JPH1015666A - Wire clamp device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate the change of setting, in changing the diameter of a welding wire, so that it is fixed on the travelling center axis A. SOLUTION: This device is provided with a fixing mechanism by which a welding wire 6 with an arbitrary wire diameter is fixed on the travelling center axis A of a welding torch. The fixing mechanism is equipped with a cylinder device 35 capable of pressurizing the side of the welding wire 6 from one side, wire supporting member 37 for supporting the side of the welding wire 6 from the other side, and a height adjusting screw 38 which positions the wire supporting member 37 movably forwards and backwards in the direction of the cylinder device 35 so that the welding wire 6 is positioned on the travelling center axis A.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wire clamp device capable of fixing a wire such as a welding wire.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a welding robot, a touch sensing operation for detecting a welding position by bringing a tip end of a welding wire into contact with a work prior to a welding operation is performed. At this time, if the amount of protrusion of the welding wire changes due to a change in the posture of the welding robot, the welding position cannot be accurately detected. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-116845 discloses that the welding wire can be fixed. A configuration is disclosed in which a suitable wire clamp device is provided on a welding torch, and the welding wire is fixed by the wire clamp device so that the amount of protrusion of the welding wire is made constant.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5, a wire clamp device provided on a welding torch is provided with a guide body 52 having a lead-out hole 52a through which a welding wire 51 is conducted, and a guide member 52 perpendicular to the lead-out hole 52a. And a cylinder device 54 capable of moving the holding rod 53 forward and backward.
The welding wire 51 is fixed by pressing the welding wire 51 against the wall surface.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional configuration, when the welding wire 51 having a wire diameter larger than the outlet hole 52a is to be changed, for example, the current guide body 52 cannot be used. It is necessary to replace with a wire clamp device corresponding to the welding wire 51 to be formed.

On the other hand, when changing to a welding wire 51 having a small wire diameter, the current guide 52 can be used because the welding wire 51 sufficiently passes through the lead-out hole 52a. However, in this case, when the welding wire 51 is fixed, the welding wire 51 is pressed against the wall surface of the lead-out hole 52a, so that the welding wire 51 curves from the traveling center A toward the wall surface of the lead-out hole 52a. Since the bending due to the bending causes a decrease in the detection accuracy of the touch sensing operation, if a high detection accuracy is to be obtained, the welding to be changed is performed in the same manner as in the case of changing to the welding wire 51 having the large wire diameter described above. It is necessary to replace it with a wire clamp device corresponding to the wire 51.

As described above, in the conventional wire clamp device, every time the wire diameter of the welding wire 51 is changed, the entire device needs to be replaced. Therefore, the workability when changing the welding wire 51 is reduced. Have a problem.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a wire clamp device capable of easily changing the setting so that the welding wire 51 is fixed at the traveling center A when the wire diameter of the welding wire 51 is changed.

[0007]

According to the present invention, there is provided a wire clamp apparatus having a fixing mechanism for fixing a wire member having an arbitrary wire diameter at the center of travel of a torch member. The fixing mechanism includes a pressing unit configured to press a side surface of the wire member from one side, a wire support member configured to support the side surface of the wire member on the other side, and the wire unit so that the wire member is positioned at a running center. Positioning means for positioning the support member so as to be able to advance and retreat in the direction of the pressing means. Thereby, since the wire support member can be moved forward and backward by the positioning means, even when the wire diameter of the wire member is changed, the wire member can be adjusted by the simple operation of adjusting the position of the wire support member by the positioning means. Can always be located at the center of travel and can be fixed at this center of travel.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 1, the wire clamp device according to the present embodiment includes a wire clamp body 31 and a cylinder device 35 (pressing means) provided on an upper surface of the wire clamp body 31. The wire clamp body 31 has a male screw portion 31c formed on the outer surface on one end side (introduction side), and an attachment mechanism 39 provided on the other end side (outflow side). Mounting mechanism 39
Is composed of an inner cylindrical member 40 fixed to the other end of the wire clamp body 31 and an outer cylindrical member 41 rotatably provided on the inner cylindrical member 40 and having a female screw portion 41a formed on an inner peripheral surface. Has become. The wire clamp device 30 is attached by screwing a support mechanism (not shown) to the attachment mechanism 39 and the male screw portion 31c.

