JPS6097105A - Conveyor device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the number of idling pallets, by providing a cable member for feeding pallets according to a working head and a mobile member for returning the pallets to a conveyance upstream end, and making a moving speed of the mobile member greater than a speed of the cable member. CONSTITUTION:Two rails 11 are laid on an upper surface of a frame 10, and a wire rope 12 as a cable member is stretchedly wound around a drive pulley 13, driven pulley 14 and plural tension pulleys 15 between both the rails 11. Pallets 17 mounted on the rails 11 are conveyed by rotation of the wire rope 12 when the wire rope 12 is held by a holding means of the pallets 17. A pair of chains 23 as a return mobile member are provided under the wire rope 12 in the frame 10, and a moving speed of the chains 23 is set to be higher than that of the wire rope 12. The pallets 17 moved through a rocking table 46 onto the chains 23 are allowed to be returned to a start end of the wire rope 12 by a lifting table 27.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention is applicable to automatic processing, automatic assembly, etc. of various types of equipment.
The present invention relates to the above-mentioned workpiece conveyance device used to perform assembly line work by sequentially transporting workpieces through a plurality of processes.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

When performing automatic processing, automatic assembly, etc. of various equipment, an endless running body such as a wire rope, chain, or belt is run continuously or intermittently, a pallet is attached to this running body, and the pallet is integrated with the running body. A conveyance device is used in which the workpieces placed on the pallet are sequentially conveyed to the heads of each process by running the pallet.

For example, the conveyance device shown in FIG. 1 is a chain conveyor type, in which an endless chain 3 is stretched between a driving sprocket 1 and a driven sprocket 2, and a large number of pallets 4 are placed on this chain 3 at predetermined intervals. It is fixed. When the drive sprocket 1 is rotated intermittently or continuously by a motor (not shown), the pallet 4
... are moved intermittently or continuously in the direction of arrow A, and therefore, the pallets 4... and the works 5 placed thereon are also moved intermittently or continuously in the direction of arrow A. However, this thing also has a pallet 4 on the return side of the chain 3, that is, the return point in the direction of arrow B.
The structure is such that a large number of pallets 4 are attached, and these pallets 4 on the return side are idle because they do not contribute to the conveyance or feeding of the workpieces 5.... Such idle pallets account for more than half of all pallets and are wasted, complicating the structure of the conveying device and causing high manufacturing costs. In addition, in such a configuration, the spacing between the pallets 4 is distorted due to elongation of the chain 3, and particularly in an intermittent running system in which the work head is stopped at a predetermined work head position, there is a drawback that the mounting position of the pallets 4 must be corrected frequently.

On the other hand, the conveyance device shown in FIG. The vehicle is designed to run integrally with the vehicle in the direction of arrow A. Pallet 7 on each head side
A stopper 8... is provided to stop...
When the stoppers 8 are advanced and come into contact with the front surface of the pallet 7, the pallet 7 is stopped at that position. In this case, the chain 6 continues to run and slides against the pallet 7. Therefore, in this case, the running speed of the chain 6 is not restricted by the intermittent stopping of the pallet 7, so the speed can be increased, and in addition, there is no need to stop the pallet 7 on the return side of the chain 6, so that the pallet 7 can be stopped easily. 7 can be quickly returned toward the upstream side, which has the advantage of reducing the number of pallets 70 used.

However, such a light free-flow type conveyor requires a stopper 8 for stopping the pallet 7 on the valley head, so the number of stoppers 8 increases, and when the chain 6 is run at high speed, There were problems such as a large impact occurring when the pallet 7 was started and stopped, making the pallet and stopper more likely to be damaged.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention was developed based on these circumstances, and its purpose is to speed up the return of pallets to reduce the number of idle pallets, in other words, the number of all pallets used, and to increase the spacing between pallets. It is an object of the present invention to provide a conveyance device that can ensure accuracy and can set a position facing the work head with high precision.

