JPS6128470B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] The present invention is a processing system that controls a large number of machine tools and a transport means for feeding pallets with workpieces attached to these machine tools, in which a workpiece setup means is connected to the transport means. This relates to a workpiece setup device for a group of machine tools.

In recent years, with the automation of machine tools, there is a tendency to strengthen the control of the flow between the machine tools and processed workpieces. One example of this is a method in which multiple automatic machine tools are arranged in a line, these machine tools are communicated by means of transport such as a conveyor, and the machine tools and transport means are centrally managed and controlled. . In this management control method, the work is supplied to the conveying means by setting the work on a pallet that can be attached to a machine tool, and feeding the pallet containing the work to the conveying means. The setup work for setting the workpieces on the pallet requires various precision operations such as three-dimensional positioning of the workpieces on the pallet, that is, positioning such as leveling, paralleling, and centering, and clamping the workpieces on the pallet. . Conventionally, this work setup work has been done manually. For this reason, when the workpiece is heavy, the above-mentioned workpiece setup work that requires high precision significantly reduces the operating rate of the machine tool. Another disadvantage was that workers were forced to do hard labor.

The present invention has been made based on the above-mentioned matters, and is related to the line of machine tools.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide an automated workpiece setup device.

The present invention is characterized in that a workpiece is set up on a pallet that can be attached to a machine tool group, and includes a workpiece setting means for positioning and clamping the workpiece on the pallet, and a workpiece setting means for positioning and clamping the workpiece on the pallet. a measuring device that measures the measurement signal and applies this measurement signal to the work setting means as a position control signal for positioning the work, a handling device that handles the pallet, the work, and other jigs, and the work setting means , a control processing device that interactively controls the measuring device and the handling device, and that exchanges information between the control processing device of the machine tool group and the central processing device located above these,
This automates workpiece setup work in conjunction with the line of machine tools.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. ₁ shows the arrangement configuration of a machine tool group equipped with the workpiece setup device of the present invention.
_-M4 are machine tools controlled by a numerical control device, and 1 is a conveying means for supplying the workpiece 2 to the machine tool group _M1 - _M4 , which is constituted by, for example, a conveyor. The workpiece 2 is fixed to a pallet 3 and transferred onto the conveying means 1 via the pallet 3. Machine tools M ₁ to _{M 4} are control processing units 4 for machine tool groups.
controlled by. This control processing device 4 stores work process information, tool management information, etc. of a group of machine tools. This control processing device 4 allows machine tool groups M ₁ to _{M 4} controlled by this control processing device 4 and their operators to share their specialized functions and process work while exchanging information. It has a so-called interactive control function. The control processing device 4 is located above this and communicates with a central processing device 6 that controls machine tool groups M ₁ to _{M 4} and a workpiece setup means 5 to be described later.

The work setup means 5 performs setup operations such as a series of operations for fixing the work 2 to the pallet 3 with high precision and transferring it to the conveying means 1, and re-fixing the work 2 for reprocessing. This work setup means 5 is controlled by its control processing device 7.
This control processing device 7 is connected to the machine tool group M ₁ to
Like the control processing device ₄ of M4, it has an interactive control function, stores work setup work procedures, etc., and can exchange information between the control processing device 4 and the central processing device 6. I am contacting you as follows. The workpiece setup means 5 is provided with the aforementioned conveyance means 1, dedicated jig conveyance means 8, workpiece conveyance means 9, and pallet conveyance means 10 in order to improve the efficiency of the setup work.

The detailed configuration of the work setup means 5 described above is shown in the second section.
The figure and FIG. 3 will be explained. In these figures, the same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 indicate the same parts.
The conveyance means 1 conveys the pallet 3 on which the workpieces 2 are set to the machine tool groups _M1 to _M4 . The dedicated jig transport means 8 carries in a dedicated jig 11 necessary for setting the workpiece 2. The workpiece conveying means 9 carries in the workpiece 2 to be processed. The pallet conveying means 10 carries in the pallet 3. These conveying means are arranged in parallel. Work setting means 12 is installed near the pallet conveying means 9. A storage section for a replacement hand 13a of a handling device 13 and a general-purpose replacement jig 14, which will be described later, is arranged near the workpiece setting means 12.

The work setting means 12 described above includes a rotary setup table 15 on which the pallet 3 is placed;
A drive unit 16 that is provided around the pallet 3 and drives a positioning jig, a clamp, etc., and a measuring device 17 that is involved in controlling the positioning of the workpiece 2 on the pallet 3.
It is equipped with The measuring device 17 constitutes a servo loop control circuit with the drive section 16, and
The upper workpiece 2 is three-dimensionally measured, and this measurement signal is applied to the drive unit 16 via the control processing device 7 as a positioning control signal for leveling, paralleling, centering, etc. of the workpiece 2. The drive section 16 drives a jig attached to the pallet 3 in response to a positioning control signal to control the leveling, parallelization, and centering of the workpiece 2. Further, after positioning the workpiece 2, the drive section 16 drives the clamp to fix the workpiece 2 to the pallet 3.

