JPH0688193B2 - Production control equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial field of application) The present invention relates to a multi-stage production system including a plurality of workstations, and a production control device for controlling production equipment installed in each workstation. It is about.

(Prior Art) With the diversification of consumer needs in recent years, as a production system in various production plants, flexible manufacturing (FMS), which can manufacture a wide variety of products on the same production line, has attracted attention. ing.

Figure 9 shows FM using a computer-aided system (57).
An example of S is shown. An article (1) to be subjected to various kinds of processing such as processing and inspection is mounted on a conveyance assisting tool (2) such as a pallet, conveyed on a conveying means (20) such as a belt conveyor, and the workstations S1, S2, Predetermined processing is sequentially performed in S3 ....

For example, in workstation S1, a robot (52) controlled by a robot controller (51)
Electronic components are mounted and soldered on the circuit board, and in the workstation S2, the electronic components are adjusted by the robot (54) controlled by the robot controller (53). In addition, the workstation
In S3, the performance of the electric circuit formed on the substrate is automatically measured by the control / measurement device (56).

The computer-aided system is connected to the production equipment installed at each workstation via a communication line, and provides each production equipment with production information necessary for various operations, such as NC data and characteristic values of electronic components to be adjusted. Or collecting various work result information such as measurement results of circuit performance after adjustment.

(Problems to be Solved) However, the following problems have been pointed out in the information centralized FMS that centrally manages production information and work result information by the computer support system as described above.

In order to synchronize the flow of goods and the flow of information, it is necessary to write the inflow order (sequence information) of multi-product goods into each workstation in the computer support system (57) in advance. Therefore, for example, if abnormal circuit performance occurs due to the incorporation of defective electronic parts, this defective product is removed during the production process, and the flow of the product changes during the process, set it in the computer support system (57). It is necessary to rewrite the existing sequence information.

The load of the computer support system (57) increases in proportion to the number of workstations, and the number of workstations is limited.

Complex communication networks must be configured to control the flow of information between each workstation and the computer-aided system (57).

When the production process is expanded to more stages, the computer assisted system (57) and the communication network need to be extensively modified in hardware and software.

(Means for Solving Problems) According to the present invention, a storage unit (3) that is transported together with parts between workstations, a storage unit access circuit (7) equipped in each workstation, and a storage unit (3). And a storage unit access circuit (7) to form a production control device, and by equipping the production control device with a multi-stage production system, production information and work result information are stored in each storage unit (3). By decentralization, the above problems were solved all at once.

The storage unit (3) has a storage area for storing various production information necessary for the work and / or various work result information showing the result of the work, for example, driving of the article transport means (20). The article is conveyed between the workstations together with the article.

The storage unit access circuit (7) is composed of, for example, a one-chip microcomputer equipped in the production equipment of each workstation, and the desired production from the storage unit (3) is performed via communication means such as a connection cable (4). The information or work result information is read and a command is issued to the production equipment linked to the access (7), or the work result information in the production equipment is collected and written in the storage unit (3). is there.

(Working) In each workstation, when an article to be worked is set at a predetermined position, the storage unit (3) transported to the workstation together with the article and the production facility of the workstation are equipped with the storage unit (3). Information is exchanged with the existing storage unit access circuit (7) as follows.

For example, in a production line including a process for assembling a circuit board by a robot, the process before the assembling process, for example, the first process
In the process, production information such as the mounting position of each electronic component on the board is written in the storage unit (3) that is transported together with the component (board) to be assembled.

When the board is transported to the assembly process and positioned,
The storage unit access circuit (7) equipped in the robot controller and the storage unit (3) are connected via a communication means, and the production information written in the storage unit (3) is transferred to the storage unit access circuit (7). To be done.
By this, the operation of the robot is controlled, and a predetermined electronic component is mounted at a predetermined position on the board.

Further, in the inspection process for measuring the performance of the electric circuit formed on the substrate, the measurement data obtained by the measuring device is stored in the storage unit access circuit (7) equipped in the device via the communication unit to the storage unit ( 3), and the measurement data written in the storage unit (3) is read out in a step subsequent to the inspection step, for example, in the final step, and used as basic data for production control, quality control, etc. It

(Effects of the Invention) In the production control device according to the present invention, the work unit (3) in which the information necessary for the processing of the article (1) is written together with the article (1) to be worked is a workstation. Being transported between, the flow of information and the flow of goods are always synchronized. For example, defective products are removed during the process,
Even if the flow of articles in the subsequent process changes, various processes can be performed in the workstation in the subsequent stage based on the production information stored in the storage unit (3) conveyed with the article (1). Since this is done, the synchronized state of the flow of information and the flow of information is maintained.

