WO2010092603A2

WO2010092603A2 - Improved plant for making bands out of native mineral-wool oriented-fiber panels or the like

Info

Publication number: WO2010092603A2
Application number: PCT/IT2009/000053
Authority: WO
Inventors: Rogerio Borsato; Alberto Borsato
Original assignee: Robor S.N.C. Di Borsato Rogerio & Borsato Alberto
Priority date: 2009-02-11
Filing date: 2009-02-11
Publication date: 2010-08-19
Also published as: WO2010092603A3

Abstract

Described is a plant (PL) adapted to make bands out of native mineral-wool oriented-fibre panels or the like, comprising an incoming point for the panels or a pack of panels, and a line (32) for conveying the panels, or the pack of panels, from said incoming point to subsequently located cutting means. One or more robots (40, 42) pick up a panel, or a pack of panels, from said incoming point thereof and place it onto said line, thereby creating advantages in terms of output rate.

Description

IMPROVED PLANT FOR MAKING BANDS OUTOF NATIVE MINERAL-WOOL ORIENTED-FIBER PANELS OR THE LIKE

DESCRIPTION

The present invention refers to an improved apparatus for producing composite panels of mineral wool or similar materials or, more generally, an improved apparatus for cutting bands out of native oriented-fibre panels of mineral wool or similar materials.

Many insulation panels or boards of mineral wool that are commonly used nowadays to insulation purposes in residential, commercial and industrial buildings are produced starting from a so-called native panel having the fibres arranged in a parallel orientation relative to the major surface thereof. The panel is slit into bands by cutting it longitudinally and orthogonally to the orientation of the fibres. The bands are then overturned and assembled into the final panel, which at this point turns out as being made up by juxtaposed bands having the fibres oriented orthogonally to the major surface thereof. The thus produced final panel has a far greater strength.

An apparatus provided to produce panels of this kind is shown in WO 03/014489.

The native panels are fed into an apparatus of this kind by having them unloaded from stacks (Figs. 1 and 2) packed elsewhere by someone else in a standard manner, whereas no other partitioning or packaging forms are available for the panels themselves, owing to a by now well-established uniformity among panel producers.

A stack 10 of panels 12 - as usually subdivided into subsets of panels (or panel packs PK) by means of pallets 14 - is therefore unloaded from a truck or a container. A forklift truck picks up a pack of panels 12 stacked upon a pallet 14, wherein such panels are then separated from each other and prepared for use.

Alternatively, panels 22 may form a stack 20 subdivided into subsets PK i through the interposition of high-density mineral-wool bands, the idea being in this case to avoid damaging the panels through the use of rigid wooden pallets. Again, a forklift truck is used to unload the panels 22, or they may be unloaded manually by workers.

Once these packs PK are unloaded, overhead travelling hoists, e.g. of the bridge or portal type, such as for instance the one illustrated in Figure 1 of the above-cited publication WO 03/014489 and indicated there at 10, 11 , are used to handle such packs and load them on line in the production apparatus. With the same structure there are also known in-line loaders (Figure 3) that have a frame 18, on which there is mounted a vertically movable picker 16, by means of which the panels of a pack PK are first picked and then placed on line (usually a roller conveyor or the like).

On the whole, this line feeding system has however some disadvantages. The pallets 14 and the bands 24 used to separate the packs from each other take up extra space, i.e. are a waste of space both during transport and handling of the stacks 10, 20 and within the same stacks 10, 20. Unloading the panels 10, 20 in the afore-described manner gives rise to downtime or idle time problems, calls for a forklift truck and/or labour to be used on purpose or, still worse, forces the production apparatus to be provided with a correspondingly slow-paced unloading station. Now, as can be most readily appreciated, all these constraints end up by heavily affecting operating and production costs altogether.

