JPH06161523A - Cutting width correcting method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the method correcting cutting width in a cutting device equipped with a tracer having a camera composed by arraying plural photoelectric conversion elements. CONSTITUTION:A reference point O and a circle 11 having a radius corresponding to cutting width correction amount with the reference point 0 as a center are preliminarily set to a tracer, and an x-y orthogonal coordinate, around an origin (o) is set. A cutting device is formed by a frame 4 running along a rail 5 (an X direction) and a traversing carriage 7 traversing (a Y direction) on the frame 4, and a camera 1a and a cutting torch 6 are mounted on the traversing carriage 7. In accordance with the process of a cutting, an end edge is detected by the tracer and a vector with the origin (o) as a base point is detected, and the origin (o) is made to move on the circumference of the circle in accordance with the relations between the direction of the vector, a diagram and a scrap.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention corrects an exclusion width of a base material by a cutting torch when a material to be cut is cut by tracing a figure by a tracer having a camera formed by arranging a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements. It is about the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Gas cutting torch, plasma cutting torch,
BACKGROUND ART A cutting torch such as a laser cutting torch is used to cut a material to be cut such as a steel plate, a stainless steel plate or plywood, a plastic plate. In each of the cutting methods using the above cutting torches, the base material of the material to be cut is burned, melted or evaporated, and the product is cut from the base material. Therefore, a kerf is formed in the material to be cut along with the cutting by the cutting torch.

Further, when cutting a material to be cut into a desired shape, a frame having a cross rail arranged in a direction orthogonal to the rail is movably mounted on a rail laid in one direction, and the cross rail is provided. A traverse carriage equipped with an optical tracer and a cutting torch is mounted on the optical axis, and the tracer optically detects the edge of the figure or the cut out figure to detect the traveling direction and traveling speed of the frame and transverse carriage. A die cutting machine is used to control the.

An example of the optical tracer used in the die cutting machine will be described with reference to FIG. The optical tracer shown in the figure is called a circle scan method disclosed in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 49-16916, and the lens 52 fixed to the housing 51 and the lens 52 are aligned with the center of the lens 52.
The photocell 53 provided on the surface of the lens 52, the shaft 55 rotated by the motor 54 arranged on the axis of the lens 52, and the shaft 55
The rotor 56a, 56b is fixed at an angle of 90 degrees, and the generator 56 is provided at the lower end of the shaft 55 eccentrically with respect to the axis of the motor 54. It is composed of a mirror 57 that forms an image on the photocell 53.

In the above arrangement, when the lens 52 is arranged above the figure and the motor 54 is rotated, the mirror 57 causes the lens axis to correspond to the distance from the axis of the lens 52 and the tilt angle of the mirror 57. A point o, which is separated from the projection point O of the heart, is scanned.
When the mirror 57 scans the edge of the figure, a change occurs in the output of the photocell 53, and in synchronism with this change, outputs (operation amount) in two orthogonal directions of the generator 56 are generated. Therefore, the cutting torch can be moved in conformity with the figure by driving the frame and the transverse carriage according to the output.

[0006] On the other hand, the applicant of the present application scans a part of a figure with a camera formed by arranging a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements, processes the shot image, and outputs an operation amount in two orthogonal directions. A device has been developed and a patent has already been filed (Japanese Patent Application Nos. 4-103882 and 4-103883).

[0007]

When a cutting torch such as a gas cutting torch, a plasma cutting torch, or a laser cutting torch is operated and moved in a desired direction to cut the material to be cut, the cutting torch is cut into the material to be cut. And a kerf having a width dimension according to the type of nozzle and the nozzle attached to the torch. When a tracer is used to copy a pattern and perform die cutting, the pattern to be copied is generally formed with a finished dimension. Therefore, in cutting, it is essential to perform so-called width correction in which the tracer center and the center of the cutting torch are relatively moved according to the width dimension of the kerf.

The width correction in the above conventional optical tracer is performed by an operator manually displacing the mirror or replacing the mirror.
Since this operation requires delicate adjustment, it is a factor that increases the cost of cutting work.

Recently, a large current plasma cutting torch is often used for cutting. With such a cutting torch, the removal width of the base material becomes large and the above operation is not easy. Also, the distance between the projection point O and the scanning point o is set as the prefetch amount. This look-ahead amount needs to be larger than the amount to correct the base metal exclusion width by the cutting torch, and the corner portion of the figure is affected by the moving speed (cutting speed) of the optical tracer and the look-ahead amount, and the curve There is a problem of being in a state.

The present invention is a further development of the invention relating to the copying apparatus described above, and provides a correction method according to the excluded size of the base material by the cutting torch.

[0011]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a width correction method according to the present invention is a camera for arranging a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements to photograph a part of a figure to be copied, and the camera. The image captured by is scanned on a predetermined radius centering on the origin of the preset orthogonal coordinates, and the edge of the figure is detected, and the operation amount in two directions corresponding to the detected edge vector is output. A cutting width correction method for correcting an exclusion width of a base material of a cutting torch in a cutting device having a tracer having a control unit and a cutting torch for removing and cutting a base material of a material to be cut. In addition to setting a reference point that matches the center of the cutting torch, set a circle with a radius corresponding to the exclusion width of the base material by the cutting torch to be corrected centered on the reference point, and detect by the tracer And it is the origin of the orthogonal coordinates set in tracers in accordance with the vector of the edge of the graphic which is characterized in that is moved on the circumference of the circle.

[0012]

According to the above-described width correction method, it is possible to easily correct the exclusion width of the base material of the material to be cut (hereinafter referred to as "cut width") by the cutting torch when cutting the material to be cut.

In order to correct the cutting width by the cutting torch, the distance between the center of the cutting torch and the tracing center of the figure by the tracer is changed according to the size to be corrected, and
It is necessary to dispose the center of the cutting torch on the scrap side of the shape to be cut from the material to be cut.
At this time, the direction in which the cutting torch is separated is the direction normal to the edge of the shape to be cut.

That is, when the edge of the figure is detected by the tracer and the vector from the scanning center is detected, the cutting torch is in the normal direction to the vector, is on the scrap side of the material to be cut, and is to be corrected. It is possible to perform the width correction by separating them according to (the width correction amount).

Therefore, of the plurality of pixels forming the image photographed by the camera, the pixel at a predetermined position is set as a reference point which coincides with the center of the cutting torch, and the dimension to be corrected and the edge of the detected figure are set. The origin of the Cartesian coordinates set in the tracer, which is the center of scanning according to the vector of, is separated from the reference point, the edge of the figure is detected at this position, and the vector is determined to correspond to the XY directions. By outputting the manipulated variable, it is possible to correct the cutting width based on the center of the cutting torch and cut the shape to be cut.

The shape cut by die cutting generally constitutes a closed loop. Therefore, when tracing the entire circumference of the figure while correcting the cutting width as described above, the locus of the origin of the coordinates set in the tracer is a circle whose center is the reference point and whose radius is the dimension to be corrected. Become. Therefore, a reference point that matches the cutting torch is set in advance in the tracer, and a circle with a radius corresponding to the dimension to be corrected is set around the reference point and set in the tracer according to the detected vector. By moving the origin of the above coordinates on the circumference of the circle, it is possible to perform the cutting width correction based on the cutting torch.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The above-described width correction method will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating the configuration of a die cutting device, FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an image captured by a camera configured by arranging a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements, and is a diagram illustrating the principle of copying a figure, and FIG. 3 is a diagram of a tracer. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the relationship between a reference point and the origin of coordinates, and FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the principle of width correction.

Prior to the description of the width correction method, a schematic structure of a cutting device for cutting a material 3 to be cut along a figure 2 by a tracer 1 having a camera 1a formed by arranging a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements is illustrated. This will be described with reference to 1.

