JP7159966B2 - Conveyor control system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a transport control system.

Conventionally, in fully automatic pallet transport, ID tags are used to manage work data to ensure that all processes such as processing, assembly, and inspection are performed normally. Assembly/inspection was performed, and ID writing was performed at the end of the process. The information read by this ID includes work data such as model information, process history, and quality check results.

JP-A-2000-103505 Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-205430

However, in this case, ID reading and ID writing must be performed while holding the positions where the ID reading/writing device and the ID tag can read and write, so it takes time to align them. rice field. Further, it takes time to read and write to the IC chip in the ID tag. As a result, the cycle time is lengthened and the time required for the entire production line is lengthened.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and its object is to provide a transfer control system that can shorten the cycle time as a whole by shortening the time required to read and write work data. to do.

The transfer control system described in claim 1 comprises a line controller (10) for controlling a linear conveyor servo transfer system (15) for moving a work and for managing the process of processing the work , and equipment (20, 30, 40) for performing processing in the equipment, equipment controllers (21, 31, 41) for controlling work processing in the equipment, a servo driver (14) that constitutes the linear conveyor servo transfer system, and A slider that faces the servo driver and conveys the work, and the equipment controller is configured to be able to identify and grasp the position of each work, and the work of the process to be processed by the equipment. The data is stored in a work data storage unit communicably connected to the line controller, and is downloaded from the work data storage unit to the equipment controller via the line controller at the request of the equipment controller .

According to the transport control system described above, the time required for reading and writing work data can be shortened, so that the overall cycle time can be shortened.

1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a transport control system according to an embodiment; FIG. Diagram showing the outline of the pallet Schematic diagram showing the processing between the line controller, facility controller, and linear servo controller A diagram showing the outline of the contents of the work data

A display control device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same reference numerals or names are given to the same elements as those described above, and the description thereof will be omitted.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, three pieces of equipment, ie, a post-equipment 20, a self-equipment 30, and a pre-equipment 40, are exemplified. 20 will be described as an example. This will be explained by exemplifying a portion of the transport control system 1 .

As shown in FIG. 1, the transfer control system 1 of this embodiment includes a line controller 10, a work data storage unit 12, and equipment 20, 30, and 40 for processing works.

The line controller 10 functions as a control unit that controls the linear conveyor servo transfer system 15 that moves the work on the entire line and manages the process of processing the work. The work data storage unit 12 stores work data corresponding to each work. The line controller 10 and the work data storage unit 12 are connected for data communication, and transmit and receive work data to and from the equipment controllers 21 , 31 and 41 .

Each installation 20, 30, 40 comprises an installation controller 21, 31, 41 and a linear servo controller 22, 32, 42. The equipment controllers 21, 31, 41 use the work data downloaded from the work data storage unit 12 via the line controller 10 to manage and process data in each process b, A, B, C of each of the post equipments 20, 30, 40. It functions as a control unit that controls the execution of Also, after the process is finished, uploading of the processing results of each process to the line controller 10 is controlled.

The linear servo controllers 22 , 32 , 42 control the movement of the sliders Z, A, B, C, D, E, F with high precision by controlling the servo driver 14 . The facility controllers 21, 31, 41 specify each slider by controlling the linear servo controllers 22, 32, 42, and grasp the position of each slider with high accuracy. Pallets Z, A, B, C, D, E, and F are fixed and placed on the sliders Z, A, B, C, D, E, and F, respectively. Workpieces 1, 2 and 3 are fixedly placed on each of the pallets Z, A, B, C, D, E and F.

For each workpiece 1, 2, 3, the position or coordinates on each pallet are specified in detail in advance, and by inputting the coordinate data in advance, the equipment controllers 21, 31, 41 grasp this position information. is doing. Accordingly, by recognizing the position of each slider, the position of each work can be grasped. That is, the equipment controllers 21, 31, 41 recognize the position or coordinates of each workpiece with high accuracy.

The servo driver 14 and the sliders Z, A, B, C, D, E, and F arranged to face the servo driver 14 constitute a linear motor type linear conveyor servo transfer system 15, and the linear motor mechanism The inter-process transfer of workpieces is realized by The servo driver 14 functions as a stator, and each slider functions as a mover. The linear conveyor servo transfer system 15 is constructed using, for example, Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.'s "Linear Conveyor Module LCM-X".

The servo driver 14 sequentially conveys the sliders on which the workpieces are placed so as to move in the direction of the arrow Y in the order of the facilities 40, 30, and 20 in FIG. As a result, in FIG. 1, each workpiece is sequentially processed through steps b, A, B, and C. As shown in FIG.

Next, processing in the transport control system 1 will be described. In each rear facility 20, 30, 40, data download (hereinafter referred to as data DL)→each process→data upload (hereinafter referred to as data UL) is processed in this order.

In the following description, the processing in the own equipment 30 will be mainly described. Note that the self-equipment 30 means the equipment to be processed from now on or the equipment currently being processed. The post-equipment 20 is a facility that is processed after the processing in the self-equipment 30 is completed, and the pre-equipment 40 is a facility that has completed the processing before the processing in the self-equipment 30 . In other words, the processing by each facility is executed in the order of the front facility 40→the own facility 30→the rear facility 20. FIG.