The height of the frame 18 of overhead travelling hoists is a standard one, so that it inherently sets a limit to the maximum allowable height of the stacks of panels and, ultimately, to the actual productivity of the whole production apparatus. On the other hand, it is not feasible for the height of the frame 18 to be increased owing to the reason that, in the first place, industrial buildings are generally not provided with so high ceilings and, in the second place, structural vibrations would unavoidably be triggered off due to too high a centre of gravity and/or masses being moved at too high a level. This is the main reason why the panel stacks 10, 20 have standard heights, actually. As a matter of fact, between suppliers of panels in stacks 10, 20 and manufacturers of related production equipment there has eventually been set up a same and unvarying canon, i.e. rule, for the delivery and further handling/processing of the stacks 10, 20. A further drawback connected with the use of pallets lies in the fact that such pallets, once the panels have been unloaded and removed therefrom, turn practically into waste material to be disposed of, which means again additional costs and non-profitable time usage.

It therefore is a main object of the present invention to provide an apparatus, which is definitely improved over the current state of the art.

According to the present invention, this aim is reached in an apparatus adapted to obtain bands from native oriented-fibre panels of mineral wool or similar material, such as for instance an apparatus in which the thus obtained bands are subsequently oriented and coupled with each other so as to obtain a composite panel, in which the fibres in the bands turn out as being oriented perpendicularly to the major surface of said panel, or an apparatus in which there are produced panels having a trapezoidal cross-sectional shape for use as fillers in sandwich- type building panels, comprising:

- an entry point for the panels or a pack of panels,

- a line for conveying the panels, or the pack of panels, from said entry point to subsequently provided cutting or slitting means, and further comprising one or more robots adapted to pick up the individual panels, or the pack of panels, from the entry point and place them onto said line.

In this particular technical sector of application, the present invention brings a number of considerable benefits, i.e.:

- use can be made of stacks of panels that do not use any pallet and/or transverse partition bands, thereby increasing transport capacity for a same volume (the robot will directly pick the actually required number of panels from a uniform stack);

- there is a definite reduction in the number of pallets to be unloaded, with resulting benefits in terms of not only warehouse handling and space requirements, but also disposal costs and time usage;

- current limitations set to the maximum allowable height of the stacks are done away with, since there is no constraint deriving from a overhead-travelling hoist frame any longer. In this connection, it should be noticed that even slightly higher stacks can enable the productivity of a plant to increase to a significant extent;

- the overhead, i.e. bridge-type unloading/loading station, which is inherently expensive, slow and of great encumbrance, is done away with, as well;

- the whole apparatus operates at a higher rate altogether, and ensures a higher output (more than twice as much), since all panel unloading steps carried out manually, or just grossly mechanized, have been eliminated. For example, by combining the present invention with an arrangement allowing the panels to be slit or cut vertically (i.e. an arrangement in which the panels are juxtaposed vertically and cut together, so that n bands are obtained from n panels with just a single cut), it is possible for the output rate to be practically doubled for 200-mm panels (from 3m/min, as usual in the prior art, to 8m/min) and for 100-to-120-mm panels (from 7m/min, as usual in the prior art, to 12m/min);

- unloaded pallets are piled automatically into a stack, wherein such stack is clearly much smaller.

Preferably, it is very advantageous if the robot or, as the case may be, the robots are configured so as to arrange the panels, or a pack of panels, vertically (i.e. edgewise) onto the line. The usual on-line station for receiving a panel and rotating it can in this way be eliminated, whereas the same panel, or pack of panels, is in this way cut when it stands in such vertical position, i.e. edgeways (by cutting a pack of vertically standing panels n bands can be simultaneously obtained at a stroke).

If the panels reach the input to the line in a horizontal position, said one or more robots are preferably so arranged as to be able to first grasp the panel, or the pack of panels, lying flat horizontally and then turn it by approx. 90° so as to place it onto the line in a vertical arrangement.

Alternatively, said one or more robots may be so arranged as to be adapted to rotate the panel, or pack of panels, after grasping it, and to place it onto the line in an inclined arrangement relative to the vertical, so as to prevent it from overturning or dropping down accidentally.

