JPH07116973A - Press brake robot device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate necessity for a back stop by separating a workpiece supporting part from the point end arm of a robot to follow up bending action according to bending of a workpiece during working its bending, in a press brake robot device for bending the workpiece. CONSTITUTION:A press brake has a fixed table of supporting a die in an upper part and a movable table or the like of supporting a punch 1 in a lower part to perform lift action. In a 5-axis robot having a horizontal articulation structure, a suction type hand 30 is provided in a point end of the fifth axis in the forefront so as to supply air to this suction pad 31 through an air tube or the like. Here is constituted the fifth axis 25 so that the fifth axis can be separated into the fifth axis upper part 25a and fifth axis lower part 25b. In the midst of bending work, a workpiece W is sucked by the suction pad 31, to maintain the fourth arm A4 in a fixed condition. Next according to bending the workpiece W, an axial upper part 25a is separated from the fourth arm A4 and moved to follow up the workpiece W.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a press brake robot apparatus having a press brake for bending a work and a robot for holding the work so as to automatically process a small work. Regarding improvement.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A press brake has a die having a V-groove and a vertically moving punch, and is operated by lowering the punch or raising the die with respect to a work placed on the die. A work is bent by applying a pressing force. In recent years, a system in which a work is supplied to and taken out from the press brake by a robot is becoming widespread.

In the press brake robot system in which the press brake and the robot are combined in this manner, the work is moved immediately after the bending of the next side in order to prevent the work from being bent due to a sudden jump of the work during bending. In order to be able to perform the above, the hand is made to follow the movement as the work end portion rises as the work is bent.

That is, in the conventional robot, not only the operation of placing the work on the die during bending,
It was necessary to keep the posture of supporting the work during the following movement. As described above, the conventional apparatus has a problem that the number of control axes of the robot increases and the price of the robot increases because the robot needs to take many postures.

Further, if the number of control axes is large, the repetitive positioning accuracy at the tip of the robot is lowered, so that an auxiliary device such as a back stop must be used for positioning the work.

[0006] However, the method of positioning the work by the backstop is for a work of a small size or shape that cannot be positioned by the backstop, such as when bending a work having a width shorter than the interval between the two backstops. Was not applicable.

Further, in the system in which the work is positioned by the backstop, the work is pressed on the backstop by moving the work on the die, so that the edge of the work is caught in the die. There was a problem of lowering the operating rate of the system.

Further, if the work is gripped again each time the bending work is performed without using the back stop, the gripping position changes each time and an error is accumulated, so that the bending work cannot be performed with high precision.

Further, 1/4 to 1/3 of the price of a normal press brake with NC is currently spent for the backstop portion and the control device therefor, and the backstop is expensive. There is a problem.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and is a low-cost press brake robot apparatus capable of bending a small work piece, eliminating the need for a backstop, and performing bending work with high production efficiency. The purpose is to provide.

[0011]

According to the present invention, there is provided a press brake robot apparatus for handling a work to be supplied to a press brake for bending the work by sandwiching the work with a die and a punch and applying a pressing force. A work supporting portion for supporting the robot and a hand configured to be freely separable from the tip arm of the robot, and the work supporting portion is in a work supporting state during bending.
The work support part is provided with a robot control means for controlling the work support part so as to be separated from the robot tip arm when the work is bent.

[0012]

According to the present invention, the work supporting portion of the robot continues to support the work while the work is actually being bent. At this time, since the arm of the robot is in a fixed state, as the work is bent, the work support part is separated from the tip arm of the robot and passively follows the bending of the work.

As described above, according to the present invention, the arm of the robot does not follow the work during bending.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show an example of a press brake robot system according to the present invention. In a press brake 10, a fixed table 3 having a die 2 supported on the upper side and a punch 1 on the lower side are shown. It has a movable table 4 and the like which is supported on and moved up and down. However, the press brake 10 is not provided with a back stop.

In this case, the robot 20 uses a 5-axis robot having a horizontal multi-joint structure as shown in FIG.

That is, the robot 20 includes a vertical axis (first axis) 21 for moving the first arm A1 in the vertical direction,
A second shaft 22 that horizontally rotates the second arm A2, a third shaft 23 that horizontally rotates the third arm A3, a fourth shaft 24 that vertically rotates the fourth arm A4, and a suction type A fifth shaft 25 for rotating the hand 30 in the horizontal direction is provided, and the suction-type hand 30 is provided at the tip of the fifth shaft 25.

In this case, the fourth shaft 24 may be one in which the suction type hand 30 takes only two positions, that is, upward and downward.

That is, in this system, the vertical articulated 6-axis robot generally used for bending is changed to a horizontal articulated 5-axis robot to realize cost reduction of the robot price.

In FIGS. 2 and 3, 50 is a holding table for holding and positioning the work, 60 is a disstacker on which an unprocessed work is placed, and 70 is a carry-out for the processed work. A carry-out device, 80 is a robot controller, and 90 is a press brake controller.

5A and 5B show the detailed construction of the suction type hand 30. FIG. 5A is a plan view and FIG. 5B is a sectional view.

