JPS5926693A - Method and automatic device for applying grease to ball stud - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automate application of grease to a ball stud, by a supporting device which supports a ball stud so that the ball stud can be moved in rotational and axial directions and a device for applying a constant quantity of a grease heated to be fluid. CONSTITUTION:A grease-applying device 1 is so constructed that a grease contained in a grease-supplying device 3 is made to be fluid by heating by a heater 33 provided in a heating passage 5 and is fed to a fixed quantity discharging device 4. In the discharging device 4, when compressed air is injected into an air passage 22, the tip of a pushing-out rod 20 is retracted, and compressed air is fed also into an air passage 28, so that a piston 29 is moved leftward to close a check valve 27. Next, when air in the passages 22, 28 are discharged and compressed air is fed into an air passage 23, the tip of the pushing-out rod 20 is moved forward to eject a fixed quantity of the grease through a nozzle 32. The ball stud supporting device 22 supports the ball stud A at an angle of inclination of about 30 deg. above the horizontal so that the stud A can be moved forward and backward while being rotated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a ball stand grease application method and an automatic grease application device.

The ball stand constructs a ball joint by housing the ball portion in a socket with a seat interposed therebetween. Since the ball stud rotates or tilts in any plane with respect to the socket, lubrication is required between the outer circumferential surface of the ball part of the ball stand and the inner surface of the socket. Grease cups used to be refilled as needed, but recently, from the standpoint of maintenance-free operation, they were stored only once when assembling the ball joint, and were not refilled thereafter. When assembling the ball joint, if the amount of grease stored between the outer circumferential surface of the ball stand's pole and the inner circumferential surface of the seat is too small, lubrication may be insufficient and seizure may occur.
□If there is too much, is it an opening in the socket? Since the ball joint will not operate smoothly if the closing lid is compressed and deformed, it is necessary to accommodate a predetermined amount of grease. In addition, even if a predetermined amount of grease is contained, depending on the purpose of the ball joint, if the ball joint only swings in a limited direction, such as one used in an automobile steering wheel, for example, when assembling the ball joint, If grease is applied only to a part of the outer circumferential surface of the ball part, the grease will not spread to the entire outer circumferential surface of the ball part after assembly and during use, so the frictional resistance will differ depending on the part, causing a change in the operating force. Ru. By the way, in the conventional method of storing grease in a ball joint, an operator applies grease to the ball part of a ball stand by intuition and stores it in a socket with a sheet interposed therebetween. In this case, it is not only impossible to accommodate a predetermined amount of grease, but also it is impossible to uniformly apply the grease to the ball portion of the ball stand. In order to solve this problem, the inventors came to the conclusion that a predetermined amount of grease must be uniformly and automatically applied to the ball portion of the ball stud. However, there are two problems in achieving this goal. The first problem is that greases with high viscosity and severe temperature characteristics become semi-solid at low temperatures (below 1,000 ℃), so commercially available grease pumps cannot extrude the grease. Next, the second problem is that since there is grease coming out of the pump nozzle, it is difficult to accurately extract a small amount of IOC from the discharge port. Based on these solutions, the inventor of the present invention has solved the first problem by placing the grease container above the metering machine, pressurizing the grease with a piston, and further applying the grease to the nozzle. In order to give fluidity so that it can be easily discharged from the grease, the temperature of the grease passage was controlled using VCl which can be heated with a heating wire (3000 + L5°C).In other words, the highly viscous grease was fully pressurized and heated to make it fluid. The second problem was solved by forming the grease discharge nozzle opening with a small diameter, allowing the grease to flow down in a line from there, and making it easier for the grease to pass through the metering machine. At this time, the linear grease is divided at the nozzle opening, but since the nozzle opening is small in diameter, the error in the flowing grease is minimized to obtain a highly accurate grease discharge amount.

Hereinafter, a specific embodiment of the present invention shown in the accompanying drawings will be described.
A detailed explanation will be given based on C.

This automatic applicator gives fluidity to grease/”!+i
Grease flow down mechanism (1) that makes a fixed amount flow down, ball H(i (
Hold the pole stud (A) so that B) is positioned,
It consists of a ball stand actuator 5 (2) that rotates the ball stand (A) around the Tsukuda j line (0) and moves it forward and backward in the axis (C) direction.

-4zu#+J-su flow down mechanism (1) will be described.

The grease flow mechanism (1) includes a grease supply machine (3),
It consists of a quantitative discharge machine (4) and a heating path (5) that communicates the grease supply machine (3) with the quantitative discharge aH4).

