JPH0841689A - Automatic racking device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an automatic racking device which is capable of easily dealing with a change in the size, etc., of works and has excellent versatility. CONSTITUTION:This automatic racking device consists of a base machine 1 and a racking module 2 mounted on its rails 5. The racking module 2 has a magazine 27 for supplying the works, a work transfer mechanism 28 and a pawl opening/closing mechanism 29 for opening and closing work holding pawls 6 cooperatively with a lifting mechanism 7 of jigs 3 for plating of the base machine 1. The works supplied from a magazine 27 for supplying the works are transferred to a work setting base and are mounted on the work holding pawls 6 by the pawl opening/closing mechanism 29.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic racking device capable of automatically mounting a small work on a plating jig having a work holding claw. The present invention relates to an automatic racking device for a work having a hole capable of holding the work from the inside.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The racking process (the process of hanging a work on a plating jig) is the most labor intensive process in the plating process.
In addition to forcing a work posture involving bending and stretching, there is a risk that the tip of a sharp jig or the edge of a work piece may damage the body. For this reason, development of an automatic racking device for automatically performing this work is required.

Conventionally, automatic racking devices have been developed for various works such as ceramic substrates, IC lead frames, nuts, bumpers and piston rods. However, these are all dedicated machines for each work,
A general-purpose product is very expensive and has not been practically used. In addition, even if it has some versatility, it cannot respond even if the shape of the work changes even a little, and the operation is often stopped due to the variation of the jig or the work of the plating jig is held. There was a problem of deforming the nails.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems of the prior art by satisfying the condition that a hole for holding a work can be held by inserting a work holding claw from the inside. The present invention has been completed in order to provide an automatic racking device having excellent versatility that can automatically rack a plating jig without any problem even if the outer shape changes. Another object of the present invention is to easily cope with changes in the size of the work, the pitch of the work holding claws of the plating jig, and the variation in the position of the work holding claws of the plating jig. It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic racking device with excellent economical efficiency that can also be applied.

[0005]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention, which has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, provides a base machine provided with an elevating mechanism for a plating jig having a work holding claw inserted into a hole of a work, The racking module is mounted on the rail of the base machine so as to correspond to the work holding claws. The racking module includes a work supply magazine, a work transfer mechanism, and a claw opening / closing mechanism for opening and closing the work holding claws. It is characterized by being a thing.

[0006] It is preferable that the base machine has a racking module positioning mechanism for positioning the racking module in correspondence with the work holding claws of the plating jig, and the racking module escapes when a work mounting trouble occurs. It is preferably equipped with a mechanism.

[0007]

The automatic racking device of the present invention is used by mounting the racking module on the rail of the base machine so as to correspond to the work holding claws of the plating jig.
The works supplied from the work supply magazine of each racking module are transferred one by one to a position directly below the work holding claws of the plating jig by the work transfer mechanism. Then, the elevating mechanism lowers the plating jig, the claw opening / closing mechanism closes the work holding claw, and further lowers the plating jig to insert the work holding claw into the hole of the work. After that, when the work holding claw is opened by the claw opening / closing mechanism, the work is automatically attached to the work holding claw.

As described above, since the automatic racking device of the present invention adopts the method of inserting the work holding claw into the hole of the work, the automatic racking to the plating jig can be performed without any trouble even if the outer shape is slightly changed. Can be made. Further, by changing the number of racking modules and the mounting positions, it is possible to easily cope with changes in the size of the work and the pitch of the work holding claws of the plating jig, which is extremely economical.

[0009]

The present invention will be described below in more detail with reference to the illustrated embodiments. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the entire automatic racking apparatus of the embodiment, in which 1 is a base machine, 2 is a racking module, and 3 is a plating jig. The base machine 1 is a box-shaped one with vertical walls 4 and 4 on both left and right sides.
Two rails 5 and 5 are horizontally provided between the upper portions of the vertical walls 4 and 4. The rails 5 and 5 are preferably linear guide rails having a built-in bearing.

A plurality of racking modules 2 are mounted on these rails 5, 5. Since the plating jig 3 of the embodiment has the work holding claws 6 at five locations, the five racking modules 2 are attached to correspond to this in the embodiment, but it is not necessary that the number is the same. In the extreme case, the racking module 2 may be one. A feed screw 30 as shown in FIG. 4 is provided on the back side of the vertical walls 4 and 4 on both the left and right sides of the base machine 1, and a work lift bar 48 provided between these feed screws 30 and 30. You can move up and down. The operation of the work lift bar 48 will be described later.

