JPH0534068B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a color changing device for a painting robot that applies a coating to an object while sequentially changing the colors of a plurality of paints.

[Conventional technology]

In general, a painting robot that sprays different colors of paint onto the workpiece that is being sent along a conveyor line while sequentially changing the color is equipped with a robot body and a robot that sprays paint of different colors on the workpiece that is sent along the conveyor line. The robot body is equipped with a paint sprayer that sprays paint toward the target, and a color change valve device that supplies a predetermined paint from a plurality of paints to the paint sprayer during painting, and supplies cleaning fluid to the paint sprayer when changing colors. The playback operation is performed based on the operation taught in advance according to the shape of the object to be coated, and the color change device sprays paint of a preset color, and when changing the color, the color change valve device is used to control the paint They are cleaned and sprayed with the next color of paint.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

By the way, the object to be painted is an automobile body, and therefore, when a painting robot is installed on a painting conveyor line and the automobile bodies that are sequentially sent along the conveyor line are to be painted, the color change work is difficult. The problem is that timing is very difficult.
That is, the robot body may be operated in playback according to a previously taught program, and the color change valve device may be opened or closed at preset time intervals to open or close the paint valve currently being painted. but,
The timing of opening the air valve and thinner valve for cleaning when changing colors must be done after the spraying of paint from the paint sprayer has finished and the robot body has completely stopped.

For this reason, the conventional technology has workers waiting on the conveyor line, and measures the size and shape of the automobile body to be coated, the movement of the robot body, and the state of paint spraying from the paint machine. In addition to stopping the conveyor line, the robot itself was also stopped. However, the above-mentioned conventional technology requires a monitoring worker to determine when to start color change work, and the conveyor line must be stopped each time color change work is performed, resulting in poor workability. There were flaws.

The present invention was developed in view of the drawbacks of the prior art described above, and by synchronizing the color change execution timing between the robot body and the coating machine, color change can be automatically performed without stopping the conveyor line or the robot body. To provide a color changing device for a painting robot by which color changing work can be performed.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve this purpose, the color changing device for a painting robot according to the present invention includes a painting robot body having an operating mechanism necessary for painting work, and a painting robot body that is installed in the robot body and sprays paint toward the object to be painted. a color change valve device that supplies a predetermined paint from among a plurality of paints to the paint sprayer during painting and supplies a cleaning fluid to the paint sprayer when changing colors; a waste liquid recovery device installed at a color change position different from the painting position to recover waste liquid discharged from the paint sprayer; a control device having a determination mechanism for controlling an operating mechanism and a color change valve device of the robot body; The control device is configured to continue painting despite the color change request when the determination mechanism determines that the coating machine is painting even if there is a signal requesting a color change, and to cause the determination mechanism to continue painting. Therefore, when the coating machine determines that coating has been completed, it outputs a signal to the actuating mechanism of the robot body to change the posture of the robot body from the coating position to the color changing position;
Next, with the robot main body facing the waste liquid recovery device provided at the color change position, a signal for activating the color change valve device is output to the color change valve device to clean the coating machine; Furthermore, when the determination mechanism determines that the color change is completed, a signal is output to the operating mechanism of the robot body in order to return the robot body to a standby position between the painting position and the color change position. That's what happened.

[Effect]

With this configuration, under the control of the control device, when the object to be coated reaches the coating area, the operating mechanism of the robot body performs a pre-back operation, and paint is supplied from the color change valve device to the coating machine. Start spraying the paint. In this state, when the determination mechanism determines that a signal from the control device has been received to request a color change while the coating machine is painting the object, the determination mechanism determines that this color change request has been received. The robot continues painting until the end, and then outputs a signal to change the attitude of the robot body from the painting position to the color changing position. Next, a signal is output from the control device to the color change valve device, and cleaning fluid such as air or thinner is supplied from the color change valve device to the robot body paint machine whose attitude has been changed to the color change position. The color is washed and, if necessary, the next color is supplied and filled after the sprayer has been cleaned, and at this time,
The cleaning fluid, which is waste liquid, is discharged to a waste liquid recovery device.
Further, when the determination mechanism determines that the color of the paint coating machine has been changed, the control device outputs a signal to the operating mechanism of the robot body to move the robot body between the painting position and the color change position. Return to the intermediate standby position and prepare for painting the next object.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

First, FIGS. 1 to 3 show a robot main body, and the robot main body 1 includes a base 2, a turntable 3 provided on the base 2 so as to be rotatable on a horizontal plane, and a turntable 3 on the turntable 3. The arm 5 is rotatably provided at the upper end of the support 4, and the wrist 6 is provided at the tip of the arm 5. A coating machine 7 is attached to the tip of the wrist 6 for spraying paint onto the object to be coated. The turntable 3, column 4, arm 5, wrist 6, etc. of the robot body 1 are driven by an actuating mechanism consisting of an actuator such as a cylinder or a motor.

