JPH08178859A - Needle automatic inspection device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To prevent an inspection mistake from occurring, and at the same time, save the man-power for an inspection operation by automatically and rapidly performing inspection. CONSTITUTION: A camera 5 for shooting a number of needles 10 erected at a needle pate 11 to be used for needling one by one, is provided at a head 3 of a three-axis rectangular coordinate robot 2. A projection plate 6 for making the image clear and a needle detection sensor 7 for detecting the needles, and a stroboscope 8 are further mounted to the head 3. The head is successively moved for every one row in X direction and the image pick-up direction of camera is changed by a rotary device 4, the image of the needle is picked up for both X and Y direction, the needle shade at the tip is subjected to image processing, and bending, breaking, and tip defect are compared with tolerances, thus detecting faulty needles.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic needle needle inspection device, and more particularly to a needle for inspecting a needle needle implanted in a needle plate used for needling during the production of needle felts and other non-woven fabrics for defects. Automatic needle inspection device

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, a needle felt used in a paper machine for papermaking needs a bat fiber obtained by folding a web of wool or synthetic fiber on an endless belt-like base fabric and flocking it in multiple layers. It is manufactured by A needle punched nonwoven fabric is also produced by similarly needling the web. The needling is the most important step in the manufacturing process of felts and nonwoven fabrics, and the quality (surface property, water squeezing property, strength) of the product is greatly affected by the quality of the needling needle.

Conventionally, the needle needle is inspected manually, and the operation requires skill. 1
For example, 900 to 2600 needle needles are implanted in a single needle plate, and there are various types in the needle plate, such as size, type of needle needle, needle needle implantation pattern and density. Since the needles are inspected one by one, the individual accuracy (experience and feeling) of the inspector greatly affects the inspection accuracy. Further, since needling is performed by the needle plate in which the inspection error occurs, the quality of the product is impaired, and therefore it is necessary to sufficiently perform the inspection, which causes a problem that the inspection process becomes complicated.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above problems of the prior art, a main object of the present invention is to provide an automatic needle needle inspection device capable of preventing the occurrence of inspection errors and saving the inspection work. Especially.

[0005]

According to the present invention, such a purpose is to fix a needle plate in which a large number of needle needles are planted one by one for needling batt fibers on a base fabric. Bed and a needle plate of the needle plate fixed to the bed, the needle needles are supported by a movable body that can move over the entire surface of the needle plate and photograph the needle needles one by one. A camera and a projection plate arranged so as to face each other, a positioning means for positioning the moving body in correspondence with each of the needle needles, and a needle detection sensor capable of detecting the needle needles. A photographing direction changing means for changing the orientations of the camera and the projection plate so as to photograph from two different directions with respect to the needle needle; and the knee by processing the silhouette photographed by the camera. It is achieved by providing a needle needle automatic inspection apparatus characterized by comprising an imaging processing unit for determining a faulty needle needle with a crease, bend, the needle tip of the defect Le needles. In particular, the camera is provided at a position separated from the protruding side of the needle needle,
It is preferable that the projection plate can be moved back and forth between the plurality of needles. Further, it is preferable to have a needle pushing jig for removably pushing the defective needle needle determined by the imaging processing means from the needle plate.

[0006]

In this way, the moving body is moved along the needle plate as in the initial setting, the needle needles are photographed by the camera from two directions one by one, and the image pickup is judged by the image pickup processing means, It can detect defective needles with folds, bends, and needle tip defects, and can automate needle needle inspection, and also provides a projecting plate that can move forward and backward between needle needles, and moves to capture the next needle needle. A clear image can be obtained for each needle by retracting the projection plate from between the needles when moving the body and advancing between the needles during imaging. Further, by providing a needle pushing jig for pushing out the defective needle needle determined by the imaging processing means, the defective needle needle can be automatically extracted continuously after the inspection.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view of an automatic needle needle inspection apparatus to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a side view taken along the line II in FIG. As shown in the figure, a three-axis Cartesian coordinate robot 2 is installed on a horizontally long bed 1,
The robot 2 is integrally provided with a head 3 as a moving body. A rotating device 4 which is rotatable around a horizontal plane is attached to the head 3 as a photographing direction changing means. The rotating device 4 has a CCD camera 5, a projection plate 6, a strobe 8, and a needle pushing jig 9. And are attached via the same bracket. A needle detection sensor 7 and an air blow jig 20 are attached to the head 3 via a fixed bracket.

