JPH0723157Y2 - Conveyor line device with automatic hand - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial field of application] The present invention holds an automatic hand for automatically gripping a chuck, a work, a tool, etc. in a single housing, and a desired chuck for a plurality of machine tools. The present invention relates to a transfer line device having an automatic hand suitable for automatically performing all the machining processes of a work continuously while mounting the work and tools.

[Conventional technology]

A large number of machine tools are arranged in the FMS line, etc., and continuous automatic machining of workpieces is performed. This line is equipped with a loader that conveys workpieces, etc. However, there is only one conventional gripping tool (hand) for gripping workpieces, and most of them are for attaching and detaching workpieces. It was

[Problems to be solved by the device]

If you have only a single work attachment / detachment hand, there is no problem with one type of work, but if you want to process different work, stop the machine once,
The tools and chucks must be replaced manually, which causes a problem that the machine operation rate is significantly reduced. Further, in the processing of one kind of work, it is of course desirable that, once the work is gripped by the chuck, the work is automatically transferred to the next process side in the same state as it is, and all the process steps are automatically completed.

The present invention shortens the setup time and the processing time by using a variety of workpieces, chucks and tools corresponding to them, and an automatic hand that holds them in close proximity within a single housing. An object of the present invention is to provide a transfer line device having an automatic hand with improved efficiency.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an arrangement direction of a plurality of machine tools including a first machine tool and a second machine tool for mounting a chuck and a work piece or a first machine tool and a second machine tool. A transport rail arranged along the
A casing movably supported along the transport rails, an automatic hand for gripping a workpiece, which is provided in the casing so as to be vertically movable, and vertically movable in the casing, and An automatic chuck hand provided at a predetermined distance from the automatic work hand, and a workpiece automatic hand provided near the workpiece carry-in side of the first machine tool and storing a large number of workpieces. A work moving device for indexing and positioning a work at a desired work engaging position where it can be engaged, and a chuck for moving and positioning the chuck to a position for accommodating a large number of chucks and engaging with the automatic chuck hand. First chuck engagement at a position separated from the work engagement position of the apparatus by a predetermined distance between the work automatic hand and the chuck automatic hand. Machined by the first machine tool, which is interposed between the first machine tool and the second machine tool, and which is machined by the first machine tool. A reverse delivery device for receiving the work, reversing the direction of the work, and delivering it to the next process side, and a large number of chucks of the second machine tool are stored, and with respect to the work delivery position of the reverse delivery device. A second automatic chuck exchanging device arranged to have a second chuck engaging position at a position separated by a distance corresponding to a predetermined distance between the automatic hand for chucking and the automatic hand for chucking. First automatic chuck changing device and second
The transfer line device having an automatic hand is characterized in that the chuck exchanging work in the automatic exchanging device and the work transferring work from the work moving device and the reversing transfer device can be performed at the same time.

[Action]

A chuck corresponding to a desired work is taken out from the automatic chuck changer (ACC) by an automatic chucking hand of a housing hand holder and inserted into a spindle of a machine tool for the first process. On the other hand, the work positioned at the predetermined indexing position is gripped from the work stocker and mounted on the machine tool side. After the completion of the processing step, the work is gripped by the automatic hand, the casing is moved along the transfer rail, and the work is inverted by the reversal transfer device. In the next process, a chuck for gripping the work that has completed the previous process in advance is pulled out from the exchanging device by an automatic hand and is prepared, and it is necessary for processing of the next process by the automatic hand in the same housing as the automatic hand. Tool is pulled out from the changer and is waiting. Therefore, the work which has completed the previous process can be mounted on the next machine tool and automatically perform a predetermined machining. By preliminarily inputting the work shape and the machining process thereof to the control device side, the work can be gripped, transferred, mounted, inverted and the like in a timely and smooth manner.

〔Example〕

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

FIG. 1 shows an outline of the overall configuration of the embodiment. In this embodiment, two machine tools and a transfer line engaging with the machine tool are provided, but the present invention has an arrangement of this embodiment. Of course, the present invention is not limited to these.

A transfer rail 18 is shown on the machine tool for the first process, and the hand holder 5 as the first and first housing corresponding to the first machine tool 1 is movable along the line direction. Similarly, above the second machine tool 2, a hand holder 6, which is a second housing corresponding to the second machine tool, is also supported. The first hand holder 5 holds an automatic hand 7 for chucks or tools and an automatic hand 8 for workpieces, and the second hand holder 6 also has an automatic hand 9 for chucks or tools and an automatic hand 10 for workpieces. Is retained.