Advantageously, in the case that the panels are stacked onto pallets, said one or more robots may be so arranged as to be adapted to unload the empty pallets onto a pallet recovery line, thereby increasing overall efficiency.

Preferably, said one or more robots comprise a prehensile, i.e. pick-and-place arm adapted to reach up to and grasp a panel, or pack of panels, as the case may be, at a height of at least 2.2 metres from the ground. This measure has been found in practice to be the one enabling any lot of panels to be handled and managed on line in an optimum manner regardless of how they may also be packed.

If the apparatus is intended for the production of composite panels, it will comprise - at a tail end portion thereof - means adapted to orderly arrange the bands cut by the preceding cutting means into a layer of juxtaposed bands forming a composite panel. It is beneficial to provide a second robot adapted to transfer - as appropriately oriented - the bands produced by said cutting means onto said means for orderly arranging the same bands in the above-described manner, this second robot being possibly also arranged so as to be able to rotate the thus picked band (or bands) as it is being transferred. In this way, the on-line station that is usually provided downstream from the cutting means to receive the cut bands and rotate them prior to them being sent to form the composite panel, can be eliminated.

For the whole process to be accelerated to a further extent, the second robot is preferably provided so as to be adapted to transfer the bands produced by the cutting means on a layer by layer basis, i.e. a layer at a time (wherein, as used here, the term "layer" shall be understood as meaning a plurality of juxtaposed bands). In this way, a greater productivity can be ensured.

As a preferred option, said one or more robots, i.e. either one or all of them, comprise an articulated arm capable of rotating on a stationary base, said arm having a gripping member and/or suction cups. Such robots are readily available on the market and easily programmable according to the particular requirements. For a robot to be more effectively adapted to the peculiarities of the above- described apparatus, it would be beneficial if the gripping member thereof is configured so as to be able to form a planar, flat contact surface adapted to come into contact with a panel or a pack of panels to be transferred. Arranged on such contact surface there are means to temporarily pierce the panel, or a pack of panels, in a quick and simple manner so as to get hold of it.

Advantageously, temporary seizing and/or holding means may also be provided on said contact surface for temporarily seizing and holding a pallet. This enables the operating versatility, effectiveness and overall profitability of the robot to be further increased, since the robot is used to also handle and transfer the pallets.

Preferably, the above-cited temporary seizing and/or holding means are provided so as to be comprised of movable members capable to be controlled movably between a non-operative, i.e. idle position (in which they are at rest) and an operative position (in which they are active). In this operative position thereof (i.e. in the position in which they are acting), the movable members set themselves in opposition to the pallet in view of preventing it from moving off said contact surface. These movable members may be such as to act by the interposition of parts and/or have a controllably re-configurable structure.

So, for instance, they may have (re)configurable and/or adjustable size, reach- out range and/or travelling length or trajectory for the seizing and holding means

(and even the same configuration of the movable members thereof) to be each time adapted to the actual size of possibly differing pallets. In this way, the robot is able to operate uninterruptedly even in the case that different packs of panels are being fed into the line.

The present invention also refers to the use of one or more robots to pick up a panel, or a pack of panels, from an incoming point and place said panel, or pack of panels, onto the line of an apparatus aimed at producing bands by cutting them out of oriented-fibre panels of mineral wool or similar materials.

In addition, another aspect of the present invention relates to the use of one or more robots to transfer bands produced from panels by band cutting means onto means provided to orderly arrange said bands, in connection with an apparatus aimed at producing bands by cutting them out of oriented-fibre panels of mineral wool or similar materials.

