JPH0211378B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a workpiece in which an unprocessed workpiece and a processed workpiece are transferred and received via a turning device between a conveyor that conveys the workpiece and a processing section of a headstock. Regarding a delivery device.

[Prior art]

In general, this type of workpiece delivery device loads the workpiece onto the headstock chuck using a rotating device, so the workpiece is rotated 90 degrees to raise the workpiece on the conveyor with respect to the rotating device, and the workpiece is transferred to the rotating device. A mechanism is provided to perform a horizontal movement operation of pressing the work against the gripping portion, and to perform the opposite operation when receiving a processed workpiece.

Conventional work transfer devices have been configured to independently control and operate each of the above operations. That is,
In conventional equipment, the swivel arm grips the workpiece and
When it turns, it is detected by a detector, and based on the detection signal, a hydraulic (or pneumatic, hereinafter referred to as hydraulic pressure) valve is operated to drive the horizontal movement mechanism and execute horizontal movement. do. on the other hand,
To return to the original state, first drive the horizontal movement mechanism, then use a detector to detect the end of horizontal movement, and use this signal to operate a hydraulic valve, etc. to drive the swing drive mechanism. The rotating arm is rotated.

However, in this conventional device, the rotation operation and the horizontal movement operation are controlled and operated independently, so a detector for detecting each operation state and control equipment such as a solenoid valve for operation are required. This has the disadvantage that the control system is complicated and expensive because it requires a certain amount of control and a circuit for processing the signals from these detectors. Moreover, since the control system is complicated, maintenance is not easy. Furthermore, since each operation is independent, when moving from one operation to the next, it takes time for signal processing, etc., and the operation does not proceed smoothly. Furthermore, there is a risk of malfunction in which one operation is started while the other is operating.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above drawbacks, and
The turning operation and the horizontal movement operation can be performed in conjunction with each other, and as a result, many detectors and control devices can be omitted, simplifying the control system, making the device less expensive, and making maintenance easier. Another object of the present invention is to provide a workpiece transfer device having an interlock mechanism that allows smooth transitions between operations and eliminates the risk of malfunction due to locking of one operation during the other operation.

[Structure of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a workpiece delivery device comprising a rotating arm that grips a workpiece, a rotating drive mechanism that rotates the rotating arm by 90 degrees, and a horizontal movement mechanism that horizontally moves the rotating arm. It is characterized by being configured with the following requirements.

(a) The swing drive mechanism includes a vertical rod having a piston on one end and a rack on the other end, a bracket that accommodates the rack side of the vertical rod, and a bracket that is connected to the bracket to accommodate the piston. and a pinion that is fixed to the pivot shaft of the pivot arm and meshes with the rack within the bracket.

(b) The horizontal movement mechanism includes a horizontal rod having a fixed part that fixes the base end to the bed side and a piston in the middle part;
and a cylinder which accommodates the piston and is mounted so as to be movable in the horizontal direction, and whose tip is connected to the bracket.

(c) a cam follower is provided at the tip of the horizontal rod, and the intermediate portion of the vertical rod,
An engagement groove that engages with the cam follower is provided at a position where the swing arm can engage with the cam follower when the swing arm is in a vertical state.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an outline of the configuration of a continuous processing system equipped with a work transfer device of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof.

The system shown in these figures includes two headstocks 710 and 7 arranged at regular intervals on a bed 700.
Conveyor 1 that sequentially transports workpieces to 10 processing sections
00, a work placement device 200 that is provided at the starting end side of the conveyor 100 and places the workpieces supplied from the work feeder 600 on the conveyor 100 at regular intervals, and the headstock 710 located in the middle of the conveyor 100. . , a reversing device 400 located between the two workpiece delivery devices 300, 300 for reversing the workpiece conveyed by the conveyor 100, and a shutter 500 located at the terminal end of the conveyor 100 for receiving the processed workpiece. It is composed of:

The bed 700 includes the headstock 710 and the workpiece transfer device 30 corresponding to the headstock 710.
A turning device 720 that transfers workpieces to and from
is provided. Further, a tool rest 740 is provided corresponding to each headstock 710 and placed on the saddle 730.

