JPH03106B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a color changing device for a painting robot in which a paint container can be detachably attached to the arm of the painting robot.

For example, in an automobile production line, when topcoating the bodies of automobiles transported by a conveyor, it is common for each body to be painted with a different paint. When attempting to perform such topcoat painting using a single painting robot, a color change valve is installed to selectively supply multiple colors of paint to the paint gun, and the paint is applied to the preceding object to be painted first. After the painting is completed and before starting the painting of the subsequent object to be coated, there is a difference in color between the previous color paint used on the preceding object and the next color paint to be used on the subsequent object. must be replaced. This color change work is performed by flowing thinner and air into the paint supply line from the color change valve to the paint gun, completely cleaning and removing the previous color paint, and then supplying the next color paint to the paint supply line. It is something that can be done.

However, the color change valve mentioned above is installed, for example, on the side wall of the paint booth, and the color change valve and the paint gun are connected with a single paint supply hose, and the robot is moved in the same direction as the vehicle body, which is the object to be painted. The structure was such that painting could be done while Therefore, the distance between the color change valve and the paint gun is large, and the paint supply hose must have enough length to accommodate the distance the robot moves, so the paint supply hose has to be quite long. I needed it. In this way, if the paint supply hose is long, a large amount of thinner must be supplied during cleaning, and not only will a large amount of pre-colored paint be removed during cleaning, but the cleaning time will also become longer, reducing work efficiency. There were drawbacks such as a decrease in

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and its purpose is to provide a color changing device for a painting robot that can save paint and cleaning thinner and shorten the work time for color changing. It's about doing.

The configuration of the present invention adopted to achieve this objective includes a painting robot body having an arm,
A joint plate attached to the arm of the painting robot body, and a joint plate provided at a predetermined distance from the joint plate on the proximal end side of the arm, with a ventilation hole bored at least in the distal end. a cylinder having a piston rod having a length such that the vent hole connects to the inflow side of the joint plate when extended; a painting gun connected to the outflow side of the joint plate and located at the tip of the arm; One side has an opening connected to the inflow side of the coupling plate, and the other side has an opening connected to the vent hole of the piston rod, so that it can be attached and detached between the coupling plate and the cylinder. and a paint container that is installed in the paint gun and discharges the paint toward the paint gun using compressed air.

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

1 and 2 show a first embodiment of the invention. In the figure, 1 is an arm swingably provided on a painting robot (not shown), and 2 is a joint plate fixed to the top end of the arm 1. The joint plate 2 has a through hole 2 along the longitudinal direction of the arm 1.
A hose joint 2B is provided at the end side of the arm 1 of the through hole 2A to which a paint supply hose (to be described later) is connected, and a quick joint 3 is provided at the base side of the arm 1. A male joint 3A is provided.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a cylinder which is spaced apart from the joint plate 2 by a predetermined distance and is fixed to the upper base side of the arm 1. Inside the cylinder 4, a supply/discharge port 4A is provided from a fluid source (not shown) such as gas or liquid. A piston 4C that is slidable by fluid supplied to the piston 4B is slidably inserted therein.

Reference numeral 5 designates a piston rod which is fixedly fixed to the piston 4C, and a female joint 6A of a quick joint 6 is provided at one end portion 5A of the piston rod 5. Here, the piston rod 5 has a length that allows it to be connected to the male joint 3A provided on the joint plate 2 when it is fully extended. It's growing from the side. Further, the piston rod 5 is provided at its axis with a vent hole 7 that opens at both tips 5A and 5B, and an air pipe 8 whose base end is connected to an air compressor is connected to the opening on the side of the tip 5B. .

Reference numeral 9 denotes a hydraulic painting gun installed at the tip of the arm 1 via a mounting bracket 1A. The ends are connected.

11 is a paint container located between the joint plate 2 and the cylinder 4 and arranged on the upper surface of the arm 1;
The paint container 11 has a hollow body 11A and an opening 12A.
The side plate 11B has a side plate 11B and a side plate 11C has an opening 12B.A female joint 3B that fits into the male joint 3A provided on the joint plate 2 is protruded from the outer surface of the side plate 11B. 3. On the other hand, a male joint 6B that fits into a female joint 6A provided at the tip of the piston rod 5 is protruded from the outer surface of the side plate 11C, forming a quick joint 6. A cup-shaped piston 13 is slidably inserted into the paint container 11, and the inside of the paint container 11 is divided into a paint storage section A and a pressurized section B. In FIG. 1, 13A and 13B are positioning protrusions provided on the upper surface of the arm 1 for positioning the paint container 11 when the paint container 11 is attached.