The handling device 13 includes the aforementioned transport means 1,
8 to 10 are installed on a pedestal 18 that straddles a storage section for the work setting means 12, the replacement hand 13, and the replacement general-purpose jig 14. This handling device 13 is capable of handling a wide variety of small quantities of workpieces 2, pallets 3, etc., so that the hand section can be reversed and the hand section can be replaced. This handling device 13 can move its hand portion in three directions: two horizontal directions and a vertical direction. The movement of the handling device 13 is controlled by information from the central processing device 6 and information determined by the operator of the control processing device 7.

FIG. 4 shows details of an example of the configuration for positioning the workpiece 2 by the workpiece setting means 12.
In this figure, parts with the same reference numerals as in FIGS. 1 to 3 are the same parts. The pallet 3 placed on the setup table 15 is provided with a leveling plunger 18 that moves up and down by a screw drive, and a centering plunger 19 that is leveled by a screw drive. These plungers 18 and 19 are connected to the drive section 16
operated by. This drive unit 16 is controlled based on measurement signals of the workpiece 2 from a horizontal direction measuring device 17a and a centering measuring device 17b which constitute the measuring device 17.

FIG. 5 shows details of an example of the clamping mechanism for the workpiece 2 in the workpiece setting means 12. In the figure, a clamping jig 20 is attached to a chuck groove 3a of a pallet 3. This jig 20 has a main body 20a equipped with clamp claws 20b for clamping the workpiece 2 from above. This clamp claw 2
0b is swung by a screw mechanism 20c. Further, the main body 20a of the jig 20 is provided with a clamp rod 20d for clamping the workpiece 2 from the side using a screw mechanism. This clamp rod 2
0d and the clamp claw 20b are appropriately used depending on the type of workpiece 2, and are controlled by a drive unit 16 (not shown). This clamp mechanism is designed to control the clamping force exerted by the clamp claw 20b and clamp rod 20d. This clamping force is confirmed by detecting the tightening torque of the clamp claw 20b and clamp rod 20d. In addition, this clamp mechanism also uses the clamp claw 20b and clamp rod 20d when clamping the workpiece 2.
In addition to positioning the workpiece 2 by the positioning mechanism described above, based on the measurement signal of the measuring device,
Furthermore, precise positioning of the workpiece 2 is performed.

As mentioned above, the pallet 3 is equipped with a positioning mechanism and can be fitted with a clamping mechanism. Although the workpiece 2 can be sufficiently fixed on the pallet 3 by the clamping mechanism, it is also possible to use a chuck 21 as shown in FIG. 6 to assist the clamping mechanism. In this case, the chuck 21 is actuated by the drive 16. Further, the pallet 3 is provided with an identification code 22 for transferring it to the machine tool groups _M1 to _M4 and for identifying the type of workpiece 2.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention described above will be explained.

First, the control processing device 7 in the work setup means 5 receives setup information from the central processing unit 6, and uses this information to determine detailed setup means. The control processing device 7 can determine setup conditions at high speed and with high performance based on standard setup procedures stored in advance in its internal memory and operator judgment information.

When the detailed setup means are determined in the control processing device 7 in this way, the setup of the workpiece 2 is carried out according to this setup procedure. First, the handling device 13 A desired pallet 3 is grabbed and placed on the setup table 15 of the work setting means 12. Next, the pallet 3 is removed by the handling device 13.
A dedicated jig 11 or a general-purpose jig 14 is attached to the workpiece 2, and the workpiece 2 is placed on the pallet 3 after its posture is adjusted.

Jigs 11, 14 and workpiece 2 are placed on pallet 3.
When the workpiece 2 is attached, the workpiece 2 is positioned. This positioning work requires high precision such as leveling, paralleling, and centering of the workpiece 2. In this example, leveling and centering of the workpiece 2 will be described. In the leveling work of the workpiece 2, while the workpiece 2 is being rotated by the setup table 15, the horizontal direction measuring device 17a is brought into contact with the upper surface of the workpiece 2 to measure the horizontal amount of the upper surface of the workpiece 2. This horizontal quantity is applied to the control processor 7. For this reason, the control processing device 7 compares a preset horizontal value of the upper surface of the workpiece 2 with the measured horizontal amount value to calculate the amount of horizontal variation. This horizontal variation amount value is then transferred to the drive section 16. Accordingly, the drive unit 16 operates the leveling plunger 18 to control the levelness of the upper surface of the workpiece 2. In addition, the work for centering the workpiece 2 is performed by rotating the workpiece 2 in the same manner as described above, detecting the misalignment of the workpiece 2 by the centering measuring instrument 17b, and operating the centering plunger 19 by the drive unit 16. It is done by folding. Through this positioning operation, the workpiece 2 is positioned on the pallet 3 with high precision.

When the positioning of the workpiece 2 is completed in this way, the workpiece 2 is fixed onto the pallet 3 by a jig equipped with a clamp mechanism, as shown in FIG. The clamp mechanism is operated by the drive section 16 operating the clamp claw 20b or clamp rod 20d. During this clamping operation, the clamping mechanism fixes the workpiece 2 to the pallet 3 while controlling the clamping force, and also controls the positioning of the workpiece 2 while checking the displacement of the workpiece 2 again using the measuring device 17.

