JPH07308841A - Automatic tool exchanger - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a swing arm type ATC device incorporating a lock member for a tool gripping member attached to a swing arm, which can relax the limitation to the movement of a machining head so that machining having a large movement of the machining head for machining an elongated hole or the like can be made with the use of existing devices without requiring a long time and heavy labor for exchanging tools. CONSTITUTION:A dot 6A on the machine tool side abuts against a lock member 10 for a tool gripping member 9 provided on a swing arm 8, and is movable between an engaging position where it can abut against the lock member 10 for the tool gripping member, and a position where the dog 6 cannot abut against the lock member 10 and is retracted from a workpiece 3. Further, the dog 6A is moved between the engaging position to the retracted position by an actuator 19.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic tool changing device (hereinafter referred to as an ATC device) for sequentially and automatically changing necessary tools for a spindle of a machine tool, and more particularly to a drilling arm for a construction machine. In a type ATC device, the present invention relates to a dog mounting structure for releasing a grip lock of a tool gripped by an arm.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 6 (A) is a plan view showing a conventional arm type ATC device, FIG. 6 (B) is a front view thereof, and FIG. 7 is a side view thereof. In FIGS. 6 and 7, reference numeral 2 denotes a machining head having a spindle 5 for mounting the tool 4 on its front surface, and the machining head 2 is movably attached to the upper surface of a machining head feed base 7. Reference numeral 12 is a table on which a workpiece 3 (in this example, a shoe of a crawler used for a traveling body of a construction machine) is set, and the table 12 is installed in front of the machining head feed base 7. There is. Reference numeral 11 denotes a tool delivery device installed beside the machining head feed base 7,
The tool delivery device 11 includes a swing arm 8 rotatably mounted around a shaft 11a, and the swing arm 8 allows the tool magazine 13 and the spindle 5 of the machining head 2 to be rotated.
The tool 4 (in this example, a drill for cutting the pin hole 3a provided on the shoe 3 into a smooth surface) is delivered between the tool and the tool.

FIG. 8 (A) is an enlarged sectional view showing the swing arm 8, FIG. 8 (B) is a sectional view taken along line EE of FIG. 8 (A) with the tool gripping member 9 locked, and FIG. 8 (C) is. It is an EE sectional view of (A) shown in the state where the lock was released. In FIG. 8, 8g is a pivotal hole into which the shaft 11a of the tool delivery device 11 is fitted, 9 is a body 8a of the swing arm 8 so that the tip 9a projects into the concave grip portion 8c at the tip of the swing arm 8. A plate-shaped tool gripping member slidably fitted in the provided groove 8b, and the tool gripping member 9 is the coil spring 2
It is urged in the protruding direction by 2. Reference numeral 10 denotes a pin-shaped lock member that locks the tool gripping member 9. The lock member 10 has heads in holes 8d and 8f formed in the main body 8a in a direction perpendicular to the groove 8b and having different diameters. 10a and the shaft portion 10b are slidably fitted, and the shaft portion 10b is projected from the hole 8f by the coil spring 23 provided between the upper surface of the head portion 10a and the spring bearing member 8e. Being energized.

In the locked state shown in FIG. 8A and the solid line in FIG. 8B, the head 10a of the lock member 10 is in contact with the corner 9b on the tail end side of the tool gripping member 9, and the tool gripping is performed. The member 9 is fixed in the projecting position shown in FIG.
As shown in (C), when the shaft portion 10b of the lock member 10 comes into contact with the dog 6 and is pushed against the coil spring 23 by the dog 6, the head portion 10a moves from the corner portion 9b of the tool gripping member 9. When the tool gripping member 9 is disengaged and is in the unlocked state in which the tool gripping member 9 is movable in the direction of arrow S shown in FIG. 8A, and a force larger than the spring force of the coil spring 22 is applied to the tool gripping member 9, Immerse yourself inside.

In the unlocked state shown in FIG. 8C, the gripping member 9 is pushed against the coil spring 22 by pushing the tool 4 into the tool gripping portion 8c in a direction perpendicular to the axis. When the tool 4 escapes and fits in the tool grip portion 8c, the tool grip member 9 is pushed out by the coil spring 22 and grips the tool 4. Further, in the unlocked state shown in FIG. 8C, the tool 4 is fitted into the tool gripping portion 8c,
When the swing arm 8 is rotated while being held by the holding member 9 and attached to the main shaft 5, the holding member 9 is pushed by the tool 4 and the tool 4 can be removed from the tool holding portion 8c.

