JP4260717B2 - Plastic molding assembly equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a plastic molding and assembling apparatus.

  In the production of plastic molded products, molding, post-processing of the molded product, and assembly of post-processed processed molded products are performed. Conventionally, each of the above processes is performed by a separate device. A large space is required for arrangement of the apparatus for carrying out the process.

  In recent years, plastic molded products are often used in information communication devices and medical devices. However, plastic molded products used in these devices are finely processed, and the demand for cleanliness of products is severe.

As in the past, when molding, post-processing and assembly of plastic molded products that require fine processing and cleanliness are performed with separate devices, the molded product was post-processed when set in the post-processing device. When setting a processed molded product to an assembly device, the mechanical force is inadvertently applied to the molded product or the processed molded product to impair fine processing of the molded product, or the molded product is contaminated by dust and is clean. There is a risk of damage.
As far as the inventor is aware, there is no technology for solving such a problem.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and is a plastic molding and assembling apparatus that automatically performs molding, post-processing, and assembling of a plastic molded product. It is an object of the present invention to realize a plastic molding and assembling apparatus that can produce a clean plastic molded product.

  A plastic molding and assembling apparatus according to the present invention is a plastic molding and assembling apparatus that automatically performs molding, post-processing and assembly of a plastic molded product, and includes a mold clamping unit, an injection unit, a post-processing unit, an assembly unit, Control means.

The mold clamping unit is a unit that performs mold clamping.
The injection unit is a unit for injecting a resin material to be molded into the mold clamping unit.

The post-processing unit is a unit that performs post-processing on the molded product formed by the mold clamping unit. Post-processing is processing that cuts the shape of the injection port (gate) portion of the molded product and performs finishing such as polishing. The post-processing unit can also have a function of arranging the post-processed processed molded product in a desired arrangement on a holder such as a tray.
The assembly unit is a unit that performs a predetermined assembly on a processed molded product that has been post-processed by the post-processing unit (that is, a product that has been post-processed on the molded product).

  The control means is means for controlling each of the above units, and is configured as a computer, a dedicated CPU, or the like.

  The mold clamping unit and the injection unit are arranged so that the longitudinal direction of the mold clamping unit and the longitudinal direction of the injection unit are substantially orthogonal to each other. And the assembly unit are compactly arranged.

  The entire unit (that is, the entire mold clamping unit, injection unit, post-processing unit, and assembly unit) arranged in a compact manner is covered with an exterior cover, and the molded product formed by the mold clamping unit is a post-processing unit.・ It is automatically conveyed to the assembly unit.

  In the plastic molding and assembling apparatus according to claim 1, a spiral groove is formed in the injection unit along the barrel screw for kneading the resin material to be injected into the mold clamping unit up to the feed zone. In addition, an inert gas can be circulated from outside into the spiral groove (claim 2).

  In addition, it is also possible to arrange the mold clamping unit and the injection unit as one set and to arrange two or more sets of these units in a plurality of stages in the vertical direction. In this case, the post-processing unit and the assembly unit may be shared by a plurality of stages, or may be provided for each stage.

  As described above, in the plastic molding and assembling apparatus according to the present invention, the mold clamping unit and the injection unit are arranged so that the longitudinal direction of the mold clamping unit and the longitudinal direction of the injection unit are substantially orthogonal to each other. Since the post-processing unit and the assembly unit are arranged in the area sandwiched between the two sides, each unit can be placed close to each other, and can be arranged compactly as a whole without creating wasted space. Can be small.

  In addition, since the molded product molded by the clamping unit is automatically conveyed to the post-processing unit / assembly unit, an inadvertent mechanical force acts on the molded product or processed molded product, and the molded product or processed molded product There is no risk of physically damaging microfabrication. Furthermore, since the entire unit arranged in a compact manner is covered with an exterior cover, the processes from resin injection to molding, post-processing, and assembly are performed consistently within the exterior cover. There is no possibility that dust will adhere to the surface and impair the cleanliness.

  If oxygen is present when plastic molding is performed, it will cause “burn” in the molded product during molding. As in the invention described in claim 2, a spiral groove is formed to the feed zone along the screw of the barrel so as to match the rotation direction of the screw, and an inert gas is circulated from the outside to the spiral groove. When configured, unnecessary oxygen can be purged from the molded part, so that the burn of the molded product can be effectively prevented and the yield of the product can be increased.

Hereinafter, embodiments will be described.
FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a plastic molding and assembling apparatus. Products manufactured by molding are plastic molded products used for information communication equipment and medical equipment, and are finely processed and require cleanliness. For example, a catheter tube or the like.

FIG. 1A schematically shows a plan view configuration of the apparatus in a simplified manner. FIG. 1B schematically shows the state of FIG. 1A viewed from below.
That is, the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is a plastic molding and assembling apparatus for automatically molding, post-processing, and assembling of a plastic molded product, and should be molded into a mold clamping unit 10 that performs mold clamping and a mold clamping unit. An injection unit 20 for injecting a resin material, a post-processing unit 30 for performing post-processing on a molded product molded by the mold clamping unit 10, and a predetermined assembly for the processed molded product post-processed by the post-processing unit 30 And an assembling unit 40 and a control means 70 for controlling these units.

  As shown in FIG. 1A, in the mold clamping unit 10 and the injection unit 20, the longitudinal direction of the mold clamping unit 10 (horizontal direction in the figure) and the longitudinal direction of the injection unit 20 (vertical direction in the figure) are substantially orthogonal. The post-processing unit 30 and the assembly unit 40 are compactly arranged in a region sandwiched between the units 10 and 20 with the longitudinal direction of the two sides as the direction of the two sides. It is covered with. The molded product formed by the mold clamping unit 10 is automatically conveyed to the post-processing unit 30 and the assembly unit 40.

In FIG. 1B, reference numeral 60 denotes a lower part of the apparatus, and reference numeral 61 denotes an operation unit. Each unit is fixedly disposed on the upper surface of the apparatus lower part 60.
The mold clamping unit 10 has a fixed holding portion 14 that holds one of the molding dies in a fixed position, and holds the other die fixedly, and is displaced in the left-right direction in the figure with respect to the mold held by the fixed holding portion 14. A moving holding unit 12, a driving unit 11 that displaces the moving holding unit 12 in the left-right direction in the figure, and a rod-shaped guide 13 that guides the displacement of the moving holding unit 12.

  The injection unit 20 includes a hopper 21 that holds and supplies a pellet-shaped material resin, a kneading unit 22 that kneads the material resin supplied from the hopper 21 and transfers it to a feed zone, and a resin kneaded by the kneading unit 22 From the feed zone to the injection port (gate portion) of the fixed holding portion 14.

  When one of the molds is held by the fixed holding unit 14 and the other mold is held by the movable holding unit 12 and the apparatus is operated by the operation unit 61, the apparatus is configured as a computer or the like and disposed in the apparatus lower part 60. The driving unit 11 controlled by the control means 70 displaces the moving holding unit 12 along the guide 13 to the right in FIG. 1A, and the holding mold is held on the fixed holding unit 14 side. A molding space is formed together with the mold.

  The injection unit 20 stirs while conveying the pellet-shaped material resin supplied from the hopper 21 toward the feed zone. The material resin is heated in the injection unit while being transported, melted into a liquid state by the heat generated by this heating and the frictional heat generated by stirring and transporting, and the like through the gate portion of the fixed holding portion 14 from the injection tube 23. It is injected into the molding space. At this time, the drive unit 11 applies a pressing force to the movement holding unit 12 to perform “clamping”. Molding is performed in this way.

  After molding, the moving holding unit 12 is displaced by a predetermined distance toward the driving unit 11 after the resin material is cooled. At this time, the molded product (having a portion corresponding to the gate portion with the molded resin) is integrated with the molding die held on the movable fixing portion 12 side, and from the fixed holding portion 14 side. Leave. In this state, an operation commonly called “extrusion” is performed by the drive unit 11, the molded product is pushed out from the molding die held by the movable fixing unit 12, and the molded product is “barely held in the molding die”. "

  In this state, from the side of the post-processing unit 30, the arm 31 having a chucking function extends downward in FIG. 1A, and the molded product in the above “barely held state” is chucked. It is conveyed to the processing unit 30. The molded product thus transported is a processed molded product obtained by cutting the “gate part molding shape” remaining in the molded product in the processed part of the post-processing unit 30, finishing the cut traces, and finishing the cut. Are arranged in a desired arrangement on a holder such as a tray.

  During this time, the arm 31 chucks and holds the molded product, and the molded product held in this way is post-processed to become a processed molded product. Then, the arm 31 aligns the chucked workpieces in a desired arrangement on the holder. In order to execute such a process, the operations of the arm 31 and the processing unit are controlled by the control means 70. In this manner, the processed molded product is aligned on the holder in the post-processing unit 30 in a state where the post-processing is performed.

  Next, the processed molded products arranged in this way are individually taken out by the assembly mechanism 41 of the assembly unit 40 and conveyed into the assembly unit 40, and the “assembled counterpart member” prepared in advance in the assembly unit 40. Assembling work to assemble the processed molded product. In this way, an assembled product is obtained.

  As is clear from the above description, the post-processing unit 30 and the assembly unit 40 are configured as robots that perform predetermined operations, and execute the operations described above under the control of the control means 70.

  The interior of the exterior cover 50 is slightly “positive pressure” with respect to the air pressure so that dust does not enter the exterior cover 50 from the outside. For this purpose, clean air from which dust is removed from the lower part 60 side of the apparatus is always sent into the outer cover 50.

FIG. 2 is a view for explaining the characterizing portion of the second aspect of the present invention.
FIG. 2 shows a part of the hopper 21 and a part of the barrel of the kneading part 22.
The barrel is provided in the kneading part 22 and is a part for transferring the material resin to the feed zone while kneading the material resin, and includes a cylinder 210, a screw 212, and a heater (not shown). The screw 212 is provided so as to slide smoothly with respect to the inner peripheral portion of the cylinder 210, and a screw groove 213 for conveyance is formed on the peripheral surface portion.

  The hopper 21 has its supply port desired at the upper end of the screw groove 213 at the upstream end of the screw 212, and supplies the held pellet PL of the material resin to the screw groove 213 portion. When the screw 212 is rotated by a driving means (not shown) that is controlled by the control means 70, the supplied pellet PL is fed by the screw groove 213 and gradually crushed by the mechanical force from the inner peripheral surface of the cylinder 210. .

  A heater (not shown) is a heating wire and is wound around the outer periphery of the cylinder 210 to heat the cylinder 210 from the outside. The pellets PL transferred by the cylinder 210 are melted by the heat generated during the pulverization and the heat generated by the heater, are converted into a liquid state, sent to the feed zone, and injected into the molding die through the injection tube as described above.

  As shown in FIG. 2, along the screw 212 of the barrel for kneading the resin material to be injected into the mold clamping unit in the injection unit, a spiral groove 215 aligned with the screw rotation direction extends to the feed zone, It is formed on the inner peripheral surface. On the other hand, an air passage 216 is formed in the hopper 21, and an end portion of the air passage 216 faces an upstream end portion of the spiral groove 215.

  A nitrogen gas generator (not shown) is provided in the lower part 60 of the apparatus, and the generated nitrogen gas is supplied as “inert gas” to the air passage 216 of the hopper 21 through a supply pipe (not shown). The supplied nitrogen gas flows through the spiral groove 215 and is discharged to the outside at the feed zone. For this reason, the material resin injected from the feed zone into the mold is present together with the inert gas, and injection is performed in a state where oxygen is purged, so that the burn of the molded product is effectively prevented.

  Note that the size of the plastic molding and assembling apparatus shown in FIG. 1 is, as an example, the length in the left-right direction of FIG. 1A: 1500 mm, the length in the vertical direction of FIG. The height in the vertical direction (vertical direction) in 1 (b) is 1800 mm, and the vertical height of the apparatus lower part 60 is 1100 mm.

It is a figure for demonstrating one form of implementation of a plastic molding assembly apparatus. It is a figure for demonstrating the characterizing part of the invention of Claim 2.

Explanation of symbols

10 Clamping unit 20 Injection unit 30 Post-processing unit 40 Assembly unit 50 Exterior cover

Claims (2)

A plastic molding and assembly device that automatically performs molding, post-processing and assembly of plastic molded products,
A mold clamping unit that performs mold clamping, an injection unit that injects a resin material to be molded into the mold clamping unit, a post-processing unit that performs post-processing on a molded product molded by the mold clamping unit, and this post-processing An assembly unit that performs a predetermined assembly on a processed molded product post-processed by the unit, and a control unit that controls each of these units;
The mold clamping unit and the injection unit are arranged so that the longitudinal direction of the mold clamping unit and the longitudinal direction of the injection unit are substantially orthogonal to each other, and the longitudinal direction of these units is sandwiched between two sides. The post-processing unit and the assembly unit are arranged in a compact manner so that a molded product formed by the clamping unit is automatically conveyed to the post-processing unit / assembly unit. A plastic molding and assembling apparatus characterized by being covered with an exterior cover. The plastic molding and assembling apparatus according to claim 1,
A spiral groove is formed up to the feed zone along the screw of the barrel for kneading the resin material to be injected into the mold clamping unit in the injection unit, and an inert gas is supplied to the spiral groove. A plastic molding and assembling apparatus characterized by being configured to be distributed from the outside.

Images