JPH07180723A - Circular arc guide device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable even rails different in radius of gyration and straight line rails to be guided by the one kind of a circular arc guide device, and concurrently enable the radius of gyration to be extremely made small. CONSTITUTION:A plurality of blocks 5 which are freely moved over a guide rail 3, are provided via a plurality of ball bearings 9 which are rolled over the side surfaces of the guide rail 3 in the running direction, each pivot 17 is provided for the upper surface center of each block 5, and each pivot comprises each connecting member 7 provided, which connects the pivots 17 provided for the respective adjacent blocks.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a circular arc guide device which can freely accommodate the radius of curvature of a guide rail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an arc guide device is constructed by slidably mounting a dedicated arc guide having the same radius of curvature on an arc guide rail having a constant radius of curvature. Is common.

[0003]

By the way, in the above-mentioned conventional arc guide device, since the arc guide rail has a constant radius of curvature, the arc guide has the same radius of curvature. I can't, and I can't do linear motion. Also, if the turning radius changes, the rail must also change. Moreover, it cannot be used in a trajectory in which a straight line is combined with several different turning radii, and the turning radius is extremely small, for example, a turning radius of 50 mm or 30 mm.
There was a problem that it could not be used for the turning radius.

In order to improve the above-mentioned problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an arc guide device capable of guiding rails having different radii of rotation and straight rails with one type of arc guide device, thereby making the radius of rotation extremely small. To provide a device.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a plurality of ball bearings rolling on the side surface of a guide rail in the traveling direction and movable on the guide rail. The block is provided, a support shaft is provided in each block, and a connecting member that connects a support shaft of one block and a support shaft of another block adjacent to the block is provided to form an arc guide device.

Further, the support shaft of each block is used as a rotation shaft rotatable with respect to the block, and a connecting member for connecting the rotation shaft of one block to the rotation shaft of another block adjacent thereto is provided, or the rotation shaft of each block is provided. As a fixed shaft integrally provided with the support shaft for the block, it is desirable to provide a connecting member for rotatably connecting the fixed shaft of one block to a fixed shaft of another block adjacent to the block. is there.

[0007]

By adopting the circular arc guide device of the present invention, a plurality of blocks which travel via a plurality of ball bearings are provided on the side surface of the guide rail, and each block is provided with a support shaft. A connecting member is mounted so that a supporting shaft of another block adjacent to the supporting shaft of the block is rotatable.

For this reason, the two blocks are connected to each other not only by the linear guide rails but also by the guide rails having different turning radii through the connecting members. Be free.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the arc guide device 1 includes a guide rail 3, a block 5 that engages with the guide rail 3, and a connecting member that connects the block 5 adjacent to the block 5. 7 and 7.

On both sides of the side surface of the guide rail 3, rolling surfaces 3a on which two ball bearings 9 roll vertically are formed.

The block 5 has a rectangular shape when viewed from above, and as it rides on the guide rail 3, the opening 1 is provided downward.
1 is formed, and the ball bearing 9 is mounted in the opening 11. That is, the ball bearing 9 is housed in the ball bearing case 13,
The ball bearing case 13 is held by a circulating small ball 15 so that the ball bearing case 13 has an opening 1 in the block 5.
It is installed in 1.

With the above structure, the block 5 has the ball bearing 9 held by the circulating small balls 15,
By rotating along the rolling surface 3a of the guide rail 3, the guide rail 3 can be smoothly moved.

Further, the support shaft 17 is provided at the center of the upper surface of the block 5.
Is provided. More specifically, the support shaft 17 is rotatably supported by a rotary shaft 17A via a thrust bearing 21 and a radial bearing 23 mounted in a stepped hole 19 formed in the center of the upper surface of the block 5. ing. The rotary shaft 17A is provided with a collar portion 2 that abuts the radial bearing 23.
5 and a snap ring 27 that comes into contact with the thrust bearing 21 prevent them from coming off. And the rotating shaft 17A
A support portion 31 for supporting the spherical joint 29 is formed on the upper part of the shaft, and the mounting tap 33 is mounted on the uppermost surface of the rotary shaft 17A.
Are formed. The spherical joint 29 has a known structure, and thus detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The block 5 as described above and the block 5 adjacent to the block 5 are the spherical joint 2
The arc guide device 1 is configured by being connected by the connecting shaft 35 between the nine. Reference numeral 37 is a bearing pressing plate. Further, although the spherical joint 29 is adopted in this embodiment, it is not always necessary that the spherical joint 29 is spherical.

