JPH09207051A - Electrostatic capacity type copying sensor supporting mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To relax the generation of an impact due to a rear-end collision between a work and a detecting plate, to stabilize copying operation of a cutting finishing machine, and to move aside an electrostatic capacity type copying sensor support mechanism by a method wherein a sensor part arranged in the vicinity of a machining head is vertically moved or inclined at a given angle in such a manner to match with the surface shape of a work. SOLUTION: A sensor part comprises a guard electrode 7 supported at the side of a machining head 1; a sensing plate C arranged in the vicinity of the machining head 1 by the guard electrode 7; a support mechanism to movably support the sensing plate C arranged in the middle of the guard electrode 7. The support mechanism comprises a vertical movement mechanism 6 to vertically slide a swivel joint 12; and a spring means to hold the sensing plate C at a given angle by exerting a resilient force on the vertical movement mechanism 6.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a cutting machine body for cutting a steel sheet by gas cutting, plasma cutting, powder marking, etc., to measure the electrostatic capacity and to keep the distance between the processing head and the work piece constant. The present invention relates to a capacitance type scanning sensor support mechanism provided with a holding sensor unit.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a cutting machine for cutting a steel plate or the like while keeping a constant distance between a machining head and a machining surface of a workpiece. In this cutting machine, an annular electrode called a sensor ring is provided so as to surround the vicinity of the machining head, and a change in the distance between this electrode and the workpiece is detected as a change in the capacitance between them. The sensor unit thus configured is provided. In addition, the sensor ring,
It is connected to the control unit via the center electrode wire and the coaxial cable.

[0003]

Since the sensor section and the center electrode wire having such a structure have no electrical and mechanical protection means, the human body and other conductors approaching at the time of work, or However, it is affected by heat generated during cutting and causes an error in the measured capacitance. Therefore, the control unit erroneously recognizes the distance, and the copying operation of the cutting machine becomes unstable. This causes a problem that the processing head collides with the processing surface when the workpiece having a sudden height change or an obstacle is cut, and the sensor portion is damaged due to this change. Further, in the machining head, since it is necessary to frequently replace the cutting torch due to the thickness of the material to be processed and the wear of the tip of the cutting torch, etc., the sensor provided near the machining head is , Which hinders the efficiency of the replacement work.

According to the present invention, the center electrode line for transmitting the sensing signal from the sensor unit provided in the vicinity of the machining head to the control unit is generated by the conductor other than the work material approaching at the time of cutting and heat generated at the time of machining. In addition to preventing erroneous recognition of the measured value of the electrostatic capacity, when the height copying means is not used, the sensor section is retracted to a retracted position near the machining head, away from the electrostatic capacitance detection position, to improve the cutting torch replacement work efficiency. The purpose is to improve.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A machining head for performing a predetermined machining while moving along a surface of a work material, and a sensor for measuring a distance between the surface of the work material while moving integrally with the machining head. And a control unit that controls the height of the machining head based on the distance measured by the sensor unit, wherein the sensor unit is machined by a fixed unit integrally provided on the machining head. A cylinder supported on the side of the head and having an electrode wire inserted therein, a sensing plate supported by the cylinder near the processing head, and a sensing plate provided in the middle of the cylinder to move the sensing plate. It is characterized in that it is composed of a support mechanism that supports it as much as possible.

The support mechanism includes a swivel joint slidably supported on the sensing plate via a spherical surface, a vertical movement mechanism slidably supporting the swivel joint in the vertical direction, and the swivel joint and the vertical movement. It is characterized by comprising spring means for applying an elastic force to the mechanism to keep the sensing plate at a predetermined angle. Further, it is characterized in that the cylindrical body is constituted by a flexible metal tube.

[0007]

1 and 2 show an embodiment of a copy sensor support mechanism, in which reference numeral 1 is a machining head. The processing head 1 is composed of a moving part 3 that moves along the surface 2 to be processed, and a processing head body 4 supported by the moving part 3. A gas cutting torch, a laser processing head, and a plasma processing apparatus are specifically used for the processing head body 4, and the processing surface 2 is subjected to cutting processing and the like.

A support bracket 5 is provided on the moving portion 3, and a support pipe 7 is supported on the support bracket 5 via a vertical movement mechanism 6. Further, reference numeral 8 is a bolt, and the vertical movement mechanism 6 and the support pipe 7 can rotate with respect to the support bracket 5 around the bolt 8.