The wire clamp body 31 has a fixing outer peripheral through-hole 31a communicating from the upper surface to the lower surface.
And a fitting through hole 31b which is communicated from one end to the other end so as to be orthogonal to the fixing outer peripheral through hole 31a.
Are formed. A guide body 32 is fitted into the fitting through hole 31b, and a fixing inner peripheral through hole 32a is formed in the guide body 32 so as to coincide with the fixing outer peripheral through hole 31a. . The guide body 32 has a through hole 32b for conduction from one end to the other end so as to conduct the welding wire 6 (wire member) having various wire diameters.
Are formed. A guide member 34 is provided in the conduction through-hole 32b of the guide body 32, and the guide member 34 guides the welding wire 6 to the traveling center A.

On the other hand, the cylinder device 35 provided on the upper surface of the wire clamp body 31 has a cylinder rod 35a which can move forward and backward by compressed air. At the tip of the cylinder rod 35a, a wire pressing member 36 (pressing means) that is in contact with one side of the side surface of the welding wire 6 is fixed. The wire pressing member 36 and the cylinder rod 35a are connected to the wire clamp body 31. Are movably fitted into the fixing outer peripheral through holes 31a.

A wire support member 37 for supporting the side surface of the welding wire 6 on the other side is movably provided in the fixing outer peripheral through hole 31a. Wire support member 3
Numeral 7 is supported by a height adjusting screw 38 (positioning means) screwed on the lower side of the fixing outer peripheral through-hole 31a. The wire support member 37 is positioned so as to be able to advance and retreat in the direction of the wire pressing member 36 so as to be positioned at A. Thereby, the cylinder device 3
When the cylinder rod 35a advances, the wire pressing member 36 fixed to the tip of the cylinder rod 35a presses one side of the side surface of the welding wire 6, and the other side of the side surface of the welding wire 6 is moved by the wire supporting member 37. By being supported, the welding wire 6 is fixed at the traveling center A positioned by the wire support member 37.

As shown in FIG. 2, a groove 37a having a V-shaped or U-shaped vertical cross section is formed on the upper surface of the wire support member 37. The groove 37a is set so as to abut the side surface of the welding wire 6, so that when the welding wire 6 is pressed by the wire pressing member 36 in FIG. 1, the positional deviation in the left-right direction is prevented. ing. The opening angle α of the groove 37a is 60 to 120 °.
It is desirable that the angle is set to 90 °, preferably 90 °, in that the side surface of the welding wire 6 can be supported at two points on the left and right sides to reliably prevent the displacement.

The wire clamp device 3 having the above configuration
0 is built in the welding torch 4 (torch member) of the arc welding robot as shown in FIG. The arc welding robot has a robot main body 1, a robot control panel 2, and a welding wire cutting device 3. The robot main body 1 holds the above-described welding torch 4 by a multi-joint arm 5 in a predetermined posture.
A predetermined locus of -YZ coordinates is moved. Further, a robot control panel 2 is connected to the robot body 1. The robot control panel 2 controls the movement trajectory of the welding torch 4 and controls the projecting operation of the welding wire 6. Normally, the welding work on the workpiece is performed by moving the welding torch 4 along a predetermined locus while maintaining a predetermined height with respect to the workpiece (not shown).

On the other hand, the welding wire cutting device 3 is installed at a position within the operating range of the welding torch 4 of the robot body 1 and not interfering with the installation of the work to be welded. After the cutting, the projecting operation of the welding wire 6 is controlled in conjunction with the robot control panel 2 so that the projecting length of the welding wire 6 becomes constant.

That is, the welding wire cutting device 3 has a micro switch 12 for detecting the tip of the welding wire 6 protruding from the welding torch 4. Micro switch 12
Is a contact section that can be switched between an ON state and an OFF state, a detection section 12a that switches the contact section between an ON state and an OFF state, and a detection section 1 that is normally turned off.
2a. Above the microswitch 12, there is provided a backing plate 15 that is rotatably supported at one end and that can return to a position before the rotation.

When the welding wire 6 protrudes from the welding torch 4, the abutment plate 15 contacts the tip S of the welding wire 6 and rotates in the direction of the microswitch 12. 12a is pressed to set the contact to O
The N state is set. The microswitch 12 and the contact plate 15 are mounted on a support plate (not shown).