On the bed 1, there is a needle needle 10 to be inspected.
The needle plate 11, which is formed by planting the above into a plate material, is placed. Needle plate 11
Depending on the size, for example, 900 to 2 per sheet
600 needle needles 10 are implanted. A needle plate 11 formed by implanting a large number of needle needles 10 in a plate material in this way
For example, 5 to 11 sheets are mounted side by side on a needle punching machine (not shown), and the batt fibers and webs placed on the base fabric are needling to manufacture a felt.

In order to position and fix the needle plate 11, a fixed guide rail 12a fixed to the bed 1 and a fixed guide rail 12a fixed to the bed 1 are provided on the upper surface of the bed 1 so as to be parallel to and close to and away from each other. Movable guide rail 12b
And the reference block 13 fixed to the fixed guide rail 12a are arranged, and the movable guide rail 12b of the bed 1 is provided.
A needle plate positioning jig 14 and a needle plate pressing clamp 15 are disposed on the side of the.

The robot 2 is driven and controlled by the control unit 16, and the image processing apparatus 17 as an image processing means connected to the control unit 16 inspects the needle needle 10 based on the image pickup signal input from the camera 5. Done. Further, the image processing device 17 has a display 18
Is connected so that the operator can visually check it.

Each of the guide rails 12a and 12b is formed with an L-shaped groove formed by cutting off the inner corners facing each other, and the needle plate is hung between the L-shaped groove portions. 11 are supported. As shown in FIG. 3, the needle plate 11 is positioned by being pressed against the reference block 13 in the X direction (long side direction of the needle plate 11) and in the Y direction (short side direction of the needle plate 11). ) Is positioned by rotating a bolt-shaped needle plate positioning jig 14 provided on the movable guide rail 12b side to advance and retreat. Then, the needle plates 11 are positioned and fixed on the bed 1 by being clamped by the needle plate pressing clamps 15 provided in an appropriate number along the guide rails 12a and 12b.

The above-mentioned camera 5 for inspecting each needle 10 of the needle plate 11 fixed on the bed 1.
Is slightly separated on the projecting side of the needle needle 10 as shown in FIG. 1 so as not to interfere with the needle needle 10 when the head 3 is moved to sequentially photograph the needle needle 10, and thus the needle needle 10 The camera is fixed so that you can shoot from diagonally above.

The projection plate 6 is made of a plate material made of a semi-transparent material having a white turbid color, and has a needle needle 10 to be photographed with respect to the camera 5.
1 is located behind the needle needle 10 so as to intervene between them, and is indicated by an arrow A in FIG. 1 so as not to interfere with the needle needle 10 when the head 3 is moved as described above. Actuator 6 that can move up and down like
driven by a. The strobe 8 is arranged on the rear side of the needle 10 of the projection plate 6, and when the strobe 8 is made to emit light and hits the projection plate 6 at the time of photographing, the projection plate 6
Light diffuses inside, and the entire projection plate 6 becomes white.

The CPU 19 stores the coordinates of each needle needle 10 for each kind of needle plate. Based on the coordinates, the control unit 16 issues an instruction to the robot 2 to set the X-axis.
The head 3 moves in the Y-axis and Z-axis directions. Needle detection sensor 7
May be a reflective or transmissive photoelectric sensor, and detects the needle needle 10 during the Y-direction inspection of the needle needle,
The timing for shooting the strobe 8 and the camera 5 is determined. Further, at the time of inspection in the X-axis direction, an operation of raising the projection plate 6 after the image pickup by the camera 5 is added. The positioning means is configured in this manner.

The X-direction inspection of the needle needle 10 is performed by the head 3
1 in the state shown in FIG. 1, the camera 5 is directed in the X direction, and in the Y direction inspection, the head 3 is directed in the Y direction with the head 3 shown in the phantom line in FIG. Move and do. By causing the strobe 8 to emit light to the needle needle 10 to be inspected, the needle needle 1 is attached to the projection plate 6.
Since the shadow of 0 appears as a silhouette, the shadow is captured by the camera 5.

Regarding the Y-direction inspection of the needle needle 10,
With the movement of the head 3 in the X direction, the needle detection sensor 7 detects the position of the needle needle 10, and the strobe 8 emits light.
The camera 5 shoots. For the X-direction inspection of the needle needle 10, three units of the camera 5, the strobe 8 and the projection plate 6 mounted on the bracket are rotated by the rotating device 4.
Rotate it once and take a picture in the same way. When the head 3 moves in the X direction, the projection plate 6 is moved up and down so as to avoid interference with the needle needle 10, and when the projection plate 6 descends, the strobe 8 emits light and the camera 5 shoots. By detecting the position of the needle needle 10 by the needle detection sensor 7, the projection plate 6 can be raised so as not to contact the photographed needle 10, and can be lowered before the next needle needle 10, and the next needle needle 10 can be lowered. The needle 10 is similarly photographed.

An inspection procedure of the needle needle photographed as described above will be shown below with reference to FIG. 4 showing an image on the display 18. As shown in FIG. 4, in the image processing apparatus 17, the needle shadow 10a on the tip portion of the needle needle 10 is inspected to determine whether it is good or bad. Judgment is needle shadow 10a
Centering on the tip of each dimension measurement window W shown by the imaginary line in the figure
1 to W11 (W3 is further subdivided) and a dimension measurement window over the entire screen (not shown) is used to measure the dimensions at 20 locations and compare them with the preset allowable values. It can be determined in units of several tens of μm.

The classification of the defective needles is roughly divided into (1) needle bending, (2) needle bending, and (3) needle tip defect, and (3) needle tip defect: Furthermore, (a) inclination angle to the left and right, (b) needle width (thickness), (c) bend, (d)
The items are classified into (a) to (f) of edge, (e) wear, and (f) internal flaw. Each of the photographed needle needles 10 is compared with preset allowable values for all of the above items, and if even one item is outside the allowable values, it is determined as a defective needle. Defective needles are ranked in three stages according to the type of defective item, and the result is displayed on the display 18 as a monitor.

The defective needle is punched by the needle pushing jig 9 so that the rear end portion of the defective needle protrudes from the bottom surface of the needle plate 11 by about 5 mm. As shown in FIG. 5, the needle pushing jig 9 is composed of a cylinder driving portion 9a supported by the bracket and a jig portion 9b having a bifurcated fork shape driven by the cylinder driving portion 9a. By lowering the jig portion 9b, the forked tip of the jig portion 9b engages with the middle portion of the needle needle 10, and the needle needle 10 can be pushed in the axial direction.

In this apparatus, the movable guide rail 12b can be brought into contact with and separated from the fixed guide rail 12a, and each needle plate pressing clamp 15 is made of several kinds of needle plates to be inspected. It is irregularly installed in advance along each of the guide rails 12a and 12b according to the size in the longitudinal direction. As a result, the needle plates having different sizes in both the longitudinal and lateral directions can be reliably fixed to the bed 1. By pressing the clamp switch in the manual mode of the control panel, the clamp jig on the fixed guide rail 12a side of the needle plate pressing clamp 15 projects forward and is crimped to the needle plate 11, and the clamp jig on the movable guide rail 12b side is pressed. 90
The needle plate 11 is rotated once and is crimped. These operations are automatically performed, and all the clamp jigs simultaneously perform the crimping operation.
Even when the needle plate 11 is removed from the bed 1 after the inspection is completed, the clamp jig on the fixed guide rail 12a side is retracted and the clamp jig on the movable guide rail 12b side is rotated by 90 degrees just by pressing the clamp switch. Withdrawal, these operations are also performed automatically.

Next, the operating procedure of the automatic inspection will be described. When a start button for starting inspection on an operation panel (not shown) connected to the control unit 16 is pressed, a needle plate selection screen appears on the monitor of the display 18. When the type of needle plate is selected by operating the touch panel under the monitor and the enter button is pressed, the needle needle 10 is positioned at this point and then the needle type selection screen is displayed. The same operation is performed thereafter, and the inspection start is determined on the final inspection start determination screen, whereby the head 3 starts to move from the origin and the inspection is started. If the inspection start is denied on the inspection start determination screen, the head 3 does not operate, and the control unit 16 returns to the state before pressing the start button. Since this series of operations is performed in an interactive manner while watching the monitor display on the display 18, it is effective in preventing accidental malfunction.