In FIG. 5, air is supplied to the suction pad 31 via an air tube 32 and an air joint 33.
The suction pad 31 is attached to the fifth shaft 25 of the robot, and the fifth shaft 25 is separable into a fifth shaft upper portion 25a and a fifth shaft lower portion 25b with the arrow E portion as a boundary. The fifth shaft upper part 25a is configured to be rotatable with respect to the bearing 34, and the fifth shaft lower part 25b is rotated by a structure including a pulley 35, a belt 36, and a motor (not shown).

The piston rod 38 of the air cylinder 37 is constructed so as to be capable of coming into contact with and separating from the fifth shaft upper portion 25a. When the piston rod 38 comes into contact with the fifth shaft upper portion 25a, the rotation of the fifth shaft upper portion 25a is suppressed. It 48 is an air cylinder 3
It is an air joint for 7.

A wire (piano wire) 39 is connected to the fifth shaft upper portion 25a. Wire 39 is the 5th axis 2
It is connected to a piston rod 42 of an air cylinder 41 through a hole 40 formed in the No. 5. That is, by controlling the air of the air cylinder 41, it is possible to switch between the free mode in which the portion at the arrow E portion is a boundary and the fixed mode in which these portions cannot be separated. There is.

A link 45 is attached to a cylinder housing 43 surrounding the air cylinder 37 via a pin 44, and the other end of the link 45 is attached to a fourth arm A4 of the robot via a pin 46. Has been.

During the bending process by the press brake, the hand 30 attracts the work W by the suction pad 31 and maintains the fourth arm A4 in a fixed state. Therefore, if the air cylinder 41 is set to the free mode, the movable portion of the hand 30 as the work W is bent, that is, the portion above the arrow E in FIG. It is separated from the fourth arm A4 and moves following the work W. At this time, the wire 39 is stretched.

Although not shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6, a plurality of radial projections, for example, are provided at the lower tip of the fifth shaft upper portion 25a, and these are provided at the upper tip of the fifth shaft lower portion 25b. By engaging a plurality of recesses formed in the
The shaft upper portion 25a and the fifth shaft lower portion 25b can be aligned when they are combined.

The procedure of bending with the hand 30 will be described below with reference to the process chart of FIG. The following control is performed by the robot controller 80.

First, the robot arm is appropriately moved to adsorb the work W placed on the destacker 60 by the adsorption pad 31. At this time, the hand 30 is in the combined state, the air cylinder 41 is in the fixed mode, and the air cylinder 37 is in the rotatable state.

When the work W is adsorbed on the destacker 50, it is not released thereafter at least until the bending of one surface of the work W is completed. That is, the suction pad 33 continues to hold the same position even during the bending process.

Next, the work W is inserted into the press brake 10 by driving the robot 20, and the work W is placed on the die 2 (FIG. 1 (a)). Note that this positioning is performed according to the accuracy of the robot. That is, there is no backstop as described above.

Next, the air cylinder 41 is set to the free mode. In addition, the air cylinder 37 is retracted, and the suction pad 3
1 is in a rotatable state. Then, in this state, a punch lowering command is output to the press brake 10 to lower the punch 1. As a result, the hand 30 is gradually separated as the work is bent, and the suction pad 31 moves following the work W (FIG. 1 (b)).

After this, the work W from the press brake 10
When the bending end signal indicating the end of bending is input, the robot arm is moved to approach the position where the suction pad 31 should be (FIG. 1 (c)). Further, by extending the air cylinder 37, the suction pad 31 is made non-rotatable.

Next, a punch raising command is output to the press brake 10 to raise the punch 1 (see FIG. 1).
(d)).

Next, the weight of the work W and the suction pad 31 is used, and the arm of the robot is moved downward so that the work W and the suction pad 31 fall forward due to their own weight. At this time, the air cylinder 41 may be retracted and the wire 39 may be pulled (FIG. 1 (e)).

In this way, when the work W is positioned horizontally, that is, when the suction pad 31 faces directly above, the movement of the robot arm is stopped and the air cylinder 37 is retracted, so that the suction pad 31 is retracted. To be rotatable. Further, retract the air cylinder 41,
The wire 39 is pulled to unite and fix the separated parts (FIG. 1 (f)). At this time, a plurality of radial protrusions provided on the lower tip portion of the fifth shaft upper portion 25a,
The plurality of recesses provided at the upper end of the lower shaft portion 25b are engaged with each other to perform the alignment during the combination.

When the above procedure is completed, the robot arm is controlled to move so as to take out the work 1 from the press brake 10 (FIG. 1 (g)).

The above is the procedure for bending the side,
Next, a procedure for bending a work as shown in FIG. 7A will be described.

First, with the suction pad 31 facing downward,
The unprocessed work W as shown in FIG. 7B loaded on the destacker 60 is sucked. The destacker 60 is provided with a sensor for detecting the double picking by detecting the thickness of the taken-out work. When the double picking is detected by the sensor, the work is discarded and the work is picked up again. Control to go.

