JPS59161246A - Tool magazine for automatic tool replacement device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten the time for tool replacement by supporting a pair of planet sprockets at the top and bottom of a magazine body borne by a gate type frame, and by setting an endless chain, equipped with tool accommodating pots at certain spacing, between these two sprockets. CONSTITUTION:Aside a gate type frame 12 to support a cross rail 11 as elevating and sinking freely, a magazine body 13 in the form of a long ring in the vertical direction is borne by a pair of brackets 14 situated over and below, and a pair of idling sprockets 15 are supported at the top and bottom of this body 13. An endless chain 17 equipped with tool accommodating pots 16 at certain spacing, installed on each link plate, between these two sprokcets 15 so as to accommodate necessary tools. This chain 17 will begin traveling when a driving sprocket 20 of the driver device 19, mounted on the rail 11 through a bracket 18, rotates, wherein the driving sprocket 20 shall be put in rotation only at the time of indexing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a tool magazine designed to enable immediate tool exchange in a portal machine tool, regardless of the position of the crossrail or saddle to which an automatic tool changer is attached.

Gate-type machine tools equipped with an automatic tool changer generally have a tool magazine installed on the side of the gate frame, and the automatic tool changer is attached to a cross rail that moves up and down along the gate frame. There are many.

As shown in FIG. 1, which shows the external appearance of this type of gate-type machine tool, a large number of tool storage pots 1 are installed on the sides of a gate-type frame 102 that supports a cross rail 101 in a vertically movable manner.
A tool magazine 105 is provided with an endless chain 104 having 03 attached at regular intervals, and a saddle 106 supported on the cross rail 101 so as to be laterally movable and the tool magazine 105 are each equipped with an automatic tool changer. 107
゜108 is attached. Also, Crossrail 10
A tool relay device 109 is attached to the tool relay device 109 so as to be laterally movable, and the tools are received and transferred between the automatic tool change devices 107 and 108. In this case, various devices have been announced so far that the indexed tool can be transferred at any vertical position on the cross rail, such as Japanese Patent Publication No. 50-24749 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 51-316.
This is already known from Publication No. 23, etc.

The device disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 50-24749 is provided with a clamp device 110 that integrally fixes the endless chino 104 at the tool exchange position of the cross rail 101, and a clutch mechanism is provided in the index drive device 111 of the endless chino 104. After assembly and indexing of the tool, the υ endless chino 104 is set in a free state by the clutch mechanism, and this endless chino 104 is clamped by the clamp device 110, so that the endless chino 104 is caused to travel following the vertical movement of the cross rail 101. This is what I did. However, this type of rail requires a clamp device 110 and a clutch mechanism, making the overall structure complicated.
It is fundamentally difficult to index the tool while it is being raised and lowered, and some kind of ingenuity is required.

Therefore, the system disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 51-31623 incorporates a differential gear mechanism into the index drive device 111 so that the cross rail 101 can be moved even when the cross rail 101 is raised or lowered.
However, the overall mechanism is much more complicated than the one described above, resulting in a significant increase in cost. 2. From this point of view, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tool magazine that is capable of arbitrarily indexing tools even while the Rossrail is being raised or lowered, despite having an extremely simple mechanism.

The structure of the tool magazine for an automatic tool changer of the present invention that achieves this purpose is that it is freely rotatably attached to both the upper and lower ends of a portal frame, or to the left and right ends of a cross rail that moves up and down along this portal frame. A pair of free-rotating sprockets, a tool storage pot attached at regular intervals to an endless chain that is wound around these free-rotating sprockets, mesh with the endless chain, and move laterally along the cross rail and the cross rail. Among the saddles, the cross rail is equipped with an automatic tool changer, or a driving sprocket is attached to the saddle so as to be indexable and rotatable.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of a tool magazine for an automatic tool changer according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 6. Figure 2(a) shows the side shape of this embodiment, and Figure 2(b) shows the front shape of the tool magazine part.
As shown in the figure, on the side of a gate-shaped frame 12 that supports the cross rail 11 in a vertically movable manner, a vertically long annular magazine body 13 is supported by the gate-shaped frame 12 via a pair of upper and lower brackets 14. 9.Magazine body 1
A pair of idling sprockets 15 are supported at both upper and lower ends of the sprocket 3 so as to be freely rotatable.

Endless chains 17 each having tool storage pots 16 attached at regular intervals to the link plate are wound around these idle sprockets 15, and each of the tool storage pots 16 stores a predetermined tool. It has become.

In this embodiment, the chainless chain 17 is wound around the pair of upper and lower free-rotating sprockets 15, but it is also possible to use a simple pulley, guide block, etc. in place of the free-rotating sprockets 15. As shown in FIG. 3 showing the cross section taken along the line mm in FIG. 2(b), and FIG. 4 showing the cross section taken along the line IV-IV in FIG. 2(a), A chino drive device 19 located at the rear of the magazine body 13 is attached to the side end via a bracket 18 9, and a drive sprocket 20 that engages with the straight part of the endless chino 17 is provided protruding from this chino drive device 19. ing. Therefore,
The length of the straight part of the endless chain 17 is set longer than the vertical stroke of the cross rail 11, and the free rotation sprocket 1
Care has been taken not to interfere with 5. Further, in order to prevent the driving sprocket 20 and the endless chino 17 from coming out of engagement, an engagement guide plate 22 that sandwiches the rollers 21 attached to both ends of the pin of the endless chino 17 is used to prevent the driving sprocket 20 and the endless chino 17 from coming out of engagement. It is attached to the chino drive device 19 so as to be located at the meshing portion. 5th section representing the V-■ arrow cross-section and the Vl-Vl arrow cross-section in Fig. 4.
As shown in FIG. 6, a sprocket shaft 23 to which the driving sprocket 2° is fixed is integrally provided with a gear 26 that meshes with a gear 25 formed on the idle shaft 24. A gear 29 is further provided which meshes with a drive gear 28 of a hydraulic motor 27 assembled to the chino drive 19. Therefore, the hydraulic motor 27
The operation causes the shank drive sprocket 2o to rotate and rotate the endless chino 17.