In the figure, the cutting device is composed of a gate-shaped frame 4, and the frame 4 is movably mounted on a pair of rails 5 laid in the Y direction. A traversing carriage 7 integrally connecting the camera 1a and the torch 6 is mounted on the frame 4 so as to traverse in the X direction which is a direction orthogonal to the rails 4. Further, the frame 4 is provided with a traveling drive mechanism 8 including a servomotor for traveling the frame 4 along the rails 5 in the Y direction, and a traverse carriage 7 along the frame 4 in the X direction.
A traverse drive mechanism 9 composed of a servo motor for traversing in the direction is provided, and further, a control unit 1b that processes an image captured by the camera 1a and outputs an operation amount for driving the traveling drive mechanism 8 and the traverse drive mechanism 9. Is provided.

In the above structure, while operating the torch 6, a part of the figure 2 is photographed by the camera 1a and this image is processed by the control section 1b, so that the origin o of the xy coordinates is set as the base point. The vector of the edge of the graphic 2 to be determined is determined, and the operation amounts in the two directions orthogonal to each other are output according to the determined vector, and the traveling drive mechanism 8 and the traverse drive mechanism 9 are driven according to the outputs, thereby the camera It is possible to cut the same shape as the figure 2 from the material 3 to be cut by moving the 1a and the torch 6 so as to coincide with the edge of the figure 2.

The camera 1a is composed of a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged in a matrix. A commercially available camera can be used as the camera 1a.

The control unit 1b has a binarization circuit for binarizing an image photographed by the camera 1a, an input unit for inputting a radius of a scanning line and a width correction amount according to a dimension of a kerf formed by a cutting torch. The position of the set reference point, the input radius value of the scanning line and the width correction amount are stored, and the origin position of the coordinates for detecting the edge of the figure centered on the reference point from the respective values and the origin. A storage unit that stores an arithmetic expression or the like for calculating coordinate data of pixels to be scanned centered on, a calculation unit that specifies pixels to be scanned by performing an arithmetic operation according to the arithmetic expression, and a graphic from binary image data. A detection unit for detecting the edge, determining the vector of the detected edge, and X, Y
It is configured by a determination unit or the like that calculates a drive speed with respect to a direction and outputs the operation amount to each drive mechanism 8 and 9.

Next, the camera 1a is operated without performing width correction.
A method of performing image processing on a part of the figure 2 photographed by to determine the vector will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 3A, an origin o which is the scanning center of the figure 2 and an xy orthogonal coordinate system centered on the origin o are set to coincide with the XY coordinate system of the cutting device. . Further, based on the radius value of the scanning line 10 input from the input unit, the arithmetic unit specifies the pixel to be scanned from the arithmetic expression stored in the storage unit in advance.

The image photographed by the camera 1a is converted into a binary signal by a binarization circuit. Then, the determination unit checks the binarized data corresponding to the pixels on the scanning line 10
Is detected, the vector with the origin o as the base point is determined, and the operation amount for the traveling drive mechanism 8 and the traverse drive mechanism 9 is output by dividing into a component in the X direction and a component in the Y direction for calculation. . Each of the drive mechanisms 8 and 9 drives the frame 4 and the traverse carriage 7 in accordance with the output operation amount to move the camera 1a and the torch 6 in conformity with the figure 2. As a result, it is possible to cut the material 3 to be cut along the pattern 2.

Next, the principle of correcting the cutting width when cutting the material 3 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. In the figure, 2 is a figure to be copied, which is drawn or cut out in the drawing, and is set to an octagon for convenience. The figure 2 may have any shape including straight lines and curved lines.

Reference numeral O shown in FIG. 3 is a reference point which is set on the tracer 1 so as to coincide with the center of the torch 6, and is a cutting center. The reference point O is set so as to correspond to the pixel located substantially at the center of the pixels arranged vertically and horizontally on the camera 1a.
XY is the orthogonal coordinate of the mechanical system set in the cutting device, and the X direction coincides with the transverse direction of the transverse carriage 7,
The Y direction is set to match the traveling direction of the frame 4. o is the origin of the xy coordinates set in the tracer 1, and is the center of the scanning line 10 for detecting the edge of the graphic 2.
That is, the origin o is the scanning center of the figure 2, and when the edge of the figure 2 is detected by scanning the scanning line 10, the vector is detected with the origin o as the base point.