A wire cutter 11 is provided between the backing plate 15 and the welding torch 4. The disposition position of the wire cutter 11 is separated from the detection point P1 of the contact plate 15 which is the contact point with the welding wire 6 by a predetermined distance H on the welding torch 4 side so that the contact plate 15 is used as a reference position for cutting. It is set so that the cutting point P2 exists at the position. This wire cutter 11 uses compressed air to cut the cutting blades 11a.
It consists of, for example, an air nipper that opens and closes 11a,
Compressed air for operating the wire cutter 11 is supplied from a wire cutter opening / closing controller 26 including the cutter valve 13 and the air source 7.

The compressed air from the air source 7 branches off in a passage between the wire cutter opening / closing controller 26 and the wire cutter 11 and is also supplied to the jet nozzle 18. The ejection nozzle 18 is provided on the side of the backing plate 15 so that the ejection port is directed to the backing plate 15. By blowing compressed air onto the upper surface of the backing plate 15, the tip of the cut welding wire 6 is cut off. The portion S (cut off) is removed from the backing plate 15. Further, the compressed air of the air source 7 is branched at a passage between the air source 7 and the cutter valve 13 and then supplied to the wire clamp device 30 via the clamp valve 42.

The wire cutter opening / closing control section 26 and the microswitch 12 are connected to a control circuit 14, and the control circuit 14 is connected to the robot control panel 2. The control circuit 14 and the robot control panel 2 transmit and receive various signals in two directions, thereby moving the welding torch 4 while fixing the welding wire 6 by the wire clamp device 30, and controlling the tip of the welding wire 6. Is detected by the microswitch 12, the welding wire 6 is cut. Then, the wire clamp device 30
After the fixing of the welding wire 6 by the
Is fixed to a predetermined position, and the welding wire 6 is fed out until it is detected by the microswitch 12, so that the projection length of the welding wire 6 is made constant.

In the above configuration, the operation of the wire clamping device 30 will be described by describing the operation of the wire cutting process in the arc welding robot based on the flowchart of FIG.

First, as shown in FIG. 1, when the wire diameter of the welding wire 6 is changed, the wire supporting member 37 is moved so that the welding wire 6 is supported at the traveling center A by the wire supporting member 37. The height position is the height adjustment screw 38
Is adjusted by

Next, at the time of starting or ending welding, the robot control panel 2 executes the wire cutting process routine of FIG. 4 to move the welding torch 4 of the robot body 1 to a predetermined position as shown in FIG. (S
1). Then, after outputting the micro switch determination start signal and the disconnection permission signal to the control circuit 14 (S2), the clamp valve 42 is driven to supply compressed air to the wire clamp device 30. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 1, the cylinder rod 35 a of the cylinder device 35 advances by the compressed air, and the welding wire 6 is pressed by the wire support member 37 by the wire pressing member 36,
A clamp process for fixing the welding wire 6 is performed. Further, at this time, as shown in FIG. 2, since the side surface of the welding wire 6 abuts on the groove 37a of the wire support member 37, there is no displacement when pressing (S
3).

Next, as shown in FIG. 3, the welding torch 4 is moved toward the microswitch 12 while the welding wire 6 is fixed by the wire clamping device 30 (S).
4). At this time, it is determined whether a stop signal indicating that the microswitch 12 has been turned on has been received from the control circuit 14 (S5), and if the stop signal has not been received (S5, NO), The movement of the welding torch 4 in the direction of the microswitch 12 is continued until a stop signal is received. On the other hand, the welding wire 6 protruding from the welding torch 4
Receives a stop signal from the control circuit 14 by pressing the microswitch 12 through the backing plate 15 to turn it on (S5, YES), the multi-joint arm of the robot body 1 is temporarily stopped, The welding torch 4 is stopped (S6). Then, the multi-joint arm restart signal indicating that the distal end portion S of the welding wire 6 has been cut is transmitted to the control circuit 1.
It is determined whether or not the welding torch 4 has been received, and the welding torch 4 is kept stopped until this signal is received (S7).

