JPH07198525A - Air tightness inspection device for vessel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve inspection precision and to shorten required time by, with a robot, holding a vessel under water in a jig equipped with a seal member for a vessel's opening part, and then feeding compressed air into the vessel. CONSTITUTION:A robot 22, with upper and lower baskets 1 and 4 open, makes a jig 30 to approach a vessel 20. Then, the basket 4 is inserted from under the vessel 20, the basket 1 is rotated in the direction of closing against the basket 4, and a lock drive unit 3 lacks a lock unit 2. Then, a seal member 10 is pushed to the vessel 20 so that its opening part 21 is stopped, so that the compressed air is prepared to be supplied to a vessel 2 from a compressed air supply hole 11 in the member 10. Then, the robot 22 puts the vessel 20 together with the jig 30 under water in a water tank. Under this condition, the compressed air is, through the supply hole 11, fed into the vessel 20. Since, if the vessel 20 has defects in air tightness, air bubbles appear, presence, position and size of defects are visually known.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for inspecting a container (for example, a fuel tank of an automobile) for airtightness (leakage from a weld or a crack which may occur during pressing).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 64-590 discloses a conventional method.
1 illustrates a pressure leak inspection device for a container such as a fuel tank.
There, air was filled in the fuel tank, the container was clamped with a jig, and then submerged in the water tank, and the air leaking from the container was visually detected as air bubbles and floated to make the container airtight test. Was going on.

[0003]

However, in the conventional method,
Since the container is submerged in the water tank after pre-filling the container with atmospheric pressure air, it is not possible to increase the air pressure in the container by sending pressurized air into the container after submersion in water. However, there are problems that bubbles are not generated or it takes time until one bubble is generated, so that it is not possible to detect a defect with high accuracy and the inspection time becomes long. An object of the present invention is to enable a gas (hereinafter referred to as a compressed gas) under pressure to be supplied into a container while the container is submerged in water, thereby improving the accuracy of inspection and shortening the inspection time. An object of the present invention is to provide an airtightness inspection device for a container.

[0004]

The container airtightness inspection apparatus according to the present invention for achieving the above object is as follows. It has a water tank, a jig that detachably holds the container to be inspected, and a hand that is installed near the water tank and that detachably connects the jig so as to move the container in and out of the water tank. A robot capable of teaching the trajectory of a hand, wherein the jig closes an opening provided in the container and has a supply port of compressed gas into the container, and a compression of the seal member. A gas tightness inspection device for a container, comprising: a compressed gas supply unit connected to a gas supply port and supplying a compressed gas into the container through the compressed gas supply port.

[0005]

In the above apparatus of the present invention, the jig has a seal member, and the compressed gas is supplied from the compressed gas supply means into the submerged container through the compressed gas supply port provided in the seal member. . Therefore, the inside of the container under water is raised to a predetermined pressure, and if there is a defect in the container, the gas will more easily pass through the defect to the outside of the container than when it is at atmospheric pressure. By doing so, it is possible to detect the presence, position and degree of the defect. Further, since the pressure is applied, the generation of bubbles is quick and the inspection time is short.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. As shown in FIG. 10, the container airtightness inspection apparatus of the present invention is a jig for detachably clamping a water tester 24 having a water tank 25 and a container (for example, a vehicle fuel tank) 20 that is an object to be inspected. The tool 30 and the general-purpose robot 22 installed near the water tank 25. As shown in FIG. 1, the robot 22 has a robot hand 23 (including a robot list) that detachably connects the jig 30, and the container 20 clamped by the jig 30 connected to the robot hand 23 Then, it is carried from the loading container holder 26 in FIG. 10 into the water tank 25, and further from the water tank 25 to the carrying container holder 27. The robot 22 has six axes of freedom, can support the jig 30 at any position in any posture, and can rotate the jig 30 about the hand axis. The robot 22 may be an articulated robot or a three-axis orthogonal robot.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the jig 30 has a basket unit in which the upper basket 1 and the lower basket 4 are openably and closably connected with a connecting shaft 9 as a fulcrum. A lock unit 2 that locks the upper basket 1 and the lower basket 4 so as not to open when the basket unit is closed is provided at a portion of the basket unit opposite to the connecting shaft 9. It is locked and unlocked by being driven by a lock driving unit 3 composed of a cylinder. The basket unit is detachably attached to the robot hand 23 via the robot chuck unit 5 at the upper basket 1. The lock of the robot chuck unit 5 is the lock unit 6
Done by A seal unit 7 is attached to the upper basket 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the seal unit 7 has a seal member 10 that is pressed against the container 20 so as to cover the opening 21 of the container 20 and closes the opening 21. The seal member 10 is a seal unit. The cylinder 12 of 7 moves forward and backward with respect to the container 20. A spacer 8 for changeover is detachably attached to the lower basket 4,
When the type of the container 20 to be inspected changes and its size changes, the spacer 8 is replaced so as to match it. The structure of each part will be described in more detail below.