The base machine 1 is equipped with a lifting mechanism 7 for the plating jig 3 on the rear side of the drawing. The elevating mechanism 7 includes an elevating frame 8 parallel to the rails 5 and vertical frames 9, 9 supporting the elevating frame 8 at both ends thereof, and the whole thereof is elevated by a feed screw (not shown). Further, a clamp claw 11 that is opened and closed by a clamp cylinder 10 is provided at the upper end of each vertical frame 9 so that both ends of the plating jig 3 can be clamped.

The plating jig 3 has five fish-bone-shaped projections, and is equipped with a total of 10 pairs of work holding claws 6 at the tip thereof. The work holding claw 6 is inserted into the hole of the work W and holds the work W from the inside. Normally, the work holding claw 6 holds the open state as shown in FIG. 1 by its own elasticity. It can be closed by pressing from the outside.

Outside the vertical frames 9, 9 of the base machine 1, there are provided reversing jigs 13, 14 for supporting both ends of the plating jig 3 and reversing it vertically. The reversing jig 13 shown on the left side of FIG. 1 includes a 180-degree reversing cylinder 15 and a forward / rearward moving cylinder 16 for moving these back and forth. Further, an elevating cylinder 17 is provided on the lower side thereof, and these can be moved up and down. On the other hand, the reversing jig 14 on the right side has a bifurcated shape and is lifted and lowered by a lift cylinder (not shown). As described later, the plating jig 3 can be lifted from the clamp claw 11 of the elevating mechanism 7, turned upside down, and then returned to the clamp claw 11 again.

In addition to the above, the base machine 1 of the embodiment has a racking module positioning mechanism 18. This mechanism is provided with two upper and lower feed screws 19 and 20, a servomotor 21 for driving these, a positioning optical sensor 22 provided on the upper feed screw 19, and a lower feed screw 20. It is composed of a racking module positioning block 23.

This racking module positioning mechanism 18
Moves the optical sensor 22 for positioning by the feed screw 19 to detect the position of the workpiece holding claw 6 of the plating jig 3,
The racking module positioning block 23 is moved to the same position by the lower lead screw 20. The racking module 2 is fixed at a position corresponding to the work holding claw 6 by closing the upward positioning claws 24, 24 of the racking module positioning block 23 as shown in FIG. The apparatus of the embodiment sequentially positions the plurality of racking modules 2 by repeating such operations, but manual positioning may be performed.

The racking module 2 has an inverted L-shaped cross section as shown in FIG. 3, and has a locking magnet chuck 25 at its lower end. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the base machine 1 is provided with a horizontal bar 26 made of steel at a position corresponding to the magnet chuck 25. Therefore, the racking module 2 can be fixed to the base machine 1 by positioning the racking module positioning block 23 as described above and then operating the lock magnet chuck 25 to attract the horizontal bar 26. . In order to manually position the racking module 2, the module set lever 12 shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 may be operated. In this way, the racking module 2 of the embodiment is positioned with reference to the work holding claws 6 of the plating jig 3, so that the racking can be performed correctly even when the pitch of the work holding claws 6 is not constant. it can.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the racking module 2 includes a work supply magazine 27, a work transfer mechanism 28, and a pawl opening / closing mechanism 29. The work W handled in the present invention has a through hole or a concave hole, and a disk-shaped work W having a through hole is shown in the embodiment. These works W are mounted on the side surface of the racking module 2 by the magazine set lever 27a while being passed through the core rod of the work supply magazine 27. At the lower end of the work supply magazine 27, a work lift lever 31 for raising and lowering is provided as shown in FIG. The work lift lever 31 is lifted by the work lift bar 48 which is moved up and down by the feed screw 30 of the base machine 1 to feed the works W upward one by one. The height of the work W delivered at this time is controlled by the sensor 32.

The work transfer mechanism 28 includes a cylinder 34 horizontally provided on the gate frames 33, 33, a plate-like arm 36 horizontally attached to the tip of a piston rod of the cylinder 34 through a bracket 35, and a vacuum head 37. It has and. As shown in FIG. 4, the vacuum head 37 has a disk shape capable of adsorbing a disk-shaped work W, and a short cylinder 38 having a rounded lower end is hung at the center of the vacuum head 37. The structure is such that the work W contacts the rounded portion at the upper end of the vertical axis of the supply magazine 27 and the work W can be smoothly transferred from the work supply magazine 27 to the vacuum head 37 side.

