JPH11179689A - Sucker pad - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate the replacement of a pad part, and surely prevent coming off of the pad part from an adapter. SOLUTION: A sucker pad 10 is constituted by an adapter 20 and a pad part 40 mounted in the adapter 20. in the adapter 20, a pad mounting part 26 for mounting the pad part 40 is provided. The pad part 40 is integrally formed by a part formed with a hard elastic unit in an upper part side carrying out a coming-off preventing function and a part formed with a soft elastic unit in a lower part side into contact with a workpiece. The pad part 40 is mounted in the adapter 20 in a manner wherein a second tapered part 46 formed in a hole part 42 of the pad part 40 is interposedly mounted in a first tapered part 28 formed in the pad mounting part 26.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a suction pad, and more particularly, to a suction pad which can prevent a pad portion for sucking a work from dropping when the work is sucked and transported.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a suction pad having a structure using sponge rubber for a suction portion for sucking and transporting a work having irregularities has been known (for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 7-24579). reference).

As shown in FIG. 8, the suction pad 1 according to the prior art has a frame 3, an inner rubber 5 and an outer sponge rubber 7 supported by the frame 3,
The inner rubber 5 and the outer sponge rubber 7 are sandwiched in a concave portion 9 having a rectangular cross section of the frame 3 so that they can be replaced when deteriorated due to wear or the like.

[0004]

However, since the suction pad 1 according to the prior art employs a structure in which the inner rubber 5 and the outer sponge rubber 7 are sandwiched in the recess 9, the suction pad 1 is used when the work is transported. Occurs, for example,
There is a concern that the inner rubber 5 and the outer sponge rubber 7 may fall out of the concave portion 9 due to a roll or the like generated by applying a load in the horizontal direction.

In order to prevent such dropout, a method of fixing the inner rubber 5 and the outer sponge rubber 7 to the concave portion 9 of the frame 3 using, for example, an adhesive is considered. When the inner rubber 5 or the outer sponge rubber 7 is deteriorated, it cannot be easily replaced, and the entire suction pad 1 including the frame 3 must be replaced, which is very uneconomical.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned disadvantages, and an object of the present invention is to provide a suction pad which is improved in work suction transfer performance and which is economical.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a suction pad according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises an adapter and a pad portion detachably attached to the adapter. The lower portion of the pad portion for adsorbing a work is formed of a soft elastic material, and the upper portion of the pad portion connected to the adapter is formed of a hard elastic material as compared with the lower portion. I do.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, since the pad portion is detachably attached to the adapter, when the pad portion is deteriorated due to abrasion or the like, it can be easily replaced.

Further, since the pad portion is formed of the lower soft elastic body and the upper hard elastic body, the work can be reliably attracted by the lower soft elastic body. The pad portion is reliably prevented from falling off from the adapter by the upper elastic body.

Further, the pad portion is attached to the adapter such that a second taper portion provided on an upper side of the pad portion is sandwiched by a first taper portion provided on the adapter. When the pad portion is to be displaced downward with respect to the adapter, a force for increasing the diameter of the upper portion of the pad portion is applied to the second taper portion, and this force becomes a resistive force and the pad portion becomes Is prevented from being displaced. Therefore,
The pad portion is more reliably prevented from falling off the adapter.

On the other hand, a suction pad according to a second invention of the present application comprises an adapter and a pad portion detachably attached to the adapter, and a lower portion of the pad portion for sucking a work is sponge rubber. And an upper side of the pad portion connected to the adapter is formed of a rubber material.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the pad portion is configured to be detachable from the adapter, the pad portion can be easily replaced when the pad portion is deteriorated due to wear or the like.

Further, since the lower side of the pad portion is formed of a sponge material including sponge rubber, and the upper side of the pad portion is formed of a rubber material, the work is reliably sucked by the lower side of the pad portion. In addition, the upper side of the pad portion reliably prevents the pad portion from falling off the adapter.

Further, since the pad portion is formed separately from the lower sponge material and the upper rubber material, the pad portion is easily formed by combining the sponge material and the rubber material. be able to.