In the apparatus shown in FIGS. 6 to 8, when the tool 4 is attached to or detached from the tool magazine 13 on the spindle 5 of the machining head 2, the spindle 5 is retracted as shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 6A. It is done in a closed position. Then, as shown in FIG. 6 (B), first, the tool magazine 13 is rotated so that the tool 4 to be mounted on the spindle 5 is circular orbit T of the concave tool gripping portions 8c provided at both ends of the swing arm 8. Position it at the top (position a). Then, the swing arm 8 is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise from the position shown in the drawing to bring the tool gripping portion 8c into contact with the tool 4 set in the tool magazine 13 (at this time,
The lock member 10 is retracted and the lock of the tool gripping member is released by a dog (not shown) on the tool magazine 13 side), and the tool gripping member 9 holds the tool 4 on the tool magazine 13 in the tool gripping portion 8c of the swing arm 8. The swing arm 8 is gripped and moved forward in the axial direction by a predetermined distance. As a result, the lock member 10 is separated from the dog on the tool magazine 13 side, so that the lock is applied. Then, the swing arm 8 is rotated 180 degrees to position the tool 4 in front of the tip portion 5a. In this state, the swing arm 8 is retracted by a predetermined distance, and the tool 4 is automatically attached to the spindle 5. At this time, the lock member 10 comes into contact with the dog 6 and the lock member 10 is retracted, and the lock of the gripping member 9 is released. Then, the swing arm 8 is rotated 90 degrees clockwise and returned to the original position.

As can be seen from the above description, the tool gripping member 9 is locked by the lock member 10 while the swing arm 8 is moving between the tool magazine 13 and the machining head 2. The reason for locking the tool gripping member 9 in this way is that when the swing arm 8 is moved at a high speed between the tool magazine 13 and the spindle 5 of the machining head 2, the tool 4 falls off the swing arm 8 due to centrifugal force or the like. This is to prevent this. However, when the tool 4 is attached / detached to / from the set position of the spindle 5 or the magazine 13, it is necessary to unlock the gripping member 9, so that the shaft portion 10b of the lock member 10 is pushed to release the fixing of the tool gripping member 9. The dog 6 is provided in the.

[0008]

However, when the above ATC device is used, the dog 6 is fixed to the front surface of the processing head 2 so as to be protruded and fixed, so that when the long pin hole 3a is processed. Since the movement amount of the processing head 2 becomes large and the dog 6 interferes with the workpiece 3, the long pin hole 3a cannot be processed. In order to prevent such interference and enable machining of the long pin hole 3a, it is conceivable to perform hole machining using a long tool (drill) 4, but when the tool 4 becomes long, the tip side of the tool 4 Vibration amplitude becomes large, which prevents precise machining. For this reason, when the length of the pin hole 3a becomes long, the ATC device having the automatic tool changing function using the dock 6 cannot be used, and when the long pin hole 3a is machined, the manual operation is required. Therefore, another machine tool having a method of exchanging tools has to be used, and therefore, there has been a problem that it takes a lot of time and labor for exchanging tools when machining the long pin hole 3a.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention reduces the restriction on the amount of movement of the machining head, and performs many machining operations such as long hole machining in which the movement amount of the machining head is large, by exchanging tools using existing equipment. It is an object of the present invention to provide an ATC device that can be performed without time and labor.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention comprises a swing arm for attaching and detaching a tool between a tool magazine and a spindle of a machine tool, the swing arm comprising a tool gripping member. It has a lock member for a tool gripping member that prevents the tool from falling off, and when the swing arm is at a position where the tool is attached to and detached from the spindle, the lock member comes into contact with an unlocking dog provided on the machine tool side to grip the tool. In an automatic tool changer having a structure for unlocking a member, the dog cannot be brought into contact with the lock member from an engagement position where it can be brought into contact with the tool gripping member lock member, and the workpiece Is provided so as to be movable over a position in which the dog is retracted, and an actuator for moving the dog between the engagement position and the retracted position is provided. To. In the present invention, an engaging position detecting means and a retracting position detecting means for respectively detecting that the dog is at the engaging position with the lock member and the retracting position, and the dog is provided between the engaging position and the retracting position. An actuator control means for controlling the actuator to be moved and a tool change start signal from the main body of the automatic tool changer are used to refer to the detection signals from the engagement position detection means and the retreat position detection means to operate the actuator control means. And a dog control means for transmitting a control signal for use.

[0011]

Since the present invention has the above-described structure, when the tool is attached to or detached from the spindle by the swing arm, the dog is moved to the engaging position for releasing the tool grip lock of the swing arm, and the tool attached to the spindle is used. When processing the workpiece, the dog is moved to the retracted position.

[0012]

1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of an ATC device according to the present invention, FIG. 1 (B) is a front view thereof, and FIG.
(A) is a side view thereof, and (B) is a plan view showing a state of the tool exchange. In FIGS. 1 and 2, the same reference numerals as those in FIGS. 6 to 8 indicate parts or portions having an equivalent function. In this example, instead of the conventional dog 6, the dog 6A moved by the dog moving device 1 is replaced by the processing head 2
Is provided at the front end of the upper surface of the.