The work transfer mechanism 28 horizontally transfers the work W adsorbed from the upper end of the work supply magazine 27,
As shown by an imaginary line in FIG. 4, the racking module 2 is transferred to a work set table 39 provided at the end of the racking module 2. Since the work transfer mechanism 28 is an obstacle when setting the work supply magazine 27, one end of the cylinder 34 is pivotally attached to the gate-shaped frame 33 by the horizontal pin 40, and when setting the work supply magazine 27. Has a structure that can be flipped up.

The work set table 39 has a work W at its center.
A guide pin 41 having a thickness corresponding to the hole is provided. The guide pin 41 has a rounded upper end and is normally pushed up to the position shown by the solid line in FIG. 4 by the spring 42.
Can descend against. The work set table 39 is located immediately below the work holding claws 6 of the plating jig 3.

A claw opening / closing mechanism 29 for opening / closing the work holding claw 6 is provided at a position adjacent to the work set table 39.
As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the pawl opening / closing mechanism 29 includes a pair of opening / closing arms 44, 44 on a flat plate 43 which is vertically slidable.
Is attached, and holding claw opening / closing tools 45, 45 for sandwiching the work holding claw 6 from the outside are attached to the tip thereof. These opening / closing arms 44, 44 can be opened / closed by an opening / closing cylinder 46.

The flat plate 43 is constantly pulled upward by the spring 47 on the back surface, but when the lifting mechanism 7 of the plating jig 3 is lowered, the lower surface of the lifting mechanism 7 is flat plate 43.
The flat plate 43 can be pushed down against the spring 47 together with the plating jig 3 by pressing the upper end of the flat plate 43.

Next, a method of using the apparatus of this embodiment will be described step by step. First, the lifting mechanism 7 of the base machine 1
Then, the plating jig 3 is attached. Next is the base machine 1
Work holding claws 6 of the plating jig 3 on the rails 5 and 5 of
After mounting a plurality of racking modules 2 corresponding to the above, the positioning optical sensor 22 of the racking module positioning mechanism 18 is moved to detect the position of the work holding claw 6, and the racking module positioning block 23 moves each racking module 2 into position. It is positioned at a position corresponding to the work holding claw 6 and fixed by the locking magnet chuck 25. At this time, the lifting mechanism 7 is in the raised position.

A work W with holes is set in the work supply magazine 27 of each racking module 2,
As shown in FIG. 4, the work lift lever 31 feeds the works W upward one by one. The work W is adsorbed by the vacuum head 37 of the work transfer mechanism 28, and the work W is placed on the work set table 39 by releasing the vacuum on the work set table 39 as shown by an imaginary line in FIG. Then, the vacuum head 37 returns to the original position.

At this time, the work W, the work holding claw 6 of the plating jig 3, and the claw opening / closing mechanism 29 have the relationship shown in FIG. From this state, when the lifting mechanism 7 chucking the plating jig 3 descends and the workpiece holding claw 6 enters between the holding claw opening / closing tools 45, 45 of the claw opening / closing mechanism 29, the holding claw opening / closing tools 45, 45 are As shown in FIG. 7, the work holding claw 6 is pressed from the outside to close the work holding claw 6. When the elevating mechanism 7 further descends, the flat plate 43 of the pawl opening / closing mechanism 29 is pushed down by the elevating mechanism 7,
As shown in FIG. 8, the work holding claws 6 are lowered while the work holding claws 6 and 45 keep the work holding claws 6 closed, and are inserted into the work W on the work setting table 39. At this time, the guide pin 41 in the center of the work set table 39 is pushed down against the spring 42, and does not prevent the work holding claw 6 from being inserted.

After that, the holding claw opening / closing tool 45 of the claw opening / closing mechanism 29,
45 opens outward and releases the work holding claw 6. As a result, the work holding claw 6 opens by its own elasticity and holds the work W from the inside. Next, when the plating jig 3 is raised by the elevating mechanism 7, the work W is mounted on the work holding claw 6 below the plating jig 3 as shown in FIG. Since such an operation is simultaneously performed in each racking module 2, the work W is mounted on all the work holding claws 6 on the lower side of the plating jig 3.