Anyway, features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood from the description of a preferred embodiment that is given below by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

- Figure 1 is a view of a stack of panels according to the prior art;

- Figure 2 is a view of a second stack of panels according to the prior art;

- Figure 3 is a schematical view of an on-line panel loading machine according to the prior art;

- Figure 4 is a schematical view of a system according to the present invention for loading panels onto a production line;

- Figure 5 is a schematical view of a system according to the present invention for handling panels along a production line;

- Figure 6 is a detail view of a system according to the present invention for loading panels onto a production line;

- Figure 7 is a plan view of a component part of the system according to the present invention;

- Figure 8 is an enlarged cross-sectional view along the plane VIII-VIII in Figure 7 (pick-up configuration onto a panel);

- Figure 9 is an enlarged cross-sectional view along the plane IX-IX in Figure 7

(pick-up configuration onto a pallet).

Figure 4 illustrates a line inlet point of an apparatus according to the present invention. There are three lines, including a panel-feeding side line 30, a panel- receiving middle line 32 (e.g. a roller conveyor), and a pallet-recovery side line 34.

Onto the panel-feeding side line 30 there is unloaded - directly from the transport container or truck - a stack of panels PL, which may for example be 2.2- m high, and which is in this case solely made up by an orderly arranged pile without any partition element therebetween. At the most, there can be provided a base pallet 38 at the bottom thereof.

In the middle of the three lines 30, 32, 34 there is placed an anthropomorphic robot comprising a stationary base 40 and an articulated arm 42 provided rotatably relative thereto, wherein this robot is an automatic and programmable machine.

The arm 42 is only illustrated schematically in the Figure; it can however be such as to comprise a number of jointed segments articulated so as to be capable of moving independently of each other; furthermore, at the end portion of such arm 42 there are provided gripping or seizing means 44, such as a gripper and/or suction cups (see Figure 6 et seq.).

Thanks also to appropriately provided sensors, the robot is capable of picking up from the stack PL the requested number of panels - all together or one at a time - and places them onto the line 32 (see panel PN shown in dashed lines), wherein the panels are preferably placed thereupon as already turned in an upright position, i.e. edgewise, so as to facilitate the following cutting step. It can be readily appreciated that, by transferring a pack of panels at a time and rotating them right away, the robot integrates the work conventionally done by a turnover station in prior-art apparatuses of this kind. The line 32 then conveys the panel PN, or pack of panels, as the case may be, towards cutting means, where they will be cut into bands.

Once the stack PL is exhausted, i.e. all panels are removed therefrom, the same robot will then pick up the pallet 38 and carry it onto the line 34, from where it can be removed either at once or after a stack of empty pallets has formed.

Figure 5 illustrates a further application. A line 50 conveys a pack 54 of panels cut into bands towards a robot comprised of a stationary base 60, on which the is rotatably mounted an articulated arm 62, wherein such articulated arm 62 is provided with a gripping or seizing member 64, as in the previously described case. The robot performs the task of bringing a layer 56 of bands onto another line 52, which in turn feeds the machine used to assemble the bands into a composite panel.

The advantages of using a robot in this case are as follows:

- a quicker transfer pace (a group of bands and not a single band at a time);

- the omission of a band turnover station, since the arm 62 and/or the gripping member 64 of the robot can turn the bands (or the band, in the case that it transfers them one at a time) "on the spot", i.e. as they are being transferred.

It should be noticed that, by using two robots as in the above-considered case, a simplification is introduced also in programming the software for the machines in the apparatus. With the present invention, the programmes due to be written relate to just two robots, which may in fact be similar to each other and/or share alike characteristics and specifications, whereas the need previously arose for at least two completely different stations to be programmed, i.e. the overhead-travelling loading/unloading station and the turnover station, the first one with sets of three space coordinates X, Y, Z and the second one with mainly timing commands.

A possible implementation of the present invention is illustrated in detail in Figures 6 et seq.

The robot may for instance pick up panels 78 from a stack placed on a pallet 75, which is moved into the apparatus by means of a conveyor belt 80, and place them in an orderly arranged manner onto a roller conveyor 79.

