JPS6312518A - Transport device for automatic assembly - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable introduction into an automatic assembly line by providing three transport steps having independent belt transport means, arranging so that independent stops are available, and thereby providing accurate location through control of transport and stop of assembly parts. CONSTITUTION:One transport device 1 is equipped with three transport steps having independent belt conveyors 40 with capability of stopping independently, wherein the three transport steps signify a carry-in part 2, a locating part 3, and a carryout part 4. This can eliminate collision and/or overlapping of assembly parts 13 with one another during transportation, that provides high precision control of transport and stop. Consequently the parts 13 can be transported well separated one after another with a locating mechanism 8 in sure operation to cause precision location. Therefore each piece of the parts 13 is located accurately to provide good response to automation to enable use as a transport device in an automatic assembly line, and thus assembly operations can be made effective.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a conveying device used in an automatic assembly line). 0 Regarding Conveyance Devices [Prior Art] In an assembly line, parts are assembled on the conveyed members to be assembled at each work station, and when one line is finished, a predetermined assembly process is completed. There is.

An example of this is the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 160889/1989. This invention is a conveyor unit that transports a plurality of movable workpieces and articles to be assembled from one stage to the next stage.
[t, the conveyor of said conveyor unit is arranged to stop when the presence of an article to be assembled is sensed in a predetermined conveyor area and to start the conveyor when the article is removed from said area; It is related to assembly line systems. This invention is a system in which an assembly line is set up for manual work, and the conveyor unit conveys the parts, and when the article reaches a predetermined position, the conveyor stops, and when the article is removed, the conveyor restarts. It has a function.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

By the way, in the conveyor unit in the above conventional example, the belt conveyor stops at a predetermined position upon sensing an article, and a person takes out the article, performs assembly work, and places it on the downstream belt conveyor to convey it to the next stage. It is set as follows.

Therefore, no consideration is given to positioning or attitude control of the transported article at its stop position.

It is not possible to introduce this conveyor unit into an automatic assembly line.

The present invention has been made in view of the actual state of the prior art as described above, and its purpose is to provide a conveyance device that can accurately position conveyed articles and that can be introduced into an automatic assembly line. There is a particular thing.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the problems faced by the prior art and achieve the above object, the present invention receives a member to be assembled, which serves as a base, from an adjacent pre-processing station, and after assembling predetermined parts, In an automatic assembly transport device that sends out to a post-processing station, there is a position detection means that detects the transport position of the carried-in workpiece to be assembled, and an output signal from the position detection means causes the device to stop at a preset position. a carrying-in section including a belt conveying means restarted by a release signal; a position detecting means for detecting the conveying position of the assembled member conveyed from the carrying-in section; The belt conveying means stops at a position and restarts with a stop release signal, and the part to be assembled is positioned at the part assembly position.

a positioning section including a positioning means; a position detection means for detecting the conveyance position of the assembled member conveyed from the positioning section; , a belt conveying means that is restarted by a stop release signal, and a conveyance section that is configured to have three conveyance stages, including a conveyance section that conveys the assembled member on which parts have been assembled to a post-processing station.

In addition, in order to further expand the applicability of automatic assembly, the belt conveying means is configured to be adjustable in the width direction according to the dimensions of the parts to be assembled, and the type of parts to be assembled is detected in the loading section. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which a detection means is provided.

[Effect]

According to the above means, one conveyance device is provided with three conveyance stages each having an independent belt conveyance means, and each conveyance stage is configured to stop independently. Since it is possible to eliminate collisions and overlaps between the attached parts, it is possible to convey and stop the assembled parts with high precision.
This makes it possible to perform highly accurate positioning at the positioning point in the positioning section.

In addition, by configuring the belt conveyance means to be adjustable in the width direction, it is possible to respond quickly to diversification of the dimensions of the assembled parts, and furthermore, the interval in the conveyance direction of the positioning means of the positioning means, for example, the retaining section, in the positioning section can be freely adjusted. With this configuration, positioning can be performed more accurately.