Next, the reversing jig 13 of the base machine 1 is moved forward by the forward / backward moving cylinder 16 to hold one end of the plating jig 3. Then, the reversing jig 13 is lifted by the lifting cylinder 17 with the clamp claws 11 opened, and at the same time, the reversing jig 14 on the right side is also lifted by the lifting cylinder (not shown) to clamp the plating jig 3 to the lifting mechanism 7. Lift from nail 11. In this state, the reversing jig 13 is rotated by the 180-degree reversing cylinder 15, and the plating jig 3 is turned upside down. After that, the reversing jigs 13 and 14 descend to return the plating jig 3 to the clamp claw 11 again. Work W in this way
The work W is mounted on all the work holding claws 6 of the plating jig 3 by repeating the same operation as described above after the side on which is mounted is set to the upper side.

There is no problem if the work holding claw 6 is properly inserted into the hole of the work W on the work set table 39 as described above. However, the work holding claw 6 is lowered due to deformation of the work holding claw 6, for example. There is a possibility that troubles such as the work holding claw 6 contacting the work W may occur. Therefore, the racking module 2 of the embodiment is provided with an escape mechanism for a work mounting trouble. In this escape mechanism, as shown in FIG. 5, the part of the work set table 39 is held at the position shown by the ball spring 49, and when an excessive force is applied, the work set table 39 is held.
This portion rotates downward about the horizontal axis 50 to prevent damage to the plating jig 3 when a work mounting trouble occurs. When this escape mechanism operates, the worker replenishes the work holding claw 6 with the work W.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the case where the work W has the through hole is shown, but the work W having the concave hole into which the work holding claw 6 can be inserted can be mounted. Figure
10 shows the case where the work W is a cap nut for mounting an automobile tire. In this case, the work supply magazine 27 has a cylindrical shape, and the work W is guided to the outer peripheral surface and supplied to the work transfer mechanism 28. You can do it.

[0030]

The automatic racking device of the present invention has many advantages as follows. Since the work holding claw is inserted into the hole of the work to hold the work from the inside, it is possible to handle various works having different outer shape dimensions, and it is versatile. Even when the size of the hole of the work becomes large, it can be easily dealt with by only partially changing the work supply magazine and the core rod of the work transfer mechanism. If the pitch or the number of work holding claws of the plating jig changes, it can be dealt with by moving or increasing / decreasing the racking module, which is versatile. Even if the workpiece holding claws of the plating jig have poor positional accuracy or deformation, the racking module can be positioned accordingly, which is highly practical. If the escape mechanism is provided, there is no risk of damaging the plating jig or the like even if a work mounting problem occurs.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an automatic racking device according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing a racking module positioning block.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a racking module.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a racking module.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a racking module.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the operation of the pawl opening / closing mechanism.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the operation of the pawl opening / closing mechanism.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing the operation of the pawl opening / closing mechanism.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing the operation of the pawl opening / closing mechanism.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of the racking module when the work is a cap nut.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Base Machine 2 Racking Module 3 Plating Jig 4 Vertical Wall 5 Rail 6 Work Holding Claw 7 Lifting Mechanism 8 Lifting Frame 9 Vertical Frame 10 Clamp Cylinder 11 Clamping Claw 12 Module Set Lever 13 Reversing Jig 14 Reversing Jig 15 180 degree reversing cylinder 16 Forward / backward moving cylinder 17 Lifting cylinder 18 Racking module positioning mechanism 19 Feed screw 20 Feed screw 21 Servo motor 22 Positioning optical sensor 23 Racking module positioning block 24 Positioning claw 25 Lock magnet chuck 26 Horizontal bar 27 Work supply Magazine 27a Magazine set lever 28 Work transfer mechanism 29 Claw opening / closing mechanism 30 Feed screw 31 Work lift lever 32 Sensor 33 Gate frame 34 Cylinder 35 Bracket 36 Plate arm 37 Vacuum head 38 Short cylinder 39 Work set table 40 Horizontal pin 41 Guide pin 42 Spring 43 Flat plate 44 Open / close arm 45 Holding claw open / close tool 46 Open / close cylinder 47 Spring 48 Work lift bar 49 Ball spring 50 Horizontal axis W Work

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A base machine provided with an elevating mechanism for a plating jig having a work holding claw inserted into a hole of a work,
It consists of a racking module mounted on the rail of this base machine so as to correspond to the work holding claws, and the racking module is a work supply magazine,
An automatic racking device comprising a work transfer mechanism and a claw opening / closing mechanism for opening / closing a work holding claw. 2. The automatic racking device according to claim 1, wherein the base machine has a racking module positioning mechanism for positioning the racking module in correspondence with the work holding claws of the plating jig. 3. The automatic racking device according to claim 1, wherein the racking module is provided with an escape mechanism for a work mounting trouble.