With the above-mentioned structure, as to the operation, referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, the circular guide rail 3 shown in FIG. 3 has three types of guide rails 3A, 3B, which have different radii of rotation. It is an example in which the arc guide device 1 is attached to 3C. That is, a circular guide rail 3A formed with a maximum radius R _A , a circular guide rail 3B formed with an intermediate radius R _B , and a circular guide rail formed with a minimum radius R _C. The arc guide device 1 is incorporated in 3C.

Since the circular arc guide device 1 is constructed by connecting the centers of two adjacent blocks 5 with a spherical joint 29, the spherical joint can be used even if the radius of gyration changes like the guide rails 3A, 3B, 3C. The mounting pitch L of 29 is always the same. And Thus, the rotation radius R _A, R _B, arc guide apparatus 1 in response to changes in the R _C can be smoothly running guide rails 3A, 3B, the upper 3C. And
Like the circular arc guide device 1 mounted on the guide rail 3C, the radius of gyration R is increased until the blocks 5 interfere with each other at the point S.
Can be made smaller.

Further, in FIG. 4, an arc guide is provided for a discontinuous guide rail 3 formed by different turning radii R _A , R _B , R _C and a straight portion T in one guide rail 3. As described above, the device 1 can move following the guide rail 3 because the mounting pitch L of the two connected blocks 5 is constant.

The rotary shaft 17A is attached to the block 5 as described above.
A first embodiment using the arc guide device 1 in which two blocks 5 are connected by a spherical joint 29 will be described.

With reference to FIGS. 5 and 6, this first embodiment is an example in which a work gripped by an articulated robot is adopted in a line for successively processing a plurality of plate material processing machines. More specifically, referring to FIG. 5, an arc guide device 1 composed of two blocks 5 rides on a guide rail 3 formed in an L-system shape by a straight line and a curved portion. An articulated robot 41 is mounted on the plate via a plate 39. Then, the articulated robot 41 moves the tip gripping portion 43.
A workpiece processing machine 45 that grips the workpiece W and arranges a plurality of workpieces
For example, the work W is supplied to a processing machine such as a bending machine and processed one after another. Since the bending machine has a known structure, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The attachment of the articulated robot 41 and the arc guide device 1 and the drive system of the arc guide device 1 will be described in more detail. Since the arc guide device 1 has the same configuration as that of FIG. 1, detailed description thereof is omitted, and the same members are denoted by the same reference numerals.

Referring to FIG. 6, the circular arc guide device 1 is supported on a rail support 47 provided on the floor, and is mounted on a rotary shaft 17A which is a support shaft 17 erected on the block 5 of the circular arc guide device 1. The plate 39 is fixed by a bolt 49 tightened to the formed mounting tap 33.
An articulated robot 41 is attached to this plate 39.

On the other hand, as a drive system for driving the arc guide device 1, a drive motor 51 fixed to the side surface of the block 5 is used.
The pinion 55 is attached to the tip of the output shaft 53 of
The pinion 55 is meshed with a rack 57 mounted on the side surface of the rail support 47.

With the above structure, when the drive motor 51 is driven, the pinion 55 rotates and the pinion 55 rolls on the rack 57. That is, the arc guide device 1 moves on the guide rail 3, and thus the arc guide device 1
It is possible to transfer and fix the articulated robot 41 mounted above to a desired position. Therefore, the articulated robot 41 can be freely moved and positioned on the guide rail 3 provided with straight and curved lines, there is no rattling with respect to the load, and accuracy is not deteriorated.

Although the two blocks 5 are connected by the spherical joint 29, the spherical joint 29 is not always necessary. However, by adopting the spherical joint 29, it is possible to cope with the vertical movement. There is an advantage that the guide rail 3 can withstand the vertical change. The drive system may be a rack, a pinion, a linear motor, or the like, and can be removed by removing only the plate 39 at the time of maintenance of the loaded multi-joint robot 41, and the blocks 5 are connected by the spherical joint 29. Therefore, it is not separated.