The upper basket 1 and the lower basket 4 have a container 20 in them.
Is a basket for clamping the container 20. The container 20 has a frame structure (a structure in which the view cannot be interrupted by the plate) so that the container 20 can be viewed from outside. The robot 22 supports the upper basket 1, and the lower basket 4 is supported by the upper basket 1 via the connecting shaft 9. When the lower basket 4 is not locked with respect to the upper basket 1, as shown in FIG. 3, the lower basket 4 hangs down by its own weight.

As shown in FIG. 2, the seal member 10 has an opening portion 21 of the container 20 when pressed against the container 20.
It has a compressed gas supply port 11 which is opened to the internal space of the container 20 through the above and enables compressed gas to be supplied. Seal member 1
No. 0 is in contact with the container 20 with rubber so that the seal is perfect and the container 20 is not damaged. The seal member 10 is attached to the tip of the rod of the cylinder 12 of the seal unit 7 and is movable back and forth with respect to the container 20. To cover and seal the opening 21.

A compressed gas supply means 13 for supplying compressed gas is connected to the compressed gas supply port 11 of the seal member 10. The compressed gas supply means 13 has a compressed gas supply port 1
1, a lock unit 6, and a hose (or pipe) 14 connecting a compressed gas supply passage 28 formed in the robot chuck unit 5. The compressed gas supply passage 28 of the robot chuck unit 5 is connected to a compressed gas source 29. The compressed gas may consist of air or another type of gas (eg, nitrogen, argon gas, helium gas, etc.). The compressed gas source 29 supplies gas at a pressure higher than atmospheric pressure. The pressure is, for example, 0.3 to 0.3.
It is set to 5 kgf / cm ² .

A lock unit 2 for locking the upper basket 1 and the lower basket 4 when they are closed is shown in FIGS.
It has the structure shown in FIG. The lock unit 2 has a toggle mechanism 15 connected to the upper basket 1, and the toggle mechanism 15 is rotatable around a fulcrum 19. The toggle mechanism 15 has a headed pin 17 extending toward the lower basket 4. The pin 17 is a plate 16 connected to the lower basket 4 side.
Through the hole 18. The hole 18 has a shape in which a circular hole portion 18a larger than the diameter of the head portion 17a of the headed pin 17 and a slot portion 18b smaller than the diameter of the head portion 17a communicate with each other. When the air cylinder of the lock drive unit 3 is in the contracted state, the pin 17 can come out of the circular hole portion 18a and be removed, and the lock is released (the upper basket 1 and the lower basket 4 are opened). When the cylinder of the lock drive unit 3 is in the extended state, the pin 17 cannot come out because it comes into the slot 18b, and the lock is applied (the upper basket 1 and the lower basket 4).
Is maintained closed).

The spacer 8 is placed on the lower basket 4 or is detachably attached. Since the thickness and shape of the spacer 8 have to be changed according to the size of the container 20 to be inspected, when the type of the container 20 changes, the spacer 8 is replaced accordingly. However, the rest will rarely need to be replaced. If it is not possible to deal with it only by replacing the spacer 8, the jig 30
It suffices to remove the tool at a portion between the robot chuck unit 5 and the lock unit 6 and replace only the jig 30.
Therefore, the robot 22, the water tank 25, the container stand 26,
It is not necessary to replace 27, and these are commonly used for various containers 20 to be inspected.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5 and 9. When clamping the container 20, as shown in FIG. 3, with the upper basket 1 and the lower basket 4 open,
The jig 3 is attached to the container 20 placed on the pillar of the loading table 26.
0 is approached by the robot 22. Lower basket 4 into container 20
Insert from below and hang the tip of the lower basket 4 on the upper end of the container stand 26 as shown in FIG. Then the robot 22
Is operated to rotate the upper basket 1 with respect to the lower basket 4 in the closing direction to bring the state shown in FIG. In this state, the lock drive unit 3 is operated to lock the lock unit 2.