In FIG. 1, the slider Z is in the process of being installed in the post-equipment 20 . The workpieces 1, 2, 3 on the slider Z, that is, the pallet Z have been processed by the previous equipment 40 and the own equipment 30. Sliders A, B, and C are set in their own facility 30 . The works 1, 2, 3 on the pallets A, B, C on the sliders A, B, C have been processed by the front equipment 40. The sliders D, E, and F are set in the front equipment 40 .

In the own equipment 30, the equipment controller 31 controls the linear servo controller 32 to carry out the transport command for the sliders A, B, and C (S1) as shown in FIG. Control is being carried out (S2). The facility controller 31 identifies and grasps each slider number and position or coordinate, and this data is reported, ie, transmitted to the facility controller 31 (S3). When a plurality of works are placed on each pallet, the facility controller 31 grasps each work and its position or coordinates.

Sliders A, B, and C are processed in the own equipment 30, and pallets A, B, and C are placed on the respective sliders. On each pallet, works 1, 2, and 3 (hereinafter referred to as works 1-3) are placed in order, and processing is carried out in this order.

When the works 1 to 3 placed on the slider C reach the data DL position in order, the equipment controller 31 requests the work data corresponding to the works from the work data storage unit 12 via the line controller 10 (S4). . The line controller 10 extracts the work data from the work data storage unit 12 (S5), and reports or transmits the work data to the equipment controller 31 to acquire the work data (S4). This data DL position is also a waiting place before carrying out processes A, B, and C. Before processing the next process, that is, processes A, B, and C, work data corresponding to works 1-3 are downloaded in advance. By acquiring the work data, it is possible to reduce wasted time in which process processing cannot be performed due to work data download waiting in processes A, B, and C. FIG.

FIG. 4 shows an example of work data stored in the work data storage unit 12. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 4, the work data specifies the slider number and the work corresponding to each slider, and includes work data corresponding to each work. The work data includes information for specifying the type of work, information on the completion of process processing, and information on the result of checking the workmanship of the previous process.

Next, the equipment controller 31 checks the model of the work, skipped steps, completion of the previous step, etc. from the acquired work data (S6). Next, the equipment controller 31 sequentially performs the processes A, B, and C based on the model information of the acquired work data (S7).

After that, the equipment controller 31 moves the workpiece to the data UL position and records the machining result data (S8). Furthermore, the machining result data is uploaded to the line controller 10, and the line controller 10 records the transmitted machining result recording information in the work data storage unit 12 (S9). The processing result information includes data indicating that the process has been completed, workmanship inspection data after processing, and the like.

According to the above configuration, data is downloaded when the work is positioned in the data DL area, and data is uploaded when the work is positioned in the data UL area. Data can be downloaded or uploaded without interruption. Therefore, wasted time can be reduced. In the preceding equipment 40, similarly to the above, each work moves in the order of data DL, process b, and data UL, and each process is carried out. Similarly, in the post-equipment 20, after the data DL, a process (not shown) and data UL (not shown) are performed.

According to the transport control system 1 according to the embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.
Conventionally, reading and writing are performed on the ID tag attached to the work, which takes a long time, resulting in a long processing time for the entire line. On the other hand, in the transport control system 1 according to the embodiment, a line for transporting the work by the linear conveyor servo transport system 15 is constructed. In this linear conveyor servo transfer system 15, it is possible to move and transfer while specifying each slider by the servo mechanism and grasping the position or coordinates of the slider with high precision. As a result, each workpiece can be identified without reading the ID tag.

In addition, since the work data necessary for carrying out the process of each work is acquired or written from the work data storage unit 12 via the equipment controller 31 and the line controller 10, the work data is stored in the ID tag. It is no longer necessary to read and write . As a result, the time required for specifying each work in the transfer control system 1 and acquiring and writing work data can be greatly reduced.

Also, each facility is provided with an area for performing data DL and data UL. As a result, the waiting time for the data DL is reduced in the process of performing processing on the workpiece, so that the dead time is reduced, and the cycle time as a whole can be shortened.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, one pallet is placed on one slider, and three workpieces are placed on each pallet. , the number of pallets to be placed on the sliders, and the number of works to be placed on the pallets are not intended to be limited, and any number of these can be configured.

Although the present disclosure has been described with reference to examples, it is understood that the present disclosure is not limited to such examples or structures. The present disclosure also includes various modifications and modifications within the equivalent range. In addition, various combinations and configurations, as well as other combinations and configurations, including single elements, more, or less, are within the scope and spirit of this disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Transfer control system 10... Line controller 12... Work data storage part 14... Servo driver 15... Linear conveyor servo transfer system 20, 30, 40... Equipment, 21, 31, 41... Equipment controller

Claims (2)

a line controller (10) that controls a linear conveyor servo transfer system (15) that moves a work and manages the process of processing the work;
Equipment (20, 30, 40) for performing processing on the workpiece;
a facility controller (21, 31, 41) for controlling work processing in the facility;
comprising a servo driver (14) that constitutes the linear conveyor servo transport system and a slider that faces the servo driver and transports the work ,
The equipment controller is configured to be able to identify and grasp the position of each of the works, and
The work data of the process to be processed by the equipment is stored in a work data storage unit communicably connected to the line controller. A transport control system that is downloaded to the equipment controller . 2. The transport control system according to claim 1 , wherein said facility is provided with an area for executing data download or data upload .

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