable length of one or more, the next chassis frame 6 can be set on the chain conveyor 12 while one chassis frame 6 is being processed, and continuous work is possible, which is extremely efficient. The chassis frame 6 can be processed.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention, a long work piece is divided into a plurality of processing sections within a range that can be processed by a processing machine such as a machining center, and processing is sequentially performed for each processing section. As a result, processing machine 1 with a relatively small processing range
There is an effect that all parts of the workpiece can be processed by the table, and as a result, multiple split jigs are unnecessary,
The burden on the workers can be reduced, and the number of workers can be reduced, resulting in significant labor saving.

A plurality of positioning devices are arranged in the feed direction of the workpiece, and the positioning devices are sequentially engaged with a positioning jig mounted on the tip of the workpiece conveyed by the endless chain conveyor. In addition to performing positioning in the feed direction, the long work piece in the processing section is pressed against two reference planes orthogonal to the feed direction for positioning, and processing is performed sequentially for each processing section. Even if it is a long object that greatly exceeds the processing range of (1), extremely high-precision processing can be performed regardless of expansion and contraction of the chain conveyor that conveys the object to be processed, and the processing quality can be improved.

Furthermore, a long work piece is loaded and conveyed on a support table pulled by an endless chain conveyor, and the support table is slidably moved on a horizontal reference table arranged in a processing section. As a result, there is an effect that the work piece can be automatically positioned in the height direction only by the normal feeding operation of the chain conveyor without performing any special operation.
As a result, the working efficiency can be significantly improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 4 relate to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is an overall perspective view of a long workpiece transport apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a state in which a long workpiece is clamped by a clamp device in a machining section.

FIG. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing a state of a workpiece and a positioning jig in a processing section.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing the whole of a long workpiece conveying device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 5 Long workpiece transport device 6 Chassis frame, which is an example of long workpiece 12 Endless chain conveyor 17 Horizontal reference stand 20 Sprocket 21 Support stand 22 Guide roller

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of support bases, each of which is divided into a plurality of processing sections and is sequentially processed while processing one processing section at a time, on which a long work piece is loaded and which is pulled and moved by an endless chain conveyor on a guide roller. And a horizontal reference table which is disposed in the processing section and carries the support table to position the workpiece in the processing section in the height direction. Conveyance device for workpieces. 2. An endless device having a length capable of accommodating at least two long workpieces that are divided into a plurality of processing sections and sequentially processed one processing section while being transported, and are wound around a sprocket to move. Chain conveyor, a plurality of support bases on which the workpieces are loaded and which are pulled and moved on the guide rollers by the chain conveyors, and the processing bases mounted in the processing compartments and mounted with the support bases. And a horizontal reference stand for positioning the workpiece in the height direction thereof.