JPH09103982A - Clamping device for transferring article - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance the transfer performance of an article-transferring clamping device attached to a robot arm and the productivity of transfer work, when articles such as electronic parts are clamped by means of the clamping claw of the article-transferring clamping device and transferred for assembly, by keeping the article releasing stroke of the clamping claw to a small amount after they are transferred. SOLUTION: A piston rod 6 which opens and closes a clamping claw 3 is provided inside a main body 2, a stroke regulating member 10 regulated to a small amount of stroke L is mounted, and a locking ball 15 energized by a coil spring 16 is interposed between the inclined engaging surface 14 of the regulating member 10 and the piston rod 6. Further, a lock releasing member 18 which forces the locking ball 15 down is provided, the piston rod 6 is interlocked with the regulating member 10 by a wedging mechanism provided by the locking ball 15 so as to regulate the unclamp span D3 of the clamping claw 3 to a small amount of stroke L, and the locking ball 15 is locked and released by the releasing member 18 to freely open and close the clamping claw 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a robot for transferring electronic components by a robot arm or a magic hand when the electronic components are assembled and mounted on a common substrate to assemble electronic devices. The present invention relates to an article transfer gripping device that is attached to the tip of an article transfer hand such as an arm and is used for gripping and carrying and supplying articles such as electronic articles.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the case of assembling and assembling a large number of parts as in the above-mentioned electronic equipment, a robot or a magic hand is used, and the parts fixed at a predetermined position should be assembled by a transfer hand. The automatic assembly process that automatically supplies and assembles the electronic device body is often adopted. An article transfer gripping device having an openable / closable gripping claw is attached to the tip end portion of the transfer hand that repeatedly transfers the required parts, and the gripping claws are used to clamp and transfer articles such as required parts. Then, a work method is adopted in which the assembling is carried out automatically, the gripping claw is unclamped, the transfer hand is returned to the original position, and the transfer is repeatedly carried out.

In order to clamp an article safely and accurately by the above-mentioned conventional gripping device, it is necessary to set the opening span of the gripping claw to be considerably larger than the size of the article to be clamped. Therefore, in the process of assembling an electronic device in which electronic components are arranged at a high density, the grip claws that are retracted for unclamping interfere with the electronic components around the existing arrangement,
Since there is a risk of damaging the electronic components or disrupting the arrangement posture, there is a performance difficulty that renders them unusable.

[0004] Therefore, as a means to eliminate the difficulty,
When the gripping claw releases the clamped article, the retracting position of the gripping claw is regulated to a small amount by a stopper, and then,
Some have a stopper mechanism that causes the grip claws to retreat largely to the original position so that the article can be accurately gripped in the next cycle operation.

[0005]

Although the above-described known gripping device with a stopper mechanism can prevent the gripping claw from excessively retracting at the time of releasing the article, it is necessary to set the stopper position in conformity with the size of the transferred article. Therefore, the setup change work for changing the size of the transferred article is complicated and the productivity of the operation is poor, and in addition, it becomes impossible to transfer the articles of various sizes in which different sizes are mixed.

The present invention provides an article transfer gripping device that solves the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art.

[0007]

The gripping device of the present invention for solving the above technical problem is described as follows: "A gripping device for transferring an article in which a pair of opposed gripping claws for clamping and unclamping a transferred product are projected from the main body. In the main body, a piston rod that opens and closes the grip claw and a stroke restriction member that operates a small stroke that is restricted in the releasing direction of the grip claw of the piston rod are provided, and the piston rod and the stroke Lock interlocking of the regulating member, or
A structure is provided in which an open stroke restriction mechanism for selectively disengaging the unlocking is provided, and a small amount of the unclamping stroke of the grip claw is restricted by the lock interlocking. "

That is, in the gripping device of the present invention, the piston rod and the stroke restricting member are locked and interlocked by the release stroke restricting mechanism, and the gripping claw is retracted and clamped only for a small release stroke of the stroke restricting member. When releasing the article and grasping the article by recycling the grasping claws, the piston rod and the stroke restricting member are unlocked and the piston rod that can be operated freely releases the grasping claws. It is supposed to be restored.

As a specific construction, "a lower end portion of the stroke restricting member is formed in a donut shape with a piston rod penetrating the center thereof, and the inside of the donut shape is expanded in the operating direction of the piston rod. Forming an annular slant engagement surface, and energizing the engagement ball by press contact engagement between the slant engagement surface and the piston rod to form a stroke restriction mechanism of the wedge mechanism, and further, the stroke A lock release member is provided inside the cylinder portion of the hollow portion of the regulating member to form a piston body, and a lock release member having a release projection facing the locking ball is provided. By interlocking the stroke restricting member and releasing the press-contact engagement of the engagement ball by the release projection of the lock release member, the piston is released. Forming the head and the stroke limiting member into the unlocked non interlock "mode is adopted.