On the other hand, another main column 8 is rotatably mounted on the turntable 3, another arm 9 is rotatably provided at the upper end of the main column 8, and the tip of the arm 9 is attached to a connecting member 10. is attached to arm 5 via
It is designed to operate following the robot body 1. A color change valve device 11 is attached to the upper surface of the arm 9. Here, the color change valve device 11 is composed of paint valves for colors A, B,...N, a thinner valve for supplying thinner for cleaning, and an air valve for purging paint and thinner, and these are multi-purpose. Connected as a series valve.

Further, the color change valve 11 and the coating machine 7 are connected via one paint supply hose 12, and the color change valve device 11 and a paint source, thinner source, and air source for each paint color (all are shown in the figure). (not shown) are connected via a group of paint supply pipes 13, and these group of paint supply pipes 13 are led to a guide tube 14 together with a number of hydraulic pipes for operating the robot body 1, and are led out of the robot body 1. ing.

Further, a waste liquid recovery device 15 is disposed at a color change position on the side of the robot body 1 to collect waste liquid discharged from the coating machine 7 during color change cleaning.
Here, the waste liquid recovery device 15 is located on the side of the robot body 1 away from the conveyor line 18 as shown in FIG.
When rotated 90 degrees, the coating machine 7 is in a facing position.

Next, FIG. 4 shows a control system diagram for the robot body 1 and the coating machine 7. In this embodiment, there are three conveyor lines, and each line has a control system for the robot body 1 and the coating machine 7.
Indicates the case where is provided. And 16 in the figure
1 is a main controller, and 17, 17, and 17 are sub-control devices that operate under the control of the main controller 16. Each controller 17 controls the robot body 1 and the color change valve device 11 according to a predetermined program. It is activated to perform painting work, posture change work, color change work, work to return to standby position, etc. Note that the main control device 16 and each sub-control device 17 include, for example,
Control mechanism consisting of PCU, MPU, etc., RAM, ROM
The computer has a storage mechanism (none of which is shown) consisting of, etc., and various programs, setting data, determination data, etc. are stored in the storage mechanism.

That is, the sub-control device 17 controls startup, color change requests, etc. based on commands from the main control device 16, and during painting work, it moves the robot body 1 to the painting position based on a program stored in the sub-control device 17. At the same time, the playback operation is performed and the opening/closing control of the current color paint valve selected from among the paint valves is performed, and the paint valve of the paint machine 7 is activated.
When a color change request is received, the paint sprayer 7 determines that painting is in progress, continues painting while remembering the color change request, and A posture change function that changes the posture of the robot body 1 from the painting position to the color change position when it is determined that the painting has been completed, and a posture change function that changes the posture of the robot body 1 from the painting position to the color change position, and a function that changes the posture of the robot body 1 to a predetermined color with the robot body 1 facing the waste liquid collection device 15 in the color change position. After cleaning the previous color by controlling the opening and closing of the thinner valve and air valve several times according to the change program, the paint valve for the next color is opened to supply a small amount of paint to perform the color change. It has a paint machine color change function and a standby position return function for returning the robot main body 1 to a standby position intermediate between the painting position, the color change position, and the standby position when it is determined that the color change is completed.

Note that FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the operation during the color change operation, and in the figure, 18 indicates a conveyor line, and 19 indicates an object to be coated conveyed by the conveyor line 18.
Note that a reciprocating work transfer device may be used instead of the conveyor line 18. In FIG. 5, A shows the painting state at the painting position, B shows the color changing work state where the posture has been changed to the color changing position, and C shows the waiting state at the standby position.

The present embodiment is constructed as described above, and its operation will now be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 6 and the time chart of FIG. 7.

First, step 1 is a waiting loop until the main controller 16 outputs the color change request signal 22 to the sub controller 17. When the color change request signal 22 is output in step 1, the sub-control device 17 determines in step 2 whether or not a painting operation is in progress. That is, if the painting signal 21 is not output from the sub-control device 17, it is determined that painting is not in progress, and the process moves to the next step 3. On the other hand, main controller 1
If the sub-control device 17 is in playback operation of the robot body 1 or the color change valve device 11 while the color change request signal 22 is input from
Since the painting signal is output as shown by the dotted line 21' in the figure, the color change request signal 22 is stored in memory, and when the end mark is output from the program during painting, the process moves to the next step 3. .

In step 2, the main controller 16 outputs an unambiguous color change request signal 22 based on the conveyor speed at the timing of determining whether or not the painting signal 21 has been completed in response to the color change request signal 22. On the other hand, the program of the sub-control device 17 has advantages and disadvantages depending on the length and size of the object 19 to be coated. On the other hand, the color change request signal 22 may become outdated faster. Therefore, in step 2, it is determined whether or not painting is in progress, and after the painting work on the object to be painted 19 is completed, the posture is changed and the color changing work begins.

