JPS6350135B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] When assembling, for example, a pair of bearings to the main body of an assembly member (hereinafter referred to as a workpiece) in an automatic assembly machine, the distance between the bearings temporarily assembled on the workpiece is measured prior to the assembly work. By selecting and supplying spacers of a predetermined thickness based on the measurement results, a method is often adopted in which not only a desired preload is obtained, but also a machining error of the workpiece is corrected.

The present invention relates to a supply parts selection and conveyance device that operates in response to commands based on measurement results in such automatic assembly machines, etc., and its primary purpose is to move the actuator used in the selection operation of supply parts and the predetermined positioning of the selected parts. By making the entire device smaller and more compact by sharing the actuator used for transport work to _the specified position, and by clamping the parts with force between a fixed V-block and a movable V-block at the predetermined delivery position, The purpose is to provide a highly reliable and economically advantageous device by increasing the positional accuracy at the delivery position.

The present invention will be explained below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

There is a work station S on the left side of FIGS. 1 and 2, on which a pallet P carrying a workpiece W is stopped by a pallet stopping device (not shown), and a positioning machine that rises from below. It is clamped in a floating state from the chain conveyor C by the pin RP, and waits for parts to be supplied in a manner described later. Supply parts K 1 , K ₂ such as spacers of different thickness are placed on a base 1 installed adjacent to the work station S in this main line via an appropriate sub-base 2 supported by a column ₂ '. , . . . _Ko , magazines M ₁ , M _{2 ,} .

A motor 3 with a speed reducer and an electromagnetic clutch/brake unit 4 are installed below the base 1, and a chain 5 is suspended between them.

Reference numeral 6 denotes a bracket installed at the left end corner of the base 1. On this bracket, a shaft 8 to which three sprockets 7a, 7b, and 7c are fixed is rotatably supported at both ends by pillow blocks 9 and 10. ing.

Below this shaft 8 are pillow blocks 11 and 12.
and a long shaft 14 supported via a horizontal pillow block 13 attached to the side wall of the bracket 6.
are arranged side by side.

This long axis 14 includes a central portion, a vertically downward portion of the sprocket 7b, and a portion of the pillow block 1.
Sprockets 15 and 1 are installed in the center between 1 and 12, respectively.
6,17 is installed. Of these three sprockets, sprocket 15 connects to the electromagnetic clutch/brake unit 4, and sprocket 16 connects to the sprocket 7b and chains 18 and 1, respectively.
They are connected via 9.

Also, a bracket 20 similar to the bracket 6 is provided at the right end corner of the base 1, and sprockets 21a and 21 are mounted on the bracket.
A shaft 22 having a diameter c is rotatably supported by pillow blocks 23 and 24.

Endless chains 25a and 25c are stretched between the shaft 22 and sprockets 21a and 7a and 21c and 7c, respectively, which are pivotally connected to the shaft 8.

The endless chains 25a, 25c use roller links with attachments 26a, 26c (see FIG. 4) as part of them, and the delivery plate 27 is integrally fixed onto the chain via the attachments. The endless chains 25a and 25c run while being guided by an upper chain guide 28 and a lower chain guide 28', each of which has a resin guide attached to the open end of a U-shaped channel.
The upper chain guide 28 is mounted on the sub-base 2, and the lower chain guide 28' is mounted on the support column 2.
At the other corner of the right side edge of the base 1, a shaft 30, on which a sprocket 29 corresponding to the sprocket 17 is mounted, is rotatably mounted via a pillow block as in the previous example. The chain 31, which is supported by the sprocket 29 and the sprocket 17 and stretched between the sprocket 29 and the sprocket 17, has connecting fittings 3 at both ends of a movable body 33 which is movably supported on a pair of parallel guide bars 32, 32.
4 and 35. In addition, 36,3
6 is a support block for the guide bars 32, 32;
Reference numeral 7 designates a chain guide, and the support block 36 has a depressed shape at its center as shown in FIG. 4 so as not to interfere with the running of the chain 31.

A cylinder chamber 39 in which a piston 38 is movably housed is bored in the upper longitudinal direction of the movable body 33, as shown in detail in FIG. The piston rod 40, which is integral with the piston 38, passes through a cap 41 that closes the cylinder chamber 39.
A carriage 42 is fixed to the rod end of the magazines M ₁ , M _{2 ,} . 44 and 45
An air supply port communicates with the cylinder chamber 39, and this air supply port communicates with an air pressure source via a flexible pipe, a switching valve, etc. (not shown).