[0010]

In the gripping device of the present invention having the above-described structure, when the release stroke restricting mechanism is actuated immediately before the release operation of the piston rod holding the article, the pistol rod and the stroke restricting member are in a locked interlocking state. Since only a small amount of release stroke is activated, the grasping claw in the article grasping state can quantitatively operate only a small amount of the regulation stroke of the stroke regulation member to release the grasped article. Then, by unlocking and disengaging the piston rod and the stroke regulating member, the piston rod is allowed to operate freely, and the gripping claw can recycle the article to return it to a sufficiently released state where it can be gripped safely and reliably. You can

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention is carried out as follows.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a detailed description will be given based on embodiments. The gripping device 1 of this embodiment is provided with a cylindrical block-shaped main body 2 and a pair of gripping claws 3 which open and close so as to oppose the lower end thereof.
It has a structure in which the upper end of the main body 2 is attached to the tip of a robot arm 21 of an electronic component assembling robot. Inside the main body 2, a piston 5 is inserted into a first cylinder portion 4 near the upper end and the main body 2 is attached. The piston rod 6 and the gripping claw 3 are provided in the vertical direction of the piston rod 6. The pinion 8 is interposed between the rack portions 7 provided on the piston rod 6 and the gripping claw 3. Interlocking with the vertical movement of the piston rod 5 by the
Open and close as required.

At the intermediate portion of the piston rod 6, a downward opening cup-shaped stroke regulating member 10 (hereinafter, simply referred to as the regulating member 1) penetrating through the piston rod 6 is formed.
(Referred to as “0”), the regulation member 10 forms a piston body inserted in the second cylinder portion 17 in the middle of the main body 2, and is elastically biased toward the first cylinder portion 4 by the coil spring 11. Together with the external force, the coil spring 1
It is lowered against the urging force of 1 and only the small stroke L from the top dead center position to the bottom dead center stopper 13 can be lowered.

The lower end portion of the regulating member 10 is
It has a donut shape, and an inner side thereof has an annular inclined engagement surface 14 that inclines in a downwardly expanding manner, and a group of locking balls 15 is inserted between the inclined engagement surface 14 and the piston rod 6. The locking ball 15 is biased upward by the coil spring 16 and is pressed and locked between the outer periphery of the piston rod 6 and the inclined engagement surface 14.

Further, the hollow portion 9 of the regulating member 10 becomes a third cylinder portion and a piston-shaped lock releasing member 18 is provided.
The lock release member 18 is mounted with the disengagement protrusion 19 at the lower end loosely fitted in the inclined engagement surface 14 of the regulating member 10, and is lowered by the air input to the third cylinder portion. When actuated, the disengagement protrusion 19 causes the locking ball 1
5 is forcibly pushed down to make the inclined engagement surface 1 of the locking ball 15
The pressure contact lock to 4 is released to release the lock ball 15 in a free state.

That is, the inclined engaging surface 14 of the regulating member 10
The engaging ball 15 and the engaging ball 15 constitute a stroke restricting mechanism of the article gripping device 1, and when the lock releasing member 18 is set to the upper position, as shown in FIG. The stop ball 15 is brought into the above-mentioned pressure contact state, and the piston rod 6 and the regulating member 10 are locked in an integrated body, so that the piston rod 6 and the regulating member 10 are
And the downward stroke of the piston rod 6, that is, the opening stroke of the grip claw 3 is restricted to a small amount of L.

When the lock release member 18 is forcibly lowered as shown in FIG. 1 (A), the locking ball 15 is forcibly pushed down to release the above pressure contact state, and the piston rod 6 and the regulating member 10 are released. The unlocking is disengaged, the piston rod 6 is freely operated, and the grip claw 3 can be freely opened and closed.

That is, the locking ball 1 in the pressure contact locking state described above.
5 has a structural feature of receiving a biasing force from the coil spring 16 and press-contacting the inclined engagement surface 14 and the outer periphery of the piston rod 6 to form a "wedge mechanism". The locking ball 15 remarkably amplifies the biasing force. Then, the piston rod 6 and the restricting member 10 are locked as a substantially integrated body by making extremely strong pressure contact.
The operation stroke of the piston rod 6, that is, the opening stroke of the grip claw 3 can be restricted to the L.