FIG. 3A is a plan view of the dog moving device 1, FIG. 3B is a front view thereof, and FIG. 3C is a side view thereof. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 20 denotes an L-shaped bracket, and the bracket 20 is fixed to the upper surface of the processing head 2 by a bolt. Reference numeral 19 denotes a hydraulic cylinder provided as a means for moving the dog 6A. The hydraulic cylinder 19 has a rod protruding side flange 19a of its tube bolted to a vertical plate portion of the bracket 20 and a vertical plate of the bracket 20. A rod 19a is inserted into a hole 20a provided in the portion and is projected forward and attached to the bracket 20. The plate 1 is attached to the tip of the rod 19a.
6 is fixed and a dog 6A is fixed on the front surface of the plate 16, and the dog 6A is configured to move in the front-rear direction when the hydraulic cylinder 19 expands and contracts. Further, the pair of guide shafts 1 is provided on the left and right of the connecting portion of the plate 16 with the rod 19a so as to project to the back.
5 and 15 are fixed, and these guide shafts 1
Holes 5 and 15 provided on the left and right of the bracket 20
It is slidably fitted to b and 20b to prevent the dog 6A from meandering during movement.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3 (A), the hydraulic cylinder 19 includes a limit switch 17 (hereinafter referred to as LS17) which operates at the extended position of the rod and a limit switch 18 (which operates at the contracted position of the rod). Below LS1
8) is provided, and the guide shafts 15, 15 are provided with dogs 15a, 15b for operating them.

As shown in the plan view of FIG. 2B, in this example, the tool 4 is transferred from the tool magazine 13 to the spindle 5 of the machining head 2 in the same manner as in the conventional example, and the tip portion of the spindle 5 is transferred. The machining head 2 is retracted so that the position of 5a is behind the rear surface of the arm 8, and the hydraulic cylinder 1
9 is extended to move the dog 6A forward to the forward end. Then, in the same manner as described above, after the tool holding portion 8c of the swing arm 8 holds the tool 4 by the tool magazine 13, the swing arm 8 is moved forward in the axial direction by a predetermined distance, and the swing arm 8 is rotated by 180 degrees. When 8 is retracted in the axial direction by a predetermined distance, the shaft 6b of the lock member 10 is pushed by the dog 6A to unlock the tool gripping member 9, and the tool 4 is mounted on the spindle 5. After mounting the tool 4, the hydraulic cylinder 19 of the dog moving device 1 is contracted to retract the dog 6A to the retracted end.
As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2A, the spindle 5 is rotated and the machining head 2 is advanced to machine the workpiece 3 on the table 12.

As described above, after the dog 6A is advanced to the forward end and the tool 4 is mounted on the spindle 5, the dog 6A is retracted and retracted. Therefore, at the time of machining, the tip of the dog 6A and the workpiece 3 are The interval is larger than that of the conventional fixed dog 6, and the forward movement amount of the processing head 2 can be increased. Therefore, when the coupling pin hole 3a of the crawler shoe is machined, it is possible to machine a hole longer than the conventional one by the movement amount of the dog 6A.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a portion added to the conventional ATC device in the embodiment. 31
Is an automatic tool changer body composed of the machine tool CPU, the tool magazine 13, the tool delivery device 11 and the like. As described above, the automatic tool changer body 31 replaces the tool 4 according to the machining content. Is done. Reference numeral 32 is a command signal generating means including a control panel or a keyboard for issuing a command signal to the automatic tool changer main body 31 by a manual operation. The dog control means 30 is a machine tool C.
It is built in the PU, or provided by being added to the CPU, and is realized by adding an interface.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of FIG. 4. When the tool change operation is started, a tool change start signal is issued from the automatic tool changer main body 31 to the dog control means 30 at the same time (S1), An actuator operation control signal (control valve switching signal) is issued from the dog control means 30 to the actuator control means 33 (in this example, a control valve provided in the pipe between the hydraulic cylinder 19 and the hydraulic power source). Then, the actuator 34 (in the present example, the hydraulic cylinder 19) that moves the dog 6A by the actuator control means 33 operates (the hydraulic cylinder 19 extends) to move the dog 6A forward. Further, the forward end position of the dog 6A is detected by the engagement position detection means 35 (in this example, the LS17 provided in the hydraulic cylinder 19), and when this detection signal is input to the dog control means 30, the dog control is performed. Means 30
An actuator stop command signal is sent to the actuator control means 33 to stop the dog 6A (S2). At the same time, the automatic tool changer body 31 starts a series of ATC operations. Then, when the tool 4 is mounted on the spindle 5 and the ATC operation completion signal is output from the automatic tool changer body 31 as described above (S3), the dog control means 30 instructs the actuator control means 33 to operate the actuator. Signal (control valve switching signal) is sent, whereby the hydraulic cylinder 19 contracts and the dog 6A retracts, the LS18 operates at the retracted end (retracted position), and the dog control means 30 retracts from the LS18. Upon receiving the position detection signal, an actuator stop command signal is sent to the actuator control means 33 to stop the dog 6A (S
4). Then, the automatic tool changer main body 31 outputs an ATC all-operation completion signal (S5), and thereafter, machining with the tool 4 is performed. Similarly, when the tool 4 is removed from the spindle 5, the dog 6A is automatically moved back and forth by a signal from the main body 31. The tool 4 can also be attached to and detached from the spindle by inputting a tool exchange command from the command signal generation means 32 to the automatic tool changer body 31.