In addition, since the production information and the work result information are stored in a distributed manner in the storage unit (3) that is transported together with each article, in the case where the computer support system for integrally controlling all the production lines in the factory is installed. Even so, the host computer does not have to retain the production information of all workstations, and therefore the load on the computer is greatly reduced as compared with the conventional information-intensive production system.

Of course, the communication between the storage unit access circuit (7) of each workstation and the transportation assisting tool (2) that is transported together with the article (1) is performed by a connection having a simple structure including, for example, a data line and an address line. This can be done by the cable (4), and a complicated communication network such as the conventional device is unnecessary.

Even when the production line is expanded in multiple stages, the load of the computer assisted system does not increase in proportion to the number of processes. Further, the modification of the device is only required to equip the added workstation with the storage unit access circuit (7), and it is not necessary to drastically change the hardware and software of the existing equipment such as the computer support system. .

Further, since the storage unit (3) has an address corresponding to each production facility, access can be facilitated and operability is improved. Moreover, it is possible to prevent data destruction and malfunction.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 shows a multi-stage production system equipped with a production control device according to the present invention, which includes workstations S1, S2, S3,
…, The SNs are connected by a belt conveyor that serves as a transportation means (20).

The article (1) to be worked is mounted on a transfer auxiliary tool (2) driven by the transfer means (20) and transferred to each of the work stations.

In the workstation S1, an input / output device for writing production information to the storage unit (3) via the connection cable (4) or reading and displaying various information written in the storage unit (3) ( 5) has been deployed.

Workstation S2 is a robot controller (51)
It has a working robot (52) controlled by.

The workstation S3 is a circuit adjustment process by the worker, and displays work instructions (production information) such as adjustment target values to the worker, or input / output for the worker to input work result information. A device (55) is deployed.

The workstation S4 is an inspection process, and the control / measuring device (56) automatically measures the performance of the electric circuit formed on the substrate and writes the measurement data in the storage unit (3).

The workstation SN, which is the final step, is equipped with an input / output device (50) for reading various information written in the storage unit (3) and writing new information as necessary. The information read from the storage unit (3) is used for quality control, for example.

As shown in FIG. 2, the conveyance assisting tool (2) is equipped with a storage unit (3) on the side and a connection connector (30) on the bottom to connect the storage unit (3) and the signal line. Are connected through.

The connector (41) of the connection cable (4) serving as a communication means is automatically attached to and detached from the connection connector (30) by a robot arm (not shown).

The storage unit (3) comprises a plurality of memories (31) as shown in FIG. 3, and each memory (31) includes a data bus (33) to which production information and work result information should be transmitted, and each memory (3).
Address bus (34) connected to the address port of 1)
And a status bus (35) that transmits a status signal that controls writing and reading of data, and is connected to the connection connector (30).

Each memory (31) is provided with a storage area (38) consisting of a production information area (36) and a work result information area (37) as shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 shows a data recording format in the information area. Each information data includes a start bit SBT indicating the start of a data block and station address information indicating a station address (1 to N) assigned to each workstation. SAD, production information and work result information PTEX
And checksum information CHS for detecting an error in the read data, and an end bit EBT indicating the end of the data block.

On the other hand, the input / output devices (5) (55) (50), the robot controller (51) and the control / measurement device (56) arranged in each work station have a storage unit access circuit (7) shown in FIG. ) Are equipped respectively. The circuit (7) includes a microprocessor (71), a ROM (72) and an R
AM (73) and peripheral I / O device PIO (74) are connected to address bus (75), status bus (76) and data bus (77).
The PIO (74) is connected to the station connector (6) via an address bus (61), a status bus (62) and a data bus (63).

The storage unit (3) in FIG. 3 and the station connector (6) in FIG. 6 are connected to each other by the connection cable (4) shown in FIG.
The data in the storage unit (3) is read out by the execution of the program set in the ROM (72) and transferred to the storage unit access circuit (7). The data is written in the RAM (73) or, conversely, the data in the RAM (73) is transferred to the storage unit (3).

The outline of the program set in the ROM (72) of the access circuit (7) and the operation example of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 will be described below with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 7 and 8.

For example, in the workstation S2, after it is detected that the pallet carrying the article (1) is set at a predetermined position (Fig. 7 (8)), the robot controller (51)
The connector (41) of the connection cable (4) is automatically connected to the station connector (6) of the storage unit access circuit (7) installed in the robot arm (not shown).

When the connector connection is completed (Fig. 7 (81)), the variable ER for counting read errors is reset and the variable ADR for counting up the address in the memory (31) is set to the initial value. After that, the data in the memory (31) corresponding to the ADR at that time is read ((82) in FIG. 7).