After fixing work 2 to pallet 3,
The control processing device 7 accumulates information on the installation accuracy of the workpiece 2 measured by the measuring device 17 described above.
After that, the handling device 13 grabs the pallet 3 on which the workpiece 2 is fixed, and transfers it to the machine tools group M ₁ -
It is delivered to conveying means 1 connected to _M4 . As a result, the workpiece 2 is transported via the pallet 3 to the machine tool groups _M1 to _M4 by the transport means 1. On the other hand, the control processing device 7 transfers the accumulated setup information such as the installation accuracy of the workpiece 2 to the control processing devices 4 of the machine tool groups M ₁ to _{M 4} . The control processing device 4 corrects the machining conditions based on this information.

One step of setting up the workpiece 2 is completed by the above-described procedure. Various controls in this process include control of the measuring device 17, movement control of the handling device 13, selection and exchange control of the hand section of the handling device 13, selection control of the jigs 11 and 14, and control of the workpiece 2.
Control of positioning clamp, setup table 15
Rotation control, etc., and information exchange with the control processing device 4 and central processing device 6 of the machine tool groups M ₁ to _{M 4} are performed by the control processing device 7 . As a result, the entire control of the workpiece setup means 5 is supervised.

Although the workpiece setup process described above has been described as a standard flow, the handling device 13 can change the hand portion according to the shapes of the workpiece 2 and pallet 3. Further, the workpiece setup means 5 picks up the workpiece 2 from the pallet 3 after it has been processed by the machine tool groups M ₁ to _{M 4} , transports these parts, or transfers the workpiece 2 for reprocessing. Invert,
It is also possible to perform operations such as resetting on pallet 3. Further, in the workpiece setup means 5, the measuring device 17 measures the completed machining dimension of the workpiece 2 on the pallet 3 that has been machined by going around the machine tool groups _M1 to _M4 , and this measurement value is used in the machining program. So-called post-process measurement can be performed in which the correction information is transferred via the control processing device 7 to the control processing devices 4 of the machine tool groups M ₁ to _{M 4} . Further, when a special workpiece 2 is to be handled by the handling device 13 in the workpiece setup means 5, this can be done by inputting operator judgment information to the control processing device 7. Further, when a jig is selected by the handling device 13, the selection is made based on the position information accumulated in the control processing device 7 through a learning operation.

As described in detail above, according to the workpiece setup device of the present invention, a desired workpiece can be set on a pallet that can be attached to a machine tool without requiring any human power, so it is possible to save labor compared to the conventional method. be able to. Further, since the workpiece setup work can be performed through dialogue with the processing line, it is possible to level out the workpiece setup technique and achieve higher performance compared to conventional manual work. Furthermore, the work setup means of the present invention has the advantage that productivity of the processing line can be significantly increased through communication with the processing line.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a plan view showing the general overall configuration of the device, FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view showing the work setup means, and FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the work setup means. FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an enlarged workpiece setting means portion of the workpiece setting means; FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of a workpiece positioning mechanism in the workpiece setting means; FIG.
This figure shows a workpiece clamping mechanism in the workpiece setup means, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an example of a pallet. M ₁ to M ₄ ...Machine tool, 1...Transportation means, 2...
...Work, 3...Pallet, 4...Control processing device for machine tool group, 5...Work setup means, 6...Central processing unit, 7...Control processing device for work setup means, 12...Work Setting means, 13...
Handling device, 17...Measuring device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In an apparatus for setting up workpieces on a pallet that can be attached to a machine tool group, a workpiece setting means for positioning and clamping the workpieces on the pallet and measuring the dimensions of the workpieces on the pallet are provided. and a measuring device that applies this measurement signal to the work setting means as a position control signal for positioning the work, a handling device that handles the pallet, the work, and other jigs, the work setting means, the measuring device, and A machine tool characterized by comprising a control processing device that interactively controls a handling device and receives information between a control processing device of a group of machine tools and a central processing device located above these devices. Group work setup device. 2. A machine tool group according to claim 1, characterized in that the measuring device is installed on the workpiece setting means and is movable so as to three-dimensionally measure the workpieces on the pallet. Work setup device. 3. Claim 1, characterized in that the measuring device performs so-called post-process measurement to measure the dimensions and shape of the workpiece after machining is completed, and inputs this measurement information to a control processing device as machining information for a group of machine tools.
A workpiece setup device for a machine tool group according to item 1 or 2. 4. A work setup device for a group of machine tools as set forth in claim 1, wherein the handling device is capable of three-dimensionally moving its hand portion. 5. A workpiece setup device for a group of machine tools as set forth in claim 1 or 4, wherein the handling device has a structure in which the hand portion thereof can be replaced depending on the object to be handled. 6. A workpiece setup device for a group of machine tools according to claim 1, wherein the control processing device stores the position information of the jig through a learning operation of the handling device.