KR100657524B1 - 2-axis apparatus for loading blanks in hot press forming process - Google Patents

Abstract

A two-axis workpiece transfer equipment for hot press forming process which can transfer a workpiece heated in a reheating furnace to a forming equipment without surface defects such that the workpiece can be formed into a product, and can transfer the workpiece heated in the reheating furnace to the forming equipment at high speed by solving a few actions of a multi-axis transfer equipment in a mold plate of the forming equipment, thereby reducing actual transfer axes is provided. In an equipment for transferring workpieces loaded on a conveyor belt of a reheating furnace into a hot press forming equipment(20), a two-axis workpiece transfer equipment for hot press forming process comprises: a shaft(31) installed such that both ends of the shafts are supported onto upper and lower plates(21,22) of the forming equipment; a first drive box(32) fixed to a proper location of the shaft; a pair of supporting bars(33) having a predetermined length which are spaced from each other in a predetermined distance and installed on the first drive box such that the supporting bars are straightly moved forward and backward from the reheating furnace to the forming equipment by the first drive box; at least one workpiece gripping device(34) installed at a lower side of the respective supporting bars to grip the workpieces; a second drive box(35) which is interposed between the supporting bars and the workpiece gripping device to drive the workpiece gripping device and move the workpieces on the supporting bars at the same time; and a workpiece lifting-and-lowering device(40) for lifting or lowering a lower mold(43) such that the workpieces can be directly placed on the lower mold when the workpieces moved by the supporting bars are led in the forming equipment.

Description

2-axis material transfer device for hot press process {2-AXIS APPARATUS FOR LOADING BLANKS IN HOT PRESS FORMING PROCESS}

1A and 1B are front views showing the construction and operation of a transfer device between a heating furnace and a molding apparatus according to the present invention;

2a and 2b are side views of a molding apparatus having a vertically movable lower mold according to the present invention; And

3a and 3b is an operation diagram showing a state in which the material is applied to the molding apparatus according to the present invention.

<Description of Signs of Major Parts of Drawings>

10: furnace 20: molding tooth

21: upper plate 22: lower plate

23: upper mold (die) 24: lower mold (die)

30: material conveying device 40: material lifting device

41: cylinder box 42: cylinder

The present invention relates to a hot press forming technology for manufacturing automotive parts, and in particular, the hot material used in the hot press forming process and the rapid cooling of the forming process are characterized by the rapid heating of the material heated in the hot press forming process. It relates to a material conveying device that can be moved.

Recently, each automobile manufacturer is increasing the use of high-strength materials in order to meet the social demands for fuel efficiency and light weight in applying parts to automobiles as environmentally friendly factors are important. However, high strength materials have problems such as spring back and dimensional freezing in molding. Therefore, due to the difficulty of molding, the use of high strength materials is inevitably limited.

Recently, auto parts such as bumper impact beams and door reinforcement have been manufactured using hot press molding technology. That is, hot press molding technology is applied as a method of solving the formability problem of such a high strength material. This is to solve the formability problem of high strength materials by press hardening technology, which is a method of forming a high strength material at a high temperature and quenching the material between molds (molding apparatus) at the same time. However, in order to apply such hot press molding technology, it is problematic to move a material heated at a high temperature in a heating furnace to a molding apparatus. In other words, since it is impossible to manually move the material heated to a high temperature, an apparatus for transferring the high temperature material to a predetermined position in the mold (molding apparatus) is required. In addition, such a conveying device should make it possible to speed up the conveyance of the material. This is because if the transfer of the heated material is not rapid, the material is exposed to the air in a long time, and thus the surface of the material is likely to be defective.

Currently, the conveying method used when manufacturing automotive parts such as a bumper impact beam and door reinforcement using a hot press molding process is the same as that used in the conventional cold forming, and is recently used through a three-axis conveying method. Although this has been proposed, it is difficult to reduce the transfer time significantly due to the limitation of the multi-axis drive.

In order to solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to transfer the material heated in the furnace to the molding apparatus in a short time without a surface defect to form a product for the hot press process is configured for two-axis It is to provide a material conveying device.