[Summary of the invention]

The basic idea of the present invention is to perform pallet feeding and quick return using separate conveyance paths, and the present invention is based on an endless cable body that is driven intermittently or continuously, and that is connected to this cable body. a plurality of pallets that are provided with a removably locking chuck mechanism and run integrally with the cable body when the chuck mechanism is locked with the cable body; and a traveling upstream end of the endless cable body. a locking mechanism provided at the chuck mechanism to lock the cable body; and a lock release mechanism provided at the running downstream end of the endless cable body to release the chuck mechanism from the cable body. and a traveling body provided between the upstream end and the downstream end of the cable body and returning the pallet sent to the downstream end toward the upstream end at a speed faster than the traveling speed of the cable body, and The present invention is characterized by comprising a transfer mechanism that transfers the pallet between the cable body and the traveling body.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings from FIG. 3 onwards.

In the figure, 10 is a frame serving as a base, and rails 11, 11 are provided on the upper surface of this frame 10 in parallel along the longitudinal direction. Between these rails 11 and 11, a cable member such as a wire rope or chain, in this embodiment wire rope 1, is installed parallel to these rails 11 and 11.
2 is hung. The wire rope 12 is the drive pulley 1
3. Driven pulley 14 and multiple tension pulleys 15
..., and the drive pulley 13 is rotated intermittently or continuously by a drive motor 16. Therefore, the wire rope 12 is run intermittently or continuously in the direction of arrow C.

A pallet 17 is placed on the rail 11.11, and the pallet 17 is guided by the rail 11.11 and runs together with the wire rope 12 in the direction of arrow C. The pallet 17 is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, and has flanged wheels 18 on both left and right sides, and these wheels 18 roll on the rails 11.11. run along. A bracket 19 is attached to the pallet 17, and a chuck lever 21 is rotatably supported on the bracket 19 via a pin 20. The chuck lever 21 is urged to rotate by a spring 22. The spring 22 connects the fixed point of the spring 22 and the pin 20 with a neutral #! ! When the chuck lever 21 is deflected to one side beyond the neutral line, the chuck lever 21 is urged to rotate in one direction. When the chuck lever 21 is rotated in the direction indicated by the arrow, the spring 22 urges the chuck lever 21 to rotate in the direction indicated by the arrow, and conversely, when the chuck lever 21 is rotated in the direction indicated by the arrow E relative to the neutral line j, the spring 22 urges the chuck lever 21 to rotate in the direction indicated by the arrow E. 22 urges the chuck lever 21 to rotate in the direction of arrow E.

When the chuck lever 21 is rotated in the direction indicated by the arrow, the wire rope 12 is held between the tip 21a of the chuck lever 21 and the protrusion 17FL formed on the pallet 17. Therefore, when the wire rope is clamped, the pallet 17 is run along the rail 11.11 in the direction of arrow C.

The frame 10 is provided with a return running body located below the wire rope 12 and parallel to the construction of the wire rope 12.

The return traveling body includes, for example, a pair of chains 23°23,
The drive sprockets 24, 24 and the driven sprockets 25, 25, which drive these chains 23, 23, and a return motor 26, which rotates the drive sprockets 24, 24, are arranged in a Y-type. The rotation of the return motor 26 causes the chains 23, 23 to run parallel to each other in the direction of arrow F. In this case, the running speed of the chains 23, 23 in the direction of arrow F is set to be much faster than the running speed of the wire rope 12 in the direction of arrow C. These chains 23.23 quickly return the pallet 17 carried in the direction of arrow C by the wire rope 12 toward the upstream end of the rail 11.11, that is, in the direction of arrow F. A pallet 17 is placed between .23 and .23. In addition, Che: /23
．． At the downstream end of 23 in the direction of arrow F, when pallet 17 hits another preceding pallet, friction occurs between pallet 17 and chain 23.23, and only chain 23.23 runs.

At the upstream end of the rail 11.11, an elevating platform 27 that can be raised and lowered relative to the frame 11 is provided, and this elevating platform 27 is moved up and down by an air cylinder 28 for elevating and lowering.