The conveyor 100 is composed of, for example, a chain conveyor, and has sprocket wheels 110, 1 at both ends.
10 and is driven by a sprocket wheel 110 connected to a motor 130 (FIG. 2). Pallets 120 are attached to this conveyor 100 at regular intervals. This palette 120
is for placing and holding the workpiece, and by placing the workpiece on this pallet 120,
This enables workpieces to be placed at regular intervals.

Next, FIGS. 3 and 4 show an embodiment of the work transfer device of the present invention used in the above system.
As shown in the figure. That is, FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing one embodiment of the work transfer device of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the main part of the transfer device as viewed from the front side.

In the figure, the workpiece transfer device of this embodiment includes a turning arm 330 that grips a workpiece W, and a turning drive mechanism 32 that drives the turning arm 330 to turn 90 degrees.
0, and a horizontal movement mechanism 310 that horizontally moves the swing arm 330.

The horizontal movement mechanism 310 includes a horizontal rod 311 having a fixing part 312 that fixes the base end to the bed side and a piston 313 provided in the middle part, and the horizontal rod 311 accommodates the piston 313 and moves in the horizontal direction. A bracket 32 of a swing drive mechanism 320, the tip of which will be described later, is movably attached to the
4 and a cylinder 315 connected to the cylinder 315. A cam follower 314 is provided at the tip of the horizontal rod 311 to engage with an intermediate portion of a vertical rod 321 of a swing drive mechanism 320, which will be described later.

The swing drive mechanism 320 is provided with a piston 322 at one end (the upper end in FIG. 3 in this embodiment), and
Vertical rod 321 with rack 323 on the other end
and the rack 323 side (lower end side) of the rod 321
a bracket 324 that accommodates the bracket 3;
24 and housing the piston 322, and a cylinder 325 that is fixedly connected to a pivot shaft 335 of a pivot arm 330 (described later) and that is connected to the bracket 324.
It has a pinion 327 that meshes with the rack 323 inside. An engagement groove 326 that engages with the cam follower 314 is provided in the intermediate portion of the vertical rod 321 at a position where it can engage with the cam follower 314 when the swing arm 330 is in the vertical state (the state shown in FIG. 3). It is provided. pinion 327
is rotated 90 degrees by the rack 323 that moves up and down as the vertical rod 321 moves up and down, and the swing arm 33
0 axis 335 is rotated 90 degrees. That is, this piston 327 raises the swing arm 330 to a vertical position when the pinion 322 is at the highest position (the state shown in FIG. 3), and raises the swing arm 330 to a horizontal position when the piston 322 is at the lowest position. is configured to do so.

The rotating arm 330 has two arms 33.
1,332 and the hand 33 provided at its tip
3,334. two arms 33
1, 332 is connected via a hand opening/closing mechanism 340 which will be described later, and is also connected to the shaft 335 described above. The hands 333 and 334 are formed in a U-shape, are arranged to face each other, and grip the workpiece W. Note that the tips of the hands 333 and 334 are formed obliquely inward to facilitate gripping of the workpiece.

The rotating arm 330 includes a hand opening/closing mechanism 340 for opening and closing hands 333 and 334 that grip a workpiece. This hand opening/closing mechanism 340
is an opening/closing drive rod 34 which is disposed concentrically with the pivot shaft 335, connects the arm 331 at its intermediate portion, and has a piston 342 at its base end.
1, and a cylinder 34 that accommodates the piston 342.
4, an auxiliary rod 345 connected to the arm 332 and disposed parallel to the drive rod 341, and a swivel joint 348 for supplying hydraulic pressure or air pressure to the cylinder 344. Racks 343 and 34 are mounted opposite the tip of the opening/closing drive rod 341 and the sub-rod 345.
6, and these racks 343, 34
6, a pinion 347 is interposed and meshed therewith.

Further, in this embodiment, a detector 350 constituting a standby position locking mechanism is attached to the fixing part 312 of the horizontal rod 311, and detects the base end of the cylinder 315 to move the workpiece transfer device to the standby position. It is designed to be retained.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained. Note that this workpiece transfer device does not directly transfer the workpiece to and from the headstock 710, but instead uses the rotation device 7.
20. Therefore, first of all, let's talk about the relationship between this turning device, the headstock, and the turret.
This will be explained with reference to the figures.