The lower end of the support tube 7 is integrated with a spherical swivel nipple 9.
Is surrounded by a swivel joint member 10 having a divided structure having a spherical concave portion having a shape corresponding to this, and these can slide with respect to each other. A male screw is provided on the outer circumference of the swivel joint member 10, and a swivel nut 11 is screwed into the male screw. The swivel nut 11 is adapted to support the swivel nipple 9 by screwing it into the swivel joint member 10 to integrate the swivel joint member 10. The swivel nipple 9, the swivel joint member 10, and the swivel nut 11 constitute a swivel joint 12. In addition, the support tube 7
Is supported by the vertical movement mechanism 6, so that the entire swivel joint 12 is movably supported in the axial direction (vertical direction in FIG. 1). In the lower part of the swivel nut 10, a cylindrical flange nipple 13 having a flange on the upper part is slidably inserted, and between the upper surface of the flange nipple 13 and the swivel nipple 10, a pair of The disc springs 14 are provided one above the other and are elastically deformed by the rotation of the swivel nipple 10 and the vertical movement of the flange nipple 13. Further, a compression spring 16 is provided on the upper part of the swivel joint member 10 via a flange 15 so as to be elastically deformed by the movement of the support pipe 7 with respect to the support bracket 5.

The flange nipple 13 has a sensing plate C composed of an upper sensing plate 17 and a lower sensing plate 18.
A sensing plate support pipe 19 for supporting the is attached. The upper sensing plate 17 has an annular shape with the machining head 4 as a center, and a lower sensing plate 18 having the same planar shape is provided below the upper sensing plate 17. Among these sensing plates, the lower sensing plate 18 functions as an electrode whose capacitance between the lower sensing plate 18 and the surface 2 to be machined changes, and the upper sensing plate 17 is It serves to protect the lower sensing plate 18. Insulating plates 20 and 20 are interposed between the upper and lower detection plates 17 and 18 to electrically insulate them from each other, and these are integrally connected by a bolt 21. Further, one insulating plate 20 on the left side of FIG. 2 further electrically insulates the lower sensing plate 18 and the sensing plate connecting pipe 19. A sensing electrode wire 22 is connected to the lower sensing plate 18. The sensing electrode wire 22 is insulated through an insulating tube 23, wired inside the sensing plate support pipe 19 and the support tube 7, and connected to a controller (not shown). The insulating tube 23 is made of, for example, ceramic, and it is desirable that the insulating tube 23 has a structure divided in the longitudinal direction in consideration of easiness of manufacturing or handling.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described. In normal control, the distance between the sensing plate C and the surface of the workpiece 2 is detected as a change in capacitance between the surface, and the processing head 1 is controlled to move up and down according to the detected distance. As a result, in the state shown by the solid line in FIG. 1, processing for maintaining a constant distance from this surface is performed.
On the other hand, when the sensing plate C contacts the flat surface of the work material 2 due to an unexpected change in the surface shape of the work material 2,
The flange nipple 13 is pressed from below in conjunction with the pressing of the sensing plate C from below by the contact surface. When the contact with the workpiece 2 can be avoided by moving the sensing plate C in the vertical direction, the flange nipple 13 slides the swivel joint member 11 provided on the universal joint 9 in the upward direction. The compression spring 16 is compressed from below via the flange 15.

By tilting the sensing plate C,
When the contact with the workpiece 2 can be avoided, the sensing plate C
Presses the flange nipple 13 from below via the sensing plate support pipe 19 while tilting along the inclination angle of the workpiece 2. At this time, in the universal joint 12, first, the disc spring 14 is inclined and elastically deformed, and accordingly, the swivel nipple 9 slides in the swivel joint member 10. The swivel nipple 9 has a spherical shape.
Sliding with the inner surface of the universal joint 1 as shown by the chain line in FIG.
It can be tilted by rotating about 2. Then, when further pushed up, the support pipe 7 can be slid and moved upward with respect to the support bracket 5 while pressing the flange nipple 15 from below and elastically deforming the compression spring 16 in this inclined state. it can. In any case, contact with the workpiece 2 is avoided, and when the pressing from below is released, the sensing plate C is pushed back to its original fixed position by the expansion of the compression spring 16 (downward movement). Further, when it is not necessary to control the height of the processing head 1 such as maintenance and inspection of the processing section or cutting of a thick plate, the bolt 8 is loosened, and the vertical movement mechanism 6 is supported by the support tube 7 about this axis. Also, it may be rotated integrally with the lower part (rotating in the direction orthogonal to the paper surface of FIG. 1) and retracted upward.

