JPH0675833B2 - Clamp leg of walking robot - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a leg of a walking robot that moves along a tube plate surface by using a tube hole of a tube plate of a heat exchanger or the like as a foot, and particularly to a tube. A leg suitable for being inserted and clamped in a hole.

[Conventional technology]

The following are known as walking robots of the above type. That is, the walking robot is provided with a plurality of legs, one of which is inserted into a tube hole of a tube sheet, the leg is enlarged in the tube hole, and the leg is clamped in the tube hole. Insert the other leg into the other tube hole and clamp in the same way,
Next, the above-described operation of retracting the leg to release the clamp, pulling it out from the tube hole, inserting it into another tube hole and clamping it is repeated to walk along the tube sheet surface.

A conventional example relating to this is Japanese Patent Publication No. 53-17121.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

The above-mentioned prior art does not take into consideration the fact that the inner surface of the pipe is damaged by the legs, and there is a problem that the corrosion of the pipe progresses due to the damage.

An object of the present invention is to provide a leg of a walking robot that does not damage the inner surface of the pipe even when the leg is clamped on the inner surface of the pipe and that does not deform by compressive stress with respect to a required clamp.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

Means for achieving the object of the present invention is to move along a tube sheet surface by alternately inserting and clamping a plurality of clamp legs into a tube hole of a tube sheet in which a large number of tubes are arranged and connected. Which is a clamp leg of a walking robot, and which has an actuator member driven in the direction of the tube axis of the tube, and a tube of the tube via a rotating body in which the driving force of the actuator member is in contact with the tapered surface of the actuator member. A clamping force transmitting mechanism including a converting member that converts the clamping force in the radial direction and a transmitted member that transmits the clamping force from the converting member, and an inner surface of the pipe coupled to the transmitting member. A touch member that comes into contact with the touch member, the touch member having the same or substantially the same hardness as the pipe, and each member that constitutes the clamping force transmission mechanism has a higher hardness than the hardness. A clamp leg of the walking robot to be.

[Action]

When linearly reciprocatingly driven by an actuator member that is driven in the tube axis direction, one of the reciprocating linear driving forces moves the tapered surface in the tube axis direction. With the movement, the rotating body is pushed toward the inner surface of the pipe while rotating, and the touch member is also pushed out at the same time. Finally, the touch member is pressed against the inner surface of the pipe. With this pressing force,
The robot leg is clamped in the tube hole. Even if the pressing force is increased in order to receive not only the robot's own weight but also the reaction force due to the robot's work, the touch plate is about the same hardness as the pipe, so the inner surface of the pipe will not be damaged and corrosion of the pipe due to scratches will not occur. It can be prevented. In addition, the drive force transmission path up to the touch member has higher hardness than the touch member and does not undergo compressive stress deformation, and the linear drive force of the actuator member is made perpendicular to the pipe inner surface side direction through the rolling of the rotating body. The conversion efficiency is good because it is converted. Moreover,
Since the driving force is converted into a right angle by utilizing the rolling of the rotating body, the occurrence of galling due to sliding is reduced and a smooth operation is possible. These can contribute to increasing the pressing force without waste so as to receive not only the weight of the robot but also the reaction force caused by the work of the robot. Further, when the actuator member is driven in the opposite direction, the pressing force is reduced and the clamp is released.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 3 shows a walking robot 12 which moves by using the tube hole 2 of the tube sheet 1 as a footrest, and is similar to the trolley 3 having a plurality of legs 50 connected to each other by the arm 13 and another similar one. A bogie 4 having structural legs 50 'and a bogie 5 slidably attached to the track 6 by rollers 10 sandwiching a track 6 attached to the bogie 3 and coupled to each other by an arm 13'. And a brushing nozzle 7 attached to the carriage 5 and its hydraulic hose 11. The trolley 4 is slidably attached to the arm 13 and is driven by the driving force.
Is relatively slidable along.

In operation, the leg 50 'of the trolley 4 is attached to the pipe hole 2 and the shaft 8
The trolley 4 is fixed to the tube sheet 1 by extending and inserting the leg 50 'and enlarging and clamping the leg 50'.
After shrinking the shaft 9 of the shaft 50 so that the leg 50 is removed from the tube hole 2, the arm 13 is slid up or down with respect to the carriage 4. Next, extend the shaft 9 and attach the leg 50 of the truck 3 to the tube hole 2
The trolley 3 is fixed to the tube sheet 1 by inserting it into the tube plate 1 and enlarging and clamping the leg 50. Next, the leg 50 'of the carriage 4 is contracted to release the clamped state, the shaft 8 is contracted to pull the leg 50' out of the tube hole 2, and the carriage 4 is moved up or down along the arm 13. This allows the nozzle 7
Is aligned with another tube hole 2, and a cleaning brush (not shown) sent from the hose 11 by hydraulic pressure is driven into the tube hole 2 for cleaning. The horizontal movement along the surface of the tube sheet 1 is performed by rotating the roller 10 along the track 6 fixed to the carriage 3 and moving the carriage 5 left and right. As a result, the nozzle 7 also moves in the same manner, so that the nozzle 7 is aligned with another tube hole 2 and a brush is driven for cleaning. In this way, the tube hole 2 is cleaned while moving vertically and horizontally. The walking robot 12 has legs 50 ', 50 of the carriage 4 and the carriage 3, respectively.
Are also provided in the left-right direction when viewed from the surface of the tube sheet 1 to ensure stability in the left-right direction.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the structure of the leg 50, 50 'according to the embodiment of the present invention. For convenience of illustration, the leg in the unclamped state is represented by 50B, the left half of which is the left half of the figure. On the other hand, the leg in the clamped state is represented by 50C,
The right half is shown in the right half of the figure. That is, different leg states are shown in one figure for convenience. FIG. 2 shows the leg in the section AA of FIG. The operations of clamping and unclamping are performed by supplying / discharging air to / from the air supply ports 105 and 106 of the air cylinder 35.