FIG. 7 shows a second embodiment of a two-dimensional movement device 59 using the arc guide device 1. The two-dimensional movement device 59 is provided with a base 63 on a plurality of upright columns 61.
On the base 63, a guide rail 3 having a straight portion and a curved portion is provided as a cornerless endless member via a base plate 65. An arc guide device 1 in which a plurality of blocks 5 are connected by a connecting member 7 (not shown) is mounted on the guide rail 3, and a plate 39 is fastened to the upper surface of each block 5 with bolts 49.

A bracket 67 is provided on the plate 39, and a drive motor 69 for driving the arc guide device 1 is erected on the upper surface of the bracket 67.
A pinion 73 is fixed to the tip of the output shaft 71 of the reference numeral 9, and the pinion 73 is meshed with a rack 75 provided on the outer periphery of the base plate 65. Two arc guide devices 1 are provided on the guide rail 3 so as to face each other.

With the above construction, when the drive motor 69 is driven, the pinion 73 rotates and the arc guide device 1 guided by the rack 75 can smoothly travel on the guide rail 3.

A linear guide member 7 is provided on the plate 39.
7 is provided, and the rack 79 is provided on the upper surface of the linear guide member 77.
A pinion (not shown) meshing with the rack 79 is provided inside the slider 81. Rotation bearings (not shown) are provided at the lower portions of both ends of the linear guide member 77 to support the linear guide member 77.

With the above-described structure, the circular arc guide device 1 enables smooth movement on the guide rail 3 which is an endless guide member without corners, and is provided on the plate 39 provided on the circular arc guide device 1. The slider 81 mounted on the linear guide member 77 is linearly moved. Thus, the slider 81 is freely moved by the rotational movement and the linear movement and is accurately positioned.

8 to 11 show a third embodiment of the turret punch press die exchange system using the arc guide device 1. Since the turret punch press and the mold changing system are already known, their configurations will be described only in brief.

The turret punch press 83 is provided with a drive device 87 for vertically moving a ram (not shown) on an upper frame 85U of a gate-shaped main body frame 85.

On the lower frame 85D of the main body frame 85, a plurality of brackets 89 are arranged at appropriate intervals in the Y-axis direction (left and right direction in FIGS. 8 and 9) and in the Z-axis direction (up and down direction in FIG. 8, in FIG. 9). It is attached by extending in a direction orthogonal to the drawing). A support frame 91 is provided on the plurality of brackets 89, and a side table 95S of the work table 95 is provided on each support frame 91 via a plurality of balls 93 so as to be movable in the Y-axis direction. The work table 95 has side tables 95S on both sides of a center table 95C.

On the left side of the work table 95 in FIG. 9, a carriage base 99 of the plate material movement positioning device 97 is provided. This carriage base 9
A rotatable ball screw 101 extending in the X-axis direction (horizontal direction in FIG. 3, vertical direction in FIG. 9) is supported on the shaft 9. The ball screw 101 is provided with a carriage 103 which is movable in the X-axis direction via a nut member (not shown). Moreover, this carriage 10
Plural work clamps 105 for clamping the plate material W to the 3
Is provided.

An X-axis motor 107 is provided below the carriage base 99 as shown in FIG. 9, and a drive pulley 109 is attached to the output shaft of the X-axis motor 107. On the other hand, a driven pulley 111 is attached to one end of the ball screw 101, and the timing belt 11 is attached to the driven pulley 111 and the drive pulley 109.
3 is wound.

With the above construction, when the Y-axis drive motor (not shown) is driven, the side table 95S is moved in the Y-axis direction via the carriage base 99 and the balls 93 supported by the support frame 91. It will be.
When the X-axis drive motor 107 is driven, the carriage 103 is moved in the X-axis direction. Therefore, the plate material W clamped by the work clamp 105
Is moved in the X and Y axis directions, and the desired position of the plate W is positioned at the processing position below the striker (not shown).

A sub-frame 115 is provided upright adjacent to the body frame 5. The sub-frame 115 has a C-shaped structure including an upper frame 115U and a lower frame 115D. An upper turret 119 having, for example, a rectangular parallelepiped shape that is rotatable via an upper rotation shaft 117U is provided below the upper frame 115U, and an upper turret 119 that is rotatable via a lower rotation shaft 117D is provided above the lower frame 115D. The lower turrets 121 each having a rectangular shape are supported.

Punch holders PH with punches P are removably attached to both sides of the upper turret 119, and dies D are attached to both sides of the lower turret 121 at positions corresponding to the punches P. Die holder D
H is detachably attached.

