JPH10160358A - Multistage stacking heat treating method and multistage stacking charging apparatus of material to be treated in heat treating furnace - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a multistage stacking heat treating method and a multistage stacking charging apparatus of material to be treated in a heat treating furnace for heat treating material to be treated without waste of thermal energy in the furnace having a short furnace length. SOLUTION: The heat treating method comprises the steps of multistage stacking materials to be treated in two or more stages immediately before charging in a heat treating furnace, charging the material in the multistage stacking state in the furnace, and heat-treating it. The multistage stacking charging apparatus for the material in the furnace is an apparatus for multistage stacking the materials in two or more stages and charging it in the furnace, and comprises an extruding means for extruding the material from a conveyor out of the furnace onto a charging base, pawls 6 for grasping the material extruded on the base, a switching means 51 for switching the pawls 61, advancing and retreating means 31, 41 for advancing and retreating the switching means together with the pawls 61 in three axis directions to an inlet of the furnace, and a control means for controlling the advancing and retreating of the advancing and retreating means in three axis coordinates.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multi-stage heat treatment method and an apparatus for multi-stage loading of materials to be processed into a heat treatment furnace. For example, when annealing mechanical parts such as automobile gears formed into a predetermined shape, a tunnel-type heat treatment furnace equipped with a mesh-type or link-type conveying conveyor in the furnace is used. When heat-treating a workpiece such as a mechanical component as described above in such a heat treatment furnace, it is required to reduce the size of the furnace due to restrictions on the installation location, and needless to say, to eliminate waste of heat energy. You. The present invention relates to a multi-stage stacking heat treatment method and a multi-stage stacking / loading apparatus for a material to be processed into a heat treatment furnace to meet such a demand.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a method for heat-treating a material to be treated as described above, the material to be treated, which has been transported to a furnace inlet by a bucket or a conveyor outside the furnace, is charged or spread so as to be spread into the furnace. It is charged and heat-treated. For example, materials to be processed conveyed one by one on a conveyor outside the furnace are loaded into the furnace by a pusher, and heat treatment is performed while being conveyed in the furnace in this state. However, in the conventional method, since the materials to be treated are transported one by one, that is, in a single step, in the furnace, a heat treatment furnace having a considerably long furnace length is required to heat-treat the materials to be treated as prescribed, and the thermal energy There is a drawback that the waste of is large.

[0003]

The problem to be solved by the present invention is that the conventional method requires a heat treatment furnace having a considerably long furnace length, and wastes a large amount of heat energy.

[0004]

Means for Solving the Problems According to the present invention, a material to be treated is stacked in two or more stages immediately before charging into a furnace, and is charged into the furnace in a multi-stage state and heat-treated. And a multi-stage heat treatment method. Further, the present invention is an apparatus for stacking the material to be processed in two or more stages and loading the material into the furnace in a state of multi-stage stacking, and extruding the material to be processed from a transfer conveyor outside the furnace onto a loading table. Means, a claw for gripping the workpiece to be extruded onto the loading table, opening and closing means for opening and closing the claw, forward and backward means for moving the opening and closing means together with the claw in and out of the furnace inlet in three axial directions, and forward and backward means And a control means for controlling the forward and backward movement of the workpiece in three-axis coordinates.

In the method according to the present invention, the material to be treated is stacked in two or more stages immediately before being charged into the furnace, and is charged into the furnace in a multi-stage state and heat-treated. For example, materials to be processed, which are usually transported one by one on a conveyor outside the furnace from a direction perpendicular to the furnace length, are stacked in two stages in front of the furnace entrance, and loaded into the furnace in a two-stage stack. Then, an annealing process is performed while transporting in the furnace. This makes it possible to reduce the furnace length by half compared to the case where the materials to be treated are transferred one by one, that is, one step, in the furnace, thereby reducing waste of heat energy.
In particular, when auto-annealing a hot forged product such as a gear for an automobile, it is necessary to minimize the waste of heat energy during the annealing process and make the most of the heat held by the hot forged product itself. Therefore, the present invention is preferable in such a case.

The apparatus according to the present invention is an apparatus in which materials to be treated are stacked in two or more stages immediately before charging into a furnace, and charged into the furnace in a multi-stage state. The apparatus includes an extruding unit that extrudes a material to be processed from a transfer conveyor outside the furnace onto a loading table, a claw that grips the material that is extruded onto the loading table, an opening and closing unit that opens and closes the claw, and a claw. There is provided a reciprocating means for moving the opening / closing means in three axial directions with respect to the furnace inlet, and a control means for controlling the advancing / retreating of the reciprocating means in triaxial coordinates.