As for the leg 50B when the clamp is released, when air is sent into the air supply port 106 to shrink the shaft 103, the taper 109 of the shaft 103 reduces the diameter of the shaft 103 in contact with the roller 100 and surrounds it. Since the plate 120 integrated with the touch plate 101 pushes the roller 100 to the shaft 103 side by the force of the ring 104 of the spring material, which is always trying to reduce the diameter, the touch plate 101, the plate 120, and the roller 100 are held by the holder 102. Shaft 10 along the guide hole
Move to side 3. For this reason, the touch plate 101 is separated from the inner surface of the tube hole 2 and is released from the clamp, so that the leg 50B can be inserted into and extracted from the tube hole 2 by expanding and contracting the shaft 8.

On the other hand, for the leg 50C clamped in the tube hole 2,
The shaft 103 is extended by sending air from one air supply port 105 of the air cylinder 35 and discharging the air from the other air supply port 106. As a result, taper 1
09 side slides, roller 100 and plate 1 in contact with this
20 and the touch plate 101 are pushed out against the force of the spring material ring 104, and the touch plate 101 is pressed against the inner surface of the tube hole 2 and clamped.

By the way, the material of the tube 2 is often a material that is not relatively hard, such as brass. Therefore, in this embodiment, the material of the touch plate 101 is the same as the material of the pipe 2. By doing so, the inner surface of the tube hole 2 is not damaged during clamping. Also, the taper 109 of the shaft 103 allows the roller 10
The force for pressing 0 needs to be combined with not only the force for preventing the clamped leg 50C from coming out of the tube hole but also the reaction force when the brush is driven from the nozzle 7 in FIG. Therefore, the compressive stress applied to the taper 109, the roller 100, and the plate 120 becomes large. Therefore, Shaft 103, Holder 102,
A hard material is selected as the material of the roller 100 and the plate 120.
The plate 120 and the touch plate 101 are welded and integrated.

According to this embodiment, there are the following effects.

(1) By making the material of the touch plate 101 in contact with the tube hole 2 the same as the material of the tube of the tube hole 2, the inner surface of the tube is not damaged when the legs 50 and 50 'are clamped in the tube hole 2. It can prevent the tube from corroding due to scratches.

(2) Shaft 103, roller 100, holder 102 and plate 120
By using a material having a high hardness as the material, the deformation due to the compressive stress can be prevented. Also, a large compressive stress can be applied.

Next, another embodiment is shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 which is a top view thereof. In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the plate 12 is used.
Although 0 and the touch plate 101 are welded to each other on a flat surface, they may be integrated with each other via a concave-convex portion as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. For example, the plate 120 may be provided with a convex portion 132, the touch plate 101 in contact with the plate 120 may be provided with a dovetail groove 133 matching the shape of the convex portion 132, and the two can be integrated via these. The groove 134 is a groove into which the spring ring 104 is inserted.

Of course, the means for joining the plate 120 and the touch plate 101 is not limited to the above-mentioned welding or dovetail groove fitting, and other joining means such as bonding or screwing can be selected as necessary. Further, the touch plate 101 is not limited to the same material as the material of the pipe, and even if a material having a similar hardness is selected, it does not deviate from the object of the present invention.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the present invention, even if the legs are clamped to the inner surface of the tube, the inner surface of the tube is not damaged. Further, there is an effect that the force can be transmitted without stress deformation even with a large clamping force.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a clamped and unclamped state of a leg according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an AA of FIG.
Sectional view, FIG. 3 is a side view illustrating a walking robot to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 4 is a side view illustrating joining of a touch plate and a plate of a leg according to another embodiment of the present invention. The figure is a top view of FIG. 35 …… Air cylinder, 50, 50 ′ …… Leg, 50B …… Unclamped leg, 50C …… Clamped leg, 100 …… Roller, 101 …… Touch plate, 102 …… Holder, 103 …… Shaft, 104 ... Ring spring, 120 ... Plate.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Shinji Naito 1168 Moriyama-cho, Hitachi-shi, Ibaraki Energy Research Institute, Hitachi, Ltd. (72) Shigeo Oda 3-1-1, Saicho-cho, Hitachi, Ibaraki Stock company Hitachi Ltd. Hitachi factory (72) Inventor Isamu Sano 2-4-1 Nishitsujigaoka, Chofu-shi, Tokyo Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc. Technical Research Institute (72) Inventor Katsuhei Tanemura 2-4-1 Nishitsujigaoka, Chofu-shi, Tokyo No. 56 Tokyo Electric Power Co., Ltd. Technical Research Institute (56) Reference Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-97864 (JP, A) Jitsuko 51-4461 (JP, Y1)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A clamp leg of a walking robot that moves along a tube plate surface by alternately inserting and clamping a plurality of clamp legs into a tube hole of a tube plate in which a large number of tubes are arrayed and connected. And converting the driving force of the actuator member in the pipe axial direction of the pipe and the driving force of the actuator member into a clamping force in the pipe radial direction of the pipe through a rotating body in contact with the tapered surface of the actuator member. And a clamping member for transmitting the clamping force from the converting member, and a touch member contacting the inner surface of the pipe connected to the transmitting member. The touch member has the same or substantially the same hardness as the pipe, and each member that constitutes the clamping force transmission mechanism has a hardness higher than the hardness described above. Up leg.