Another object of the present invention is to reduce the actual feed axis by solving some operations of the multi-axis transfer device in the mold plate of the molding apparatus is a two-axis for the hot press process is configured to high-speed transfer of the material heated in the furnace to the molding apparatus It is to provide a material conveying device.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a biaxial material transfer device for a hot press process configured to perform a smooth molding process without deformation of a material by transferring it from a heating furnace to a molding apparatus in a proper time.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a biaxial material transfer device for a hot press process, which is configured to prevent a defect through rapid material transfer between a heating furnace and a molding apparatus, to increase the yield, and to secure product reliability. To provide.

In order to solve the above object, the present invention provides a device for transferring a material loaded on a conveyor belt of a heating furnace into a forming apparatus for hot press, on the upper plate, the lower plate of the forming device A shaft installed to support both ends, a first driving box fixed to the shaft in place, and installed in the first driving box, linear movement before and after from the heating furnace to the forming apparatus by the first driving box A pair of support bars of a predetermined length spaced at regular intervals to be installed so as to be interposed between the support bar and the material installation device, and at least one material installation device installed at a lower side of each support bar to grip the material. A second drive box and the support bar are installed to drive the material mounting device and to flow on the support bar. It is characterized in that it comprises a material lifting device for elevating the lower mold so that it can be mounted immediately when the same material is drawn into the molding apparatus.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the case where it is determined that the gist of the present invention may be unnecessarily obscured, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

1a and 1b is a front view showing the configuration and operation of the transfer device between the heating furnace and the molding apparatus according to the invention, Figures 2a and 2b is a side view of the molding apparatus having a lower mold capable of vertical movement according to the present invention As a result, the material conveying apparatus 30 according to the present invention is installed between the heating furnace 10 for heating the material at a constant temperature and the forming apparatus 20 for a hot press process for molding the heated material into a predetermined shape. However, the transfer device 30 is not installed separately from the heating furnace 10 and the molding apparatus 20, but will be installed to be linked to the heating furnace in the molding apparatus. In addition, a predetermined material elevating device 40 is provided in the forming apparatus to facilitate smooth pressing of the material only by horizontal feeding (biaxial feeding) of the material feeding device 30 described above.

In the heating furnace 10, a known conveyor belt 11 is installed. The upper portion of the conveyor belt 11 will be heated to a proper temperature while a plurality of materials 50 are transferred at regular intervals. On the conveyor belt 11, a plurality of support protrusions 12 protrude from the material surface at regular intervals. Preferably, the support protrusion 12 is installed to have a spacing of 100 ~ 150mm. More preferably, the support protrusion 12 may be formed of heat resistant steel.

The hot press forming apparatus 20 includes an upper plate 21 for supporting the upper mold 23 and a lower plate 22 for supporting the lower mold 43. The upper plate 21 performs an elevating operation to shape the material 50 interposed therebetween into a product having a desired shape.

According to the present invention, a material lifting device 40 is provided on the lower plate 22 so that the lower mold 43 can be lifted in the vertical direction, so that only the horizontal biaxial feeding of the material transporting device 30 is achieved. Therefore, the cylinder box 41 of a predetermined size will be installed in place of the lower plate 22, and the lower mold 43 is lifted by a predetermined height in a vertical direction by at least one cylinder 42. It was. But it is not limited to this. For example, other drive means having a constant force for raising and lowering the lower mold 43 in the vertical direction, for example, operation of the drive motor by a combination of gears in addition to the hydraulic cylinder, may be possible.

Thereafter, a shaft 31 having a predetermined length is installed between the upper plate 21 and the lower plate 22. The shaft 31 may be formed in various shapes, such as a square, a circular cross section. However, the shaft 31 will be formed in a structure and shape that does not interfere when the upper, lower plates 21 and 22 and the lower mold 43 perform a molding operation.