The robot rests on a raised base 70 thereof, on which there is mounted rotatably about a vertical axis X an articulated arm 72 that carries a rotatable head 74. On this rotatable head 74 there are mounted - as provided in the form of a frame or contact surface 81 - means 76 for gripping a panel. These gripping means have a symmetrical structure and are formed of a middle plate 83 for coupling up with the head 74, wherein two parallel bars 80 are attached to such plate. Orthogonally mounted on these bars 80 there are a set of bars 82 extending parallel to each other and distributed in a roughly evenly spaced arrangement over the length of the bars 80.

The bars 82 are the part of the frame 81 that moves into contact with the object to be picked up and transferred (panel or pallet).

Mounted on each bar 82 there are two linear actuators 84 (e.g. a pneumatic cylinder), each one of them actuating a rotatable rod 86 mounted on the bar 82, which it belongs to, in a parallel arrangement thereto. Attached to each such rod 86 there are hooks or similar hook-shaped means 88 (only a few of them shown in the Figure). In this connection, it should be noticed that, as a result, each bar 82 has two hooked rotatable rods 86.

The frame 81 is brought by the robot to a position above a panel 78 and is then lowered thereonto. After that, all cylinders 84 are operated synchronically to push the hooks 88 outwards (see arrow in Figure 8), so that they pierce into the underlying panel 78, thereby enabling it to be lifted off. Instead of the hooks 88, which perform a rotary movement, use can be made of spikes, pins or the like, performing a controlled linear movement, which stick in the panel and can then be retracted therefrom. The double row of rods 86 - each one of them being controllable and operable even independently of each other - enables also two panels to be hooked and raised, if needed or required, wherein each panel is seized by a respective row of rods 86 independently. As a result, the means 76 are effective in enabling the function, i.e. the operating set-up of the robot to be adapted to loading/unloading panels that may reach the starting point of the production lines in even widely varying dimensions and/or stacked on two stacks provided in a side-by-side arrangement. In the second case, the frame 81 will move above the two stacks, pick up two adjacent panels (i.e. one panel per row of rods 86), and unload them one at a time onto the line by each time actuating the corresponding row of rods 86.

Preferably, temporary gripping and/or holding means for a pallet may be added to the frame 81. In the given example (see Figure 9), these means are formed to include four plates or blades 92 that are movable in a direction parallel to the plane of the bars 80 (and the frame 81) by means of a linear actuator 90 (see arrow F). These plates 92 are provided in pairs slidably mounted in a cantilever arrangement on two bars 82, one for each extremity, in particular on the two bars 92 lying closer to the centre of the frame 81.

In fact, owing to the movement of the robot, the frame 81 can be positioned over a panel 78 or, when all panels have eventually been removed from a stack, the pallet 79. The plates 92, which were formerly lying in the position of greatest distance from each other towards the periphery of the frame 81 , are now retracted jointly towards the centre of the frame 81. By doing this, the plates 92 move under the pallet to engage it at four locations thereof, i.e. two on a side and two on the other side, thereby preventing it from separating from the frame 81 and supporting it as it is being displaced. The robot will at this point be able to place the pallet where it has to.

Once the intended storage place for the empty pallet is reached, the plates 92 move back into the initial position and the pallet can therefore be released from the frame 81.

Advantageously, the plates 92 may have an adjustable length. In the given example, they can be fixed in the desired position with a screw 97 inside a C- shaped runner 99 that is connected to the actuator 90. The travelling range of the plate 92 is definable with the actuator 90 (it may be constant for reasons of greater simplicity); however, the starting and arrival points depend on the actual length adjusted by means of the screw 97. As a result, the pallet gripping and holding means can be adapted to any possible size and shape of the pallets to be handled.

Claims

1. Plant (PL) adapted to make bands out of native mineral-wool oriented-fibre panels or the like, comprising: - an entry and loading point for the panels or a pack of panels,

- a line (32) for conveying the panels, or the pack of panels, from said entry and loading point to subsequently located cutting means, characterized in that it comprises one or more robots (40, 42) adapted to pick up a panel, or a pack of panels, from said entry and loading point and place it onto said line.

