JPH0135701B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (1) Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a robotic device for painting, and more particularly to a robotic device for automatic painting that is a combination of an air atomizing spray gun and an industrial robot.

(2) Background of the technology Recently, industrial robots have been increasingly used in industrial painting lines.The purpose of these robots is to reduce production costs through unmanned operation and improve productivity, improve quality, and improve the work environment. It lies in trying to achieve improvements, etc. Generally, painting robots are of the teaching playback type, which stores the movements taught by the operator in a memory device (teaching), and paints by continuous movement based on the stored contents (teaching). It is designed like a play back, but its free-trajectory property makes it particularly useful for painting objects with complex shapes and for local correction painting of large curved parts, corners, grooves, etc. It can be used to great effect. These painting robots are generally equipped with an air or airless gun, and paint discharge is automatically turned on and off based on commands from the robot control section.

However, in actual painting work using the painting robot, it is necessary to complete painting a predetermined range within a predetermined painting time. Painting techniques that change the speed (so-called gun speed) are used, but since the paint discharge rate of the painting gun is usually set to a constant value, it is not possible to discharge enough paint according to the area to be coated, and the parts to be coated are In some cases, so-called scratches may occur, resulting in poor coating.

Under such current circumstances, it is desired to realize a robot device that can improve work efficiency without deteriorating coating quality.

(3) Prior art and problems Conventionally, in order to control the amount of paint discharged, it was possible to directly change the aperture opening of the paint sprayer or adjust the paint regulator installed in the middle of the paint feed pipe. However, since these are all installed manually by an operator, it is actually difficult to change the amount of paint discharged during robot painting. Therefore, human work called pre-correction or post-correction is required before and after robot painting. Currently, the main purpose of using robots, which is to shorten the painting process and make it unmanned, has not been fully achieved.

(4) Purpose of the Invention The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of the prior art, and provides a coating system in which the amount of paint discharged can be automatically changed in multiple stages or continuously according to the shape of the object to be coated even during robot coating. The purpose is to provide robot equipment for

(5) Structure of the Invention In the present invention, a teaching playback type painting robot is used, and an air atomization type spray gun is used as a coating machine attached to the teaching playback type painting robot. In such a combination, instead of the paint feeding mechanism of conventional robot equipment, a positive displacement pump connected to a paint source and rotated by a DC motor is provided, and a paint valve is connected between the positive displacement pump and the spray gun. On the other hand, in order to control the rotation of the DC motor, there was provided a painting control section that included a DC motor controller and a plurality of potentiometers, and the painting control section and the robot control section were electrically connected. To provide a painting robot device characterized in that:

(6) Embodiments of the invention Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the arrangement and system of each device in a painting robot according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a robot, and a rotating table 3 is provided on a base 2. A support 4 is mounted on the rotation table 3, an arm 5 is attached to one end of the support 4, and a wrist 6 is attached to the tip of the arm 5. They are each pivotably engaged, and furthermore, a paint machine, that is, a spray gun 7 is attached to the wrist 6.
is installed. Further, a driving cylinder mechanism (not shown) is arranged on the rotary table 3 so as to drive the support column 4 and the arm 5 by pin connection. Additionally, an air source 8 and a paint source 9 are provided alongside the robot 1, and air is fed to the spray gun 7 via an air control unit 10 and an air hose 11, while paint is fed to the spray gun 7 through a DC motor 15. The paint is fed to the spray gun 7 via a paint supply hose 14 and a positive displacement pump 12 and a paint valve 13, which are rotated by the paint. Therefore, the amount of paint discharged from the positive displacement pump 12 is proportional to its rotation speed, and therefore to the rotation speed of the DC motor 15.
A coating control section 16 is provided connected to 5. On the other hand, the robot 1 is provided with a robot control section 17 for controlling the operation of the entire robot device.
Based on the signal from the robot control section 17, the painting control section 16 is activated, and the hydraulic unit 18 is driven to operate each part of the robot.

Here, inside the coating control section 16, there is a DC motor controller 19 and a plurality of potentiometers 20a, 20b...2.
0n is provided, and by the operation of this DC motor controller 16, the voltage supplied to the armature of the DC motor 15 is changed in multiple stages, and therefore the rotational speed of the DC motor 15 is changed in multiple stages. As a result, the amount of paint discharged can be changed in multiple stages. Further, the number of changes in the coating discharge amount can be changed arbitrarily as necessary. Note that 21 represents an air hose for sending an air signal from the air control section 10 to the paint valve 13.

Further, FIG. 2 shows another embodiment according to the present invention, and the same parts as in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals. The feature of this embodiment is that instead of the combination of the positive displacement pump 12, the DC motor 15, and the painting controller 16 shown in FIG. A regulator 23 is provided, and the opening degree of the paint regulator 23 is adjusted by the air pressure supplied from the electro-pneumatic converter 22.
The electro-pneumatic converter 22 is a device that converts the analog signal for controlling the amount of paint sent by the robot control section 17 into air pressure fluctuations, thereby adjusting the opening degree of the paint regulator 23 and adjusting the amount of paint being delivered. can be changed continuously.

It should be noted that other devices and their systems not shown in FIG. 2 are exactly the same as those shown in FIG. 1, and their functions and operations are also the same as those described with reference to FIG.

When actual painting work is performed using the painting robot apparatus configured as described above, first, during teaching, the contents of painting that are normally performed are taught, and at the same time, the teaching of changing the amount of paint discharged is also performed. These teaching contents are corrected by a correction section (not shown) as necessary and stored in the robot control section 17. Next, the robot 1 performs a playback operation based on the above-mentioned stored contents and performs a painting operation. That is, upon receiving a signal from the robot control section 17, the hydraulic unit 1
8 is driven to operate each part of the robot, and at the same time, the coating control section 16 or the electro-pneumatic conversion device 22 is operated.
On/off control of paint atomization and automatic control of paint discharge amount are performed. Note that the instruction to change the coating discharge amount during teaching may be made by additionally correcting using a correction section (not shown) after teaching the normal coating content. Moreover, if an electrostatic gun with high installation efficiency is used as a spray gun, more effective painting can be performed.

(7) Effects of the Invention As explained above, the present invention improves coating quality by providing the function of automatically changing the amount of paint discharged according to the shape of the object to be coated, in addition to the functions of ordinary robot coating. This improves work efficiency (shortens the painting process) without reducing paint quality, and also reduces wasteful paint consumption.
Its effects are enormous.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a layout and system diagram of a painting robot apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a system diagram of another embodiment of the present invention. 1... Robot, 2... Base, 3... Rotating table, 4... Support, 5... Arm, 6... Wrist,
7... Spray gun, 8... Air source, 9... Paint source, 10... Air control section, 11, 21... Air hose, 12... Positive displacement pump, 13... Paint valve, 14... Paint supply Feed hose, 15...DC motor, 16...Painting control unit, 17...Robot control unit, 18...Hydraulic unit, 19...DC motor controller, 20a, 20b...20n...
... Potentiometer, 22 ... Electro-pneumatic converter, 23 ...
paint regulator.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A painting control unit that includes a positive displacement pump interposed between the paint sprayer and the paint source, a motor for driving the positive displacement pump, a motor controller for controlling the rotation of the motor, and a plurality of potentiometers. and a robot control section that sends an electric signal to the coating control section.