The grease supply machine (3) has a piston (7) slidably installed in a cylinder (6) arranged vertically from the machine frame, and the lower end opening of the cylinder (6) opens when the grease is fully pressurized and the grease cylinder ( 6) An on-off valve (8) is provided that closes when the remaining amount of grease becomes low and the grease cannot be pressurized. The on-off valve (8) has an outflow hole f101 drilled in the center of the cover plate (9) that closes the lower end opening of the cylinder (6).The valve stem (Lftc) is biased downward by a coil spring (11).
12), the grease contained in the cylinder (6) is pressurized by the descent of the piston (7), and the on-off valve (8) is pressed.
The old valve (12) flowing into the flow path is connected to the coil spring (
The valve stem (12) rises against the biasing force of (11) to open the valve, and when the remaining amount of grease in the cylinder (6) decreases and the grease is no longer pressurized, the valve stem (12) is moved by the coil spring (12).
is energized by the valve to close the valve.

The quantitative discharge machine (4) is arranged horizontally below the grease supply machine (3), and the receiving hole (14) is located in the main body (13) at a position opposite to the outflow hole (10) of the grease supply machine (3).
) is drilled vertically, and a steel ball (15) is inserted into the receiving hole (14).
A non-return check-1 that urges upward with a coil spring θ6)
l"r- (1 force is fully inserted. Also, the cylinder (18)'!f is attached to the right end of the main body (13) in a protruding shape, and the other end of the cylinder (18) 1d is attached to the cover plate (+9[ The tip of the extrusion rod (20), which is horizontally and slidably arranged at the axis of the main body 03), faces the receiving hole (14), and the base end slides into the cylinder (18). 1471-f Piston 121) VC is installed. This piston ■]) is attached to the main body (1
3) and the cover plate (19jI'rC).By penetrating compressed air with the air passage pull button provided through each, the cover plate (19) slides to the right or 1ri left. A stopper (c), which faces the center of the piston 11) in the cylinder (18) and whose base end is screwed to the guide tube (c) extending from the cover plate (+91), has its tip aligned with the axis. By turning left and right +frC in the direction, the retreat position of the tip of the extrusion rod (20) is regulated, and the amount of grease flowing down is determined by the - turn.Symbol Q6) is the stopper (c)
It is a rock nut. In addition, the receiving hole (
A horizontal extrusion hole (7) is drilled in the left axis direction of 14), and a steel ball is inserted into the extrusion hole (A). The valve is closed by the piston (A) sliding to the right, and opened by returning the piston (2Q) to the left by the coil spring (7).Furthermore, a vertical downward direction is inserted into the extrusion hole (C). A nozzle 04 with a small diameter tip is provided in the discharge hole 0υ in a hanging manner.

The outflow hole (1o) of the grease supply machine (3) and the quantitative discharge machine (
4) A heater 0 that controls the grease on the outer peripheral surface of the receiving hole (14) within a predetermined temperature range (for example, 30°C ± 5°C).
A heating path (5) with a sword is connected to the heating path (5).

The grease is pressurized in the grease feeder (3) and heated in the heating path (5) to give fluidity to the grease, making it easier for the grease to pass through the metering dispenser (4), and further quantitatively dispensing the grease. Since the tip of the nozzle of the discharge device (4) is formed to have a small diameter, the flowing grease can be discharged with high precision.

Next, the ball stand operating mechanism (2) will be described.

Ball part (B) of ball stand (A) In order to apply the flowing grease evenly over the entire surface, the ball stud operating mechanism (2) moves the ball stand (A) to its axis (C).
', tilt the ball part (B) upward by 30 degrees from the horizontal, position and hold the ball part (B) in the place where the grease flows down, and rotate it about the size of the shaft center (C) until the shaft center ( 0
) direction. That is, a mount (2) is installed on the machine frame, facing 30° from the vertical direction.

A motor (c) capable of forward and reverse rotation is installed on the inclined lower surface of this mount (3Φ) with its output shaft (7) facing upward. The axial center of the output shaft (7) on the slanted upper surface of the mount is extended. A guide tube @ is provided in a protruding manner at the upper position, and a screw thread i is carved on the inner surface of the guide tube (to) on the base end side, and the tip of the shaft portion (D) of the ball stand (A) is threaded. The operating shaft (4υ
is screwed onto the guide tube (G), and the operating shaft (4) is fitted with four disc-shaped stoppers O @ to restrict its movement in the F direction at the base end of the operating shaft (4]). The output shaft i' of the motor (7) is inserted into the square hole 1 formed in the axial direction of the base end surface.
A square shaft <4$ at the tip of the connection shaft (44) externally fitted and fixed to 3Q is fitted to transmit the rotational force of the motor to the operating shaft (4η).