Next, when the multi-joint arm restart signal is received (S7, YES), the retreat operation of the multi-joint arm is performed.
The welding torch 4 is moved in a direction opposite to the moving direction of the welding torch 4 to the micro switch 12 (S8). When the welding torch 4 moves to a position away from the backing plate 15 by a predetermined distance (projection length), the welding torch 4
Is stopped (S9), the fixing of the welding wire 6 by the wire clamp device 30 is released. At this time, as shown in FIG. 1, the welding wire 6 is positioned at the traveling center A by the wire support member 37, and the welding wire 6 does not bend at the time of fixing. There is no change in the projection length of the welding wire 6 (S10).

Thereafter, a micro switch discrimination start signal is transmitted to the control circuit 14 (S11), and the welding torch 4 is fixed at a predetermined position so that the micro switch 12 is pressed through the backing plate 15 to be turned on. In this state, the welding operation of the welding wire 6 is performed (S12). Then, it is determined whether or not a stop signal indicating that the microswitch 12 has been turned on has been received from the control circuit 14 (S13), and when the stop signal has been received (S13, YE).
S) After the projecting operation of the welding wire 6 is stopped, the welding wire 6 is made to have a constant projecting length (S1).
4), the multi-joint arm is retracted (S1).
5).

The wire clamp device of the present embodiment is
The case where the present invention is applied to the use of fixing the welding wire 6 in the welding robot has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is applied to the use of fixing the wire in a feeding device of various wire members such as electric wires and optical fiber cables. can do. Further, in the present embodiment, the groove 37a is formed only on the wire support member 37, but it is preferable that the groove is formed also on the wire pressing member 36 facing the wire support member 37. According to this configuration, the welding wire 6 is formed by the groove of the wire pressing member 36 and the groove 37a of the wire support member 37.
Can be fixed while holding the welding wire, so that the displacement of the welding wire 6 at the time of fixing can be more reliably prevented.

Further, in this embodiment, the cylinder device 35 for moving the cylinder rod 35a forward and backward by compressed air is used as the pressing means. The pressing device is a cylinder device driven by electric power or hydraulic pressure. Is also good. Further, in the present embodiment, when the welding wire 6 is positioned at the traveling center A, it is necessary to manually rotate the height adjusting screw 38 to adjust the height position.
For example, a stepping motor is connected to the height adjusting screw 38, and when the wire diameter of the welding wire 6 is input to the control means or the like, the rotation angle of the stepping motor is set according to the wire diameter. Thereby, the height position of the wire support member 37 may be automatically adjusted.

[0028]

According to the present invention, there is provided a wire clamp device having a fixing mechanism for fixing a wire member having an arbitrary wire diameter at the center of travel of a torch member, wherein the fixing mechanism is configured to hold a side surface of the wire member on one side. And a wire support member for supporting the side surface of the wire member on the other side, and allowing the wire support member to move forward and backward in the direction of the press means so as to position the wire member at the center of travel. And a positioning means for positioning. Thereby, since the wire support member can be moved forward and backward by the positioning means, even when the wire diameter of the wire member is changed, the wire member can be adjusted by the simple operation of adjusting the position of the wire support member by the positioning means. Is always located at the center of travel and can be fixed at the center of travel.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a wire clamp device.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of a groove portion of a wire support member.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an arc welding robot.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a wire cutting process routine.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a conventional wire clamp device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Robot main body 2 Robot control panel 4 Welding torch 5 Articulated arm 6 Welding wire 7 Air source 11 Wire cutter 12 Micro switch 13 Cutter valve 14 Control circuit 15 Patch plate 18 Spray nozzle 30 Wire clamp device 31 Wire clamp body 32 Guide 34 Guide member 35 Cylinder device 36 Wire pressing member 37 Wire support member 37a Groove section 38 Height adjusting screw 39 Mounting mechanism 40 Inner cylinder member 41 Outer cylinder member 42 Clamping valve

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A wire clamp device having a fixing mechanism for fixing a wire member having an arbitrary wire diameter at a traveling center of a torch member, wherein the fixing mechanism can press a side surface of the wire member from one side. Pressing means; a wire supporting member for supporting the side surface of the wire member on the other side; and positioning means for positioning the wire supporting member so as to be able to advance and retreat in the direction of the pressing means so as to position the wire member at the center of travel. And a wire clamping device comprising: