JP4181933B2 - Work transfer device with auxiliary hand - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a workpiece transfer device that sequentially transfers a plurality of workpieces between a workpiece table that accommodates these workpieces and a transfer destination such as a workpiece processing position, and temporarily holds the workpieces to be transferred. The present invention relates to the above apparatus including an intermediate cradle for performing workpiece centering and the like.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of a workpiece transfer device that includes an intermediate receiving table and sequentially transfers workpieces between a transfer destination and a workpiece table that accommodates a plurality of workpieces. The apparatus shown in the figure is a lens centering machine for processing the outer periphery of a workpiece (lens), 1 is a workpiece processing position, that is, a conveyance destination, 2 is a work table, 3 is an intermediate receiving table, and 4 is a head of a conveyance device. It is.

  On the work table 2, a plurality of pallets 6 in which lenses (diameter several mm) 5 are housed in a matrix are mounted. The hand 4 sucks and holds the lens by the work holder 8 provided at the tip of the two fingers 7a and 7b extending toward the transport destination 1, and sequentially transports the lens on the work table 2 to the processing position 1. The processed lens is carried out to the work table 2. The lens conveyed to the processing position 1 is placed on the intermediate receiving table 3 at one end. The intermediate cradle 3 is provided with a pair of spatula blocks 9 for centering the mounted lens. In other words, the lens placed on the intermediate cradle 3 is sandwiched and centered between the opposing V-shaped sides of the dark block 9 facing the lens, and then held again by the work holder 8 for processing. It is conveyed to position 1.

  The machining position 1 is formed between an axially fixed lower work shaft 11 arranged on the same straight line and an upper work shaft 10 that moves up and down. Cup holders 12 and 13 are provided at opposite ends of the upper and lower workpiece shafts 10 and 11, and the lens carried into the processing position by the upper and lower cup holders 12 and 13 is sandwiched by the lowering operation of the upper workpiece shaft 10. Then, by rotating the upper and lower workpiece shafts 10 and 11 synchronously, the workpiece is machined by the rotating grindstone 14 provided adjacent thereto. Loading and unloading of the workpiece to and from the machining position is performed with the upper workpiece shaft 10 moved upward.

  The hand 4a extends toward the machining position so that the workpiece can be conveyed to the machining position 1 without interfering with a bearing housing (not shown) that supports the cup holders 12, 13 and the work shafts 10, 11. Fingers 7a and 7b are provided. One of the two fingers is for transporting the lens before processing, and the other is for transporting the processed lens. That is, in a state where the lens before processing is held on one of the two workpiece holders 8, the processed lens is taken out from the processing position by the other workpiece holder, and the loaded lens before processing is placed at the processing position and taken out. The lens is loaded and unloaded by the operation of unloading the processed lens to the pallet 6. The two fingers 7a and 7b are mounted on the surface facing the workpiece machining position 1 side of the transport head 4 via an elevating device 15 that performs a dedicated individual operation.

  The transport head 4 is moved and positioned by an XY-type transport mechanism including a guide beam 16 and a guide arm 17 in a direction orthogonal to the guide beam 16. That is, the arm 17 translates along the beam 16, and the transport head 4 translates along the arm 17. A servo motor 18 for moving the arm 17 along the beam 16 and a servo motor 19 for moving the transport head 4 along the arm 17 are controlled by an NC device 20.

In the illustrated apparatus, the two intermediate cradle 3 are provided so that lenses having different diameters can be processed in parallel. When the diameter difference between the parallel processed lenses is large, the size of the cradle is large. Since the shape of the sheath block cannot be made common, two types of intermediate cradle are provided. That is, either one of the intermediate cradle is used corresponding to the diameter of the lens to be conveyed.
JP-A-2-139173

  Naturally, the movement area of the hand 4a of the workpiece conveyance device in the lens centering machine having the above structure is limited to the movement range of the arm 17 along the beam 16 and the movement range of the conveyance head 4 along the arm 17. FIG. 4 is a schematic plan view of the above-described apparatus. A rectangular area 21 indicated by an imaginary line in the figure is a movement area of the work holder 8 provided at the tip of the finger, and this movement area is a broken line in the figure. The movement area of the conveyance head 4 shown in FIG. 2 is biased toward the conveyance destination 1 side which is the processing position by the length of the finger 7. That is, in order to avoid interference with various members provided near the processing position, the longer the finger 7 is, the more the movement area 21 of the work holder 8 is displaced from the movement area 21 of the transport head 4. .