The work stocker 11 is composed of a stocker unit 12 for stacking and storing and indexing and positioning a large number of works, and a work moving operation mechanism unit 13 for moving a desired work to a predetermined position for engaging the automatic hand 8.

A first automatic chuck exchanging device 14 (hereinafter referred to as a first ACC 14) having a mechanism for accommodating a large number of chucks and positioning and moving these chucks to a position where they are engaged with the automatic hand 7 is the first machine tool 1 Is located near the
Automatic chuck changer 15 (hereinafter referred to as the second ACC15)
Is arranged near the second machine tool 2.

While storing a large number of tools, these are automatically handed 9
An automatic tool changer 16 (hereinafter referred to as ATC16) having a mechanism for positioning and moving to a position engaging with the second machine tool 2
Is also arranged in the vicinity of.

The reversing transfer device 17 having a mechanism for reversing the work and transferring it to the next process side is composed of the first machine tool 1 and the second AC.
It is installed between C15. In addition, a transfer device 19 is provided near the ATC 16 to transfer a work on which all the processes have been completed to another transport path. Further, the rails 18 for transportation are supported by the columns 21 on the floor surface 20.

Next, referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the first hand holder 5
And the second hand holder 6 will be described (note that since the two have substantially the same structure, only the first hand holder 5 will be described as a representative). The right side of each of FIGS. 2 and 3 is the lower surface side, but the drawings are shown in a horizontal state.

An automatic hand 7 for a chuck or a tool to be described later (hereinafter,
The automatic chuck hand 7) and the workpiece automatic hand 8 are supported by a common single housing 22.

As shown in FIG. 3, the rails for transportation are fixedly supported by the columns 21.
A slide block 23 fixed to the housing 22 side and slidably supported by the transport rail 18 is provided in the 18. Although not shown in the figure, the rack 24 fixed to the transport rail 18 meshes with a pinion gear fixed to the housing 22 side,
22 is made movable along the transfer rail 18.

The automatic work hand 8 has a chuck 28 for gripping the work W.
And a locking arm 29 that holds the chuck 28, an arm frame 31 that rotatably supports the locking arm 29 on a rotating shaft 30, and a mechanism that supports the locking arm 29 itself so that it can be opened and closed. Not) and so on. A rack 32 (shown in FIG. 4) for moving the automatic hand 8 up and down (left and right in the figure) is connected to the center of the rotary shaft 30. As shown in FIG. 4, the guide rail 34 connected to the rack 32 via the slide piece 33 is slidably supported by a slide block 35 fixed to the housing 22 side. 37 is a wiring cable.

The rack 32 is not shown in the figure, but the side body 40 on the side of the housing 22
It meshes with the pinion gear 41 inside, and the pinion gear 41 is a side body
It is driven by a motor 42 supported by 40. Grooves 43 and 44 are formed in the slide piece 33 in FIG. 4 for the purpose of alleviating the non-smooth sliding due to the misalignment of the rack 32.

One end of the cylinder 45 is connected to the arm frame 31 even at a position displaced from the rotation shaft 30, and the other end is fixed to the housing 22 side. The cylinder 45 is for rotating the locking arm 29 of the automatic work hand 8 supported by the arm frame 31. The various sensors 46, 47, 48 are for detecting the vertical movement position of the rack 32 and the operating state of the cylinder 45.

The automatic chucking hand 7 is also supported on the housing 22 side by a mechanism similar to that of the automatic workpiece hand 8 and is formed so as to be movable up and down.

5 and 6 show the detailed structure of the automatic chuck hand 7. Since this structure is described in detail in another utility model registration application filed on the same day as the present application by the same applicant as an "automatic hand", only the main structure will be briefly described in the present application.

A lever-shaped locking arm 50 that opens and closes to hold a chuck 49 (shown by a chain double-dashed line) opens and closes by a swinging mechanism 52 supported by a cylinder 51, and at the same time, a rack 32 (to be precise, a slide piece 33). It is elastically supported in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the drawing by an elastic support mechanism 54 provided between the fixed frame members 53. The rocking mechanism 52 is fixed at a fixed position by a restraint mechanism 56 having a cylinder 55.