In addition, by providing type detection means in the first stage, the loading section, the operation of the subsequent stage can be set according to the detected type, making it possible to perform assembly operations of different types using the same conveyance path. Become.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

All figures are for detailed explanation of this invention.
The figure is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of the conveying device according to the embodiment, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the stopping mechanism, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the positioning mechanism, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the signal transmission and reception relationship regarding the present conveying device. The block diagram and FIG. 5 are explanatory diagrams showing an overview of the type detection means for the assembled parts, FIG. 5(a) is a plan view of the main part showing the position where the type identification mark is formed, and FIG. FIG. 5(c) is a side view showing a state during mark reading, and FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a main part of the conveyance device.

In FIG. 1, the conveying device 1 according to this embodiment is mainly composed of a pedestal 19, a loading section 2, a positioning section 6, and an unloading section 4, and an operation control section 5 is provided on the top surface of the pedestal 19. ing.

The carry-in section 21, the positioning section 3, and the carry-out section 4 are provided with a pair of belt conveyors 40 as belt conveying means, as shown in FIG.
are provided for each. This belt conveyor 40 includes a rotating shaft 41 rotatably supported between both side plates 39 supported by supporting plates 26 on both sides, and a motor 14, 17, 22 for rotating this rotating shaft 41. , a driving pulley 42 pivotally attached to a rotating shaft 41, a driven pulley 43 rotatably supported at a predetermined position on the rotational half of the driving pulley 42, and a tension suspension between the driving pulley 42 and the driven pulley 43. It consists of a pair of conveyor belts 44.

On the bottom of the support plate 26 that supports the belt conveyor 40,
The groove 24 is cut so that it can be moved on a rail 25 disposed on the upper surface of the pedestal 19, and is movable along the rail 25.
When not moving, it is fixed at a set position on the rail 25 by a fixing screw 26. In addition, the main drive pulley 42 on the negative side
The belt conveyor 400 is also fixed to the rotating shaft 41 via the pulley fixing screw 27, and when it becomes necessary to adjust the belt conveyor 400 in the width direction (in the direction of the arrow), the fixing screw 26 and the pulley fixing screw 27 are It is possible to loosen and adjust.

Position detection sensors 9, 10 and 11 as position detection means for the assembled member tS are provided at preset positions downstream of the belt conveyor 40 of each transport stage in the transport direction (direction of arrow B). The position detection sensors 9.10 are adapted to receive signals from the projections 6.7 of the stop mechanism 46.47, respectively.

The stop mechanism 46 is connected to the cylinder 16 as shown in FIG.
and the operation shaft 6a), the operation shaft 6a passes through the position detection sensor 9 and protrudes from the conveyance surface of the conveyor belt 44, and the protrusion becomes the projection 6. A coil spring 45 is attached to the operating shaft 6a, and constantly springs the operating shaft 6a upward in the figure. The position detection sensor 9 is configured to detect when the member to be assembled 13 comes into contact with the protrusion 6 and send a position detection signal to the operation control section 5 . This stop mechanism 46 is supported by a support plate 48, and the support plate 48 can be adjusted to the upper surface of the pedestal 19 through a screw 50 inserted into a long hole 28 formed in a support portion 49 at the lower end in the figure. Fixed. The stop mechanism 47 of the positioning section 3 is also constructed in exactly the same manner.

The product type reading unit 12, which serves as product type detection means provided in the carrying-in section 6, is equipped with an optical sensor 15, and as shown in FIG.
Bit white paint printing 31 is applied, and the product type is identified by detecting the white paint printing position with the optical sensor 15. The positioning mechanism 8 provided in the positioning section 3 is as shown in FIG. A support base 51 is supported by a positioning cylinder 52, and a support base 8 supports a guide shaft 29 at both ends.

A lifting table 52 and a pair of positioning members 5 inserted through the guide shaft 29 and movable along the guide shaft 29.
3, and is arranged on the outside of the side plate 69 on the negative side. The elevating table 52 has a positioning cylinder 62
It is supported by an operating shaft 54 and is constantly urged upward in the figure by a coil spring 55.

The lifting position of the lifting table 52 is defined by a guide 56 inserted through the support table 51. Additionally, the positioning member 53
A support arm 57 protrudes from the belt conveyor 40, and a positioning pin 18 is vertically provided at the tip thereof, and a guide shaft 29 is attached to the positioning member 56.
A screw 60 is provided that presses down to define the position.