Further, a positioning ring 30 for indexing and positioning the tool storage pot 16 is fixed to the sprocket shaft 23, and this positioning ring 30 has tooth grooves 31 at intervals corresponding to the intervals between the tool storage pots 16. engraved on the outer periphery.

A hydraulic cylinder 33 having a wedge-shaped notch 32 attached at its tip that can engage with this tooth groove 31 is assembled to the chino drive device 19, and the chino drive device 19 is attached to the end face of the positioning ring 30 so as to face it. The number of dogs 35 detected by a proximity switch 34 attached to the tooth grooves 31 is fixed at equal intervals as the number of tooth spaces 31. Note that the tool storage pot 16, which serves as the index reference, is detected and this tool storage pot 1 is
Since it is necessary to index the tool storage pot 6 to 6, the tool storage pot 16, which serves as the indexing reference, has a reference proximal position attached to the chino drive device 19, as shown in FIG. An index reference dog 37 that is detected by the switch 36 is provided in a protruding manner. In this embodiment, the hydraulic motor 27 and the hydraulic cylinder 33 are used as the driving sources for the drive sprocket 20 and the wedge-shaped notch 32, respectively, but other means may also be used.

Therefore, the wedge-shaped notch 32 is in contact with the tooth groove 3 except during index rotation.
1 and the drive sprocket 20 rotates, so when the cross rail 11 goes up and down with respect to the portal frame 12, the endless chino 17 also rotates, and the tools of the endless chino 17 relative to the cross rail 11 rotate. Since the index position does not change relatively, tools can be changed immediately at any vertical position of the cross rail.

When indexing the tool, the hydraulic cylinder 33 is first activated to remove the wedge-shaped notch 32 from the tooth space 31, and the hydraulic motor 2
7, the indexing reference dog 37 is detected by the reference proximity switch 36, the number of passing dogs 31 is counted by the proximity switch 34, and the indexing reference dog 37 is detected by the proximity switch 34.
The predetermined tool storage pot 16 is moved to the tool exchange position counting from the tool storage pot 16 to which the tool is attached, and the hydraulic cylinder 33 engages the wedge-shaped notch 32 with the tooth groove 31 to index and position the predetermined tool. Complete. When the cross rail 11 moves up and down while the drive sprocket 20 is being driven, the endless chino 17 moves at the combined speed of the two movements.
Since the tool rotates, there is no possibility that the tool at the tool exchange position with respect to the cross rail 11 will be out of phase. From this point of view, if the wedge-shaped notch 32 is out of the tooth groove 31 and the driving force is not transmitted to the driving sprocket 20,
A reversal prevention mechanism such as a worm transmission mechanism is installed between the drive sprocket 20 and the hydraulic motor 277 to prevent the drive sprocket 20 from turning due to the reaction force generated when the cross rail 11 goes up and down, causing a phase shift of the tool. It's better to leave it there. In addition, in this embodiment, the tool magazine is mounted on the gate-shaped frame 1.
At the same time, the drive sprocket 20 was attached to the cross rail 11, but in the model in which the tool magazine was attached to the cross rail 11, the drive sprocket 20 was attached to the cross rail 11.
It is necessary to assemble the 0 etc. to a saddle that moves laterally along the four slides 11.

As described above, according to the tool magazine for an automatic tool changer of the present invention, the drive sprocket that drives the endless chino to which the tool storage pot is attached can be attached to the portal frame or cross rail on which the endless chino is rotatably attached. Since the drive sprocket is attached to a cross frame or saddle that rotates relative to the cross rail or saddle, and rotates only during index rotation, the preset tool exchange position can be adjusted as the cross rail or saddle moves. By swiveling the tool, it is still possible to index the tool at will, regardless of the movement of the crossrail or saddle, without the use of special ramp devices, grapple configurations, or differential gear mechanisms. , it is possible to simultaneously shorten tool exchange time and lower the cost of the entire device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of a conventional automatic tool changer of a gantry machine tool, and FIG. 2(a) is a gantry machine tool in an embodiment of a tool magazine for an automatic tool changer according to the present invention. 2(b) is a front view thereof, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in FIG. 2(b).
Figure 4 is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV in Figure 2 (&), and
The figure and FIG. 6 are a cross-sectional view taken along the line v-■ and a cross-sectional view taken along the line ■-■ in FIG. 16 is a tool storage pot, 17 is an endless chino, 19 is a chino drive device, 20 is a driving sprocket, 27 is a hydraulic motor, 30 is a positioning ring, 31 is a tooth groove, 32 is a wedge-shaped notch, 33 is a hydraulic cylinder, 34 is a proximity switch, 35 is a dog, 36 is a reference proximity switch, and 37 is a reference dog. Patent applicant: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. Patent attorney: Shibu Mitsuishi (and 1 other person) Figure 1 Figure 2 (a) 1 et al.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A pair of free-rotating sprockets are attached to the upper and lower ends of the gate-shaped frame, or to both the left and right ends of the cross rail that moves up and down along this gate-shaped frame, and the free-rotating sprockets are wrapped around these free-rotating sprockets. A tool storage pot attached to the endless chino at regular intervals; and the cross rail, which engages with the endless chino and moves laterally along the cross rail, and the cross rail to which an automatic tool changer is assembled; A tool magazine for an automatic tool changer, comprising a drive sprocket mounted on a saddle so as to be indexable and rotatable.