JPH08294883A - Articulated arm type conveying method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To work well with a variety of carrying forms easily with change of a small number of component parts by furnishing a hitch pin emerging/ retracting device which performs engagement and disengagement with/from a transporting pallet where a hitching member is installed at the end of an arm, hitching the pallet with the hitching member, and transporting on a guide rail. CONSTITUTION: When a pallet in one pallet standby position is to be transported to the next standby position, a hitch pin behind a hitching member 1 fixed to a pivot B is engaged by a front hitch pin hole 2 in the pallet through the action of a hitch pin emerging/retracting device, and the pivot B is slided on a guide rail 5 between processing jigs through the action of an actuator M to travel till the transport stroke E. Then the pallet is disengaged from the hitching member 1, and the actuator M is rotated reversely, and the pivot B is retreated by numerical control till the position where the rear hitch pin hole 3 in the pallet can engage the front hitch pin of the hitching member 1. If then the hitching member 1 is engaged by the rear hitch pin hole 3 and the pivot B is moved till the transport stroke E, the pallet is carried to the next standby position.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pallet type transfer method for transferring a work between a plurality of processing machines.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a pallet transfer method, the structure of an apparatus often changes greatly depending on a transfer mode such as synchronous transfer, asynchronous transfer, in-line transfer, off-line transfer, and pallet transfer position. FIG. 1 shows these conventional main transportation methods.
4 to 19 will be described.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 14 is a front view of an inline asynchronous transfer device, and FIG. 15 is a plan view thereof. The pallet conveyed by the top roller chain or the like is conveyed in the direction of arrow D, and is stopped at the first pallet standby position T1 by the stopper S. The pallet stopped at the second standby position T2 at the rear end of the hook P and the end block J1 is conveyed onto the moving table N1 of the jig F of the processing station by the actuator M extending by the pushing stroke E3. At this time, the pallet on the moving table N1 is pushed out onto the roller conveyor R at the front end of the hook P.
A retract cam K1 is provided so that the hook P does not catch the pallet on the processing station when the hook returns, and the hook is retracted and then moved to the retracted end by the actuator M. At the same time, the hook P returns to its original position. Thus, the return cam K2 is provided at the retracted end of the actuator M. The pallet conveyed to the station is moved by the movable table N1 to be positioned on the locate pin L1 of the jig F and fixed by the clamper L2.

Since this apparatus can carry in and carry out pallets at the same time, the number of actuators is small and the machining cycle can be shortened. However, in the case of machining many kinds of workpieces, it is necessary to temporarily empty the machining station. This device has a problem that the state cannot be realized by automatic operation.

FIG. 16 is a front view of a pallet carrying device in which the pallet can be loaded and unloaded at arbitrary timing, and FIG. 17 is a plan view thereof. In the case of this device, since the conveying speed exceeds 30 m / min, a ball screw is used, and the actuator M1 uses the carry-in hook P1.
During the carry-in stroke E1, the actuator M2 operates the carry-out hook P2 during the carry-out stroke E2 via a nut. The hook is provided with a pawl that holds the pallet, and the pallet is held and released by the cam K1 that retracts the pawl and the return cam K2. The pallet conveyed to the processing position is positioned on the locate pin L1 of the jig F by a retracting device (not shown), and the pallet is fixed by the clamper L2. Note that there is a device that employs hydraulic pressure or an air cylinder instead of the ball screw when the transport speed is low.

As another conventional example, FIG. 1 is a side view of a retracting device for retracting a pallet from a transfer line to a processing station when the processing station is installed offline.
A plan view of FIG. 8 is shown in FIG.

In this carrying method, when the processed pallet is unclamped on the jig F and lifted up to a height at which it is locked by the hook P2 at the tip of the shifter N2,
The swing actuator M3 operates to convey the pallet to the standby position T2, and then lowers the pallet by the lift stroke E4 to release the engagement with the hook P2. Next, the pallet on the standby position T2 is pushed out by the actuator M4 by the hook P1, the stopper S is released, and the pallet on the standby position T1 is conveyed to the T2 position by the drive conveyor. The actuator M4 retracts while the pallet at the standby position T2 is lifted by the lift stroke E4 and conveyed to the jig position, so that a cam or the like for retracting the hook P1 is not required.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a low-cost transfer method which can easily cope with various transfer modes as described in the section of the prior art by changing few parts. It is in.