The operation of this device will be explained.

Details of ball stand (A) (D) k operating axis (4])
Fitting hole t19. ) to drive the motor (7), the positive rotational force of the motor (7) is transmitted to the operating shaft (4]) via the connecting shaft @0, and the operating shaft (4υ rotates in the forward direction. The shaft (lυ is threaded with the guide cylinder (cut) of the stationary member, and the connecting shaft (lυ) is connected in the axial direction. The ball stud (A) moves upward, and the ball stud (A) also moves accordingly.Next, after a predetermined period of time has elapsed, the motor (7) is rotated in the opposite direction.In the same way, the pole stud (A) is rotated in the opposite direction until the shaft center (0) During the forward rotation, diagonal upward movement, reverse rotation, and diagonal downward movement of the ball stand (A), a predetermined amount of grease (for example, Icc) is poured from the grease flow groove (1). Flowing down. Piston (7) of grease supply machine (3)
The grease that is completely lowered and pressurized passes through the on-off valve (8) and the outflow hole (10) and reaches the heating path (5), and the moderately heated grease decreases in viscosity and becomes fluid, and is transferred to the metering dispenser ( At this time, 0 flows into the receiving hole (14) of 4) against the force of the coil spring (1G) of the check valve θ force and fills the receiving hole (14).
Compressed air is injected into the air passage @, and the extrusion rod (20) tip 1
is at the position indicated by the two-dot chain line, and the piston υ is also at the stopper on the right side)
is in contact with. Compressed air is also injected into the air passage that communicates with the air passage (A), the piston (29) slides to the right, the steel ball (A) is seated, the valve is closed, and the extrusion hole (A) is closed. ing. Next, when the compressed air from the air passages (a) and (c) is let out and the compressed air is allowed to flow into the air passage machine, the piston (
3]) Slide the rri to the left and use the tip of the push rod (20) to push out the receiving hole (14 Check valve (17)
is provided to prevent grease from flowing back into the heating path (5). The extrusion rod (20) is either the piston &]) or the main body (I3
) Push out the grease until it hits the right end surface of the Extrusion hole (
2Q The grease that has flowed into the steel ball (open the valve by moving the supporter to the left, then flows into the discharge hole <31) and flows down through the nozzle 0. After a certain amount of grease has flowed out, let the compressed air from the air passage (a) and (b) flow out.
When the compressed air is applied for a long time, the extrusion rod (20) moves back, the steel ball (A) moves to the right, closes the extrusion hole (C), and opens the receiving hole (+41VC), which accommodates a certain amount of grease. Become.

Insert the ball stand (A) into the fitting hole 09) of the operating shaft (4]).
The ball stand (A) is automatically operated during the grease application operation after the operator inserts the ball stand L7, and the ball stand (A) is taken out by the operator after the grease application operation. However, it is possible to automatically insert and remove the ball stand (A).

Since the unreleased #l has the configuration and operation as described in -1-, a predetermined amount of grease can be automatically and uniformly applied to the ball part of the ball stand, improving quality and reducing costs. Ru.

In addition, when configured as in the embodiment of the present invention, the grease is pressurized by the grease supply machine and heated by the heating path to give fluidity to the grease, making it easier to pass through the metering dispenser, and the nozzle tip of the metering dispenser is Since it is formed to have a small diameter, the accuracy of the amount of flowing grease discharged can be improved, and since the ball stand is rotated and moved back and forth by the ball stud operating mechanism, it is possible to apply grease to the entire circumference of the ball part of the ball stand.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show longitudinal cross-sectional views of one embodiment of the present invention. (A)...Ball stand (B)...Ball part 11- (0)...Axis line f+)...Grease flow mechanism f21-・Ball stand operation structure Akashi Kikai Seisakusho Co., Ltd. Agent Takagi Yoshiaki 12-

Claims (1)

[Claims] 11) A predetermined amount of fluid grease is allowed to flow down, a ball stand is placed so that the ball portion of the ball stand is located at the location where the grease flows down, and the ball stand is rotated around its axis. Application method for a ball stand that moves forward and backward in the axial direction (2) A grease flow down mechanism that gives fluidity to grease and allows it to flow down a predetermined amount, and a ball stand that is arranged so that the ball part of the ball stand is located at the location where the grease flows down. An automatic ball stand grease applicator comprising a ball stand operating mechanism that holds the ball stand, rotates it around its axis, and moves it forward and backward in the axial direction.