  On the other hand, the transport head 4, the arm 17 and the beam 16 each occupy a predetermined area in plan view, and the arrangement area of these members including the movement area affects the installation area of the machine. The area of the workpiece table 2 is determined by the number of workpieces mounted thereon, and the entire workpiece mounting area of the workpiece table 2 must be within the movement area 21 of the workpiece holder 8. On the other hand, the movement area of the arm 17 and the transport head 4 needs to be within the installation area of the machine. Therefore, a dead space 22 having a width obtained by adding the dimensions of the fingers 7 of the hand and the dimensions of the transport head 4 is formed on the side opposite to the transport destination of the work table 2.

  This invention makes it a subject to obtain the technical means which can utilize this dead space 22 effectively as a conveyance stand of a workpiece | work.

  According to the present invention, in the work transfer device having the structure as described above, the auxiliary hand 4b including the work holding tool 8 similar to the hand 4a is provided on the side opposite to the hand 4a of the transfer head 4, thereby Is a solution. The auxiliary hand 4b should be provided so as not to protrude from the arrangement and movement area of the transport mechanism (such as the beam 16 and the arm 17 in the XY transport mechanism). The transport mechanism is not limited to an XY-type transport mechanism, but it is necessary that the intermediate cradle 3 exists in the transport path, and the intermediate cradle 3 is a hand (hereinafter referred to as “main hand”) that carries a workpiece into the transport destination. 2) and the movement area 21 of the workpiece holder 8 provided in 4a and the movement area 23 of the workpiece holder 8 of the auxiliary hand 4b are located in an area 24 (see FIG. 2) where both areas 21 and 23 overlap. It is necessary to provide as follows.

  In other words, the workpiece transfer apparatus having the auxiliary hand of the present invention is a fixed-direction hand 4a mounted on a workpiece table 2, an intermediate receiving table 3, and a transfer head 4 that circulates the workpiece table. And the hand is mounted on the side opposite to the hand of the transport head in a work transport device that transports the work between the work base and a predetermined transport position 1 via the intermediate cradle 3. The auxiliary hand 4b is provided, and the intermediate cradle is arranged in an overlapping region 24 of the moving regions 21 and 23 of both the hand and the auxiliary hand.

  When an XY type transport mechanism provided with an arm 17 that moves along the beam 16 and a transport head 4 that moves along the arm 17 is adopted as the transport mechanism of the hands 4a and 4b, the main hand The workpiece holder 8 and the workpiece holder 8 of the auxiliary hand should be provided on the same straight line parallel to the moving direction of the transport head 4 on the arm 17. With this structure, the work can be transferred from the auxiliary hand 4b to the main hand 4a via the intermediate cradle 3 only by the movement operation of the transport head 4 along the arm 17, and the arm 17 having a large mass is moved. It is possible to avoid a time loss required for this.

  On the intermediate cradle 3, some processing for the workpiece, such as workpiece centering, is performed. During this period, the transport head 4 is moved between the main hand 4 a and the auxiliary hand 4 b to move the workpiece. Therefore, in the transfer apparatus in which the intermediate cradle 3 is originally provided, there is almost no problem that the transfer cycle of the workpiece becomes long.

  According to the structure of the present invention, it is possible to transport a work placed in an area out of the moving area of the main hand with an auxiliary hand, and even if the finger of the main hand becomes long, a dead space is placed on the work table. Therefore, the work table 2 can be effectively used, and the work capacity of the work table can be increased without increasing the machine dimensions.