When the lifting platform 22 is lowered to a position flush with the return chain 23.23, the pallet 17 at the leading end on the chain 23.23 is pushed by the following pallet 17 and only one pallet is transferred onto the lifting platform 27. It will be done. In this state, the elevating table 27 is raised, and when the elevating table 27 reaches the same height as the rail 11.11 surface, the elevating table 22 is stopped. Then, the pushing cylinder 29 provided on the lifting table 27 is operated, and the pushing cylinder 29 pushes the pallet I7, so that the pallet r7 is placed on the rail 11.11. Therefore, this elevating table 27 constitutes the transfer mechanism of the present invention.

A stop mechanism 30 is provided at the upstream end of the rail 11.11. The stopper mechanism 30 is shown in FIGS.
As shown in the figure, a stop lever 31 that moves forward and backward toward the front of the pallet 12 is actuated by a stop cylinder 32. When the pallet 17 is transferred from the lifting platform 27 onto the rails 11, 11, the stop cylinder 32
When the stop lever 31 is rotated in the direction of arrow G about the pin 33, the stop rod 34 attached to the tip of the stop lever 31 moves toward the front of the pallet 17. Therefore, the pallet 17 pushed out onto the rails 11, jJ by the pushing cylinder 29 hits the stop rod 34 and is stopped.

Additionally, a locking mechanism 3 is provided at the upstream end of the rail 11.11.
5 is provided. As shown in FIG. 9, the locking mechanism 35 operates the chuck lever 21 of the pallet 17 in the direction of the arrow H, and the operation of the actuating cylinder 36 moves the operating lever 37 in the direction of the arrow H with the bin 38 as the center. When it is rotated in the direction indicated by the arrow, the pressing rod 39 attached to the tip of the operating lever 37 pushes the chuck lever 21, so that the chuck lever 21 is rotated in the direction indicated by the arrow. From this, the spring 22 of the chuck lever 21 is at the 1 neutral line! Since it exceeds the chuck lever 2
1 in the direction of the arrow, and the wire rope 12 is clamped between the chuck lever 21 and the protrusion 17a of the pallet 17.

An unlocking mechanism 40 is provided at the downstream end of the rail 11.11. As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, the lock release mechanism 40 releases the pallet 17 when the rod 42 extends in the direction of arrow 1 due to the operation of the release cylinder 41.
This is to rotate this lever 21 in the direction of arrow E. By rotating the chuck lever 2 in the direction of arrow E, the chuck on the wire rope 12 is released, and the wire rope 12 continues to run, but the pallet 17 is released and stopped. In addition, the spring 22 of the chuck lever 21 is the neutral line! The released state is maintained because the motor moves in the direction of arrow E beyond the range.

An inclined rail 45.45 is connected to the downstream end of the rail 11.11 as shown in FIG.
1Cf, three pallets 17 are moved onto this inclined rail 45.45. On the downstream side of the inclined rails 45, 45, a rocking table 46 is swingably mounted on the frame 10 via a pin 47, and this rocking table 46 is operated by a swinging cylinder 48. When the swinging cylinder 48 is extended, the swinging table 46 moves toward the inclined rail 45.
．． The pallet 17 that has traveled along the inclined rail 45.45 is therefore placed on the rocking table 46. When the swing table 46 is swung by the contraction of the swing cylinder 48, the pallet 17 placed on the swing table 46 slides down and is transferred onto the return chain 23. Therefore, the rocking table 46 constitutes the transfer mechanism of the present invention.

The conveyance device having such a configuration places a work 5 on each pallet 17 and conveys it automatically when the pallets 17 are moved in the direction of arrow C by the wire rope 12.