The positioning pin 1B is set so as to fit into a small hole 20 previously drilled in the member to be assembled 13, and the positioning member 55 is inserted between two small holes 200 formed at the front and back in the conveyance direction. After adjustment, the member to be assembled 13 is stopped by the stop mechanism 47.
After being stopped, the elevating table 52 is lowered to fit the positioning pins 18 into the small holes 20, respectively. This allows accurate positioning of the assembly member 16 in the positioning portion 3.

An operation control unit 5 is also provided on the upper surface of the pedestal 19, and the position detection sensor 9. It processes the detection signals from TO and H to control the motor 14, 17, 22, positioning mechanism 8, etc., and also generates signals as shown in the block diagram of FIG. 4 in connection with an automatic assembly machine, etc. (not shown). It performs processing and controls the operation of the entire transport device 1.

Subsequently, the operation of the conveying device 1 configured as described above will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4.

The member to be assembled 16 indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIGS.
It is conveyed in the direction shown by and carried into the carry-in section 2, and is conveyed in the direction of the protrusion 6 by the conveyor belt 44. Due to this transportation
When the tip of the member to be assembled 16 comes into contact with the protrusion 6, the 1-position detection sensor 9 detects this and stops the motor 14, and also sends a product request signal to the front process via the operation control unit 5. P is turned off, and then a reading start signal Q is turned on in the product type reading section 12. As a result, the optical sensor 15
is activated and reads the signal from the white paint print 61 to determine the product type.

When the type determination is completed by this reading, the automatic assembly machine 574A outputs a reading completion signal R that functions as a stop release signal, the stopper #1t46 is turned off, and the cylinder 16 is activated and the protrusion 6 is lowered. At the same time, the motor 14 drives the conveyor belt 44 of the carry-in section 2.

When the motor 17 that drives the conveyor belt 44 of the positioning section 6 is turned on, the member to be assembled 13 is conveyed from the carry-in section 2 to the positioning section 6 .

The leading end of the assembled member 15 conveyed to the positioning section 6 comes into contact with the protrusion 7 of the stopper $47 during the conveyance process, and the position detection sensor 10 detects this. When the position sensor 10 is activated, the motor 17 is turned off in the same manner as described above, and the conveyor belt 44 is turned off.
and also turns off the pre-process product request signal P to the carry-in TA2. Then, the positioning cylinder 52 of the positioning machine #I8 is turned on to lower the elevator platform 52. Then, as described above, the positioning bin 18 descends,
11 by the stop mechanism 47.

The small hole 2 of the member to be assembled 13 has an approximate stopping position defined by
The tip of the positioning pin 18 is inserted into the small hole 20, and as it is further lowered, the positioning pin 18 fits into the hole 9 protruding from the small hole 20, thereby accurately positioning the member 16 to be assembled. In this case, the stop MA mechanism 47 needs only to ensure a stop degree that at least allows the tip of the positioning pin 18 to be inserted into the small hole 20.

When the positioning is completed, the stop mechanism 47 of the first positioning s3 is turned off, the protrusion 7 is lowered, and the automatic assembly machine 57 is turned off.
A positioning completion signal S is output to the side. As a result, the automatic assembling machine 57 assembles a predetermined part into a preset part according to the type of the to-be-assembled part 16 read by the type reading section 12.

When the assembly is completed, the assembly completion signal T is sent to the automatic assembly machine 5.
7 to the operation control unit 5 of the transport device 1 @J, thereby turning off the positioning cylinder 32 and turning off the lifting platform 52.
is raised to remove the positioning bottle 18 from the small hole 20 and release the positioning. At the same time, a stop release signal is issued, and the motor 17 that drives the transport belt 44 of the positioning fi 16 and the motor 22 that drives the transport belt 44 of the unloading section 4 are turned on.

The member to be assembled 15 is transported from the positioning section 3 to the unloading section 4 .

