JPH0761791B2 - Adsorption transfer device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a suction transfer device using a suction cup device capable of adsorbing and separating from a suction surface such as a vertical wall surface, a ceiling surface or a floor surface.

[Prior art]

Various devices capable of traveling on a vertical wall surface, a ceiling surface, or a floor surface have been proposed in the past. The suction moving device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-184071 is provided with a suction device having a traveling part at each of the front part and the rear part, and by making these suction devices rotatable and vertically movable. , It is possible to move from a horizontal plane to a vertical plane and from a vertical plane to a horizontal plane. According to the present invention, the degree of freedom of traveling of the suction moving device is improved. However, the adjustment between the adsorption performance and the running performance was not always sufficient, so the condition of the wall surface, such as unevenness,
It is easily affected by grooves, steps, dew condensation, dust adhesion, etc., the pressure inside the suction device increases and the suction force becomes insufficient,
There was a possibility that the pressure would be too low and the car would be unable to run. The suction moving device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-219172 is configured such that a drive unit assembly can be moved in a direction perpendicular to the suction surface on the ceiling wall of the suction device, and the pressure inside the suction device is controlled by pressure. When the pressure is below a certain level, the pressure on the suction surface of the drive unit assembly is increased to exert a large suction force on the drive unit assembly. When you want to improve the suction retention of the drive unit assembly, the drive unit assembly moves up and down so that the pressing pressure on the suction surface of the drive unit assembly is loosened and the suction force is largely applied to the seal part. , Especially the latter. This proposal made it possible to adjust the traveling performance and adsorption performance of the suction transfer device, but it is still difficult to achieve both at the same time.For example, if there is unevenness on the wall surface, increasing the suction performance will cause a traveling obstacle. It could happen. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-221981 discloses a suction transfer device, in which a seal of a suction device has a brush having a large number of fibrous substances arranged in one direction and at least one sheet arranged in the brush in one direction. A non-breathable sheet is used, which effectively holds the negative pressure chamber and reduces the frictional resistance with the suction surface. According to this, even if there is some unevenness on the suction surface, it is possible to secure the suction performance and the running performance at the same time, but if air is suddenly leaked from the seal part due to the presence of a groove, Correspondingly, the suction performance cannot be immediately recovered, and the suction moving device may fall. On the other hand, as a problem other than the adsorption performance and the running performance, regarding the suction cup device using the vacuum generator of the method of directly cooling, that is, cooling the blower motor with the air sucked in vacuum,
When the pressure in the negative pressure chamber is reduced more than necessary, the amount of cooling air from the negative pressure chamber becomes insufficient, which causes a problem that the blower motor is burned. Of course, if a vacuum generator of the external fan cooling system is used, it is effective in preventing burnout, but it cannot be said to be an effective means because the device becomes large.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

The object of the present invention is to improve the weaknesses of the prior art as described above, to stably secure the adsorption performance and the traveling performance without being affected by the state of the adsorption surface, and to prevent the direction change on the same adsorption surface. An object of the present invention is to provide an adsorption transfer device having a suction cup device that can smoothly move from a horizontal surface to a vertical surface and from a vertical surface to a horizontal surface, and that is effective in preventing burnout of a vacuum generator.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the suction-moving device of the present invention that achieves the above-mentioned object is provided with a sealing means for the suction surface 2.
A suction device provided with a negative pressure control valve 7 for adding a vacuum generating means 8 to the negative pressure chamber 6 provided with 17 and for maintaining the pressure in the negative pressure chamber at a predetermined value by the introduction of outside air, a traveling wheel 19 and its wheels. A vehicle body portion 1 provided with a driving means, and two vehicle bodies that are attracted to a wall surface to run, and these two vehicle bodies are connected to each other to turn on a continuous attraction surface, and one vehicle body The suction moving device including the connecting mechanism 5 capable of swinging up the other vehicle body and directing it to another suction surface while being sucked on one suction surface has the following features. That is, the first feature is that, as shown in FIG. 7, the sealing means 17 is a flexible tubular body 31 filled with gas and has a protruding portion inside which is directed from the attachment side to the suction cup device toward the adsorption surface side. That is, what is provided with 32 is attached to the negative pressure chamber via the spring 34. In FIG. 7, reference numeral 33 is a tube protective cover. The second feature is that as a negative pressure control valve, as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, it is a case 15 having a bottomed cylindrical body that divides a positive pressure space A and a negative pressure space B around it.
Is provided with an opening at the bottom of the valve, and a valve seat 9 is formed on the outside of the bottom. The valve seat 10 is provided at one end, which extends in the axial direction of the tubular body and which contacts the valve seat from the outside, and the spring is provided at the other end. A valve rod 11 having a receiving member is allowed to move in the axial direction. The valve rod 11 is fixed to a case by itself and attached by a guide 12 having a bearing to enable opening and closing of the valve. A spring 13 is provided between the valve and the receiving member to urge the valve rod in the valve closing direction by a compressive force so that a constant pressure is applied between the upstream (positive pressure) side and the downstream (negative pressure) side of the valve. While there is a difference, the valve opens to allow air flow, and when the pressure difference falls below a certain value, the valve closes due to the increase in the negative pressure side pressure acting directly behind the valve body. Is to use.