Then, the robot 22 is operated to lift the container 20 from the stand 26 and convey it to the water detector 24 shown in FIG. 10, where the robot hand 23 is directed downwards.
0 together with the jig 30 is submerged in the water tank 25. Figure 9
The state where the container 20 is submerged in the water in the water tank 25 is shown. In this state, the compressed gas from the compressed gas source 29 is filled into the container 20 through the compressed gas supply means 13 and the compressed gas supply port 11. If the container 20 has an airtight defect portion, the gas leaks out of the container through the airtight defect portion and floats as a bubble. Therefore, by visually detecting it,
It is possible to know the presence or absence of a defect, the position of the defect, and the size of the defect. The container 20 is taken out from the water tank 25 and the carrying-out side stand 2
When it is conveyed to the upper part 7, the state of FIG. 5 to FIG. 4 is set, and further the state of FIG. 3 is set. However, the table 26 is to be read as 27.

During the execution of the inspection, as shown in FIG.
0 is rotated in water by rotating the robot hand 23. With this, it is possible to easily detect a defect on the back side of the container which is difficult to be visually observed unless the container 20 is rotated. Further, the water tank 25 is transparent on the inspector side, and the container 20 can be inspected without passing through the transparent wall of the water tank 25 and the water surface. When the container 20 is viewed from the obliquely upper side through the water surface, the inspection may be difficult due to the rippling of the water surface and the refraction at the water surface. However, by visually observing the container 20 from the side as shown in FIG. You can avoid problems.

By supplying a gas having a high pressure into the container 20 during the inspection, the gas can easily pass through even a small defect, so that the leakage can be easily found. Further, if it is a small defect, it takes about 5 seconds to generate one bubble, and if pressure is applied, the bubble can be generated within about 1 second, so that the inspection time can be shortened.

[0017]

According to the present invention, a jig is detachably held by a robot, a jig is provided with a seal member for pressing a container and sealing an opening, and a supply port for compressed gas is provided in the seal member. Since the compressed gas supply means of this supply port is connected, a gas having a pressure higher than the atmospheric pressure can be supplied to the inspected container submerged in water, and the accuracy of the leak inspection can be improved and the inspection time can be shortened.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a jig portion of a container airtightness inspection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic enlarged front view of the jig shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a state in which a jig approaches a clamp of a container.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a state in which the tip of the lower basket of the jig is engaged with the mounting table after proceeding from the state of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing a state in which the jig has clamped the container while proceeding from the state of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a lock unit.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a plate of the lock unit.

FIG. 8 is a front view of the toggle mechanism of the lock unit.

FIG. 9 is a front view showing a state where the container is submerged in the water tank.

FIG. 10 is a plan view of the entire airtightness inspection device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Upper Basket 2 Lock Unit 3 Lock Drive Unit 4 Lower Basket 5 Robot Chuck Unit 6 Lock Unit 7 Seal Unit 8 Spacer 9 Connecting Shaft 10 Sealing Member 11 Compressed Gas Supply Port 12 Cylinder 13 Compressed Gas Supply Means 14 Hose 15 Toggle Mechanism 17 Heads Attached pin 18 Hole 19 Support point 20 Container 21 Opening 22 Robot 23 Robot hand 25 Water tank 28 Compressed gas supply passage 29 Compressed gas source 30 Jig

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A water tank, a jig that detachably holds a container that is an object to be inspected, and a hand that is installed beside the water tank and that detachably connects the jig. A robot capable of teaching the trajectory of the hand so as to move to, and the jig has a seal member that closes an opening provided in the container and has a supply port of compressed gas into the container, A compressed gas supply means connected to a compressed gas supply port of the seal member to supply a compressed gas into the container via the compressed gas supply port.