Next, FIG. 3 shows another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a flexible metal pipe 30 is used in place of the universal joint of the above-described one embodiment. This flexible metal tube 3
Reference numeral 0 denotes a strip steel made of stainless steel or the like, which is formed in a spiral shape while partially overlapping one edge thereof, and the necessary bent shape is maintained by sliding the overlapping portions with each other. Is able to. Further, an insulating tube 23 formed by arranging a plurality of ceramic short tubes in the longitudinal direction is provided inside the flexible metal tube 30, and the sensing electrode wire 22 is provided in the insulating tube 23.
Is inserted.

A female screw member 32 screwed into a male screw member 31 connected to the sensing plate C is attached to the lower end of the flexible metal tube 30. The male screw member 31 and the female screw member 32 are connected to each other. The sensing plate C is detachably supported via the section. On the other hand, the upper end of the flexible metal tube 30 is detachably connected to the support bracket 5 via a connecting portion composed of a male screw member 31 and a female screw member 32 like the connector 33.

In this embodiment, when the sensing plate C is subjected to some external force, the flexible metal tube 30 is bent in various ways to prevent the damage. Further, by bending the flexible metal tube 30 as necessary, the sensing plate C can be retracted from the periphery of the processing head body 4 to perform maintenance or the like. In addition, as the flexible metal tube 30 is bent, the insulating tube 23 inside the flexible metal tube 30 is divided into a plurality of parts in the longitudinal direction, so that the bent state of the flexible metal tube 30 can be easily followed. it can.

[0016]

As described above, according to the capacitance type scanning sensor support mechanism of the present invention, when the sensing plate comes into contact with the work piece due to an unexpected change in the surface shape of the work piece, The sensing plate can be moved in the vertical direction (parallel to the processing head) according to the pressure of the contact surface, or can be tilted to be retracted, and the impact due to the rear-end collision between the sensing plate and the workpiece can be mitigated. It became possible to continue the cutting work along the surface shape of the processed material.

Further, the sensing plate is provided with an upper sensing plate having the same plane shape on the lower sensing plate which functions as an electrode for sensing capacitance, and a center electrode line for transmitting a sensing signal to the control unit is provided by a guard electrode. The electrical protection makes it possible to perform a stable copying operation without being affected by the human body or other conductors approaching during work or heat generated during cutting.

Further, in the case of machining that does not use a sensing plate (sensor) such as in the case of cutting a thick plate, and in the maintenance and inspection work of the machining head, the sensing plate and the entire supporting tube supporting the sensing shaft are centered around the supporting shaft. It is possible to retract the sensor unit to a retracted position that is out of the capacitance detection position by rotating the sensor upward.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a capacitance type scanning sensor support mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side sectional view of a sensor portion in the electrostatic capacity type scanning sensor support mechanism according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view of a sensor unit in a capacitance type scanning sensor support mechanism according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Processing Head 2 Workpiece Material 3 Moving Part 4 Processing Head Body, 7 Support Tube 9 Swivel Nipple 10
Swivel joint member 11 Swivel nut 13 Flange nipple 14 Disc spring 16 Compression spring

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A machining head for performing a predetermined machining while moving along a surface of a workpiece, a sensor section for measuring a distance from the surface of the workpiece while moving integrally with the machining head, In a processing device comprising a control unit that controls the height of the processing head based on a distance measured by a sensor unit, the sensor unit includes a fixing unit integrally provided on the processing head, and a side portion of the processing head. And a sensing plate supported in the vicinity of the machining head by the tubular body, and a sensing plate provided in the middle of the tubular body to movably support the sensing plate. A capacitance type scanning sensor support mechanism for a processing apparatus, which comprises a support mechanism. 2. A swivel joint for slidably supporting the cylindrical body through a spherical surface, a vertical movement mechanism for slidably supporting the swivel joint in a vertical direction, and the swivel joint. 2. The electrostatic capacity type scanning sensor support mechanism according to claim 1, further comprising spring means for applying an elastic force to the vertical movement mechanism to keep the sensing plate at a predetermined angle. 3. The capacitance type scanning sensor support mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the cylindrical body supporting the sensing plate is made of a flexible metal tube.