2. Plant according to claim 1 , wherein said one or more robots (40, 42) are adapted to place the panels, or a pack of panels, onto the line edgewise, i.e. in an upright arrangement thereof.

3. Plant according to claim 2, wherein said one or more robots are adapted to seize a panel, or a pack of panels, lying horizontally, and rotate it by approx. 90° so as to place it on the line vertically.

4. Plant according to claim 1 , wherein said one or more robots are adapted to rotate the panel, or the pack of panels, after seizing it, and to place it onto said line edgewise, but inclined relative to the vertical.

5. Plant according to any of the claims 2 to 4, wherein the receiving plane of the line onto which the panels are placed by the robot, is capable of being controllably inclined relative to a horizontal plane, and the panels are placed by the robot onto the lowermost portion of said receiving plane, so that the inclination of the receiving plane positively prevents the panels from overturning.

6. Plant according to any of the preceding claims, wherein, in the case that the panels are stacked upon a pallet (38; 75), said one or more robots are adapted to unload the empty pallets onto a pallet recovery line (34).

7. Plant according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said one or more robots comprise a prehensile arm (42; 72, 74) adapted to reach out to and seize a panel, or pack of panels, at a height of at least 2.2 metres from the ground.

8. Plant according to any of the preceding claims, comprising:

- means for orderly arrange the bands cut by cutting means into a layer of juxtaposed bands so as to form a composite panel, and - a second robot adapted to transfer the bands produced by said cutting means onto said means for orderly arranging the same bands, this second robot being arranged so as to be able to rotate the thus picked band as it is being transferred and/or transfer the bands produced by the cutting means on a layer by layer basis, i.e. a layer at a time, the layer comprising a plurality of juxtaposed bands.

9. Plant according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said one or more robots comprise an articulated arm (72, 74) capable of rotating on a stationary base (70), said arm having a gripping member (76) and/or suction cups.

10. Plant according to claim 9, wherein the gripping member is configured so as to form a planar, flat contact surface (81 ) adapted to come into contact with a panel or a pack of panels to be transferred, on such contact surface there being arranged means (86, 88) to temporarily pierce the panel or the pack of panels.

11. Plant according to claim 9 or 10, wherein temporary seizing and/or holding means (90, 92) are provided on said contact surface for temporarily retaining a pallet (82).

12. Plant according to claim 11, wherein said temporary seizing and/or holding means comprise movable members (92) capable to be controlled movably between a non-operative position and an operative position, wherein said movable members, in the operative position thereof, set themselves in opposition to the pallet in view of preventing it from moving off said contact surface.

13. Plant according to claim 12, wherein said movable members (92) have reconfigurable and/or adjustable size, reach-out range and travelling length (97, 99) for the seizing and holding means to be each time adapted to the actual size of possibly differing pallets.

14. Use of one or more robots to pick up a panel or pack of panels (PK) from an incoming and supply point and place it onto a line of a plant (PL) intended for producing bands out of native mineral-wool oriented-fibre panels or the like.

15. Use according to claim 14, wherein use is made of one or more robots to place the panels, or a pack of panels, onto the line edgewise, i.e. in an upright arrangement thereof.

16. Use according to claim 15, wherein use is made of one or more robots to seize a panel, or a pack of panels, lying horizontally, and rotate it by approx. 90°, so as to place it onto the line in said upright arrangement thereof.

17. Use according to claim 14, wherein use is made of one or more robots to rotate the panel, or pack of panels, after seizing it, and to place it onto the line in an inclined arrangement relative to the vertical.

18. Use according to any of the claims 14 to 17, wherein, in the case that the panels are stacked on pallets, use is made of said one or more robots to unload the empty pallets onto a pallet recovery line (38).

19. Use according to any of the claims 14 to 18, wherein said one or more robots are used to transfer bands produced by panel cutting means to means provided to orderly arrange the same bands.