In this way, the movement start and stop of the dog 6A are automatically controlled, and the operation of the dog 6A and a series of tool exchanging operations and machining are controlled by the automatic tool exchanging device main body 31 and interlocked with each other. Since it is performed, the dog 6A can be automatically moved between the engaging position and the retracted position, and the labor of the operator can be reduced.

In the above embodiment, the dog 6A between the engagement position and the retracted position is moved forward and backward by the hydraulic cylinder 19 in the front-rear direction. Alternatively, another fluid pressure cylinder, hydraulic pressure, or electric motor may be used. Further, the dog 6A may be moved in a left-right direction, a vertical direction, or by turning, and the present invention can also be applied to face cutting, milling and the like.

[0021]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the tool is attached to or detached from the spindle by the swing arm, the dog is moved to the engaging position for releasing the tool grip lock, and the workpiece is machined by the tool attached to the spindle. At that time, since the dog was moved to a position retracted from the work piece,
The distance between the tip of the dog and the workpiece can be made larger than in the conventional case, and the movement amount of the processing head to the workpiece can be increased. Therefore, for example, in the case of a pin hole for connection of a crawler shoe, it becomes possible to process an elongated hole by using an existing device, the application is expanded, and economical efficiency is achieved. Further, since it is not necessary to use a machine tool that requires manual replacement for the long hole machining, the time and labor for tool replacement can be greatly reduced.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the movement start and stop of the dog are automatically controlled, and the operation of the dog and a series of tool changing operations are controlled by the control signal generating means to be interlocked with each other. Therefore, the dog can be continuously and automatically moved between the engaging position and the retracted position,
The labor of the operator can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A is a plan view showing an embodiment of an ATC device according to the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a front view thereof.

FIG. 2A is a side view of the embodiment, and FIG. 2B is a plan view showing a state when the tool is changed.

FIG. 3A is a plan view of a dog moving device of the embodiment,
(B) is the front view, (C) is the side view.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a portion added to an ATC device in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a dog moving operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 6A is a plan view showing a conventional arm type ATC device, and FIG. 6B is a front view thereof.

FIG. 7 is a side view showing a conventional arm type ATC device.

8A is an enlarged sectional view showing a swing arm, FIG. 8B is a sectional view taken along line EE of FIG. 8A showing a state where a tool holding member is locked, and FIG. FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along line EE in (A) shown in a state where the lock is released.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Dog moving device, 2: Processing head, 3: Work piece,
4: Tool, 5: Spindle, 6A: Dog, 7: Machining head feed table, 8: Swing arm, 9: Tool gripping member, 10:
Lock member, 11: Tool delivery device, 12: Table,
13: Tool magazine, 17, 18: Limit switch,
19: Hydraulic cylinder

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A swing arm for attaching and detaching a tool between a tool magazine and a spindle of a machine tool, the swing arm having a tool gripping member lock member for preventing the tool from falling off by the tool gripping member, In an automatic tool changer having a structure in which when the swing arm is at a position where a tool is attached to or detached from a spindle, the lock member comes into contact with an unlocking dog provided on the machine tool side to unlock the tool gripping member. A dog is provided so as to be movable from an engagement position where it can abut the tool gripping member lock member to a position where it cannot abut the lock member and where the dog is retracted from the workpiece, An automatic tool changer comprising an actuator for moving a dog between the engagement position and the retracted position. 2. The engagement position detecting means and the retracted position detecting means for respectively detecting that the dog is in the engagement position with the lock member and the retracted position, and the actuator control means for controlling the actuator. And the tool change start signal from the main body of the automatic tool changer
An automatic tool changer comprising: dog control means for sending an actuator operation control signal to the actuator control means by referring to detection signals from the engagement position detection means and the retracted position detection means.