As shown in FIG. 3, 14 is a paint container supply device located outside the mouth of the coating work area within the operating range C of the coating robot, and the supply device 14 includes a belt-type or chain-type conveyor 15; A plurality of paint containers 11, 11 mounted on the conveyor 15
... and each paint container 1 at a predetermined position.
1 and a paint container exchange robot 16 which is fitted onto the arm 1 of the painting robot body.

Next, the operation of the apparatus of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained. The operations described below are performed, for example, by playback operations based on teaching.

First, before the start of painting work, the painting container 11 is not held between the joint plate 2 and the cylinder 4.
The piston rod 5 is in the most extended state, and the female joint 6A of the piston rod 5 and the male joint 3A of the joint plate 2 are fitted.

Next, when it is time to start painting, the conveyor 15 of the container supply device 14 rotates, and the paint container 11 filled with a predetermined paint moves to a predetermined position. At this time, the arm 1 also moves below the conveyor 15, the piston rod 5 retreats toward the base of the arm 1, and the paint container 11 is prepared to be installed between the joint plate 2 and the cylinder 4. Then, the paint container mounting robot 16 operates to grip the paint container 11 at a predetermined position on the conveyor 15, and the paint intercalator 11 is transferred between the positioning projections 13A and 13B of the arm 1.

Next, cylinder 4 operates and piston rod 5
extends toward the tip of the arm 1 and the tip 5 of the rod 5
The female joint 6A of A fits into the male joint 6B of the paint container 11. The piston rod 5 further extends slightly to press the paint container 11 toward the joint plate 2, and when the male joint 3A of the joint plate 2 and the female joint 3B of the paint container 11 are fitted, the paint container 11 is fixed to the upper surface of the arm 1. be done. When the installation of the paint container 11 is completed, the arm 1
rotates and directs the coating gun 9 toward the object to be coated to start coating. This painting work is performed by playbacking the robot body according to a predetermined program. At this time, the painting gun 9 is of a hydraulic type, and compressed air sent from an air compressor (not shown) enters the pressurized part B of the paint container 11 through the vent hole 7 of the piston rod 5. , piston 1
3 in the direction of the side plate 11B to pressurize the paint in the paint reservoir A. As a result, the paint in the reservoir A is brought into a high pressure state and is discharged to the coating gun 9, where it is applied to the object to be coated.

When the painting is finished, the arm 1 is connected to the container supply device 1.
4, the piston rod 5 fixing the paint container 11 also moves back, and the female joint 6A of the rod 5 and the male joint 6B of the paint container 11 are disengaged. Meanwhile, the paint container replacement robot 16 operates to remove the paint container 11, and the paint container 11 is returned onto the conveyor 15. Then, the piston rod 5, which had been in the retracted state, extends again, and the female joint 6A at the tip of the rod 5 and the male joint 3A of the joint plate 2 are fitted together, and compressed air from the air compressor flows into the vent hole 7 of the piston rod 5. , joint plate 2
The paint is fed into the paint gun 9 through the through hole 2A and the paint supply hose 10, and the residual paint in the paint supply hose 10 and the paint gun 9 is blown out. Next, by supplying thinner from the ventilation hole 7 to the through hole 2A of the joint plate 2, the paint supply hose 10, and the paint gun 9 instead of the compressed air described above, the remaining paint in these parts is cleaned with thinner. Complete cleaning is achieved by repeating each of these steps several times.

The above sequence returns to the state before the start of painting, and in accordance with the teaching, the paint container 11 for the next color paint is replaced, fixed, and the painting work is performed.

Next, FIGS. 4 and 5 show a second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the same components as those of the first embodiment are given the same reference numerals, and the explanation thereof will be omitted.

