JPH11207242A - Sealant feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To selectively use sealants according to coating sites with ease by mixing different kinds of sealants subjected to forced-conveyance by a pump by means of a mixer, feeding a mixture to a nozzle and controlling blending ratio of the sealants in the mixer according to coating sites. SOLUTION: A sealant feeder 1 is provided with tanks 11a and 11b respectively containing different kinds of sealants and the tanks 11a and 11b are provided with forced-conveyance pumps 12a and 12b respectively. The sealants sucked in the tanks 12a and 12b and subjected to forced-conveyance are fed to a mixer 13 mounted in an arm 21 of a robot 2 through a coating hose. This mixer 13 blends two kinds of the sealants in a specified blending ratio and feeds this mixture at a constant flow rate and the blending ratio is controlled according to a command signal from a mixer controller 14.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for supplying a sealing material to be applied to a panel mating surface or a panel edge of an automobile body, and more particularly to a sealing material supplying apparatus which can easily use a sealing material according to an application site. About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A sealing material in which vinyl chloride resin is converted into a sol is applied to a panel fitting surface and a panel edge of an automobile body for the purpose of ensuring watertightness and / or preventing edge rust.

[0003] For example, a sol sealing material is applied to mating surfaces such as a dash panel, a front floor panel, a rear floor panel, a sill inner panel, and a roof drip channel which constitute a room to prevent rain from entering from outside. Because the electrodeposition coating film is not easily formed on the panel edge of the front side member and other members constituting the engine room, and the hemming edge of the hood and the door, a sol sealing material is applied to prevent rust. .

[0004] This kind of sol sealing material is housed in a tank, is pressure-fed to a sealing material application robot by a pressure feeding pump, and is applied to a body according to a predetermined teaching locus.

[0005]

By the way, in the conventional sealing material applying process, only one set of a tank for accommodating the sealing material and one pump are provided for one sealing material applying robot. .
For this reason, when it is desired to select the type of sealing material according to the application site of the body, the only option is to change the type of sealing material for each tank and select the application site for each robot.

[0006] The selection of the type of the sealing material requires, for example, a conventional sealing material to be used in a part where the appearance quality after application is strictly required, whereas an appearance quality that is hidden by fitting parts or the like is very required. For parts that are not used, a low-specific-gravity sealing material containing a resin balloon or the like is used, which has the significance of reducing costs.

However, if the type of the sealing material is changed for each robot, the application site is largely restricted, and it is difficult to apply the target sealing material to the target site by an efficient operation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and has as its object to provide a sealing material supply device which can easily use a sealing material according to an application site. .

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, a sealing material supply device according to claim 1 comprises a plurality of tanks each containing a different type of sealing material,
A pump for pumping the sealing material in the tank, a mixer for mixing the sealing material pumped by the pump and supplying the mixture to a nozzle, and a mixer control means for controlling a mixing ratio of the sealing material in the mixer according to an application site And characterized in that:

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the mixing ratio of the sealing material in the mixer can be controlled according to the application site, so that a single robot can apply different types of sealing materials to desired sites. Therefore, the sealing material application robot only needs to teach normally, and can apply the sealing material with an efficient operation, and at the same time, apply the desired sealing material only by controlling the mixing ratio by the mixer. can do.

In the first aspect of the present invention, the method of inputting the application site which is an element for controlling the mixing ratio of the sealing material is not particularly limited. The mixer control means, which is mounted on a coating robot, fetches the information from control means having information on a coating portion, and controls the mixing ratio of the sealing material in the mixer based on the information.

Control means such as a sealing material application robot, a line production management device, and a line control device (PCL, etc.) have information on the application site when operating, and use this information in the mixer. If the mixing ratio of the sealing material is controlled, no separate input means is required.

[0013] In the above invention, the different types of sealing materials may have any characteristic difference and are not particularly limited, but the sealing material supply device according to claim 3, wherein the first sealing material is a balloon material. And the second sealing material is a sealing material containing no balloon material. A balloon made of a hollow sphere having a particle diameter of 100 μm or less is blended with the sealing material to reduce the overall specific gravity, so that the weight of the vehicle itself can be reduced, the transportation on the production line is easy, and the droop due to its own weight is obtained. This has the effect of preventing falling. However, the appearance is not always good because the balloon material is blended. Therefore, the first sealing material is a sealing material containing a balloon material, the second sealing material is a sealing material not containing a balloon material, and the mixing ratio of the first sealing material mixed with the second sealing material is as follows. By controlling continuously, the specific gravity of the sealing material after mixing can be appropriately adjusted.