With the above configuration, the upper and lower rotary shafts 117
By rotating U and 117D, upper and lower turrets 119,
121 is indexed and the selected punch P and die D are positioned at the processing position. Then, as the striker moves up and down, the punch P and the die D cooperate with each other to punch the plate W at a desired position.

A die exchanging device for exchanging the punch P and the die D mounted on the upper and lower turrets 119 and 121 adjacent to the upper and lower subframes 115 and below the lower frames 115U and 115D in FIG. Above 123,
Lower mold exchanging devices 123U and 123D are provided.

Further, at a proper position of the mold exchanging device 123, a normal die exchanging device 125 composed of two known arms and a tooling tower 127 are arranged.
The mold exchanging device 125 has a pair of arms 129 having clamp claws 131 attached to the tips thereof, and is capable of rotating 90 ° and 180 °. The tooling tower 127 also has a plurality of clamp claws 135 provided on the outer periphery of the cylindrical member 133, and the punches and the die holders PH and DH are clamped to the clamp claws 135. The cylindrical member 133 is rotatable and vertically movable.

That is, the cylindrical member 133 is moved up and down by the operation of the fluid cylinder 137, and the servo motor 13 is moved.
Drive pulley 141 and timing belt 1 by driving 9
43 and the driven pulley 145. Therefore, the punches and die holders PH and DH are exchanged between the tool exchanging device 123 and the tooling tower 127 through the die exchanging device 125.

The mold exchanging device 123 will be described in more detail.

Referring to FIGS. 10 and 11, since the upper mold exchanging device 123U and the lower mold exchanging device 123D of the mold exchanging device 123 are vertically opposed to each other and have a similar shape, they are the same. Because of the configuration, the upper mold exchanging device 123U
The same reference numerals are given to the same members, and the description of the lower mold exchanging device 123D will be omitted.

The endless guide rail 3 is erected on the support plate 147U.
In addition, a plurality of arc guide devices 1 described above are arranged.
Since the detailed structure of the arc guide device 1 has already been described above, only a brief description will be given. However, a plurality of blocks 5 are mounted on the guide rail 3 via ball bearings 9, and adjacent blocks 5 are connected to each other by a connecting member 7. The plate 149 is fastened to the rotary shaft 17A which is the support shaft 17 and is coupled with.

A forked holder clamper 151 is integrally provided on the plate 149 via a fastening member, and a rack 153 is engraved on the side opposite to the holder clamper.
A punch holder PH or a die holder DH is inserted into and supported by the holder clamper 151. Further, the plate 149 is connected to the adjacent plate 149 via a tension spring 155 which is connected to each other.

Rack 1 engraved on the plate 149
53 is a rack 153 provided on the adjacent plate 149.
A curved surface portion 157 is formed so as to have a slight amount of clearance between the plate and the plate 149 so that the plates 149 do not come into contact with each other when the arc guide device 1 rotates. The gear 159 meshes with the rack 153, and the pinion 161 is attached to the gear 159.
, And the pinion 161 is fixed to the output shaft 165 of the drive motor 163 which is appropriately fixed to a bracket or the like.

With the above structure, when the drive motor 163 is driven, the pinion 161 rotates, the rotation is transmitted to the gear 159 meshed with the pinion 161, and the rack 153 moves by the rotation of the gear 159. That is, the plate 149 provided with the rack 153 moves. Therefore, the punch holder PH or the die holder DH supported by the holder clamper 151 provided integrally with the plate 149 can be smoothly moved, and the die can be replaced.

In the lower mold exchanging device 123D as well, since the arc guide device 1 is vertically installed on the support plate 147D and is made of exactly the same member as the above-mentioned upper die exchanging device 123D, the operation is the same. is there. Still further,
Conventionally, the die changing device 123 is often used to change the die by a chain drive. However, if the chain is driven, the length of the chain is extended and the length of the chain is changed. Therefore, frequent maintenance is required. However, in this embodiment, since the positioning accuracy does not change, maintenance is unnecessary.