[0009]

The present invention is mainly intended to solve the following three problems. (1) A compact linear motion mechanism that allows easy control of the transport distance. (2) A device that has a high transport speed and low cost. (3) To be able to handle many forms of transportation with few parts changes.

As a means for solving the first problem, in a horizontal articulated robot or the like, a well-known power transmission mechanism is used, and the movement of each arm is driven by an independent actuator. By transmitting power to the joints of multiple arms via gears and belts or chains, or via gears and transmission shafts to the joints on the other end, and fixing the sprockets or gears to the arms or pivots in the desired direction. The arm is configured to be rotated by a desired rotation angle.

The details of the structure of the multi-joint arm in which one end of the arm moves linearly will be described with reference to FIGS. 12 and 13. Arms a and b have the same length (a
= AO, b = AB) The gear I is attached to the pivot O of the drive arm a and the gear II is attached to the pivot A connecting the arm a and the arm b so that the diameter ratio is 2: 1 and connected by a timing belt or the like. . At this time, the gear I is fixed to the pivot O that does not move even if the arm a swings. Gear II is fixed to arm b. When the arm a moves in the arrow direction Z, the arm b fixed to the gear II via the belt moving in the U direction is transmitted in the arrow direction Y with a swing angle that is twice the swing angle of the arm a. That is, when arm a turns between AA ', arm b
Axis B of FIG. 1 moves linearly during the conveying stroke E on the X-X line.

Similarly, if the gear III of the pivot A is fixed to the arm a and the gear IV of the pivot B is fixed to the hook member, and the gear diameter ratio is 1: 1, the hook member is the axis B on the XX line. It moves in the same posture without rotating. That is, the hook member moves in a constant posture during the transport stroke E. However, the power transmission path for maintaining the posture of this hook member is
The same effect can be obtained by attaching a guide for guiding the attitude of the hook member on the X-X line.

In order to establish the timing belt transmission of the above-mentioned structure by gear transmission, a bevel gear I is fixed to a pivot O that swings the arm a, and a transmission shaft is provided on the arm a so that the bevel gear I meshes with the bevel gear I. The number of matching bevel gears is set to half the number of teeth of bevel gear I. As a result, a swing angle that is twice the swing angle of the arm a is transmitted to the transmission shaft. Further, the bevel gear II is fixedly attached to the arm b on the pivot A of the arm a and the arm b. This bevel gear II and the bevel gear fixed to the other end of the above-mentioned transmission shaft and meshing with each other have the same number of teeth, so that the same action as the timing belt transmission can be obtained. The bevel gear I and the bevel gear II described in this case are described by replacing the gears I and II described in the drawings with bevel gears.

An example in which the arm is composed of three other arms will be described with reference to FIG. In order to perform the linear motion with the three arms, the arms must be configured to satisfy the following conditions. a + c = b a = AO, b = AB, C = BC E / 2 <2b cos γ = E / 4b ΔOAW and ΔCBW are isosceles triangles and have a similar relationship, and 2α = β holds, so that of the arm a The arm b needs to change by 2α with respect to the swing angle α. That is, the gear I is fixed to the pivot O which is not related to the swing of the arm a, and the gear II on the pivot A is fixed to the arm b. The diameter ratio of the gear is set to 2: 1 and the gears are connected by a timing belt or the like. Next, the gear III is fixed to the arm a on the pivot A, and the gear IV is fixed to the arm c on the pivot B. The gear diameter ratio is set to 2: 1 and the gears are connected by a timing belt or the like. As a result, when the arm a moves in the direction Z, the arm b fixed to the gear II via the belt is
A swing angle that is twice the swing angle of the arm a is transmitted in the arrow direction Y. Further, the arm c fixed to the gear IV transmits a turning angle that is twice the turning angle of the arm a fixed to the gear III. That is, the axis C of the arm c moves linearly on the line XX.

As means for easily controlling the conveying distance, which is the first problem, the actuator of the above-mentioned linear movement mechanism is made to be an actuator capable of numerical control, and the hooking pin of the hooking member is provided on the conveying pallet. This has been achieved by providing a latching pin retracting device that can be latched and disengaged at any timing.

The means for solving the second problem is that the horizontal articulated robot moves while holding the loadable weight at the tip of the arm, so it is difficult to increase the transfer speed. Therefore, according to the present invention, a guide rail for supporting the weight of the work is provided in the work transfer range, and the arm is configured to bear only the sliding resistance between the work and the guide rail, thereby reducing the weight of the transfer arm and downsizing the actuator. As a result, it became a low-cost device that can easily achieve high-speed transportation.

As a means for solving the third problem, the conventional conveying device is a conveying device which is easily influenced by the jig structure because it is complicated in the jig space. Therefore, in order to secure a sufficient jig space and install a versatile transfer device in a space that is not easily affected by the jig configuration, set the arm connecting part that connects the pallet hooking member to a position that does not enter the jig space. Then, the jig space is secured, the hook member is extended in the carrying direction, and the pallet and the hooking pins for hooking the pallet are provided in the front and rear of the carrying direction. The pallet is transported through the stop pin hole 2 and the hooking member that locks in front of the next station is moved backward to change the hooking position between the front hooking pin and the rear hooking pin hole 3 of the pallet, and the jig for the next station. A method of transporting the pallet above was adopted.

Further, in the conventional system in which a dedicated station for changing the posture is provided on the conveying line to change the posture of the pallet, the posture can be easily changed even during the conveyance by adding a device for rotating the hook member. Becomes possible,
Since various processing can be performed on a short transfer line, a low-cost processing line can be constructed.

[0019]

When a plurality of machines are arranged to process a work, the work transfer stroke is determined by the width of the processing machine. According to the carrying method of the present invention, a carrying apparatus is designed by setting a maximum carrying stroke which is considered to be necessary in advance in a requested carrying weight and carrying speed range and determining an arm length.

The hooking members are grouped into several kinds of shapes depending on the jig space, the size of the pallet, or the need to change the posture during transportation.

The combination of these main components prepared in advance constitutes a transfer device which can cope with the transfer posture of the pallet, in-line transfer and off-line transfer.

[0022]

【Example】

(Embodiment 1) FIGS. 1 and 2 are a plan view and a front view of an embodiment in the case where the pallet is in a horizontal transportation posture by an in-line transportation method, and FIG. 5 is a side view thereof. When the pallet at the pallet standby position T1 is conveyed to the T3 position, the rear locking pin of the hooking member 1 fixed to the pivot B is inserted into the front locking pin hole 2 of the pallet by the operation of the locking pin retracting device 4. Engagement is completed and preparation for transportation is completed. The axis B moves linearly by the operation of the actuator M, slides on the guide rail 5 extending on the transfer line between the processing jigs, and moves to the transfer stroke E. At this time, the pallet is in the standby position T
It is transported to 2. Next, the latch pin retracting device 4 is operated to release the engagement between the pallet and the hook member 1, and the actuator M is reversed to reach a position where the rear hook pin hole 3 of the pallet and the front hook pin of the hook member can be engaged. Axis B is retracted by numerical control. When the latch pin retracting device 4 is operated again to engage the rear latch pin hole 3 of the pallet with the hooking member 1 and the pivot B of the arm moves to the transfer stroke E position, the pallet is placed on the jig of the next station. Standby position T3
Be transported to.

(Embodiment 2) FIGS. 3, 4 and 6 show Embodiment 1
FIG. 7 is a plan view, a front view, and a side view showing an embodiment corresponding to a case where a pallet is in a vertical transportation posture by an in-line transportation system using the main parts of FIG. In this case, the changed parts are assembled by assembling the transfer device in a state of being rotated by 90 ° only by the guide rails 5 for guiding the transfer of the pallet.

(Embodiment 3) FIGS. 7, 8 and 9 are a plan view, a front view and a side view showing an embodiment in the case where the pallet is in a horizontal transportation posture by an off-line transportation system. The mounting of the transfer arm in this case shows an embodiment in which components based on the idea of the present invention are also adopted in the drawing device for drawing the pallet from the transfer line to the processing station in the transfer device of the first embodiment. Is a method of transporting the pallet to the processing station by lifting the pallet transported to the position T3 without providing a hooking pin retracting device on the hooking member 7 and engaging the pallet with the hooking member 7 by a lift device (not shown). It is adopted. In addition, an embodiment is shown in which the actuator that drives the arm does not need to be numerically controlled and that is a low-cost actuator M1 that does not need to be stopped midway between the pull-in strokes E3.

(Embodiment 4) FIGS. 10 and 11 are a plan view and a front view showing an embodiment in which the posture of a pallet is changed on a transfer line. In the present embodiment, the front locking pin holes and the rear locking pin holes are provided on four sides of the pallet at intervals equal to the distance e between the locking pins provided on the front and rear of the hook member 1 in the pallet. is there. When the pallet is conveyed from the pallet standby position T1 to T2 according to the procedure described in the first embodiment, the latch pin retracting device 4 is operated to release the engagement between the pallet and the hook member 1, and the actuator M is reversed to move the pallet. The pivot B is retracted to a position where the front and rear hook pin holes and the hook member 1 can be simultaneously engaged. The hooking pin retracting device 4 is again actuated to engage the hooking member 1 with the pallet, and then the swivel actuator 9 is actuated to swivel the hoisting member 1 and the pallet at a desired swivel angle (90 ° in this embodiment). Unlock and return the actuator 9 to its original position,
The pivot B is further retracted and the pallet rear side retaining pin hole and the front side retaining pin of the hooking member 1 are engaged by the retaining pin retracting device 4. Next, the actuator M is normally rotated to rotate the axis B.
To advance the pallet to the pallet standby position T3 on the jig F of the next station and convey the pallet whose posture is changed by 90 °.
That is, the pallet has been conveyed by changing the posture of the conveying stroke E of the conveying arm and twice the distance e of the hooking pin of the hooking member 1.

[0026]

As described above, according to the carrying method of the present invention, a highly versatile carrying device capable of carrying a variety of carrying forms can be compactly constructed, so that the main parts of the device can be standardized and the design cost can be reduced. This is a transportation method that can realize a transportation device with a low total cost due to the reduction of the cost and the effect of mass production. Further, since a posture changing device for the pallet does not have to be provided with a new station, the posture of the pallet can be changed easily by simply adding a turning actuator to the conveying device having the structure of the present invention, so that a variety of conveying modes can be realized. It was possible to provide a low-cost and space-saving transportation method that can handle the above.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an outline of a configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the outline of the configuration of Example 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a front view of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a side view of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a side view of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing the outline of the configuration of Example 3 of the present invention.

8 is a front view of FIG. 7. FIG.

9 is a side view of FIG. 7. FIG.

FIG. 10 is a plan view showing the outline of the configuration of Example 4 of the present invention.

11 is a front view of FIG.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram for explaining linear movement of an arm having a two-piece structure.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram for explaining linear movement of an arm having a three-piece structure.

FIG. 14 is a plan view showing a conventional example of an inline-type asynchronous transfer device.

FIG. 15 is a plan view of FIG.

FIG. 16 is a front view showing a conventional example in which a pallet is conveyed in an upright position by an inline-type asynchronous conveyance device.

FIG. 17 is a plan view of FIG.

FIG. 18 is a side view of the transfer device in which the processing station is installed offline.

FIG. 19 is a plan view of FIG. 18.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 7 Hooking member 2 Front latching pin hole 3 Rear latching pin hole 4 Latching pin retracting device 5 Guide rail 6 Bracket 8 Retracting latching pin hole 9 Pallet turning actuator A, B, C, O Arm pivot D Pallet flow direction E Transport stroke E1 Carry-in stroke E2 Carry-out stroke E3 Push-in stroke E4 Lift stroke F Jig J1, J2, J3 End block K1 Retract cam K2 Return cam L1 Locate pin L2 Clamper M, M1, M2, M3, M4 Actuator N1 Moving stand N2 Shifter P, P1, P2 Hook T1, T2, T3 Pallet standby position R Roller conveyor S Stopper Y, Z Arm swinging direction U Belt moving direction

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A power is transmitted to a pivot of each joint of a so-called multi-joint arm in which a plurality of arms are connected by a pivot through gears and a belt, and a power applied to one end of the arm is applied to each joint. Or, the power transmission system of the horizontal articulated robot is adopted, in which the other end of the arm moves linearly by transmitting it to the pivot, and the arm end that moves linearly the hook member that holds the work transfer pallet. The hooking member is provided with a hooking pin retracting device for hooking and unhooking the carrier pallet, and the carrier pallet guided by the guide rail is engaged with the hooking member to smoothly slide on the guide rail. Articulated arm type transfer method. 2. The multi-joint arm type transfer method according to claim 1, wherein the hook member protruding from the end of the arm is rotated by a desired angle to add an actuator for changing the position of the transfer pallet. .