It is determined whether the read data is the start bit SBT (83), and if it is the start of the text,
The ADR is counted up to read the next data, that is, the station address information SAD, and it is judged whether or not the read SAD represents the workstation S2 (Fig. 7 (84)). If the station address does not match, or if it is found in the process of (83) that the text does not start, ADR is incremented,
Return to reading data (82).

When the station addresses match, the data reading is continued while incrementing ADR (85), and the production information PTEX, checksum information CHS, and end bit E
After all the BTs have been read and the end of the text has been detected by the EBT (86), it is determined by the CHS whether the text has been read normally (87). If the text is normal, the read operation ends.

If the text is not normal, count up ER and
Is determined to be 5 or less (88). If ER is 5 or less, the read operation is repeated again.

If the read error occurs 6 times or more, it is determined that some serious device abnormality has occurred, the alarm lamp is turned on (89), and the device is stopped.

Further, in the workstation S4 shown in FIG. 1, the work result information is written in the storage unit (3) in the format shown in FIG. 5 after the circuit performance is measured. It is judged whether or not the pallet is set at a predetermined position (Fig. 8 (9)) and whether or not the connector connection is completed (91). After the connection is completed, ER is set to zero and ADR is set to an empty address in the storage unit.

Next, after writing the data (FIG. 8 (92)) to the memory address corresponding to the ADR, the written data is read (93).

After that, the written data matches the read data,
A mismatch is determined (94), and if they match, the ADR is counted up and the write and read operations are continued until the writing of all the data shown in FIG. 5 is completed.

If the data does not match in the process of (94), that is, if a write error occurs, the ER is incremented and it is determined whether the ER is 5 or less (96). ER
Is 5 or less, ADR is reset and the write and read operations are repeated.

If the read error occurs 6 times or more, it is judged that some serious device abnormality has occurred, the alarm lamp is turned on (97), and the device is stopped.

In other workstations, the data read operation of FIG. 7 or the data write operation of FIG. 8 is performed, and in the workstation SN shown in FIG. 1, all the data collected in the storage unit (3). Data of the input / output device (5
0), these data are analyzed as necessary for quality control, production control, etc. and displayed on the display.

In the production system according to the present invention, the computer support system is not always necessary. However, when a host computer is installed to integrally control all the production lines in the factory, the workstations S1 and SN shown in FIG. It suffices to connect the host computer to the input / output devices (5) and (50) provided in, and it is not necessary to connect to other workstations.

As described above, according to the production system of the present invention, not only can products of different types be manufactured in an arbitrary order, but even if the flow of goods changes in the middle of the line, The synchronization of the flow and the information flow is maintained.
Therefore, it is possible to construct an FMS with higher flexibility than before.

The configuration of each part of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and it goes without saying that various changes can be made within the technical scope described in the claims.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a production system equipped with a production control device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view of a transportation auxiliary tool equipped with a storage unit, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the storage unit. 4 is a block diagram of the storage area in the storage unit, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the data format, FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the storage unit access circuit, and FIGS. 7 and 8 show the operation of the production control device, respectively. The flowchart shown in FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a conventional production system. (1) ...... Goods, (20) ...... Transport means (3) ...... Storage unit, (30) ...... Connection connector (4) ...... Connection cable, (5) (50) ...... Input / output device (7) ) ... Memory unit access circuit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of work stations equipped with various production equipment such as a processing device and an inspection device are connected by a transfer means (20), and an article to be processed, inspected, etc. is transferred by the transfer means (20). In a multi-stage production system in which each work station is sequentially transported and a predetermined work is performed, various production information necessary for the work and various work information indicating the result of the work are either or A storage unit (3) in which station data indicating the identification of each production facility is stored, a storage unit access circuit (7) equipped in the production facility of each workstation, and the storage unit (3) The storage unit access circuit (7) and a communication means for connecting the storage unit (3), the storage unit (3) is carried between the workstations together with each article to be processed. The storage unit access circuit (7) reads out desired production information or work result information from the storage unit (3) based on the coincidence between the production equipment provided with the storage access circuit (7) and the station data, A production control device, which issues a command to a production facility with which the access circuit (7) is linked, collects work information in the production facility, and writes the work information in a storage unit (3). 2. The storage unit (3) according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit (3) is provided integrally with a transport assisting tool (2) which carries an article and is driven on a transport means (20). Production control equipment. 3. The communication means is a connection cable (4) connected to an input / output terminal of a storage unit access circuit (7) mounted on each workstation, and the connection cable (4) is connected to each conveyance assisting tool. The production control device according to claim 2, further comprising a connection connector (30) for connecting 4).