Further, the pad portion is attached to the adapter such that the second taper portion provided on the upper side of the pad portion is sandwiched by the first taper portion provided on the adapter. When the pad portion is to be displaced downward with respect to the adapter, a force for expanding the upper side of the pad portion is applied to the second taper portion. The displacement of the part is prevented. Therefore, the pad portion is more reliably prevented from falling off the adapter.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of a suction pad according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The suction pad according to the first embodiment is
It is shown in FIGS.

That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the suction pad 10 according to the first embodiment includes an adapter 20 supported by a robot arm (not shown) and the adapter 2.
And a pad section 40 mounted on the pad section 0.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the adapter 20 is formed, for example, in a substantially cylindrical shape from a metal material or the like, and has an opening 2 penetrating along the axis at a substantially central portion thereof.
2 are provided. A tube (not shown) communicating with a vacuum suction source (not shown) is connected to the opening 22. Under the urging action of the vacuum suction source, a pad 40 (described later) and a work between the pad section 40 and the work are connected through the tube and the opening 22. An evacuation is performed on the space formed therebetween.

A plurality (for example, 4
The mounting hole 24 is formed along the axial direction, and the adapter 20 is connected to a robot arm (not shown) via a rod (not shown) fitted into the mounting hole 24. Then, the suction pad 10 moves to a desired position with the displacement of the robot arm.

A pad 40 is provided on the lower side of the adapter 20.
The pad attachment portion 26 to which the pad portion 40 is attached is integrally provided, and a first portion whose diameter gradually decreases along the mounting direction of a pad portion 40 described later is provided on the upper side of the outer peripheral surface of the pad attachment portion 26. A tapered portion 28 is formed. This first tapered portion 2
8, a second tapered portion 46 formed on the inner peripheral surface of the pad portion 40 described below is sandwiched.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the pad portion 40 is formed in a substantially cylindrical shape having a hole 42 corresponding to the outer peripheral shape of the pad attaching portion 26 penetrating substantially in the center. You. The pad section 40 is mounted on the pad attaching section 26 through the hole section 42.

Here, the pad portion 40 is composed of a hard elastic body made of a rubber material such as NBR based on the upper side and a soft elastic body made of a rubber material such as CR based or NR based on the lower side. And are integrally formed from With such a configuration, the pad portion 40 is sandwiched between the pad attaching portions 26 by the clamping force generated in the upper portion formed of the hard elastic body, and the pad portions 40 are attached to the pad attaching portions 26.
It is possible to prevent the work having irregularities from being absorbed by the portion formed of the soft elastic body on the lower side without fail while being prevented from falling off (see FIG. 5). in this case,
The lower surface of the pad portion 40 is a work suction surface 4 that contacts the work.
It is set to 4.

The inner diameter of the hole 42 at an arbitrary contact portion between the hole 42 and the pad attaching portion 26 is φA,
When the outer diameter of the pad attachment portion 26 is φB, the pad portion 40 and the pad attachment portion 26 are formed so as to satisfy the relationship of φA <φB. With this configuration, the pad portion 40 is sandwiched between the pad attachment portions 26, and the occurrence of air leakage from between the pad portion 40 and the pad attachment portion 26 is prevented.

As shown in FIG. 4, a second taper portion 46 is formed on the upper side of the hole portion 42 of the pad portion 40 so that the inner diameter gradually decreases toward the upper surface. The cross section of the second tapered portion 46 is such that the upper side is inward at about 5 ° with respect to the constant inner diameter portion 48 formed with a fixed inner diameter.
The shape is inclined at an angle θ of 10 °. The pad portion 40 is mounted on the pad attachment portion 26 such that the second taper portion 46 is sandwiched between the first taper portions 28 of the pad attachment portion 26. Here, since the second tapered portion 46 includes a portion formed of a hard elastic body on the upper side of the pad portion 40, when the pad portion 40 receives a force displacing downward with respect to the pad attachment portion 26. A force is applied to the pad portion 40 to expand the diameter of the portion formed of the hard elastic body, and this force becomes a resistive force to prevent the pad portion 40 from being displaced. Therefore, the pad portion 40 is formed by the second tapered portion 46.
Of the first taper portion 28 is prevented from falling off from the pad attaching portion 26.

The starting point C of the second tapered portion 46 is set at a position corresponding to a portion formed of a soft elastic body below the pad portion 40. With such a configuration, when a force displacing the pad portion 40 in the downward direction as described above is applied to the pad portion 40, the second tapered portion 46 is formed.
A stress is also generated in the portion formed of the soft elastic body together with the portion formed of the hard elastic body, and the portion formed of the soft elastic body and the first taper portion 28 are in close contact with each other, and air is generated from between these portions. Leakage is reliably prevented from occurring.

As shown in FIG. 5, the pad portion 40 is formed longer than the pad attaching portion 26, and the lower end of the adapter 20 does not come into contact with the work when sucking the work. Therefore, the work can be reliably sucked.

The suction pad 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention is basically configured as described above. Next, the operation and effects of the suction pad 10 will be described.

First, a method of assembling the suction pad 10 will be described.

A rod (not shown) is fitted into the mounting hole 24 of the adapter 20, and the suction pad 1 is inserted through the rod.
0 is supported by a robot arm (not shown). And
A tube (not shown) is attached to the opening 22 from the upper side,
The opening 22 is connected to a vacuum suction source via the tube.

Next, the upper end of the pad portion 40 is coaxially abutted on the lower end of the pad attachment portion 26, and is fitted into the pad attachment portion 26 while increasing the diameter of the hole portion 42. Then, the pad section 40
The second tapered portion 46 of the pad portion 40 comes into contact with the first tapered portion 28 of the pad attaching portion 26, and the second tapered portion 4
6 is positioned and mounted at a position where the diameter is reduced.

As described above, in the suction pad 10 according to the first embodiment, the second tapered portion 46 is
Since the position where the diameter of the pad portion 40 is reduced by contact with the pad portion 40 is the mounting position of the pad portion 40 with respect to the pad attaching portion 26, the positioning is easy.

Next, the operation of the suction pad 10 will be described.

With the displacement of the robot arm (not shown), the suction pad 10 is guided to the upper part of the work (not shown), which is the object to be sucked, and the work suction surface 44 of the pad portion 40.
Is brought into contact with the work. Then, under the urging action of a vacuum suction source connected to the opening 22 via a tube (not shown), a vacuum is formed in a space formed between the hole 42 of the pad 40 and the work. Then, the work is attracted to the pad section 40. Next, the robot arm is displaced again to convey the work to a desired position, and the work is cut off by stopping the evacuation by the vacuum suction source and / or supplying the vacuum breaking air to the hole 42.

In this case, since the lower side of the pad portion 40 is formed of a soft elastic material, even when the work has irregularities, the work suction surface 44 abuts on the irregular surface of the work without any gap, and the work is reliably performed. Can be adsorbed.

Further, since the upper side of the pad portion 40 is formed of a hard elastic material, the pad portion 40 is formed by the clamping action of the portion formed of the hard elastic material on the pad mounting portion 26. It is prevented from falling off from the attachment portion 26.

Further, the pad section 40 is provided with the pad attaching section 26.
A second tapered portion 4 including a portion formed of a hard elastic body.
6 is mounted so as to be sandwiched between the first taper portions 28, so that when the pad portion 40 receives a downwardly displaced force due to the weight of the work or the like, the second taper portion 46 has the second taper. A force for expanding the diameter of the portion 46 is applied, and this force becomes a resistive force, thereby preventing the displacement of the pad portion 40. Therefore, even when, for example, a horizontal load is applied to cause a roll or the like during the transfer of the work, the pad portion 40
Is reliably prevented from dropping off from the pad attaching portion 26.

Further, since the inner diameter φA of the hole 42 of the pad section 40 and the outer diameter φB of the pad attaching section 26 satisfy the relationship of φA <φB, the pad section 40 is provided with the pad attaching section 26. This pad attachment portion 26
Sandwich. Therefore, the pad section 40 and the pad attaching section 26
The air leakage is prevented from occurring between the above.

Further, since the starting point C of the second tapered portion 46 is set at a position corresponding to the portion formed of the soft elastic body, the force for expanding the diameter of the second tapered portion 46 due to the weight of the work, etc. In addition to the portion formed by the soft elastic body, the portion formed by the soft elastic body and the first tapered portion 28 are in close contact with each other. Therefore, the pad section 40 and the pad attaching section 26 due to the roll and the like generated during the transfer of the work.
Air leakage can be reliably prevented from occurring between the two.

Further, since the pad portion 40 is configured to be detachable from the adapter 20, when the pad portion 40 is deteriorated due to abrasion or the like, only the pad portion 40 can be easily replaced. It is economical.

Next, a suction pad 60 according to a second embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. The same components as those of the suction pad 10 according to the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

As shown in FIG. 6, the pad portion 62 has an upper rubber portion 64 functioning as a drop-off preventing portion and a lower sponge portion 66 functioning as a work suction portion formed separately. The part 64 and the sponge part 66 are formed by bonding using, for example, an adhesive. In this case, as a material for forming the rubber portion 64, for example, NB
A rubber material such as R type is used. On the other hand, the sponge part 66
A sponge material is used as a material for forming, but preferably, for example, a sponge rubber such as a CR type or an NR type is used.

As described above, in the suction pad 60 according to the second embodiment, the pad portion 62 is composed of the rubber portion 64 made of a rubber material formed separately and the sponge material (preferably, sponge rubber). The pad portion 62 can be easily manufactured because it is configured by coupling with the sponge portion 66 made of.

[0044]

According to the suction pad according to the present invention, the pad portion is detachable from the adapter, and the pad portion comes off from the adapter and air flows from between the pad portion and the adapter. Leakage is reliably prevented from occurring. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to obtain a suction pad which is excellent in economical efficiency and also excellent in work suction and transfer performance.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing a suction pad according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the adapter shown in FIG. 1 taken along the line II-II.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the pad section shown in FIG. 1, taken along line III-III.

FIG. 4 is a detailed view of a portion D of the pad portion shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a state where the pad portion of the suction pad according to the first embodiment is attached to the adapter.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a pad section according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a detailed view of a portion E of the pad portion shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view showing a suction pad according to the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Suction pad 20 ... Adapter 22 ... Opening part 24 ... Mounting hole part 26 ... Pad attachment part 28 ... First taper part 40 ... Pad part 42 ... Hole part 46 ... Second taper part

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A lower part of the pad part for adsorbing a work is formed of a soft elastic body, comprising an adapter and a pad part detachably attached to the adapter, and connected to the adapter. A suction pad, wherein an upper side of the pad portion is formed of a hard elastic body as compared with the lower side. 2. The suction pad according to claim 1, wherein the pad portion is formed by integrally forming an upper hard elastic body and a lower soft elastic body. Pad. 3. The suction pad according to claim 1, wherein a diameter of a connecting portion of the adapter to which an upper side of the pad portion is mounted is gradually reduced along a mounting direction of the pad portion. A first taper portion is formed, and a second taper portion whose inner peripheral surface is gradually reduced in diameter is formed on an upper side of the pad portion corresponding to the first taper portion. Pad. 4. An adapter and a pad portion detachably attached to the adapter. A lower portion of the pad portion for adsorbing a work is formed of a sponge material containing sponge rubber, and is connected to the adapter. An upper portion of the pad portion is formed of a rubber material. 5. A suction pad according to claim 4, wherein a diameter of the connecting portion of the adapter to which the upper portion of the pad portion is mounted is gradually reduced along a mounting direction of the pad portion. A suction pad, wherein a tapered portion is formed, and a second tapered portion whose inner peripheral surface is gradually reduced in diameter is formed on an upper side of the pad portion corresponding to the first tapered portion. .