With the above structure, the automatic chucking hand 7 is supported by the rack 32 so as to be movable up and down, and the chucking hand 7 is chucked.
The chuck 49 is supported so as to be openable and closable with respect to 49 and elastic in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the drawing, so that the chuck 49 can be held very easily.

Next, the work stocker 11 will be described, but since this is also described in detail in another utility model registration application filed on the same date as the present application by the same applicant as “work stocker”, only the essential points are shown in FIG. Will be described.

The stocker unit 12 comprises a table in which a large number of work supporting means 56 are arranged on the circumference thereof, and the table is indexed and rotated by an indexing mechanism 59. The work movement operation mechanism unit 13 engages the push-up mechanism 60 that raises the work W, which has been indexed and rotated and positioned at a fixed position, to the work automatic hand 8 side, and the work W that has been pushed up to the work automatic hand 8. It is composed of an engaging mechanism 61 (not shown in the drawing) and the like. With these structures, desired works W are gripped one by one on the chuck 28 of the automatic work hand 8.

The first ACC14, the second ACC15, and the ATC16 have been filed by the same applicant as the "selection switching device" on the same date as the present application, and therefore the details thereof will be omitted. These are for indexing and positioning a large number of chucks and tools housed in a magazine to a fixed position, and engaging the chucking automatic hand 7 or the like with a delivery mechanism.

FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 show the outline of the reversing transfer device. This device is also described in detail in the utility model registration application filed on the same day as the present application as "inversion delivery device" by the same applicant as described above, and therefore only the main structure will be described.

The chuck 28 that holds the work W conveyed to the left side position (starting point) in the drawing by the automatic work hand 8 is connected to a guide mechanism 62, and the guide mechanism 62 is a cylinder that is a drive source for moving the chuck 28 and the like. It is connected to 63.
The guide mechanism 62 moves the chuck 28 left and right in the figure along the guide rod 69, and is rotated by fitting a cam follower 64 and a cam groove 65 that are rotatably supported by the guide mechanism 62. Since the cam groove 65 is formed from a V-shaped groove as shown in FIG. 7 and has the dimension "a" as shown in the drawing, the cam follower 64 gradually rotates in the groove of the cam groove 65 as it advances to the right, and at the center portion. It turns 90 ° and turns 180 ° at the end point as shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. Therefore, the work W is reversed in the opposite direction.

Although the other control device (not shown) and the transfer device 19 are shown in FIG. 1, they are composed of those of the known art which need not be described.

Next, the operation of the transfer line device configured as described above will be described in more detail.

Although the work W is not shown in the drawing, the end face is scraped in the first step, and 2
The outer circumference is to be machined with other end faces in the process step.

The workpieces W having the above-mentioned shape stacked on the workpiece supporting means 56 of the workpiece stocker 11 are indexed to a fixed position, and the push-up mechanism 60 and the locking mechanism 61 of the workpiece movement operation mechanism 13 cause the workpiece automatic hand 8 to move. Waiting to be handed over. The workpiece automatic hand 8 holds the workpiece waiting on the workpiece stocker 11 side by the rotation of the locking arm 29, the vertical movement of the rack 32, and the operation of the automatic gripping mechanism (not shown) of the chuck 28.

On the other hand, in the automatic chuck hand 7, a desired chuck 28 suitable for the work W is taken out from the ACC 14. Further, in the case of the work W in the present embodiment, a tool for end face grinding is already mounted on the first machine tool 1 side.

After that, the first hand holder 5 supporting the automatic work hand 8 moves on the transfer rail 18, and the chuck 28 is mounted from the automatic chuck hand 7 into the headstock 66 of the first machine tool 1. Then, the workpiece W is gripped by the chuck 28 from the automatic workpiece hand 8. Then, the one end surface of the first step is processed.

