JPH0792287A - Automatic inspection apparatus for cylindrical object - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the accuracy of measurement of a cylindrical object and to automatic an inspection process. CONSTITUTION:In the automatic inspection apparatus for punched and formed cylindrical objects, alignment and feed devices 11, 12 which align the objects to be inspected supplied at random to a prescribed container in a row in their axial direction and which send them out one piece by one piece, a reference- position detection device 13 which detects the positioning reference formed on the objects to be inspected while the objects are being turned around their axial line and a positioning device 16 which turns the objects around an axial line perpendicular to their axial line according to the positioning reference detected by the reference-position detection device 13 and which directs them in such a way that a reference position becomes the same position are installed. Then, size measuring devices 18, 19, 20, 21 which sequentially measure the size of every part of the objects to be inspected are installed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention measures the dimensions of each part of a cylindrical body to be inspected, such as a spacer cell for a fuel assembly,
The present invention relates to an automatic inspection device that makes a pass / fail judgment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a fuel assembly for a nuclear reactor, a spacer is used to bundle a large number of fuel rods into a bundle and to keep the intervals between the fuel rods constant. That is, this spacer is a plurality of cylindrical cells arranged in parallel with each other in a grid pattern, and they are collectively focused by a band member into a substantially square shape. The fuel rods are inserted into the respective fuel cells, and the predetermined positions of the fuel rods are held by the cells.

Incidentally, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the above spacer cell. One side wall portion of the cylindrical spacer cell 1 is provided with a slot 2 for mounting a spring member for elastically pressing a fuel rod, and Cell stops 3 for supporting the fuel rods which are elastically pressed by the above spring members are provided at both upper and lower ends.
Is provided. Further, an index notch 4 serving as a reference at the time of assembling the cell 1 is provided at one end of the cell 1. However, in such a cylindrical body provided with notches and irregularities, slight deformation and the like can be considered during its processing, and therefore it is necessary to correctly measure the dimensions of each portion at the specified position. .

Therefore, conventionally, when measuring dimensions such as the total length, outer diameter, cell stop height, etc. of these cells, they are manually measured one by one with a caliper, a micrometer, a projector or the like.

[0005]

However, in such a dimension measuring means, it takes a lot of time, and it is difficult to repeatedly measure the same position, and the measurement position and the measurement method vary from person to person. However, there are problems such as large variations in measured values.

In view of the above points, the present invention has an object to obtain a cylindrical automatic inspection device which can improve the dimension measurement accuracy and reduce the manufacturing cost by automating the inspection process. And

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an automatic inspection device for a cylindrical inspected object which has been subjected to a plurality of punching processes and molding processes, in which the inspected object randomly supplied to a predetermined container is provided. An aligning and feeding device that aligns the elements in a line in the axial direction and sends them one by one, a reference position detecting device that detects a positioning reference provided on the object to be inspected while rotating the object to be inspected around its axis, and a reference thereof. A positioning device that rotates the device under test around an axis orthogonal to its axis according to the positioning reference detected by the position detection device, and directs the reference position of each device under test to the same position, and It is characterized by having a dimension measuring device for sequentially measuring the dimensions of each part of each inspected object positioned by the positioning device, and a pass / fail judgment selection mechanism.

[0008]

Operation: Cylindrical test objects randomly supplied to a predetermined container are aligned in a line in the axial direction by the alignment supply device.
They are sent out one by one, and a positioning reference such as an index notch is detected while rotating around the rolling line at the reference position detection position. Then, in accordance with the location of the detected positioning reference, the object to be inspected is rotated around an axis perpendicular to the axis, for example, the vertical axis, and the positioning reference is moved forward or backward with respect to the predetermined direction. After that, after being sent to the position of the dimension measuring device in sequence, the posture required for inspection, that is, the posture control such as constant angle rotation, upright or inversion, is performed, and then the total length, outer diameter, and molding dimension of the inspected object. The dimensions of each part such as are automatically measured, and then pass / fail is determined by comparison calculation of the measurement data and the reference dimensions.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic construction of an embodiment of an automatic inspection device for a cylindrical object to be inspected according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof, in which reference numeral 10 is a hopper, When the cells 1 are randomly supplied to the hopper 10, the cells 1 are intermittently sent to the parts feeder 11 in an appropriate amount.

A linear feeder 12 is connected to the parts feeder 11, and a reference position detecting device 13 for detecting the index notch 4 of the spacer cell 1 is provided at the tip of the linear feeder 12. That is,
A circumferential rotation stage 1 is provided at the tip of the linear feeder 12.
4 is provided, and a reference position detector 15 for detecting the position of the index notch 4 of the cell 1 fed onto the circumferential rotation stage 14 is provided on one side of the circumferential rotation stage 14. Has been done.

A V-groove 16a capable of supporting the cell 1 is provided on the surface of the reference position detecting device 13 opposite to the linear feeder 12, and a positioning device capable of rotating forward or backward by a predetermined angle around a vertical axis. 16 are provided.