That is, while the pallet 17 placed on the rail 11.11 by the push-out cylinder 29 from the lifting table 27 is stopped by the stopper mechanism 30, the chuck lever 21 is moved to the wire rope due to the operation of the locking mechanism 35. 12 is sandwiched. If the stop of the pallet 217 by the stopper mechanism 30 is released at the same time as this clamping, the pallet 17 will travel in the direction of arrow C as the wire rope 12 travels.

The traveling speed of the pallets 17 is determined by the traveling speed of the wire rope 120, and the interval between the pallets 17 is determined by the release timing of the stopper mechanism 30. Therefore, even if the wire rope 12 stretches due to use over time, the feeding pitch of the pallet 17 can be made to correspond to the working head by correcting the release timing of the stopper mechanism 30.

In addition, the feed speed for the work head is determined by the wire rope 12.
In addition, the pallet 17 that has reached the end of the rail 11.11
Since the pallets are returned to the upstream side, the number of idle pallets is extremely reduced, and the number of pallets used can be reduced to approximately half compared to the conventional example shown in FIG.

As the number of pallets decreases, the number of parts also decreases, making it possible to reduce costs.

And again, the pallet 17 is fast-return chain 23.23
Since the wire lobe 12 was returned at high speed by
It is not necessary to run the wire lobe 12 at high speed, and the speed of intermittent or continuous running of the wire lobe 12 can be selected depending on each working time of the working head.

As a result, there is no need to operate each cylinder at high speed, the timing of operation can be easily set, and no impact is generated on the pallet 17 when the wire rope 12 is chucked or released by the chuck lever 21, resulting in fewer failures. , the impact on the workpiece is also reduced.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the rope body is provided with a rope body for feeding a pallet in correspondence with a work head, and a traveling body for returning the pallet to the upstream end of the conveyance, and the rope body is provided with a rope body that is configured to adjust the traveling speed of the traveling body. Since the speed is faster than that of , the idle pallets that do not directly contribute to the work are returned more rapidly, and the number of idle pallets used decreases. Moreover, since each pallet is equipped with a chuck mechanism that engages and disengages the cables, the timing of engaging and disengaging these chuck mechanisms from the cables can be arbitrarily selected, and the aging of the cables and the work head. Even if the index changes, the pallet spacing can be maintained with high precision, so the position relative to the work head can be set with high precision. Furthermore, since the cables do not need to run at high speed, there is less impact on the pallet, which has the advantage of reducing failures.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 are explanatory diagrams showing a conventional conveying device, respectively, FIG. 3 and the following show an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a plan view of the conveying device, and FIG. Fig. 5 is a plan view of the pallet, Fig. 6 is a sectional view of the pallet, Fig. 7 is a plan view showing the stopper mechanism, Fig. 8 is a side view thereof, Fig. 9 is a side view of the locking mechanism, and Fig. 9 is a side view of the locking mechanism. FIG. 10 is a plan view of the lock release mechanism, and FIG. 11 is a side view thereof. 10...Frame, 11.11...Rail, 12.
・・Wire rope (rope body), 17・・・°Pallet, 2
No...Chuck lever, 22...Spring, 23
. . . Chain (traveling body), 27 . . . Lifting platform (transfer change mechanism), 30 . ... Rocking table (transfer mechanism). Applicant's representative Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue

Claims (1)

[Claims] An endless cable body that is driven intermittently or continuously, and a chuck mechanism that removably locks onto the cable body, and when this chuck mechanism is locked with the cable body, it is integrated with the cable body. a plurality of pallets that are run on a plurality of pallets; a locking mechanism that is provided at the upstream end of the endless cable body and that locks the cable body such as the chuck mechanism; and a locking mechanism provided at the downstream end of the endless cable body that A lock release mechanism is provided to release the lock of the chuck mechanism from the cable body, and a lock release mechanism is provided between the upstream end and the downstream end of the cable body to direct the pallet sent to the downstream end toward the upstream end. a traveling body which is returned at a speed faster than the running speed of the cable body; and a transfer mechanism provided at the upstream and downstream ends of the cable body to transfer the pallet between the cable body and the running body. A conveying device characterized by comprising: