JPH0820897B2 - Control method for auto palletizer - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a control method for an automatic palletizer that automatically loads molded products formed by a press onto a pallet.

[Conventional technology]

The conventional auto palletizer can perform two types of automatic loading, flat loading and vertical loading, depending on the type of molded product (panel).

As shown in FIG. 7 (a), the flat-stacking type is that the panel 1 which is conveyed from the press by the product discharge cove and positioned by the centering device is sucked by the vacuum cup 2 of the loading carrier, and the panel 1 is in the suction posture As it is, the loading carrier sequentially loads the pallets 3 until the number of sheets reaches a fixed number.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 7 (b), the stacking type is such that the panel 1 which is conveyed from the press by the product discharge conveyor and positioned by the centering device is sucked by the vacuum cup 2 and then the tip of the loading carrier is swung. The panel is rotated 90 ° by the arm, and the panels are sequentially loaded into the pallet 3 in a standing state up to a specified number.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, in the conventional auto palletizer, the movement route is determined by the above-described certain loading methods, so that the degree of freedom is small and the pallets used are limited.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an automatic palletizer control method capable of creating a movement route.

[Means and Actions for Solving Problems]

In the present invention, the first and second panel loaders that respectively carry in the first and second carrying zones adjacent to each other defined by the three orthogonal axes are used, and the panel holding point and the panel releasing point are moved from the start point. A first movement route that returns to the start point via the first movement route is created by a teaching operation of the first panel loader, and the first movement route is centered around the boundaries of the respective conveyance areas based on the first movement route. Creating a second movement path symmetrical to the movement path of the second panel loader as a movement path of the second panel loader, and the first and second panel loaders along the first and second movement paths, respectively. And a step of causing the carrying operation to be carried out at the same time so that the first and second movement paths are prevented from interfering with each other. We are creating to so that.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 and 2 are a front view and a plan view showing an outline of an auto palletizer according to the present invention, respectively.

This auto palletizer has panel loaders 10 and 20 which carry out conveyance operations in mutually adjacent conveyance areas A and B defined by orthogonal three axes, and the panel loaders 10 and 20 convey vacuum cups 11 and 21 to the X-axis. It has three axes for moving in the axial direction, the Y-axis direction, and the Z-axis direction, and a total of four rotation axes when the panels are vertically stacked.

The arms 12 and 22 for holding the vacuum cups 11 and 21 are arranged at the tips of the rods 14 and 24 via the rotary shafts (θ axes) 13 and 23, and the rods 14 and 24 are provided with respect to the Y carriers 15 and 25. And is vertically movable (Z-axis direction). Also, Y
The carriers 15 and 25 are arranged so as to be movable in the Y axis direction with respect to the X carriers 16 and 26, and the X carriers 16 and 26 are arranged so as to be movable in the X axis direction with respect to the frame on which the palletizer is mounted horizontally. ing.

The movement of the panel loader 10, 20 in the X-axis direction is performed by the X-axis motor 3
This is performed by transmitting power from 0, 40 to the X carriers 16, 26 via the gears 31, 41, the rotary shafts 32, 42 and the belts 33, 43.

The movement of the panel loaders 10 and 20 in the Y-axis direction is performed by the Y-axis motor 5
Y carrier 1 from 0,60 via gears 51,61 and belts 52,62
This is done by transmitting power to 5,25.

Further, the movement of the panel loader 10, 20 in the Z-axis direction is performed by the rod 1 from the Z-axis motor 70, 80 via the belt 71, 81 gear 72, 82.
This is done by transmitting power to 4,24. Further, the rotation of the arms 12 and 22 is performed by a θ-axis motor 90 (FIG. 3) provided on the θ-axis 13 and 23.

Note that FIG. 3 is a view of a part of FIG. 1 viewed from the direction of arrow A. Further, Xmax in FIG. 2 indicates the X-axis maximum stroke, Ymax indicates the Y-axis maximum stroke, and Zmax in FIG. 1 indicates the Z-axis maximum stroke. Furthermore,
The pallet 93 shown by the broken line in FIG. 2 is automatically and sequentially supplied as shown by the arrow, and at the loading place 210 located at the boundary between the transfer areas A and B, the turning means (not shown) is shown. Is rotated by any angle between -90 ° and 90 °.

Now, the panel 92 molded by the transfer press and transported by the product discharge conveyor 91 is positioned by the centering device of the intermediate transport device at the panel take-out place 220 provided at the boundary between the respective transport areas A and B, The panel loader 10 or 20 loads the pallet 93.

That is, the panel loader 20 has the points shown in FIG.
It moves along the movement path passing through P _{1 to} P _15, and the movement moves the panel 92 from the panel unloading place 220 to the loading place 210.
It is transported to the pallet 93 placed in.

On the other hand, the panel loader 20 moves along a moving path symmetrical to the moving path with the boundary between the respective transfer areas A and B as the center,
The panel 92 is transported from the unloading place 220 to the pallet 93 placed at the loading place 210.

The movement paths of the panel loaders 10 and 20 are
20 are created so that they do not interfere with each other. Then, the loaders 10 and 20 are simultaneously operated in such a manner that when one is located at the panel unloading location 220, the other is located at the loading location 210, so that the panel 92 located at the panel unloading location 220 is These loaders 10 and 20 alternately carry out.

The meanings of points P _{1 to} P ₁₅ in FIG. 4 are as follows.

P ₁ …… Star and points P ₂ …… Suction point P ₃ …… Z axis interference prevention point P ₄ …… Z axis descending point P _{5 to} P ₈ …… Track correction point P ₉ …… Deceleration point P _{10 to} P ₁₂ …… Panel release point P ₁₃ …… Z axis interference prevention point P ₁₄ …… Y axis interference prevention point P ₁₅ …… Standing point Next, a method for creating the movement route of FIG. 4 will be described.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of an apparatus for controlling a palletizer according to the present invention. This device is a keyboard
100, teaching box 110, central processing unit (CPU) 12
0, panel loader / positioners 121 and 122, a memory 130, a control system 140 of the first panel loader 10, and a control system 150 of the second panel loader 20.

The control system 140 includes an X-axis motor 30, a Y-axis motor 50, and a Z-axis motor 7
Amplifier 37,5 that outputs drive current to 0 and θ-axis motor 90
7,77,97 and the speed of each motor are detected, and the amplifier 37,5
Speed detector 3 which adds speed feedback signal to 7,77,97
5, 55, 75, 95 and encoders 36, 56, 76, 96 for outputting the number of pulse signals corresponding to the rotation amount of each motor to the CPU 120.

Similarly, the control system 150 detects amplifiers 47, 67, 87, 97 that output drive currents to the X-axis motor 40, the Y-axis motor 60, the Z-axis motor 80, and the θ-axis motor 90, and the speed of each motor, Speed detectors 45, 65, 85, 95 for adding speed feedback signals to the amplifiers 47, 67, 87, 97, and encoders 46, 66, 86 for outputting the number of pulse signals corresponding to the rotation amount of each motor to the CPU 120. , 9
It consists of 6 and.

Now, the teaching box 110 has, for example, a button for selecting one of the panel loader 10 and the panel loader 2, a button group for driving each axis of the panel loader by a manual operation, a data write button, and the like. are doing. When the moving path shown by the solid line in FIG. 4 is created by teaching, first, the button for selecting the panel loader 20 is pressed, and then it is moved to the start point P ₁ by manual operation.

CPU120 is the encoder 36,56,76,96 and 46,66,8
It has counters for counting the pulses respectively applied from 6,96, and the current position of each axis is always detected from the count values of these counters. Therefore, when the panel loader 20 reaches the point P ₁ and then presses the write button, the position data at the point P ₁ is read from the counter indicating the current position and written in the memory 130.

Then, by moving the panel loader 20 to the point P _2, the memory location data of the point P ₂ in the same manner 13
Write to 0. After that, repeat the same procedure,
The position data of all points is written in the memory 130.

Next, the keyboard 100 is used to input an instruction as to whether the input point is treated as stop data or passage data, speed data between points, and the like. This completes the creation of the route data based on the teaching for moving the panel loader 20 along the moving route shown in FIG.

As described above, the other panel loader 10 moves along the movement path symmetrical to the movement path for the panel loader 20 with the boundary between the transfer areas A and B as the center. Therefore,
The movement path for the panel loader 10 is created by applying an appropriate method such as coordinate conversion to the movement path for the panel loader 20 created by the above teaching. That is, the movement path for the panel loader 10 is created without teaching.

The so-called Point-to
When the panel is conveyed by -iont, the drive mechanism is temporarily stopped at the corner portion of the path, so that the conveyance cycle time becomes long. Therefore, the passing corner portion is moved by circular interpolation.

This completes the creation of the route data for the two panel loaders 10 and 20.

Next, in order to determine whether or not the created route data is suitable for actual transportation, a reproduction operation for checking data (idle operation of the panel loader) is performed. If data correction is necessary based on this regeneration operation, data correction is performed using the keyboard.

The above data creation procedure is shown in FIG.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily create a movement route suitable for the shape and size of the panel, the method of loading on the pallet, and the like. Further, the panel can be transported very efficiently by using the two panel loaders, and the movement path of the other panel loader is created based on the movement path of the one panel loader created by the teaching. Despite the use of two panel loaders, it is only necessary to teach the movement path of one panel loader.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 and 2 are respectively a front view and a plan view of an auto palletizer according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is a view of a part of FIG. 1 seen from the direction of arrow A, and FIG. 4 is a view of the auto palletizer. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of an apparatus for controlling an automatic palletizer according to the present invention, FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing a route data generation procedure for a panel loader, and FIG. (A) and (b) are diagrams showing a loading method by an auto palletizer. 10,20 …… Panel loader, 30,40 …… X-axis motor, 50,60
...... Y axis motor, 70,80 ...... Z axis motor, 90, ... θ axis motor, 92 …… Panel, 93 …… Pallet, 100 …… Keyboard, 110 …… Teaching box, 120 …… Central processing unit (CPU), 130 ... Memory, 140,150 ... Control system, 210
…… Loading place, 220 …… Panel unloading place, A, B …… Transport area.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first and a second panel loader, each of which operates in a first and a second transportation area adjacent to each other defined by three orthogonal axes, and uses a start point to a panel holding point and a panel opening point. A first movement route that returns to the start point via a route is created by a teaching operation of the first panel loader, and based on the first movement route,
Creating a second moving path symmetrical to the first moving path as a moving path of the second panel loader around the boundary of each of the transport areas, and along the first and second moving paths Transporting the first and second panel loaders simultaneously, and the first and second movement paths include the first and second movement paths.
A method for controlling an auto palletizer, characterized in that it is created so as to avoid mutual interference between the panel loaders.