As shown in the figure, the swinging device 720 includes two V-shaped arms 721 and 722 each having a workpiece gripping portion 723 and 724 at the tip thereof. The arms 721 and 722 rotate counterclockwise in the drawing, and the front arm 721 grips the processed workpiece and the rear arm 722 grips the unprocessed workpiece with respect to the workpiece on the chuck 711 of the headstock 710. It is becoming. The two arms are provided in the headstock 710.
This is to improve the efficiency of attaching and detaching a workpiece to and from the chuck 711.

Next, in the system shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. The workpieces supplied from 600 are placed on pallets 1 lined up at predetermined intervals by the workpiece mounting device 200.
20 and conveyed by a belt 100.

When the pallet 120 on which the workpieces are placed comes to a predetermined position due to the movement of the conveyor 100, the workpiece delivery device 300 operates from a standby state to a workpiece receiving state. That is, hydraulic pressure (or air pressure) is applied to port a of cylinder 325 and port d of cylinder 315. In the following explanation, all hydraulic pressure is used.
When the cylinder 315 is applied, the cylinder 315 first moves toward the proximal end of the horizontal rod 311. Next, the rack 323 is lowered by the lowering of the piston 322, the pinion 327 is rotated, and the swing arm 330 is rotated accordingly. When the rotating arm 330 rotates 90 degrees, it is in a position where the hands 333 and 334 sandwich the workpiece W on the pallet 120. At this time, it is assumed that hydraulic pressure is applied to the port e of the cylinder 344, and the hands 333 and 334 are in an open state.

Next, when the pressure at port e of the cylinder 344 is reduced and hydraulic pressure is applied to port f to push the piston 342 to the right in FIG. 4, the opening/closing drive rod 34
1 causes the arm 331 to move in the same direction, and the rack 343, pinion 347 and rack 346
The arm 332 moves in the opposite direction via. Therefore, the hands 333 and 334 are close to each other,
It presses against the circumferential side of the workpiece W and grips it.

After this, hydraulic pressure is applied to port b of cylinder 325 and port c of cylinder 315. This applies pressure to the piston 322 and the cylinder 315, but in this state, the cam follower 314 provided at the tip of the horizontal rod 311 is engaged with the side surface of the vertical rod 321, so the cylinder 315
is prevented from moving. Therefore, first, only the vertical rod 321 rises, causing the swing arm 330 to rotate counterclockwise. When the swing arm 330 reaches the vertical position, the engagement groove 326 provided in the vertical rod 321 engages with the cam follower 314, and the cylinder 315 becomes movable. The cylinder 315 pushes the swing arm 330 away from the conveyor 100 (ie, forward). FIG. 3 shows this state.

At this time, the turning device 720 turns the arm to keep the gripping section 724 on standby at the workpiece W receiving position. Therefore, the workpiece W is reliably transferred to the gripping section 724 due to the protrusion of the swing arm 330 by the cylinder 315.

Workpiece delivery device 300 that has finished delivering the workpiece
Apply hydraulic pressure to port d of cylinder 315 and move conveyor 100 while keeping swing arm 330 vertical.
retreat to the side. When the base end of the cylinder 315 is detected by the detector 350, a standby position locking mechanism (not shown) (for example, using an all-port block center of a hydraulic switching valve) causes the workpiece transfer device to remain in the standby state. is maintained. Note that at this time, the vertical rod 321 is locked by the cam follower 314, so it does not descend. That is, it has an interlock mechanism.

On the other hand, the rotation device 720 has arms 721 and 72.
2 in the counterclockwise direction, first, hold the grip part 723.
is positioned in front of the chuck 711 of the headstock 710, and when there is a processed workpiece on the chuck 711, the chuck 711 receives and grips it. Then, the machine turns slightly in the same direction to position the gripping part 724 for gripping the unprocessed workpiece in front of the chuck 711, and loads the workpiece onto the chuck 711. The rotation device 720 has arms 721 and 722.
is rotated clockwise to position the grip part 723 that grips the processed work in front of the work transfer device 300 in the standby state.

Next, hydraulic pressure is applied to port c of the cylinder 315 to cause the swing arm 330 to protrude forward and receive the processed workpiece from the gripping section 723. Then, port e of cylinder 325 and cylinder 315
Apply hydraulic pressure to port d. Here, the vertical rod 321 does not descend because the cam follower 314 is engaged with the engagement groove 326 and interlocked as described above. Therefore, first, the cylinder 315 retreats. When the cylinder 315 is completely retracted, the cam follower 314 is disengaged from the engagement groove 326, so that the vertical rod 321 is lowered. As a result, the action of rack 323 and pinion 327 causes pivot arm 330 to rotate 90 degrees clockwise.