Next, the machined work W is drawn out from the headstock 66 and delivered to the reversal delivery device 17 by the automatic work hand 8.
After inverting the work W, the inverted work W is gripped by the automatic work hand 10 of the second hand holder 6. At this point, the second automatic ACC1
The chuck 28 suitable for the work W is pulled out from 5 and is on standby. Before that, the automatic chuck hand 9 is AC
A tool necessary for cutting the end face and the outer periphery of the work W is pulled out from C16 and attached to the tool rest 68 of the second machine tool 2. The second hand holder 6 is moved along the carrying rail 18 to attach the chuck 28 from the chuck hand 9 to the headstock 67 of the second machine tool 2, and the chuck 28 is gripped by the work hand 10. The workpiece W being held is gripped.
Then, the second step is processed. After the processing is completed, the work W is taken out from the second machine tool 2 by the work hand 10 and transferred to the transfer device 19 side. While the second machine tool is performing the second process, the first machine tool is proceeding with the first process, and the work piece that has been machined in the first process is kept waiting in the reverse delivery device 17. There is. Also, while the first process is being performed on the first machine tool,
The work stocker 11 is in a standby state so that the next work is pushed up and delivered to the work automatic hand 8. If the chucks and tools are mounted on the respective machine tools in this manner, workpieces corresponding to them can be continuously and automatically machined from the raw material to the finished product.

Even if the types of workpieces are different, by mounting the chucks and tools on the respective machine tools as described above, it is possible to continuously and automatically process from the raw material to the finished product. Needless to say, the chuck 28 and the tool that have become unnecessary are returned to the first and second ACCs 14, 15 and ATC 16, respectively.

Although a very simple processing example has been described above, automatic processing of various works can be efficiently performed by this embodiment and a larger-scale apparatus similar to this. In particular, since the automatic hand for gripping the chuck or the tool and the automatic hand for the work are arranged in the same housing in close proximity to each other to enable simultaneous operation, the setup time can be extremely shortened as compared with the prior art.

[Effect of device]

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, the setup time and the processing time can be shortened, and the automatic processing can be performed, so that the production efficiency can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the entire structure of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view showing a hand holder for supporting an automatic hand of the embodiment and a part of this carrying rail, and FIG. 3 is a side view of FIG. 4 and 5 are partial cross-sectional views taken along the arrow I in FIG.
FIG. 6 is a side view of the automatic chucking hand, FIG. 6 is a front view of FIG. 5, and FIG. 7 is a top view of the reversing and delivering device of the embodiment.
FIG. 8 is a front view of FIG. 1 ... First machine tool, 2 ... Second machine tool, 5 ... First hand holder, 6 ... Second hand holder, 7,9 ... Automatic hand for chuck or tool, 8,10 ... Automatic for work hand,
11 ... Work stocker, 14 ... First automatic chuck changing device (first ACC), 15 ... Second automatic chuck changing device (second ACC), 16 ... Automatic tool changing device (ATC), 17 ... Inversion Transfer device, 18 ... Transport rail, 19 ... Transfer device, 22 ... Housing, 54 ... Elastic support mechanism, 57 ... Table, 64 ... Cam follower, 65 ... Cam groove.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. A conveyor arranged along an arrangement direction of a plurality of machine tools including a first machine tool and a second machine tool on which a chuck and a work are mounted, or a first machine tool and a second machine tool. Rails, a casing movably supported along the transport rails, an automatic work hand for gripping a workpiece, which is provided on the casing so as to be vertically movable, and vertically movable to the casing. And a chuck automatic hand provided at a position spaced apart from the work automatic hand by a predetermined distance, and provided near the work loading side of the first machine tool to store a large number of works and Moving device for indexing and positioning the work at a desired work engaging position that can be engaged with the automatic hand for storing, and storing a large number of chucks and engaging with the automatic hand for chucking. The chuck is moved and positioned to the position,
It is arranged so as to have a first chuck engaging position at a position separated from the work engaging position of the work moving device by a predetermined distance between the work automatic hand and the chuck automatic hand. And a first automatic chuck changer, which is interposed between the first machine tool and the second machine tool, receives the machined workpiece machined by the first machine tool, and changes the orientation of the workpiece. An inversion delivery device which is inverted and delivered to the next process side, and a large number of chucks of the second machine tool are housed, and the work automatic hand and the chuck are held with respect to the workpiece delivery position of the inversion delivery device. A second automatic chuck exchanging device disposed so as to have a second chuck engaging position at a position separated by a distance corresponding to a predetermined distance between the automatic hands for operation; Changer and transfer line apparatus having an automatic hand, characterized in that so as to perform the transfer operations of the workpiece from the chuck replacing work moving device and the reverse transfer device simultaneously in the second automatic changer.