The tracer 1 is provided with a circle 11 centered on the reference point O and having a radius equal to the width correction amount. When the cutting width dimension by the cutting torch 6 is dmm, the above-mentioned cutting width correction amount is set to half the dimension. The set width correction amount is input from the input unit of the tracer 1 before the start of cutting, and a predetermined calculation is performed in the calculation unit.
Corresponding to this result, a plurality of pixels centering on the reference point O are designated and the circle 11 is formed.

The circle 11 is drawn by the tracer 1 in the shape 2
And serves as a reference for moving the origin o when the torch 6 is operated and the material 3 to be cut is cut. That is, when the tracer 1 detects one of the edges of the figure 2 and determines a vector whose origin is the origin o, the origin o is the circumference of the circle 11 depending on the direction of the vector and the relationship between the figure 2 and the scrap. Move it up. Here, the circle of origin o 11
The position on the circumference of the circle is uniquely determined by the relationship between the vector direction, the shape to be cut and the scrap.

That is, as shown in FIG. 4, when the figure 2 is cut from the material 3 to be cut, the center of the cutting torch 6 is always moved to the scrap side of the material 3 to be cut along with the tracing of the figure 2 by the tracer 1. And the center of the torch 6 is moved away from the edge of the figure 2 by ½ of the width dimension d, which is the width correction amount. Can be matched to.

When performing die cutting, since the shape to be cut (the shape of the figure 2) is a closed loop, the position of the reference point O should be kept constant and the origin o should be rotated once on the circumference of the circle 11. Then, the center of the torch 6 moves around the figure 2 while maintaining the relative amount of width correction. That is, the center of the torch 6 maintains a size equal to the input width correction amount and
It is possible to correct the cutting width by cutting the material 3 to be cut while moving around.

[0031]

As described above in detail, in the cutting width correction method according to the present invention, a circle having the reference point which coincides with the center of the cutting torch and having a radius corresponding to the amount to be corrected is set. By moving the origin of the orthogonal coordinates set in the tracer along the circumference of the circle along with the cutting of the material to be cut, the exclusion width of the base material of the material to be cut by the cutting torch can be corrected.

Further, the tracer should detect the edge of the figure, detect the vector of the edge, and correct the origin of the coordinates set in the tracer according to the direction of this vector and the relationship between the figure and scrap. By arranging on the circumference corresponding to the quantity, the figure can be traced with the origin of the coordinates as a reference, and the cutting width can be corrected by setting the radius of the circle centered on the reference point. . That is, it is possible to perform different operations for copying the figure and correcting the cutting width. For this reason, even when using a plasma cutting torch with a large cutting width and a large current, the figure is traced while keeping the radius of the scanning line centered on the origin of the coordinate, which is the amount of look-ahead of the tracer, and keeping the same. It has a feature that the cutting material can be cut.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a configuration of a die cutting device.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an image photographed by a camera configured by arranging a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements and explaining a principle of copying a figure.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a reference point of a tracer and an origin of coordinates.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the principle of width correction.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a conventional optical tracer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 O Reference point o Origin of coordinates 1 Tracer 1a Camera 1b Control part 2 Graphic 4 Frame 6 Cutting torch 7 Traverse carriage 8 Traverse drive mechanism 9 Traverse drive mechanism 10 Scan line 11 Circle 12 Cut groove

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location B23Q 35/04 E 9135-3C

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A camera configured by arranging a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements to photograph a part of a figure to be copied, and an image photographed by the camera on a predetermined radius centered on an origin of preset orthogonal coordinates. A tracer having a control unit that scans the edge of the figure to detect the edge of the figure and outputs the operation amount in two directions corresponding to the detected edge vector, and a cutting torch that cuts by removing the base material of the material to be cut A cutting width correction method for correcting the exclusion width of the base material of the cutting torch in a cutting device having, wherein a tracer is set to a reference point that coincides with the center of the cutting torch and the reference point is set to the center. Set a circle with a radius corresponding to the exclusion width of the base metal by the cutting torch to be corrected as, and the origin of the orthogonal coordinates set in the tracer according to the vector of the edge of the figure detected by the tracer. Is moved on the circumference of the circle.