In this state, when hydraulic pressure is applied to port e of cylinder 344, arms 331 and 332 move away, hands 333 and 334 separate from the workpiece, and the workpiece is placed on pallet 120. This pallet 120 was empty after the above-mentioned unprocessed workpieces were delivered to the workpiece delivery device 300. Therefore, during this time, the conveyor is stationary.

After returning the processed work to the pallet 120, the work transfer device 300 enters the standby state as described above until the next pallet 120 arrives. Then, when the next pallet 120 arrives, the above-described operation is repeated.

On the other hand, the workpieces returned to the pallet 120 are conveyed on the conveyor 100 and arrive at the reversing device 400. Here, the workpiece is turned over and returned to the conveyor 100, where it is transferred to the next workpiece delivery device 300.
transported to. This transfer device 300 also transfers a workpiece to the headstock 710 side, receives the processed workpiece from the chuck 711 of the headstock 710, and returns it to the conveyor 100 in the same manner as described above. The processed workpiece is conveyed to the end of the conveyor 100 and processed in the next step by the computer 500.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention engages a horizontal movement mechanism and a rotation drive mechanism with a cam follower, and when both mechanisms are operated simultaneously, only one mechanism is operated and the operation of the other mechanism is stopped. In addition, by having a configuration in which the latter operation is started after the former operation is completed, the rotation operation of the rotation arm and the horizontal movement operation can be performed in conjunction with each other, and a large number of detectors and control equipment can be omitted. This has the effect of simplifying the control system, making the device less expensive, and making maintenance easier. In addition, since the cam follower switches between turning motion and horizontal movement motion, the transition between motions is smooth, and there is a safety effect in that during one motion, the other motion is locked, so there is no risk of malfunction. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a front view showing an outline of the configuration of a work transfer system equipped with the work transfer device of the present invention;
The figure is a plan view, FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the workpiece transfer device of the present invention, FIG. 4 is a sectional view of main parts of the transfer device seen from the front, and FIG. 5 is a swivel device, headstock, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship with a tool rest. 100...Conveyor, 120...Pallet, 2
00...Work placement device, 300...Work transfer device, 311...Horizontal rod, 313...Piston, 314...Cam follower, 315...Cylinder, 320...Swivel drive mechanism, 321...Vertical rod, 322 ... Piston, 323 ... Rack, 324 ... Bracket, 325 ... Cylinder, 326 ... Engagement groove, 327 ... Pinion, 3
30... Swivel arm, 331, 332... Arm, 333, 334... Hand, 340... Hand opening/closing mechanism, 341... Opening/closing drive rod, 342
... Piston, 343,346 ... Rack, 34
4...Cylinder, 347...Pinion, 348...
...Swivel joint, 400...Reversing device, 5
00...Shooter, 600...Work placement device,
700...bed, 710...headstock, 720...
...Swivel device, 721,722...Arm, 72
3,724...Gripping part, 730...Saddle, 74
0...Killer rest.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A rotating arm that grips a workpiece, a rotating drive mechanism that drives the rotating arm by 90 degrees, and a horizontal movement mechanism that horizontally moves the rotating arm, and
A workpiece delivery device characterized by meeting the following requirements. (a) The swing drive mechanism includes a vertical rod having a piston on one end and a rack on the other end, a bracket for accommodating the rack side of the vertical rod, and a bracket connected to the bracket to drive the piston. and a pinion that is fixed to the pivot shaft of the pivot arm and meshes with the rack within the bracket. (b) The horizontal movement mechanism includes a horizontal rod having a fixed part that fixes the base end to the bed side and a piston in the middle part;
and a cylinder which accommodates the piston and is mounted so as to be movable in the horizontal direction, and whose tip is connected to the bracket. (c) a cam follower is provided at the tip of the horizontal rod, and the intermediate portion of the vertical rod,
An engagement groove that engages with the cam follower is provided at a position where the swing arm can engage with the cam follower when the swing arm is in a vertical state.