Next, while the work is sucked, the work is placed on the holding table 50 with the suction pad 31 facing downward (FIG. 7 (c)). Then, the work placed on the holding table 50 is picked up.

Next, the suction pad 31 is turned upward, the work is inserted into the press brake in this state, and the bending of the side A is executed by the procedure shown in FIG. When the bending of the side A is completed, the fifth shaft 25 of the robot and the suction pad 31 are rotated by the mechanism of the belt 36 and the pulley 35 with the suction pad 31 facing upward (FIG. 7 (d) ( e)), B side is faced to the press brake 10. Then insert the work into the press brake and press B
The side bending process is performed in the procedure as shown in FIG.

After the bending of the B side is completed, the work whose A and B sides have been bent is placed again on the holding table 50 to position the work (FIG. 7 (f)). Then, with the suction pad 31 facing downward, the work placed on the holding table 50 is picked up. Next, with the suction pad 31 facing upward, the work is inserted into the press brake in this state, and the bending of the C side is performed by the procedure as shown in FIG.
When the bending of the C side is completed, the fifth shaft 25 of the robot and the suction pad 3 are moved by the mechanism of the belt 36 and the pulley 35 while the suction pad 31 is directed upward.
Rotate 1 (Fig. 7 (d) (e)) and press brake 1 on D side.
Face 0. Then, after the work is inserted into the press brake, the bending processing of the D side is executed in the procedure as shown in FIG.

Finally, with the suction pad 31 facing downward, the processed work is transferred to the carry-out device 70.

That is, when the hand according to the present invention is used, if only one of the front and back surfaces of the workpiece can be gripped to perform all the bending such as box bending, the four sides of the workpiece can be bent without changing the holding and As shown in FIG. 7, when it is necessary to hold and bend not only the front surface of the work but also the back surface of the work, the work table 50 is turned upside down.

FIG. 8 shows another embodiment of the hand 30. In this embodiment, the link parts 44, 45, 46 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 5 are omitted. The air cylinder 37 that blocks the rotation of the upper portion 25a of the fifth shaft and the configuration related to the cylinder 37 are omitted. That is, in this embodiment, only the structure of the air cylinder 41 and the wire 39 is used to switch the coupling / non-coupling state of the fifth shaft upper portion 25a and the fifth shaft lower portion 25b.

In the above embodiment, the robot having the joint structure as shown in FIGS. 2 to 4 is used.
Robots with other joint configurations may be used. For example, the fourth axis in FIG. 4 may be eliminated and the work may be inverted by another device.

Further, in the above embodiment, the suction hand is used as the robot hand, but a normal grip type hand may be used.

[0048]

As described above, according to the present invention,
During bending, the workpiece support is separated from the robot's tip arm as the workpiece is bent, and passively follows the bending of the workpiece, so the robot arm follows the workpiece during bending. Since it is not necessary to perform an operation, the number of control axes of the robot can be reduced, and the exchange of signals between the robot and the play brake is reduced, so that the robot price can be significantly reduced. Furthermore, because the number of control axes of the robot is small,
The robot repeat position accuracy is improved, and since the position where the workpiece is gripped is not changed in each bending process, the expensive back stop used for workpiece positioning, which has been used conventionally, can be eliminated and the system price can be drastically reduced. You can Further, since the backstop can be eliminated, it is possible to automate the bending of a complicated small work which is difficult to hit the backstop.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a bending step in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a press brake robot system.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a press brake robot system.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a joint structure of a robot.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a hand.

FIG. 6 is a view showing a state in which the hands are separated.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a bending process.

FIG. 8 is a view showing another embodiment of the hand.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Punch 2 ... Die 3 ... Fixed table 4 ... Movable table 25 ... Fifth axis 30 ... Robot hand 31 ... Suction pad 32 ... Air tube 33 ... Air joint 35 ... Pulley 36 ... Belt 37 ... Air cylinder 39 ... Wire 41 ... Air cylinder 45 ... Link 50 ... Carrying table 60 ... Disstacker 70 ... Ejecting device 80 ... Robot controller

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Masato Kageyama Inventor Masao Kageyama 400, Yokokura Nitta 400, Oyama City, Tochigi Komatsu Plant Oyama Plant (72) Katsunori Kitano 400 Yokokura Nitta, Oyama City, Tochigi Plant Koyama Plant Co., Ltd. Within

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A press brake robot apparatus for handling a work to be supplied to a press brake for bending the work by sandwiching the work with a die and a punch and applying a pressing force, wherein a work supporting portion for supporting the work is a robot. The hand is configured to be separable from the tip arm of the robot, and the work support part is placed in the work support state during the bending process so that the work support part is separated from the robot tip arm as the work is bent. A press brake robot apparatus characterized by comprising: 2. A wire having one end thereof joined to the work supporting portion and the other end joined to a wire winding device attached to a tip arm of a robot, wherein the wire is wound by the wire winding device. The press brake robot apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the work support portion is united with the robot front end arm by winding. 3. The press brake robot apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the work support portion and the robot front end arm are linked to each other. 4. The press brake robot apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the work support portion has a suction pad for sucking a work.