The transfer conveyor outside the furnace is usually arranged so as to transfer the materials to be processed one by one at predetermined intervals from a direction orthogonal to the furnace length. The loading table is located between the transfer conveyor outside the furnace and the furnace and before the furnace entrance. A known motor-driven or cylinder-driven pusher can be used as the pushing means. For example, when the materials to be processed are stacked in two stages, the materials to be processed that have been conveyed one by one on the conveyor outside the furnace at a predetermined interval are stopped by the stopper on the downstream side of the material to be processed, and the material to be processed that follows is stopped. The materials are stopped by stoppers on the upstream side, and a total of two to-be-processed materials stopped by these stoppers are pushed out onto the loading table by advancing the pusher. The advance and retreat of the stopper and the pusher can be controlled by sensors such as a photoelectric tube and a limit switch.

The claw is used for gripping the material to be processed which has been extruded from the transfer conveyor outside the furnace onto the loading table, and various types of claw can be used. It is preferable to use a pair of curved pieces that only open and close with a door method. The pair of claws are covered by the flat piece and the tip of the curved piece when the flat piece advances, while the curved piece is closed relative to the flat piece, and therefore when the whole is closed. Hold the processing material securely.

The opening / closing means is for opening / closing the pawl, and the reciprocating means, together with the pawl, moves the opening / closing means together with the pawl in three axial directions (three directions of front and rear, left and right and up and down, ie, X axis, Y axis and Z axis). (In three axis directions).
As such opening / closing means and advance / retreat means, a known motor-driven or cylinder-driven means can be used, but it is preferable to use an actuator having a ball screw shaft. An actuator itself having a ball screw shaft is known, and includes a casing, a ball screw shaft provided inside the casing, and a DC for rotating the ball screw shaft.
A servo motor, an inner block screwed with the ball screw shaft and slidingly fitted with the guide shaft or the guide rail, and a slider attached to the inner block and taken out of the casing; The slider moves forward and backward along with the inner block in the axial direction via the shaft.

When the above-described actuator is used as the claw opening / closing means and the three-axis moving means, an actuator for moving the slider forward and backward with respect to the loading port of the furnace (hereinafter referred to as an X-axis moving means). Actuator). Further, an actuator for moving the slider in the vertical direction with respect to the inlet of the furnace (hereinafter referred to as a Z-axis advance / retreat actuator) is attached to the slider of the X-axis advance / retreat actuator. Further, an actuator for moving the slider in the left-right direction with respect to the inlet of the furnace (hereinafter, referred to as a Y-axis advance / retreat actuator) is attached to the Z-axis advance / retreat actuator. Then, an actuator (hereinafter, referred to as an opening / closing actuator) is provided on the slider of the Y-axis advancing / retracting actuator, which opens and closes the claw by moving the slider back and forth with respect to the furnace inlet.

The X-axis advancing / retreating actuator, the Z-axis advancing / retreating actuator, the Y-axis advancing / retreating actuator and the opening / closing actuator may each be one, but it is preferable to arrange two in parallel, and particularly the X-axis advancing / retreating. Since the actuator serves as a base, two actuators are preferably arranged side by side. When a pair of pawls as described above is used as the pawls, it is preferable that the opening / closing actuator has two ball screw shafts inside the casing, and thus two sliders are taken out of the casing. In this case, a flat piece is attached to one slider, and a curved piece pivotally supported on the casing is attached to the other slider.

In any case, the material to be processed is placed in two stages by using the above-described multi-stage loading apparatus having an X-axis advance / retreat actuator, a Z-axis advance / retreat actuator, a Y-axis advance / retreat actuator, an opening / closing actuator and a pair of claws. When stacking and loading into the furnace, these actuators operate sequentially or simultaneously, and the pair of claws advance and retreat in three axial directions, and open and close, so that they are pushed out onto the loading table. After the other material to be processed is stacked on one material to be processed, the two materials to be processed are moved to and placed on various positions on the conveyor in the furnace. The operation of such an actuator can be numerically controlled by three-axis coordinates.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is an overall plan view schematically showing a multi-stage loading device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a partial side view schematically showing the same multi-stage loading device as FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a partial plan view schematically illustrating the same multi-stage loading apparatus as in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged side view schematically illustrating the same multi-stage loading apparatus as in FIG. 1. Each figure shows a two-stage loading device. A transport conveyor 11 for transporting the workpieces A and B one by one at predetermined intervals in a direction orthogonal to the furnace length direction of a tunnel-type heat treatment furnace (not shown, the same applies hereinafter) is arranged. A stopper 12 on the downstream side and a stopper 1 on the upstream side are provided on the conveyor 11.
3 is provided so as to be able to advance and retreat, and the stopper 13 extends to a charging stand 14 arranged on the heat treatment furnace side. The conveyor 1 faces the workpiece A stopped by the stopper 12.
1, a pusher 15 for driving the cylinder is arranged on the opposite side of the loading table 14 and the workpiece B stopped by the stopper 13 is faced to the workpiece B. Pusher 16 is disposed. The preceding workpiece A conveyed on the conveyor 11 is stopped by the stopper 12, and the succeeding workpiece B is stopped by the stopper 13, and the stopped workpieces A and B are stopped.
Is pushed out onto the loading table 14 by the pushers 15 and 16.