[0014] For example, as in the sealing material supply apparatus according to the fourth aspect, the mixing ratio of the first sealing material is set high in a portion where the applied sealing material is hidden by the fitting parts. In other words, for the parts that do not matter the appearance after coating, the specific gravity is reduced as far as the performance allows.
The first such as weight reduction, workability improvement and droop prevention
Utilize the advantages of the sealant. On the other hand, it is desirable to increase the mixing ratio of the second sealing material only in a portion where the appearance after application becomes a problem.

[0015]

According to the first to fourth aspects of the present invention, a single sealing material application robot can easily use a sealing material depending on the application site.

In addition, according to the second aspect of the present invention, since the operation information of the sealing material application robot can be used, no separate input means is required.

According to the third aspect of the invention, since the sealing material is separately applied according to the parts, the weight of the vehicle itself can be reduced, and the transportation on the production line is easy.
Moreover, dripping due to its own weight can be prevented.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a sealing material supply device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of an automobile body showing different coatings of the sealing material, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a tank used in the sealing material supply device of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a conventional sealing material tank.

First, as shown in FIG. 1, a sealing material supply device 1 of the present embodiment comprises a sealing material application robot 2.
Has been applied to The vehicle body B, which is the object to be coated, is transported in a sealing process by a floor conveyor while being mounted on a coating trolley, and a plurality of sealing material coating robots 2 are installed on the line side of the coating body. The site is pre-teached.

Arm 2 of robot 2 for applying sealing material
A nozzle 15 is mounted at the tip of the nozzle 1, and a certain amount of the sealing material is discharged from the nozzle 15. The arm 21 performs an operation according to the mating surface of the body B, thereby the sealing material discharged from the nozzle 15. Will be applied to the mating surfaces. Such an operation of the robot 2 is executed based on a command signal from the robot control device 22.

The sealing material supply device 1 of the present embodiment comprises:
Tanks 11a and 11 that respectively store different types of sealing materials (here, two types of materials A and B).
1b, and pressure pumps 12a and 12b are provided in each of the tanks 11a and 11b. Material A is a sealing material containing vinyl chloride resin as a main component and having a specific gravity of about 1.6, whereas material A has a particle diameter of 100 μm in material A.
The following hollow spheres (balloon material) are blended to give a specific gravity of 0.
It is a sealing material of about 9 to 1.0.

The sealing materials A and B sucked and pumped by the tanks 12a and 12b are sent to the mixer 13 mounted on the arm 21 of the robot 2 via a paint hose.
The mixer 13 mixes two types of sealing materials A and B at a predetermined mixing ratio and supplies the mixture at a constant flow rate. The mixing ratio is controlled according to a command signal from the mixer control device 14. It has become. The sealing material mixed by the mixer 13 is sent to the nozzle 15 through a paint hose.

The mixer controller 14 receives information on the application site from the robot controller 22, that is, information on the movement position of the arm 21, and the mixer controller 14 determines the application site in advance based on the acquired information on the application site. The mixing ratio to be output to the mixer 13 is determined with reference to the lookup table thus obtained.

Explaining the contents of the look-up table, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, the panel edge portion X in the engine room has a portion that can be seen even when the engine and other outfitting parts are assembled and a portion that is hidden. So that the specific gravity after mixing is 1.0 to
The mixing ratio of the B material to the A material is determined so as to be about 1.2. According to the graph of FIG. 3, the mixing ratio of the B material is 30.
About 45%. Further, since the floor portion Y in the room is completely hidden by the floor carpet, the appearance does not matter, and therefore, the mixing ratio of the material B to the material A is increased so that the specific gravity after mixing becomes 1.0 or less. In the graph of FIG. 3, the mixing ratio of the B material is 45% or more. Also,
Although not shown, the hemming portion of the hood or door is not hidden by the outfitting parts, and requires a finish using a spatula or brush. Therefore, a sealing material made of only A material without mixing B material is used.

However, even in the case of a hemming part, if it is a part that is hidden by the fitting parts, it is desirable to mix the B material to lower the specific gravity and reduce the cost. In addition, when considering the mixing ratio of the B material, the elasticity of the sealing material may be a problem depending on the site, in addition to the problem of appearance. As shown in FIG. 3, when the compounding ratio of the vinyl chloride resin is reduced, the elongation of the sealing material is also reduced.