A predetermined first driving box 32 is installed on the shaft 31. The first drive box 32 is fixed to the shaft 31 by a control program (not shown) to selectively transport the support bar 33 to be described later in the front-rear direction. Therefore, the support bar 33 will perform a linear movement before and after the conveyor belt 11 of the heating furnace 10. The support bar may also be implemented by the first drive box, the driving motor and a power transmission means, such as a link, a gear, not shown may be installed. Therefore, the driving motor may contribute to the linear motion before and after the support bar 33 penetrating the first driving box 32 in the first driving box 32.

Thereafter, at least one material attaching device 34 is installed on each of the support bars 33. When a plurality of the material mounting device 34 is installed on each support bar 33, the interval may be installed to have a space around about 100 ~ 150mm. A second drive box 35 is installed between the material mounting device 34 and the support bar 33. The second driving box 35 may drive the material mounting device 34 and move the material mounting device 34 itself on the support bar 33. Preferably it will be able to convey in the direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the support bar. Therefore, at least two drive motors will be used for the second drive box 35, and known power transmission means such as links and gears can also be used.

Referring to Figures 3a and 3b the material transfer process of the transfer device having the above configuration is as follows.

First, as shown in FIG. 1A, the support bar 33 will linearly move so that the material mounting device 34 is positioned above the material inside the heating furnace by the driving of the first drive box 32. After the workpiece mounting device 34 grips the workpiece 50, the support bar 33 will move straight into the molding apparatus at high speed again (in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1B) to transfer the workpiece. The support distance of the support bar is preferably about 3m.

At the same time, the material elevating device 40 is operated so that the lower mold 43 rises upward in the forming device 20. At this time, the ascending height will rise to a position where the material conveying device is directly placed on the upper portion of the lower mold 43 without the lifting operation of the material conveying device 30 when the material conveying device is drawn into the molding apparatus. Thus, as shown in Figure 3b, the material mounting device 34 is operated in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction of the support bar 33 by the operation of the second drive box (35) As the mounting apparatus is operated in the direction of spreading from side to side as shown by the arrow, and the upper plate 21 is lowered, the upper mold 23 and the lower mold 43 are meshed to form the material 50 in accordance with the product shape. It is.
It will be desirable to have the step of placing the blown material in a predetermined place of a molding apparatus for performing a hot press molding process within 3 to 4 seconds.

Apparently, there are many ways to modify these embodiments while remaining within the scope of the claims. In other words, there may be many other ways in which the invention may be practiced without departing from the scope of the following claims.

By using the present invention, it is more suitable for hot press molding process than the conventional punching material transfer, and the quality of the final product surface is good and the rapid transfer to minimize the temperature drop of the material minimizes the exposure of the material to the air and minimizes surface defects. Excellent process can be made. In addition, the use of a suitable conveying device has an effect of doubling the shape freezeability and the ease of forming the high tensile strength steel sheet, which are advantages of hot press forming, by optimizing the material processing conditions.

Claims (4)

An apparatus for transferring a material loaded on a conveyor belt of a heating furnace into a forming apparatus for hot press, A shaft installed at both ends of the upper and lower plates of the molding apparatus; A first driving box fixed to the shaft in place; A pair of support bars installed at the first driving box, the support bars having a predetermined length spaced apart at regular intervals, the first driving box being installed to perform a linear motion before and after the heating furnace to the molding apparatus; At least one material mounting device installed under each of the support bars to grip the material; A second drive box interposed between the support bar and the material mounting device to drive the material mounting device and to flow on the support bar; And And a material elevating device for elevating the lower mold so that the material flowed by the support bar is directly loaded when the material flows into the forming apparatus. The method of claim 1, The second drive box includes at least two drive motors for driving the material mounting apparatus and driving at the same time as a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the support bar on the support bar. Material transfer device. The method of claim 2, And the material elevating device is configured to elevate the lower mold by at least one cylinder installed in a cylinder box disposed at a lower plate of the press forming apparatus. The method of claim 3, wherein And a step of placing the blown material at a predetermined place of a molding apparatus for performing a hot press molding process within 3 to 4 seconds.

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