Also, on one side of the positioning device 16,
Receiving the cell 1 sent from the positioning device 16,
A V tray 17 is provided for receiving cells 1 sequentially sent out in a predetermined direction and sequentially sending them in a predetermined direction.
In the middle of the tray 17, the total length measuring device 1 is sequentially installed on its side.
8, first outer diameter measuring device 19, second outer diameter measuring device 2
0 and a cell stop height measuring device 21 are arranged, and the pass / fail selection stage 2 is provided at the end of the V tray 17.
Two are provided. On the other hand, on the upstream side of the total length measuring device 18, the first outer diameter measuring device 19, and the second outer diameter measuring device 20, circumferential rotation stages 23a, 23 are respectively provided.
b and 23c are provided, and a circumferential rotation stage 23d is provided at a cell stop height measuring position where the cell stop height measuring device 21 is provided.

By the way, as shown in FIG. 2, an intermittent feeding device 24 for intermittently feeding the spacer cells 1 one by one is provided on one side of the linear feeder 12 and the reference position detecting device 13, and the positioning device 16 is provided. A pusher 25 that pushes out the positioned spacer cell 1 onto the V-tray 17 is provided on one side. Further, an intermittent feeding device 26 for intermittently feeding the spacer cells 1 to each measuring device is also provided on one side of the V tray 17, and the pass / fail selection stage 2 is further provided.
2 is provided with a pusher 28 that discharges the rejected product to the reject chute 27. In the figure, reference numeral 29 is a passing product chute 29.

When the spacer cells 1 are aligned in a row by the parts feeder 11 and fed to the linear feeder 12, the spacer cells 1 in a row are sequentially placed on the circumferential rotary stage 14 by the intermittent feeding device 24. The reference position detector 15 detects by an optical means whether the index notch 4 provided in the spacer cell 1 is in front of or behind the cell traveling direction. To be done. Then, when the detection work is finished, the sheet is sent to the positioning device 16.

When the spacer cell 1 of which the position of the index notch 4 is detected is placed on the V groove 16a of the positioning device 16 in this way, the positioning device 16 moves according to the position of the index notch 4. Forward or reverse, for example, the index notch 4 is set rearward with respect to the cell traveling direction, and the pusher pusher 25
Is sent to the V tray 17.

The spacer cells 1 delivered onto the V tray 17 are sequentially delivered by the intermittent feeding device 26 onto the circumferential rotary stage 23a, where the measuring posture required for the measurement by the full length measuring device 18 is obtained. After being rotated around the axis and positioned in the circumferential direction, the total length is measured by the non-contact type total length measuring device 18 in the above-mentioned total length measuring region.

When the full length measurement is performed in this way,
After the positioning is sequentially performed by the circumferential rotation stages 23b and 23c so as to have a predetermined posture, the outer diameters of the non-contact type first outer diameter measuring device 19 and second outer diameter measuring device 20 are measured. Is measured. After that, it is transferred to the cell stop height measurement area, where the height of the cell stop is measured,
It is sent to the pass / fail selection stage 22.

When the spacer cell 1 thus measured is sent out to the pass / fail screening stage 22, if the measured data has passed the reference dimension, it is discharged to the pass chute 29 and the measurement item If even one fails, it is discharged to the rejected product chute 27 by the pusher 28.

In this way, it is possible to automatically select and take out only those in which each dimension has passed the reference dimension.

Although the index notch 4 is detected by the optical means in the above embodiment, it may be detected by mechanical means, and the full length measuring device, the outer diameter measuring device and the cell stop height measuring device are contact type. , Non-contact type does not matter.

[0022]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it is possible to completely automatically inspect a cylindrical object to be inspected, such as a spacer cell having a notch as an inspection reference. It is possible to eliminate individual differences among measurers and variations in measured values in repeated measurement, improve measurement accuracy, and significantly reduce the number of man-hours for measuring the dimensions of the object to be inspected.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of an automatic inspection device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the above inspection device.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a spacer cell.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Spacer Cell 4 Index Notch 10 Hopper 11 Parts Feeder 12 Straight Feeder 13 Reference Position Detection Device 14, 23a, 23b, 23c, 23d Circumferential Rotation Stage 15 Reference Position Detector 16 Positioning Device 17 V-Tray 18 Full Length Measuring Device 19th 1 outer diameter measuring device 20 second outer diameter measuring device 21 cell stop height measuring device 22 pass / fail screening stage

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Keiji Suzuki, Inventor Keiji Suzuki, 3-1, Kawa 2-chome, Yokosuka City, Kanagawa Nihon Clear Yufuru Co., Ltd. (72) Kenji Iwai, Yokaichi, Chiba Prefecture Midori Flat 12 6 Tokyo Stock Engineering Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An automatic inspecting device for a cylindrical inspected object, which has been subjected to a plurality of punching processes and molding processes, wherein the inspected object randomly supplied to a predetermined container is aligned in a line in the axial direction. An aligning and feeding device for feeding one by one, a reference position detecting device for detecting a positioning reference provided on the inspected object while rotating the inspected object around its axis, and a positioning detected by the reference position detecting device. A positioning device that rotates the object to be inspected around an axis orthogonal to its axis according to a reference and directs the objects to be inspected so that the reference positions of the objects are the same, and the objects to be positioned by the positioning device. An automatic inspection device for a cylindrical object to be inspected, comprising a size measuring device for sequentially measuring the size of each part of the inspection object and a pass / fail judgment selection mechanism.