  FIG. 1 is an enlarged perspective view of a transport head portion showing an embodiment in which an auxiliary hand is provided in the apparatus of FIG. Long and short fingers 7a and 7b that are individually raised and lowered by the lifting device 15 are provided on the surface of the transfer head 4 facing the transfer destination 1 (see FIG. 3), and the tip of the longer finger 7a is shorter. The fingers 7b are bent toward the distal end side, and the workpiece holders 8 at the respective distal end portions are arranged on a straight line 25 parallel to the moving direction of the transport head 4 on the arm 17 (see FIG. 3). As described above, one of the two workpiece holders 8 is for conveying the workpiece before processing, and the other is for conveying the processed workpiece.

  An auxiliary hand 4 b is provided on the surface of the transport head 4 on the side opposite to the transport destination. The auxiliary hand 4b has a structure in which a workpiece holder 8 similar to the workpiece holder 8 of the main hand 4a is provided at the tip of the rod 26 that is lifted and lowered by the same lifting device 15 as the lifting device 15 of the main hand 4a. The work holder 8 of this auxiliary hand is located on the straight line 25. That is, the two workpiece holders 8 of the main hand 4 a and the workpiece holder 8 of the auxiliary hand 4 b are located on the same straight line parallel to the moving direction of the transport head 4 on the arm 17. As described above, with this structure, transfer of the processed workpiece and the unprocessed workpiece at the transfer destination 1 and transfer of the workpiece between the main hand 4a and the auxiliary hand 4b at the intermediate receiving base 3 are transferred along the arm 17. Only the movement of the head 4 is performed, and the transport cycle can be improved.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view showing a movement area of the main hand 4a and the work holder 8 of the auxiliary hand 4b when the auxiliary hand 4b is provided, and 21 is a movement area of the work holder 8 of the main hand. , 23 is a movement area of the work holder 8 of the auxiliary hand. Both moving regions 21 and 23 have an overlapping portion 24, and the intermediate receiving tray 3 is disposed at an appropriate position in the overlapping region 24.

  The movement area 21 of the work holder 8 of the main hand is biased toward the transport destination 1 side, and the movement area 23 of the work holder of the auxiliary hand is biased toward the counter transport destination side. In the case of a lens peripheral processing machine that passes through the intermediate cradle 3 when transporting from the work platform 2 to the transport destination 1, the transport destination 1 side of the work platform 2 is set as a pallet placement area for the processed workpiece, The non-conveyance side is set as the pallet placement area for the workpiece before processing.

  When supplying the lens to the processing position from the pallet mounted at a position outside the moving area 21 of the work holder of the main hand, the lens is sucked by the work holder 8 of the auxiliary hand and conveyed onto the intermediate cradle 3. While the lens is centered on the intermediate cradle 3, the transport head 4 is moved to the counter machining position side so that the work holder 8 of the main hand 4 a faces the intermediate cradle 3 and is centered. The workpiece is held by the workpiece holder 8 of the main hand 4a and conveyed from the intermediate receiving tray 3 to the workpiece machining position 1. The processed workpiece is held by the workpiece holder 8 of the main hand and directly carried out to the processed workpiece pallet mounted on the processing position side of the workpiece table 2.

The perspective view of the conveyance head part in the workpiece conveyance apparatus of this invention The typical top view explaining the movement area | region of the workpiece holder of the main hand and the workpiece holder of an auxiliary hand in the apparatus of FIG. The perspective view which showed an example of the workpiece conveyance apparatus with which this invention is employ | adopted suitably The typical top view explaining the movement area of the work holder on the work stand in the apparatus of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

2 Work table 3 Intermediate receiving table 4 Transfer head
4a Main hand
4b Auxiliary hand
21 Rectangular area
23 Moving area
24 Overlapping areas

Claims (1)

  A work table (2) for accommodating a plurality of workpieces, an intermediate receiving table (3), and a direction-fixed hand (4a) mounted on a transport head (4) that circulates the work table, An auxiliary device mounted on a side opposite to the hand of the transport head in a work transport device that transports a work between the work base and a predetermined transport position (1) via an intermediate cradle (3) A workpiece transfer device comprising an auxiliary hand, comprising a hand (4b), wherein the intermediate cradle is disposed in an overlapping region (24) of a movement region (21, 23) of both the hand and the auxiliary hand .

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