Next, the operation will be described. First, when the vehicle body B arrives, the robot controller 22 sends the arm 21
The operation signal is also transmitted to the mixer control device 14. The mixer control device 14 determines the mixing ratio of the B material to the A material according to the portion where the arm 21 moves, with reference to the above-mentioned lookup table, and sends this to the mixer 13. In the mixer 13, based on this command signal, A
The material and the material B pressure-fed from the tank 11b are mixed, and the mixed sealing material is supplied to the nozzle 15 at a constant flow rate. By repeating this operation sequentially, it is possible to select a sealing material according to the application site.

The embodiments described above have been described in order to facilitate understanding of the present invention, but are not described to limit the present invention. Therefore, each element disclosed in the above embodiment is intended to include all design changes and equivalents belonging to the technical scope of the present invention.

Although not particularly limited, FIG. 4 shows a preferred embodiment of a tank applied to the sealing material supply apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 5 shows a conventional sealing material tank.

The tank 11 of this embodiment shown in FIG. 4 has a tank body 111 having a hopper-shaped bottom, a lid 11
2, a stirrer motor 113 attached to the lid,
The stirring blade 11 attached to the output shaft of the motor 113
By rotating the stirring blade 114 at a low speed, the sealing material S contained in the tank body 111 is stirred to prevent separation of the plasticizer added to the vinyl chloride resin.

The lid 112 is provided with a hose 115 to which a sealing material is supplied from a separately provided main tank or a drum in a delivery form. When the sealing material S in the tank decreases, the sealing material S becomes the tank. Supplied within.

Here, a high-viscosity sealing material is mixed with the stirring blade 1.
When the mixture is stirred at 14, the tank body 111 as shown in FIG.
The liquid level in the central part of the tank body drops, and the surrounding sealing material remains attached to the wall surface of the tank body 111. If such a material is left as it is, it will dry naturally and harden, making it difficult to make it sol again. Further, when the liquid level in the central portion is extremely lowered, air is sucked from the suction port on the bottom surface of the tank main body 111, and there is a possibility that the coating may run out.

Therefore, in the tank 11 of the present embodiment, an annular scraping plate 11 along the inner wall of the tank body 111 is used.
7 are provided. The scraping plate 117 is provided between the inner wall of the tank body 111 and the shaft sleeve 11 of the stirring blade 114.
6 is provided so as to be able to move up and down in the tank main body 111, and a scraping portion 117 for writing off all the sealing material S adhered to the wall surface on the scraping plate 117.
Is provided. The scraping plate 117 and the flange portion 118 move up and down in the tank body 111 as a single unit. This up and down movement may be performed by its own weight, or may be made to move up and down periodically by providing a separate means. . This allows
Even when the sealing material S is agitated by the stirring blades 114, the sealing material S adhering to the vicinity of the wall surface is scraped downward by the scraping plate 117 and the flange portion 118, and is prevented from drying naturally and sucking air. You.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a sealing material supply device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the automobile body, showing sealing materials applied separately.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing specific gravity, elongation, and cost index of a sealing material with respect to a B material mixing ratio.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a tank used in the sealing material supply device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional sealing material tank.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Sealing material supply apparatus 11, 11a, 11b ... Tank 12a, 12b ... Pumping pump 13 ... Mixer 14 ... Mixer control device (mixer control means) 15 ... Nozzle 2 ... Sealing material application robot 21 ... Arm 22 ... Robot control device (Control means) B ... Car body

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of tanks each containing a different type of sealing material, a pump for pumping the sealing material in the tank, a mixer for mixing the sealing material pumped by the pump and supplying the mixed material to a nozzle, A sealing material supply device, comprising: mixer control means for controlling a mixing ratio of the sealing material in the mixer according to an application site. 2. The nozzle is mounted on a sealing material application robot, and the mixer control means fetches the information from control means having information on an application site, and mixes the sealing material in the mixer based on the information. The sealing material supply device according to claim 1, wherein the ratio is controlled. 3. The sealing material according to claim 1, wherein the first sealing material is a sealing material having a low specific gravity by blending a balloon material, and the second sealing material is a sealing material containing no balloon material. The sealing material supply device according to claim 1. 4. The sealing material supply apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a portion where the applied sealing material is concealed by the outfitting component is set to have a high mixing ratio of the first sealing material.