As shown in FIG. 1 (A), the article gripping device 1 sets the locking ball 15 in a forcibly depressed state to unlock the piston rod 6 and the regulating member 10, and the gripping claw 3 The maximum release span D2 to article 2
2 as the clamp span D1 for clamping 2
(C) in FIG.
As shown in (D), the engaging ball 15 is brought into the above-mentioned pressure contact state, the descending stroke of the piston rod 6 is restricted to the above-mentioned small stroke L, and the grasping pawl 3 is formed into an unclamp span D3 in which it is slightly opened. Release 22. And
The maximum release span D sufficient for the grip claw 3 to accurately clamp the article 22 by releasing the pressure contact state of the locking ball 15 again.
2 and recycle transfer.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1 described above, even if the size of the article 22 to be grasped is various, since the grasping claw 3 is largely released, the clamping action can be properly performed, and
Even when the electronic parts are densely transferred and assembled, the grip claw 3 can be slightly retracted to be unclamped based on the size of the article 22 after the transfer, so that the grip claw 3 can be used for the electronic parts in the vicinity. It is possible to solve the problem of contact interference with other objects. Further, regardless of the size of the article 22, since the small amount of retreat of the gripping claw 3 for unclamping is constant, complicated setup change work accompanying the change of the article size becomes unnecessary.

The gripping device of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and as shown in FIG. 2, the interlocking mechanism of the gripping claw 3 and the piston rod 6 is gripped by the lever 20 supported by the intermediate fulcrum 21. A lever mechanism that opens and closes the claw 3,
There is a change such that the operation of the piston rod 6 is changed to a hydraulic operation. Further, the stroke restricting mechanism cuts the engaging groove 23 on the outer periphery of the piston rod 6 at a fine pitch as shown in FIG. , The locking claw 24 facing the locking groove 23
Is provided so as to project from the regulating member 10, and the locking claw 24 is made movable forward and backward by a magnetic force utilizing means or the like. There may be a structure that regulates a small amount.

[0022]

As described above, in the article transfer gripping device of the present invention, when clamping and transferring an article to a pair of gripping claws, the gripping claw unclamping stroke for releasing the article after the transfer is performed. Since a small amount can be regulated regardless of the article size, it can be used even when the transferred articles are densely arranged to improve the performance, and complicated setup change work due to the change of the article size is possible. There is an effect of making the work unnecessary and improving the productivity of the article transfer work.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1A and 1B show a gripping device for article transfer according to a first embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1A is a front sectional view thereof, FIG. 1B is an intermediate transverse sectional view of FIG. 1A, and FIGS. Partial front sectional view of its working state

FIG. 2 is a partial front cross-sectional view of a gripping device for transferring articles according to another embodiment of the present invention, in which (A) and (B) are shown.

FIG. 3 is a partial front sectional view of another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Gripping device 2 Main body 3 Gripping claw 4 First cylinder part 5 Piston 6 Piston rod 7 Rack 8 Pinion 9 Hollow part 10 Stroke regulating member 11 Coil spring 13 Bottom dead center stopper 14 Inclined engaging surface 15 Locking ball 16 Coil spring 17 2nd cylinder part 18 Lock release member 19 Dissociation protrusion 20 Lever body 21 Robot arm 22 Article 23 Locking groove 24 Locking pin

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A gripping device for article transfer, wherein a pair of gripping claws for clamping and unclamping a transferred article project from a main body, and a piston rod for opening and closing the gripping claw on the main body, A stroke regulating member that operates a small stroke regulated in the releasing direction of the gripping claw of the piston rod is provided, and further, a release stroke that selects lock interlocking or unlock non-interlocking between the piston rod and the stroke restricting member. A gripping device for article transfer, comprising a restricting mechanism, and a structure for restricting a small amount of the unclamping stroke of the gripping claw by the lock interlocking. 2. A lower end portion of the stroke restricting member is formed in a donut shape in which a piston rod penetrates through the center, and an inner side of the donut shape is formed into an annular inclined engagement surface that expands in the operating direction of the piston rod. None, a biased locking ball is pressed and locked between the inclined engagement surface and the piston rod to form a stroke restriction mechanism of a wedge mechanism, and further, a cylinder portion of a hollow portion of the stroke restriction member. A lock releasing member that is internally provided to form a piston body and that has a release projection that faces the locking ball, and locks the piston rod and the stroke restricting member by the pressure contact locking of the locking ball. At the same time, by disengaging the press contact lock of the lock ball by the release protrusion of the lock release member, the piston rod and the stroke restricting member are moved. The gripping device for article transfer according to claim 1, which is not locked.