The magazine is sandwiched between the guide bars 32, 32.
On the opposite side of M ₁ , M ₂ ...M _o , limit switches L ₁ , L ₂ ...L _o are arranged corresponding to each magazine at the same pitch as the mounting pitch of the magazine,
A trip 46 for turning the limit switch ON and OFF is installed on the movable body 33.

The magazines M ₁ , M ₂ ... _Mo are actually the third magazines.
As shown in FIGS. 5 to 5, a support flange 47 is fixed to the lower end of the support flange 47, and this support flange is placed on a long plate 48 and the mounting bolts 4
9 and 49, and then mounted on the sub-base 2.

As shown in detail in FIG. 5, the long plate 48 is machined to have a through groove 50 with a width B, an upper groove 51 connected to the upper stage of the through groove 50, and a notch 52 narrower than the through groove 50. The parts are each magazine M ₁ ,
M ₂ ... is attached at equal intervals from M _o . The upper groove 51 consists of a semicircular portion 51' and a straight line portion 51'' connected thereto, and the cutting depth _H1 thereof is slightly larger than the thickness of the supplied part. The radius of curvature of the portion 51' is set to a size that allows the supply parts to be accommodated with a margin.

Furthermore, the U-shaped groove 4 of the carriage 42 is provided at one end.
3, the protruding shaft 54 is fitted with a sufficient clearance.
A push-out plate 53 having a tongue piece 55 at the other end is installed so as to be movable forward and backward using each through groove 50 of the long plate 48. The extrusion plate 53 is equipped with an appropriate fall prevention device (not shown) to prevent it from falling out of the through groove, and the plate thickness T ₂
The thickness T ₁ of the tongue piece 55 approximately corresponds to the cutting depth H ₂ of the through groove 50 and the cutting depth H ₁ of the upper groove 51, respectively. A long plate 48 is provided on the sub-base 2.
An ejection path 56 is formed which is connected along the .

This unloading path 56 is formed by a fixed block 58 having a side wall 57a having the same height as the lower surface of the upper groove 50 of the long plate 48 and a taller side wall 57b, and this unloading path 56 is shown in FIG. As shown, it extends beyond the delivery position UL located to the left of the leftmost magazine _M1 , and a fixed V block 59 is installed at the edge thereof. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 6, within this carry-out path 56, there is a movable V-block 61 held by a pair of rods 60 loosely fitted to the lower surface protruding portion 27' of the carry-out plate 27. It is embedded. This movable V-block 61 is always pressed in the direction of the arrow by an anti-compression spring 62.

Next, the operation of this device will be explained.

Work station S installed in the assembly line
The measuring unit in the previous process measures the distance between the bearings of the workpiece W, and when a signal corresponding to the measured dimension is output, the pallet leaves this measuring unit and is transported towards the work station S. At the same time, the motor 3 with a reduction gear starts operating. Before the motor 3 with a speed reducer starts operating, the movable body 33 is stopped with the limit switch Ln located at the rightmost end turned on, as shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. is arranged in advance so as to stop at a position out of phase with respect to the movable body 33. It is also assumed that the output signal from the measuring unit is applied to the limit switch Lx, for example in FIG. 3, requesting a supply part _Kx in the magazine Mx.

Then, when the motor 3 with reduction gear starts to drive,
Chain 5, electromagnetic clutch/brake unit 4
The movable body 33 rotates the long shaft 14 through the chain 18 and simultaneously transmits the rotation to the shaft 8 through the chain 19.
By the chain 31 hooked on 7 and 29,
Moreover, the carry-out plates 27 are transferred synchronously via the chains 25a and 25c, respectively. Then, when the limit switch Lx to which the output signal from the measurement unit is applied is turned on by the trip 46 of the movable body 33 as shown in Fig. 3, the electromagnetic clutch is turned on.
The braking mechanism of the brake unit 4 is activated to cut off the input from the motor 3 with a reduction gear, and the movement of the movable body 33 and the conveyance plate 27 is stopped. As a result, air from a pneumatic source (not shown) is supplied to the cylinder chamber 39 through one air supply port 44 of the movable body 33, and the carriage 42 is moved in the direction of the arrow via the piston 38 and piston rod 40. The extrusion plate 53 also operates in conjunction with the protrusion shaft 54 that engages with the U-shaped groove 43 of the carriage 42.
As a result, the tongue piece 55 of the push-out plate 53 allows the magazine to be
The supplied part K _x placed on the lowest stage in M _x , that is, on the upper groove 50 of the long plate 48 , is pushed out toward the unloading path 56 . Note that when a command from the measurement unit is applied to, for example, the rightmost limit switch Ln, the extrusion action by the extrusion plate 53 described above is immediately started. Also, during this extrusion work, the extrusion plate 53
has a protruding shaft 54 on its lower surface, but it can enter without interference due to a notch 52 provided in the long plate 48, and the height of one side wall 57a forming the ejection path 56 and the long plate 48 Since the bottom height of the upper groove 51 is set to be the same as the supplied part
K _x can be smoothly sent toward the unloading path 56. In this way, the desired supply part K _x is delivered to the delivery path 5.
When it senses that it has been pushed out to cylinder chamber 3,
The supply of air to the piston rod 9 is switched via a switching valve (not shown), the piston rod 40 is contracted, and the extrusion plate 5 is
Return 3 to its original position. Next, the electromagnetic clutch
When the brake of the brake unit 4 is released, the supplied part K _x is transported by the movable V block 61 attached to the delivery plate 27 toward the delivery position UL. Then, when the trip 46 of the movable body 33 turns on the limit switch LS as shown by the solid line in FIG. 1, the motor 3 with reduction gear is stopped, and the braking mechanism of the electromagnetic clutch/brake unit 4 is activated to immediately stop the transfer. However, it is set in advance so that the supplied part K _x comes into contact with the fixed V block 59 and is stopped slightly before the limit switch LS is turned on. Therefore, after the supplied part K _x is stopped, the movable V block 6
1 remains stopped, and only the unloading plate 27 moves slightly against the spring 62, so the supplied parts
K _x is V block 5 on the predetermined delivery position UL
9 and 61 to press and hold them. From this state, the delivery device U starts operating, and after receiving the supplied part _K It is something to do. After that, motor 3 with reducer
is rotated in the opposite direction to that described above, and the movable body 33 and the unloading plate 27 are returned to their original positions shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 1, completing one cycle of operation.

As explained above, according to the present invention, the actuator moves the movable body to the selected position based on the measurement signal from the measurement unit, and the required supply parts pushed out onto the conveyance path are transferred via the carry-out plate or the like. As a result, the actuator for transporting the parts to a predetermined delivery position is shared, and the actuator for pushing out the required supply parts from the magazine toward the transport path is built into the movable body, resulting in the entire apparatus being made smaller and more compact. In addition, since the fixed V-block and the movable V-block clamp the supplied part elastically at the delivery position, the positional accuracy of the supplied part _K It can also be adapted to suit various situations, and satisfactorily achieves the intended purpose in terms of reliability and economy.

Regarding this kind of conventional equipment, for example,
As seen in No. 54-38753, a cylinder for transporting the indexing head to a selected position, a cylinder for pushing out the supplied part at the indexing position, and a cylinder for transporting the supplied part to the delivery port are each provided independently. In addition, since each cylinder is provided to protrude greatly from the base, there are problems in terms of space and maintenance, but the present invention has many advantages such as being able to eliminate these drawbacks of the conventional device at once. have

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a front view, Fig. 3 is an enlarged plan view of a part of Fig. 1 and rotated by 90 degrees, and Fig. 4 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the present invention. 3 is a vertical sectional side view of the main part taken along the line -- in FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the extrusion mechanism for the supplied parts, and FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line -- in FIG. 3. 1...Base, 2...Subbase, 25a, 2
5c and 31... Chain, 27... Carrying out plate, 33... Movable body, 56... Carrying out path, M ₁ ,
M ₂ ...M _o and M _x ...Magazine, K ₁ , K ₂ ...
K _o and K _x ...supply parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Based on the measurement results of the measurement unit installed in the automatic assembly line, the required supply parts are selected and transported to the predetermined delivery position, and the magazine accommodates each supply part of the same size range with different thickness. In a supply parts selection conveyance device in which rows are arranged in a straight line in any direction at equal intervals, and an ejection path is formed parallel to the magazine rows on the side from which the supplied parts in the magazine are discharged, A movable body with a built-in actuator for pushing out the magazine toward the unloading path is slidably installed on a guide bar parallel to the magazine row, and an unloading plate corresponding to each magazine is arranged at equal intervals using detection means. stop index,
and the movable body is installed at a position behind the supply parts in a phase-shifted state, and the unloading plate and the movable body are synchronously transported via a chain parallel to a magazine row that is transported by a common drive source. A selective conveyance device for supply parts, characterized in that the supply parts are clamped and held by a fixed V-block and a movable V-block at a delivery position at the end of a delivery path.