When the inspection is started, the head 3 moves according to the coordinates instructed to the robot 2 by the control unit 16 and moves along the X axis.
While moving in the axial direction, Y of the needle needle 10 in the first row
Inspect in the axial direction. As described above, when the needle detection sensor 7 detects the needle needle 10, the strobe 8 is caused to emit light and the camera 5 takes an image. When the inspection of the needle needles 10 in the first row in the Y-axis direction ends, the head 3 once returns to the origin direction, reads the distance in the Y-axis direction from the coordinate table, restarts, and restarts the Y-row in the second row. Perform an axial inspection. Similarly, the Y-axis inspection of each row is repeated until the final row, and when the inspection of the final row in the Y-axis direction is completed, the head 3 stops, and the four units of the camera 5, strobe 8, projecting plate 6 and needle pushing jig 9 are , Is rotated by 90 degrees by a rotating device and then moves toward the origin. In the X-axis direction inspection, the projection plate 6 is lowered in front of the first needle needle 10 in the first row according to the coordinate table, and when the needle detection sensor 7 detects the needle needle 10, the strobe 8 is caused to emit light and the camera 5 moves.
To shoot. Then, the projection plate 6 is raised, the projection plate 6 is lowered again before the next needle needle 10, and the same photographing is performed. When the X-axis direction inspection of the first row is completed, the head 3 returns to the origin direction as in the Y-axis direction inspection, and the second row / third row
When it is inspected as the second row and the inspection of the final row in the X-axis direction is completed, the head 3 returns to the origin and temporarily stops. In addition, since the imaging process of the needle needle 10 is performed in units of several tens of μm, dust is removed before the inspection in this device. However, even during the inspection, air is blown by the air blow jig 20 described above and the needle is discharged. The dust attached to the needle 10 is surely removed.

The head 3 returned to the origin is the control unit 1
Upon receipt of a signal from the robot 6 indicating that the inspection is completed, the robot 2 is stopped. The start button on the control panel is provided with two modes, an inspection mode and a punching mode (pushing out a defective needle). Normally, two buttons are pressed, but if only the start button for the inspection mode is pressed, The inspection ends in the stopped state. If the start button for the punching mode is also pressed, the control unit 1
6 sends a signal for starting punching to the robot 2 and instructs the coordinates of the defective needle stored in the CPU 19,
The head 3 is moved to the coordinates of the defective needle, and the needle pushing jig 9 performs punching. As for the operation of the head 3, when there are a plurality of defective needles in the same row, a punching operation is performed one by one from the origin side, and when completed, the head 3 returns once to the origin direction and moves to the row with the next defective needle, The same operation is performed for that column. When the punching of all the defective needles is completed, the head 3 returns to the origin and stops. A series of operations from the inspection to the punching are all performed by the control unit 16 in a fully automatic operation.

As a safety mechanism during automatic operation, one emergency stop button is installed on the control panel and two emergency stop buttons are installed on the movable guide rail 12b side of the bed 1 of the main body. In addition, as a protection mechanism of the inspection device, a small current is constantly applied to the needle detection sensor 7, and when a metal substance comes into contact with the needle detection sensor 7 during inspection or punching, for example, it interferes with the needle needle in the adjacent row. When there is such a bent needle needle, the head 3 can be stopped by detecting the change in the minute current, and the emergency stop of the head 3 can be automated.

The above-mentioned needle pushing jig 9 is provided so as to be reciprocally driven by an air cylinder device in the Z-axis direction while being suspended from a bracket attached to the rotating device 4 of the head 3. The needle needle 10 is formed in a cylindrical shape thicker than the outer diameter of the tip end portion, and a groove having a U-shaped cross-section capable of receiving the tip end portion of the needle needle 10 is formed in a part of the peripheral surface of the lower end portion thereof. There is. Needle pushing jig 9
Are held at a height that does not interfere with the needle needle 10 by the air cylinder device during the inspection. When the punching operation is started, the needle pushing jig 9 is lowered by several cm by the air cylinder device so that the camera 5, strobe 8 and projection plate 6 mounted on the same bracket do not interfere with the needle needle 10 by the punching operation. The head 3 moves in the X-axis and Y-axis directions at a position higher by several tens of cm than that at the time of inspection.