When the assembled member 13 transported to the unloading s4 reaches a preset transport position, the position detection sensor 11 detects it, and the position detection sensor 11 is turned on and the motor 2
2 stops, and the member to be assembled 13 also stops on the conveyor belt 44 driven by the motor 22. Then, the motor 22 is restarted upon receiving the product request signal U functioning as a stop release signal from the conveyance device of the post-process E, and
The member to be assembled 15, which has been stopped at , is transported to a post-process E, for example, to a loading section. In this conveyance device 1, when one member to be assembled 16 is conveyed from the carry-in section 2 to the positioning section 6,
In response to the pre-process product request signal P, the next member to be assembled 13 is successively conveyed from the carry-out section of the pre-process to the carry-in section 2, and the above-mentioned operation is repeated nine times. This allows continuous automatic assembly on an automatic assembly line.

As described above, the above embodiment has the following effects.

■ The transport stage is moved to the loading section 21 positioning section 5. Since the unloading section 4 is formed in six stages, overlapping and abutting of the members 13 to be assembled can be avoided, and it is possible to reliably transport the members 13 one by one.

■ For the above reason, it is possible to transport -m pieces at a time,
By operating the positioning mechanism 8 reliably, the member to be assembled 13 can be accurately positioned by the positioning section 3.

(2) Since the member to be assembled 13 can be positioned with high precision, it becomes easy to assemble five parts using the automatic assembly machine 57.

■ Because it is easy to assemble using the automatic assembly machine 57,
Assembling efficiency can be improved.

■ Since the belt conveyor 40 is configured to be adjustable in the width direction of the conveyor belt 44, and the positioning bin 18 of the positioning mechanism 8 is adjustable in the direction parallel to the conveyance direction B, it is possible to change the dimensions of the assembled member 16. It becomes easier to deal with
Excellent versatility.

(2) By providing the product type reading section 12 and the product f11 sorting function, it is possible to select assembly parts and assembly processes according to one product type, thereby promoting automation.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, which is configured such that the conveyance stage is formed into three stages and the positioning section of the second stage positions the assembled parts, the assembled parts are Since each member can be reliably transported one by one, one positioning means can be reliably operated to accurately position the members to be assembled. In addition, since positioning can be performed accurately one by one to be assembled, it can be quickly adapted to automation, and can be used as a conveyance device on an automatic assembly line, improving the efficiency of assembly work. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

All figures are for detailed explanation of this invention.
The figure is a perspective view of the conveyance device according to the embodiment, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the stop mechanism, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the positioning device and a 15° frame, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the signal exchange relationship regarding the conveyance device. A block diagram, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of type detection, FIG. 5(a) is an explanatory diagram showing the white paint printing position, and FIG. 5(b) is a diagram showing a specific example of white paint printing. FIG. 5(0) is an explanatory diagram showing the state at the time of reading, and FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the main part of the conveyance device. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Conveyance device, 2... Carrying-in part, 3... Positioning part. 4... Carrying out section, 8... Positioning mechanism, 9.10.
It...Position detection sensor, 12...Type reading unit, 1
3... Member to be assembled, 15... Optical sensor, 25...
Support plate, 39...Side plate% 40...Belt conveyor, 42...Driver 7-ri, 46.47...Stop mechanism. 2\11,゛,10pa1)

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a device that receives parts to be assembled from an adjacent pre-processing station, assembles predetermined parts, and then sends them to a post-processing station, which has three stages: a loading section, a positioning section, and an unloading section. Each conveyance stage has a position detection means for detecting the conveyance position of the assembled member, and an output signal from the position detection means causes the vehicle to stop at a preset position, and receives a stop release signal. 1. An automatic assembly conveyance device, characterized in that a belt conveyance means for restarting is provided, and the positioning section is provided with a positioning means for positioning a member to be assembled at a component assembly position. 2. In the statement of claim 1, the belt conveying means provided in each of the conveying stages is provided with a main drive pulley whose position can be freely adjusted along a rotating shaft, and means for supporting the rotating shaft. An automatic assembly conveyance device characterized by: 3. The automatic assembly conveyance device as set forth in claim 1, wherein the carrying-in section is provided with a type detection means for detecting the type of the carried-in member to be assembled.