JPH0563251B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Objective of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention is directed to a plate processing machine that combines a plate processing machine equipped with a back gauge, such as a press brake, and an articulated industrial robot. Regarding processing equipment.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, when processing a plate using a plate processing machine such as a press brake, which is equipped with a back gauge that can move freely back and forth, the operator usually holds the plate and moves the plate. The plate is positioned by bringing its rear edge into contact with the back gauge, and then machining of the plate is started.

In recent years, for the purpose of labor saving, attempts have been made to place a robot in front of a plate processing machine and use this robot to supply and position the plate material to the plate processing machine (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 88273/1983). .

Conventionally, in the above configuration, the workpiece holding position where the robot holds the plate material (workpiece) and the workpiece holding release position where the robot releases the holding of the workpiece after processing are located within the action area of the robot placed on the front side of the plate processing machine. is located.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) Conventionally, when a robot performs a predetermined operation after holding a workpiece at a workpiece holding position to position the workpiece to be supplied to a plate processing machine, the workpiece is deflected by its own weight. As a result, the end of the workpiece tends to fall, and the end of the workpiece may come into contact with the lower mold, and feeding may not be carried out smoothly. Also, when the workpiece is positioned with respect to the plate processing machine,
The workpiece is processed assuming that the workpiece is accurately positioned.

However, even if the robot performs the specified operation, it may not be possible for the workpiece to hit the back gauge accurately due to dimensional errors in the workpiece, deviations in the holding position of the industrial robot relative to the workpiece holding position, etc. It was unlimited. Therefore, there is a problem in the machining accuracy of the workpiece.

[Structure of the invention] (Means for solving the problem) In view of the conventional problems as described above, the present invention has the following features:
A plate processing device configured to supply a plate to the plate processing machine and process the plate by an industrial robot placed in front of the plate processing machine, wherein the industrial robot is a workpiece that holds the plate. The robot control unit that controls the industrial robot is comprised of a multi-jointed robot that is equipped with a holding unit that can rotate vertically and horizontally. This configuration controls the rear edge of the plate material to be positioned at a predetermined position based on a detection signal from the detection unit.

(Embodiment) Referring to FIG. 1, an industrial robot 3 is arranged in front of a plate processing machine 1, such as a press brake, which processes a plate workpiece W. Work W by 3
is held and supplied to the sheet material bending machine 1 for positioning.

The plate processing machine 1 is equipped with upper and lower molds 5 and 7 for bending a workpiece W, and also includes a back gauge 15 for positioning the workpiece W, which is movable in the front-rear direction (horizontal direction in FIG. 1). ing. At multiple locations on the back gauge 15,
Detection units 17a and 17b are provided to detect proximity or abutment of the rear edge of the workpiece W. In this embodiment, appropriate non-contact type sensors are used for the detection units 17a and 17b. However, the sensor is not limited to a non-contact type, and it is also possible to use a contact type sensor.

The industrial robot 3 is a multi-jointed robot. This robot 3 includes a base column 19 and a first motor 23 that horizontally rotates a rotation column 21 with respect to the base column 19.
The arm 25 is swingably supported, and
Second motor 27 for swinging the first arm 25
is provided. A second arm 27 is swingably supported at the tip of the first arm 25, and a third arm 27 for swinging the second arm 27 is supported at the tip of the first arm 25.
A motor 29 is supported. Further, a third arm 31 is supported at the tip of the second arm 27 so as to be horizontally rotatable via a fourth motor 33.
At the tip of the third arm 31, a work holding part 35 that holds one side edge of the work W is connected to a fifth motor 37.
It is supported so that it can swing up and down.

A robot control section 39 is provided for appropriately controlling various actuators such as the motors and the workpiece holding section 35 in the industrial robot 3, and an arithmetic control section 41 consisting of a microcomputer or the like is provided. There is. The arithmetic control section 41 is equipped with a CPU 43, a ROM 45 in which a processing program is stored, and a RAM 47 in which data is temporarily stored.
An input/output port 49 for connection with the arithmetic control section 41 is provided.

In the above configuration, the industrial robot 3
The workpiece W is held from a workpiece holding position located within the action area of the workpiece W, and the workpiece W is conveyed and supplied to the sheet material bending machine 1 for positioning, and then the sheet material bending machine 1 bends the workpiece W. After performing the bending process, the workpiece W after the bending process is transported to the workpiece holding release position and the holding of the workpiece W is released, thereby completing the bending process of the workpiece W.

To perform the above operations, data for automatic operation is first input into the RAM 47 by appropriate teaching or by appropriate means such as creating an operation program, and initial operation settings are performed (steps). 100). After initial operation settings,
The industrial robot 3 is driven based on the data input from the calculation control section 41 to the robot control section 39 (step 110).

Each motor in the industrial robot 3 is driven as appropriate to hold one side edge of the work W positioned at the work holding position by the work holding section 35 and transport the work W to the sheet material bending machine 1. Position. At this time, the work W
However, as shown in FIG. 2A, it is only necessary that they come into contact reliably, but this does not necessarily mean that they come into contact accurately. Therefore, the detection parts 17a and 17b detect the workpiece W.
It is confirmed whether or not the two have come into contact and positioning has been completed (step 120).

In the above step 120, each detection unit 17a,
It is determined whether or not the workpiece W has come into contact based on the output of the detector 17b, and each detector 17a,
When the workpiece W comes into contact with the workpiece 17b, it is detected that the workpiece W has been accurately positioned, and the sheet material processing machine 1 performs the bending process (step 130).
The processed workpiece W is transported to the workpiece holding release position (step 140). After that, in step 150, it is determined whether or not the machining of the workpiece W is completed, and if it is completed, the process ends, and if not, the step
The process returns to step 110, and the bending process of the workpiece W is repeated.

In step 120, when the workpiece W is positioned at a distance t from each of the detection parts 17a and 17b as shown in FIG. 2B, the workpiece W does not come into contact with the detection parts 17a and 17b. , it is possible to detect that the positioning of the workpiece W is inaccurate. Therefore, the CPU 19 has a detection section 17a equipped with a non-contact displacement sensor,
The data of the dimension t is determined by the output from the back gauge 17b, and when the work W is tilted with respect to the bending line K (the position of the upper and lower molds 5 and 7) as shown in FIG. When it comes into contact with one of the detection sections 17a and 17b, the difference in output between the detection sections 17a and 17b is inputted as data (step 160). And each detection unit 17a,
Based on the data input from 17b, the work W
It is determined whether or not rotation is necessary (step 170), and if rotation is not necessary, a straight-line command signal is output to the robot control unit 39 to cause the robot to move straight by a distance t (step 180). When it is necessary to rotate the workpiece W,
The rotation direction and rotation amount of the workpiece W are calculated based on the output difference between the detection units 17a and 17b, and a rotation command signal is output to the robot control unit 39 (step
190).

In the robot control section 39, the arithmetic control section 4
Based on the command signal from 1, each motor in the industrial robot 3 is appropriately controlled to move the workpiece W in a straight line or rotationally so as to contact each of the detection parts 17a and 17b of the back gauge 15, and then position it again. is performed (step 120). Then, the positioning of the workpiece W is completed by the outputs of the detection parts 17a and 17b when both the workpieces W come into contact with the detection parts 17a and 17b, and processing is performed (step 130).

[Effects of the Invention] As can be understood from the description of the embodiments as described above, in short, the present invention supplies a sheet material W to the sheet material processing machine 1 by an industrial robot 3 disposed on the front side of the sheet material processing machine 1. In the plate material processing apparatus configured to process the plate material W, the industrial robot 3 is an articulated robot having a work holding part 35 that holds the plate material W so as to be rotatable vertically and horizontally. A robot control unit 39, which is a robot and controls the industrial robot 3, detects whether the plate material W This is a configuration for controlling the rear edge of the holder to position it at a predetermined position.

As is clear from the above configuration, in the present invention, the industrial robot 3 disposed on the front side of the plate material processing machine 1 has a multi-purpose robot 3 which is equipped with a workpiece holder 35 that holds the plate material W so as to be rotatable vertically and horizontally. The robot is an articulated robot and is controlled by a robot control section 39 so that the rear edge of the plate W comes into contact with a plurality of detection parts 17a and 17b provided in the back gauge 15 of the plate processing machine.

That is, according to the present invention, since the workpiece holder 35 is vertically rotatable, the workpiece holder 35 can be rotated even if the edge of the plate W tends to descend from a horizontal state due to the bending of its own weight. By rotating upward, the rear edge of the plate material W can be easily fed without coming into contact with the lower mold 7, for example.

Further, the workpiece holding section 35 is horizontally rotatable, and the robot control section 39 that controls the industrial robot 3 has a plurality of detection sections 17 provided at a plurality of locations on the back gauge 15 provided in the plate processing machine 1.
Based on the detection signals of a and 17b, the rear edge of the plate W is controlled to be positioned at a predetermined position, so that the rear edge of the plate W is aligned with the processing line K.
Even if the plate material W is tilted back and forth relative to the plate material W, it is easy to correct it to a parallel state by abutting the rear edge of the plate material W against the plurality of detection parts 17a and 17b of the back gauge 15. .

Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and can be implemented in other embodiments by making appropriate changes. For example, it is possible to use a simple contact sensor as the sensor for the detection parts 17a and 17b, and it is also possible to
When horizontally rotating the workpiece W, both detection parts 1
It is also possible to rotate the work while pressing one end of the rear side edge of the work W into contact with the back gauge so as to contact the back gauges 7a and 17b.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show embodiments of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a configuration explanatory diagram showing the overall configuration of the device. Second
Figures A, 2B, and 2C are explanatory diagrams showing the contact state of the workpiece. FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart. 1...Plate material bending machine, 3...Industrial robot, 15...Back gauge, 17a, 17b...
Detection unit, 35... Work holding unit, W... Work.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A sheet material processing device configured to supply a sheet material W to the sheet material processing machine 1 and process the sheet material W by an industrial robot 3 disposed on the front side of the sheet material processing machine 1. is an articulated robot which is equipped with a work holding part 35 that holds the plate material W so as to be vertically and horizontally rotatable, and a robot control part 39 that controls the industrial robot 3 is connected to the plate material processing machine 1 A plurality of detection units 1 provided at a plurality of locations on a back gauge 15 prepared for
A plate processing apparatus characterized in that it is configured to perform control to position the rear edge of the plate W at a predetermined position based on the detection signals 7a and 17b.