The head 3 moves above the defective needle and descends at a position where the needle pushing jig 9 can go down between the defective needle and the needle needle immediately ahead of it, and the needle pushing jig 9
The portion where the above groove is provided is located laterally to the tip of the defective needle needle. By moving the needle push-out jig 9 by several mm toward the origin, the outer circumferential surface of the tip portion of the defective needle is surrounded by the groove from three sides. Further, the lower end of the head 3 is lowered by arranging the lower end of the needle pushing jig 9 to be located at the tapered portion of the tip of the needle needle or by expanding the diameter of the base end side portion of the tip of the needle needle. As a result, the lower end of the needle pushing jig 9 is engaged with the base end side of the tip of the needle needle, and the defective needle can be pushed down by the needle pushing jig 9. After pushing down, the needle pushing jig 9 is raised, and the head 3 moves toward the position of the next defective needle needle. This series of operations is also performed by the control unit 16 instructing the coordinates of the defective needle stored by the inspection.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, even if needle plates having different sizes, types of needle needles, implantation patterns and densities of needle needles, etc. are used, an automatic needle needle inspection device can be provided. Defective needles can be automatically detected simply by setting the needle plate, and can be detected in an extremely short time (about 3 times faster) than the conventional visual inspection of workers, and no skilled work is required. Therefore, the inspection cost can be reduced, the needle plate manufacturing cost and the needle felt cost can be reduced, and non-uniformity of detection accuracy due to individual differences of operators does not occur, thus preventing occurrence of inspection failure. . Also, when setting this device to the same accuracy as the inspection accuracy at the time of visual inspection,
The ratio of the number of defective detection needles to all the inspection needles is 0.27 to 0.
45%, but in the case of this device 0.45-0.7
5%. Therefore, it is possible to detect even defective needles in the vicinity of the permissible value that could not be detected by visual inspection, the needle needle state of the needle plate after repair is more uniform, and the quality of the needle felt is also improved. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an automatic needle needle inspection apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a side view seen from line II in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view seen from the line III in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a procedure for measuring the size of a needle image.

FIG. 5 is a partially enlarged perspective view showing a needle pushing jig.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 bed 2 robot 3 head 4 rotating device 5 camera 6 projection plate 7 needle detection sensor 8 strobe 9 needle pushing jig 9a cylinder drive unit 9b jig unit 10 needle needle 10a needle shadow 11 needle plate 11a needle plate 12a fixed guide rail 12b Movable guide rail 13 Reference block 14 Needle plate positioning jig 15 Needle plate holding clamp 16 Control unit 17 Image processing device 18 Display 19 CPU 20 Air blow jig

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A bed for fixing a needle plate in which a large number of needle needles are planted one by one for needing batt fibers on a base cloth, and the needle plate fixed to the bed. A camera and a projection plate that are supported by a movable body that can move over the entire surface of the needle plate to capture the silhouettes of the needle needles one by one, and that are arranged so that they can face each other with the needle needle in between. Positioning means for positioning the moving body in correspondence with each of the needle needles, a needle detection sensor capable of detecting the needle needles, and the camera for taking images from two different directions with respect to the needle needles. And a photographing direction changing means for changing the direction of the projection plate, and a defective needle having a broken needle needle, a bent needle, or a defective needle tip by processing the silhouette photographed by the camera. An automatic needle / needle inspecting apparatus, comprising: an image processing unit for determining a needle. 2. The camera is provided at a position separated from the protruding side of the needle needles, and the projection plate is movable between the needles of the plurality of needle needles. 1. The needle needle automatic inspection device according to 1. 3. The automatic needle needle inspection device according to claim 1, further comprising a needle pushing jig for detachably pushing the defective needle needle determined by the image pickup processing means from the needle plate. .