FIG. 12 shows a second embodiment of the arc guide device 1. The second embodiment is almost the same as the configuration described in the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, except that the spherical joint 29 is not provided and the rotary shaft 165 is not provided. The plate 169 is directly connected as the connecting member 7 with the bolt 167. The plate 169 functions as the spherical joint 29, and the effect thereof is the same as that of the first embodiment. You can

FIG. 13 shows a third embodiment of the arc guide device 1. This third embodiment is also the same as the first embodiment described above.
Most of the configuration is the same as that of the embodiment of the present invention, except that the spherical joint 29 and the rotary shaft 17A are not provided, and the fixed shaft 171 is provided upright on the upper surface of the block 5 integrally.
Thrust bearing 173 and radial bearing 17
The plate 177 is rotatably provided as the connecting member 7 via the connector 5. Reference numeral 179 is a bearing pressing plate. Therefore, the plate 177 functions as the spherical joint 29, and the effect can be the same as that of the first embodiment.

14 and 15, the arc guide device 1 is shown.
A fourth embodiment of is shown. This fourth embodiment also
Most of the configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment described above, except that the spherical joint 29 is not used and a retractable joint is provided. That is, a fixed shaft 181 is provided upright on the upper surface of the block 5, and a rotating arm 185 is mounted on the fixed shaft 181 as a connecting member 7 via a bush 183. A joint shaft 191 which is a member constituting a retractable joint 189 is connected to both ends of the rotating arm 185 via pins 187.

The structure of the joint 189 is such that the joint shaft 191 can be freely expanded and contracted in the cylindrical joint body 193, and the flange 195 provided at one end of the joint shaft 191 and the side plate 1 provided on the joint body 193.
Between the 97 and the spring 199 such as a spring or disc spring
Joint shafts 1 provided on the left and right
The ammunition 201 is also mounted between the flange 195 and the flange 195.

With the above configuration, the operation is as shown in FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. Since two sets of joints 189 are connected to the adjacent blocks 5 via the rotary arm 185, the left and right blocks 5 mounted on the arc-shaped guide rails 3 are as shown in FIG. The inner diameter side of the guide rail 3 is contracted by the bullets 199 and 201 mounted in the joint 189, and the outer diameter side of the guide rail 3 extends. This is because by setting the expanding force and the contracting force to be constant, as a result, the center distance L of each block 5 is always constant, and smooth running is possible.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but can be implemented in other modes by making appropriate changes.

[0056]

As can be understood from the above description of the embodiments, according to the present invention, since the structure is as described in the claims, a plurality of guide rails are provided through ball bearings. Block is provided, and each block is connected by a plurality of connecting members to provide an arc guide device. Therefore, it is possible to guide rails having different turning radii or straight rails, and the turning radius of the guide rail can be made extremely small.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an arc guide device showing a main part of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a first embodiment adopting the arc guide device of the present invention, and is a perspective view of a device in which a robot is provided on the arc guide device, and the robot grips a work and supplies or carries out the work to each plate material processing machine. It is a figure.

6 is an enlarged cross-sectional explanatory view taken along the line VI-VI in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a two-dimensional movement device, which is a second embodiment employing the arc guide device of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a front view of a turret punch die exchanging device showing a third embodiment employing the arc guide device of the present invention.

9 is a plan view of FIG.

10 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line XX in FIG.

11 is a plan view of FIG.

FIG. 12 is a sectional explanatory view showing a second embodiment of the arc guide device which is the main part of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a sectional explanatory view showing a third embodiment of the arc guide device which is the main part of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory plan view including a partial cross section showing a fourth embodiment of an arc guide device which is a main part of the present invention.

15 is an explanatory cross-sectional view taken along line XV-XV in FIG.

FIG. 16 is an operation explanatory view.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 arc guide device 3 guide rail 5 block 7 connecting member 9 ball bearing 17 support shaft 17A, 165 rotating shaft 171 and 181 fixed shaft

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of blocks movable on the guide rail are provided on a side surface of the guide rail through a plurality of ball bearings rolling in a traveling direction, and a support shaft is provided in each block to form one block. A circular arc guide device, comprising a connecting member for connecting the support shaft of another block adjacent to the support shaft of the above. 2. A supporting member of each block is used as a rotating shaft rotatable with respect to the block, and a connecting member for connecting a rotating shaft of one block to a rotating shaft of another block adjacent to the block is provided. The circular arc guide device according to claim 1. 3. A support member for each block is provided as a fixed shaft integrally provided with the block, and a connecting member for rotatably connecting to a fixed shaft of another block adjacent to a fixed shaft of one block is provided. The circular arc guide device according to claim 1, wherein