Next, in step 3, the attitude of the robot body 1 is changed from the painting position (the state shown in FIG. 5A) to the color change position (the state shown in FIG. 5B) according to the color change program from the sub-control device 17, and the coating machine 7 to waste liquid recovery device 15
Turn inward. When the change of color change attitude is completed in step 4, a color change attitude completion signal 23 is output from the sub-control device 17 based on the soft timer. Therefore, _t1 in FIG. 7 is the color change attitude execution period. Next, when the color change attitude completion signal 23 is output, step 5 is performed based on a predetermined cleaning program.
The color change valve device 11 is operated, and the coating machine 7, paint supply hose 12, etc. are cleaned. In this cleaning operation, air is supplied from the air valve that constitutes the color change valve device 11 to purge the previous color paint in the paint supply hose 12 and the paint sprayer 7, and then thinner is supplied from the thinner valve to clean the insides of these. Clean and then purge the thinner by supplying air from the air valve. After repeating this process several times, the next color paint valve is operated to fill the paint supply hose 12 and the coating machine 7 with the next color paint, thereby completing the process. At this time, the waste liquid such as pre-color paint and thinner discharged from the coating machine 7 is collected by the waste liquid recovery device 15.
It is collected in a timely manner and does not contaminate the inside of the painting booth.

Next, when the color change according to the cleaning program is completed as described above, the sub-control device 17 outputs a color change completion signal (cleaning completion signal) 24, and the color change is completed (see step 6). Therefore, in Figure 7
t ₂ is the cleaning and color change execution period.

Furthermore, when the color change completion signal 24 is output, the color change program (return program) from the sub-control device 17 moves the robot body 1 to the standby position between the painting position and the color change position (the state shown in FIG. 5C). ), the standby position return signal 25 is output based on the end mark of the color change program, and the standby position return is completed (step 7). Therefore, t ₃ in Figure 7
is the standby posture execution period. In this way, it is ready for the next painting operation.

This embodiment has been described in detail above, and steps 1, 2, 4, and 6 in FIG. 6 are specific examples of the determination mechanism implemented in the sub-control device 17.

In addition, in the embodiment, the main control device 1 is used as the control device.
6 and the sub-control device 17, the control device may be of any type, and may be configured as a single control device.

Furthermore, in the embodiment, the color change request signal 22 has been described as being output from the main controller 16, but this is due to centralized control of the conveyor line, and this signal may also be output from the sub controller 17. When performing painting work while changing the color of each object to be painted, such as an automobile body, a switch signal generated by an operator pressing a switch or the like may be used as the color change request signal.

On the other hand, in the embodiment, the color change valve device 11 was described as being installed on the arm 9 adjacent to the robot body 1, but this makes the length of the paint supply hose 12 as short as possible, shortens the cleaning time, and The color change valve device 11 is intended to reduce the amount of previous color paint discharged during color change, and the color change valve device 11 can be installed at an appropriate position.

Furthermore, in the embodiment, the color change attitude completion signal 23, the standby position return signal 25, etc. have been described as being output in connection with the program within the sub-control device 17;
The output may be configured by providing a limit switch or the like on the turntable 3 of the robot body 1.

Furthermore, although it has been described that thinner and air are used as the cleaning fluid, in a cleaning method that changes colors by pushing out the previous color with the next color paint, the next color paint also serves as the cleaning fluid. .

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, the color changing device for a painting robot according to the present invention can automate the color changing work, so there is no need to stop the conveyor line or the robot body, and the color changing work time can be reduced. This makes it possible to perform painting work more efficiently. In addition, even if a color change request is made, the color change work will not start unless the ongoing painting work is completed.
Reliable coating can be performed without deteriorating coating quality.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of the robot body used in the embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a right side view of FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is a control system diagram, and FIG. The figures are explanatory diagrams of operations during color change work. Figure 5A is a painting state diagram, Figure 5B is a color change state diagram, Figure 5C is a standby state diagram, and Figure 6 is a color change state diagram. A flowchart showing the processing, and FIG. 7 is a time chart showing the operation timing. 1...Robot body, 7...Painting machine, 11...
Color change valve device, 15... Waste liquid recovery device, 16... Main control device, 17... Sub control device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A painting robot body that has an operating mechanism necessary for painting work, a paint machine installed on the robot body that sprays paint toward the object to be painted, and a paint sprayer that sprays a predetermined paint from among multiple paints during painting. supply,
A color change valve device that supplies cleaning fluid to the paint sprayer during color change; and a waste fluid provided at a color change position different from the painting position to collect waste fluid discharged from the paint sprayer when color change cleaning of the paint sprayer is performed. The robot is equipped with a recovery device and a control device having a determination mechanism for controlling the operating mechanism and color change valve device of the robot body, and the control device is configured to use the determination mechanism to control the color change request signal even if there is a signal for requesting a color change. When the coating machine determines that painting is in progress, it continues painting despite the color change request, and when the determination mechanism determines that the coating machine has finished painting, it outputs a signal to the operating mechanism of the robot body. and change the posture of the robot body from the painting position to the color change position, and then, with the robot body facing the waste liquid recovery device provided at the color change position, send a signal to operate the color change valve device. The paint machine is cleaned by outputting the output to the color change valve device, and when the determination mechanism determines that the color change has been completed, the robot body is moved to a standby position between the painting position and the color change position. A color changing device for a painting robot configured to output a signal to an operating mechanism of the robot body in order to return the robot to normal operation.