However, the feature of the second embodiment is that the vertical paint container 21 is removably installed between the joint plate 2 and the cylinder 4. The paint container 21 is composed of a hollow cylindrical portion 22 with a lid that is open at the bottom, and a bottom portion 23 into which the opening of the hollow cylindrical portion 22 is fitted on the side surface. The bottom portion 23 is provided with the hollow cylinder portion 2.
Openings 24A, 2 inside 2 and on the side of the bottom 23, respectively.
L-shaped flow hole 24 having 4B and the bottom portion 23
A ventilation hole 25 having openings 25A and 25B is formed at the upper end and the side surface of the bottom portion 23 of the tubular body 23A, which stands integrally from the upper surface. Further, a female joint 3B' constituting the quick joint 3 is protruded from the outside of the opening 24B, and a male joint 6B' constituting the quick joint 6 is protruded from the outside of the opening 25B. In the figure, 23B is a concave portion formed on the lower surface of the bottom portion 23, and the concave portion 23B is engaged with the locking protrusion 26 on the upper surface of the arm 1. On the other hand, 27 is a buff-full plate for preventing the paint contained in the paint container 21 from scattering and rippling.

As in the case of the first embodiment, the paint container 21 is connected to the joint plate 2 via the male and female joints 3A and 3B' of the quick joint 3, and is connected to the joint plate 2 through the male and female joints 6A and 6.
It is connected to the piston rod 5 via B'. During painting, compressed air sent from an air compressor is discharged into the coating container 21 from the opening 25A through the vent hole 7 and the vent hole 25 of the piston rod 5,
When the pressure inside the container 21 becomes high, the paint flows through the through hole 2A of the joint plate 2, the paint supply hose 10,
It is force-fed to the painting gun 9.

Note that the operation of the coating robot equipped with the paint container 21 and the means for supplying the paint container 21 are the same as in the first embodiment, so a description thereof will be omitted.

Furthermore, in the first and second embodiments,
Although the paint containers 11 and 21 were configured to be held between the joint plate 2 and the piston rod 5, the joint plate 2 was abolished and the paint containers 11 and 21 were directly connected to the paint gun 9 via a quick joint to supply paint. The hose 10 may be omitted, and in this case, the cleaning time can be reduced by the amount of the paint supply hose. Furthermore, although the vent hole 7 has been described as being provided through the piston rod 5, an opening may be provided near the tip 5A of the piston rod 5 and the air pipe 8 may be connected thereto, as shown by the dashed line in FIG. .
Further, although the paint container supply device 14 has been described as being composed of the conveyor 15 and the paint container exchange robot 16, the means for supplying the paint containers 11 and 21 is not limited to this.
Furthermore, although the painting gun 9 was directly attached to the arm 1 of the robot body, in order to give more freedom to the painting work, a wrist was provided at the tip of the arm 1, and the painting gun 9 was attached to the wrist. Of course, this is a good thing.

The color changing device for a painting robot according to the present invention is as described in detail above, and has the following effects.

The painting robot main body is configured to perform painting work while sequentially changing colors by replacing each paint container according to the color to be painted, so that color changing work can be performed in an extremely short time.

The paint supply hose between the paint gun and the paint container can be significantly shortened or eliminated, allowing savings in paint and cleaning thinner and shortening cleaning time.

Air and thinner can be supplied by simply extending a piston rod having a ventilation hole for compressed air for painting and connecting it to a paint supply hose, making it extremely easy to clean residual paint in the paint gun and paint supply hose.

When painting an object of the same shape that is continuously conveyed by a conveyor line, such as an automobile body, while changing the color one after another, the amount of paint in the paint cup is enough to be used for painting one automobile body. All you have to do is fill it with paint, which further reduces the waste of paint when changing colors.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a first embodiment of the device according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of a hydraulic cylinder and a paint container that constitute the device, and Fig. 3 is a paint container used in the embodiment device. A schematic explanatory diagram of the supply device,
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a second embodiment of the apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of a paint container constituting the apparatus. 1...Arm, 2...Joint plate, 4...Cylinder, 5...Piston rod, 7...Vent hole, 9...
...Painting gun, 11,21...Paint container.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A painting robot main body having an arm, a joint plate attached to the arm of the painting robot main body, and a joint plate provided on the base end side of the arm at a predetermined distance from the joint plate, and at least at the tip end. a cylinder having a piston rod having a ventilation hole and a length such that the ventilation hole connects to the inflow side of the joint plate when fully extended; and a piston rod connected to the outflow side of the joint plate at the tip of the arm. a paint gun located at one side, and an opening connected to the inflow side of the coupling plate on one side, and an opening connected to the vent hole of the piston rod on the other side. Detachably installed between the joint plate and the cylinder,
A color changing device for a painting robot consisting of a paint container that discharges paint toward a paint gun using compressed air.