An X-axis advance / retreat actuator, a Z-axis advance / retreat actuator, a Y-axis advance / retreat actuator, an opening / closing actuator and a pair of claws, which will be described below, include a transport conveyor 11, stoppers 12, 13, a loading table 14, and a pusher 15. , 16 (rectangular portions shown by broken lines in FIG. 1), each of these actuators includes a casing, a ball screw shaft provided in the casing, and a DC for rotating the ball screw shaft as described above. It has a servo motor, an inner block screwed to the ball screw shaft and slidingly fitted to the guide rail, and a slider attached to the inner block and taken out of the casing.

X-axis advance / retreat actuators 21 and 22 for moving the slider forward / backward with respect to the loading port of the heat treatment furnace.
Are arranged side by side. X axis advance / retreat actuator 2
A base 23 is mounted on sliders 1 and 22 (not shown), and a Z-axis advance / retreat actuator 3 on which the slider advances / retreats vertically with respect to an inlet of a heat treatment furnace.
1 is erected. A slider 32 of the Z-axis advance / retreat actuator 31 is attached via a connecting member 33 to a Y-axis advance / retreat actuator 41 for allowing the slider to advance / retreat in the left-right direction with respect to the loading port of the heat treatment furnace. An opening / closing actuator 51 is mounted on the slider 42 of the Y-axis advance / retreat actuator 41 so that the slider advances / retreats in the front-rear direction with respect to the inlet of the heat treatment furnace. The opening / closing actuator 51 includes two sliders. One flat piece 62 forming a pair of claws 61 is attached to a lower slider 52 via a connecting shaft 53, and the upper slider 54 is connected to a connecting shaft. The other curved piece 63 constituting the same pair of claws 61 is supported via 55. The curved piece 63 is supported by the casing of the opening / closing actuator 51 via a shaft connection shaft 56. Therefore, when the sliders 52 and 54 move forward, the flat piece 62 moves forward and the tip of the curved piece 63 becomes flat. The work piece A or the work piece B is gripped between the two by closing in the direction of the shape piece 62.

X-axis advance / retreat actuators 21, 22, Z
The operations of the axis advance / retreat actuator 31, the Y axis advance / retreat actuator 41, and the opening / closing actuator 51 are numerically controlled in three-axis coordinates by a controller (not shown), and the actuator is pushed onto the loading table 14 by the operation of these actuators. After the material to be processed A is stacked on the material to be processed B, the materials A and B stacked in two stages are moved from the inlet of the heat treatment furnace to a predetermined position on the in-furnace conveyor, and placed.

[0017]

As is clear from the above, the present invention described above has an effect that the material to be treated can be heat-treated in a heat treatment furnace having a short furnace length without wasting heat energy.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall plan view schematically showing a multi-stage loading apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial side view schematically showing the same multi-stage loading apparatus as in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a partial plan view schematically showing the same multi-stage loading apparatus as in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged side view schematically showing the same multi-stage loading apparatus as in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... transport conveyor, 12, 13 ... stopper,
14 ... loading stand, 15, 16 ... pusher, 21,
22 ... X-axis advance / retreat actuator, 31 ... Z-axis advance / retreat actuator, 41 ... Y-axis advance / retreat actuator, 51 ... Open / close actuator, 61 ...
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Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A multi-stack heat treatment method comprising: stacking a plurality of workpieces in two or more stages immediately before charging them into a furnace; loading the materials into the furnace in a multi-stack state; and performing heat treatment. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the hot forging is self-annealed. 3. An apparatus for stacking materials to be processed in two or more stages and loading them into a furnace in a multi-stage state, wherein the material is extruded from a transfer conveyor outside the furnace onto a loading table. Means, a claw for gripping the workpiece to be extruded onto the loading table,
Opening and closing means for opening and closing the claw, forward and backward means for moving the opening and closing means together with the claw in and out of the furnace inlet in three axial directions, and control means for controlling the forward and backward movement of the forward and backward means in three axial coordinates. Multi-stage loading equipment for materials to be treated into heat treatment furnace.