JPH0829555B2 - Group management system for injection molding equipment - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a system configuration of a system for group management of a plurality of injection molding facilities, and is used in an unmanned factory suitable for high-mix low-volume production.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-9128 has proposed an automatic operation control system for an injection molding machine, a material transfer device, and a mold exchanging device in an injection molding system. This technology is especially used in FA (Factory Automati)
This is an important technology for achieving on.

(Problems to be solved by the invention) However, in order to carry out automatic operation control of an injection molding machine, production management, and continuous production of various products at the level of the entire factory, it is necessary to grasp the entire system from a larger perspective. There is. In other words, subsystems such as mold replacement, transportation of molding materials, production progress status management, equipment operation status management, equipment abnormality (alarm) processing, etc. are efficiently linked with the injection molding equipment group management system. Needs to be done.

(Means for Solving Problems) A group management system for injection molding equipment according to the present invention is a system for group management of a plurality of injection molding equipment, and a plurality of local computers are linked under a host computer. The injection molding equipment is linked to the lower level of each local computer, and the operation of each injection molding equipment is controlled by each local computer for the molding equipment. The equipment is indirectly linked to all local computers via separate local computers.

(Function) Since the equipment such as the mold exchanging equipment and material transportation equipment shared by each injection molding equipment are indirectly linked to all local computers via separate local computers, the quality and quantity of information to be exchanged. With this, it is possible to perform a distributed processing by stratifying those that pass through the host computer and those that perform between the local computers.

Further, even if the system of the host computer goes down for some reason, the molding itself can be continued.

(Example) Hereinafter, the Example of this invention is described with reference to drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the system configuration of a group management system for injection molding equipment according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the production management computer (PH) 1 is located at the highest level in the system hierarchy. A plurality of molding equipment management host computers (hereinafter simply referred to as “host computers”) (H) 2, 2 are linked to the production management computer 1 below, and various equipment control is provided below the host computer 2. Local computer (hereinafter simply referred to as local computer) (L) 3a
~ 3f is linked.

The production management computer 1 creates a production plan from the order status and sends a production instruction, and also collects and organizes production progress information and production management information of the entire factory. The produced production plan is stored in the corresponding molding equipment 4. On the other hand, it is converted into instruction information such as product type, quantity, machine allocation, etc., and communicated to the host computer 2.

The host computer 2 manages the operation of a plurality of molding facilities 4, and specifically manages the operation of an injection molding machine, a mold temperature adjusting device, a product unloading device, and the like. Then, in the host computer 2, the production progress information sent from each molding facility 4 is transmitted to the production management computer 1 at regular intervals. This production progress information is, for example, information used for production management such as product type, number of non-defective products, number of defective products, etc., and this information is processed in the computer 1 for production management. In response to the production instruction sent from the production management computer 1, the host computer 2 reads out from the file the equipment conditions such as molding conditions, temperature data, product take-out conditions, resin used, mold numbers, etc., which are stored in advance. The read data is transmitted to the local computers 3a to 3e which control each facility. Each molding facility 4 manages the production of the molding machine based on the information (number of shots, alarm information, equipment state such as production setup stop) transmitted from the local computers 3a to 3e. Here, the production management information to be totaled includes, for example, production condition output when a defect occurs, operation status calculation, total number of non-defective products and defective products, daily report, monthly report output, and the like.

The local computers 3a to 3e control the operation of the molding equipment 4, and in response to the production instructions sent from the production management computer 1, the molding conditions necessary for the production of the corresponding molded product are stored in a molding condition file. Read from 6a,
It is transmitted to the controller (not shown) of the corresponding equipment. The local computer 3f controls the mold exchanging device 7 and the material transporting facility 8 which are shared by the injection molding facility. Since the facility operating at the time of setup is controlled, the setup condition file 6b is stored in the local computer 3f. Have The molding condition file 6a
The molding data for the molding machine, the temperature data for the mold temperature control equipment, the resin data, the mold data, and the like are stored in each of the products. Then, the data for each shot is sent back to the host computer 2, and when the equipment in the molding equipment 4 fails, the alarm information is received and the operation is immediately stopped according to a predetermined processing step, after one cycle of operation. Stop, stop after confirming several shots. In addition, 1
At the end of production of a lot, processing such as automatic product type change and molding stop is performed according to the contents of the next lot.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to perform a distributed processing by stratifying what goes through a host computer and what goes between local computers according to the quality and quantity of information to be exchanged. It is possible to reduce the load on the host computer and to perform high-speed communication between local computers.

Further, even if the system of the host computer goes down for some reason, the molding itself can be continued.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hierarchical structure of a group management system for injection molding equipment according to the present invention. 1 …… Production management computer 2 …… Molding equipment management host computer 3a ～ 3f …… Various equipment control local computer 4 …… Molding equipment 6a …… Molding condition file, 6b …… Setup condition file 7 …… Gold Mold changer, 8 ... Material transport equipment

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A system for group management of a plurality of injection molding facilities, wherein a plurality of local computers are linked to a host computer, and a plurality of local computers are linked to each local computer. The molding equipment is operated and controlled by each local computer for the molding equipment, and the equipment such as the mold changing device and the material transporting equipment shared by each injection molding equipment are indirectly linked to all the local computers through separate local computers. A group management system for injection molding equipment.