[Action]

When the vacuum generating means 8 is operated in the suction moving device 4, the air in the negative pressure chamber of the suction device is discharged outside the negative pressure chamber and the negative pressure inside the negative pressure chamber closed by the suction surface becomes negative pressure. Is adsorbed on the adsorption surface. During that time, air is always sucked into the negative pressure chamber from the outside via the negative pressure control valve 7, and the pressure in the negative pressure chamber is maintained at a predetermined value. If the pressure in the negative pressure chamber increases due to air leaking from the seal between the suction device and the suction surface, the suction amount of air decreases toward the direction in which the negative pressure control valve closes, and conversely When the pressure decreases, the negative pressure control valve moves in the opening direction to increase the intake amount of air.
As a result, the flow rate of gas discharged through the vacuum generating means is almost constant, and when using a direct cooling type vacuum generator that is cooled by exhaust air, negative pressure is maintained without impairing the cooling effect of the motor. To be done. The operation of the negative pressure control valve 7 is as follows. That is, the air on the negative pressure side B, which is closed from the surroundings in the adsorption transfer device, is in a negative pressure state due to the continuous discharge of the air from the blower, but normally the pressure regulating valve opens at the same time. Therefore, a certain amount of gas flows into the negative pressure side from the surrounding positive pressure side A. In the steady state, the pressure from the negative pressure side acting on the valve element and the force of the spring are in balance with the dynamic pressure of the inflowing air. If the pressure is increased on the negative pressure side as the air flows by breaking the seal due to the unevenness of the wall surface as the vehicle travels, the negative pressure side acts directly on the valve body. Moves instantaneously in the closing direction to reduce the valve opening or closes, and the amount of air flowing in through the valve decreases or becomes zero. Since the blower is continuously operated, the pressure on the negative pressure side drops, and the above-mentioned increase in pressure disappears. When the pressure on the negative pressure side drops excessively, the valve opens and the pressure drop is canceled. As described above, in the negative pressure control valve used in the adsorption transfer device of the present invention, if the amount of air discharged from the negative pressure side air is constant, the total amount of air flowing into the negative pressure side space including air leakage. To maintain a constant value, thereby maintaining the pressure on the negative pressure side at a predetermined value. By guiding the valve rod by using the one having the ball bearing as the guide means, it is possible to prevent the valve rod from being caught due to the twisting or bending of the spring due to the expansion and contraction, and the operation is performed with high responsiveness. In order to maintain the pressure value on the negative pressure side B at a desired value, it is necessary to appropriately design the spring constant of the compression spring and the size of the valve seat, the valve body, especially the opening of the valve seat. By properly designing these, at a low negative pressure of about 0.7 to 1.0 Bar, for example, even if the pressure change due to leaked air is 0.01 Bar or less, the desired negative pressure is maintained with a restoration time of 0.5 seconds or less. be able to. This negative pressure control valve is particularly useful when it is used in a wall surface traveling device in which exhaust air is directly cooled by using it as a cooling medium for a blower. That is, in the normal case where the vehicle is running on a smooth surface, since the seal with the wall surface of the negative pressure space is good, the valve opens to allow air to flow, and the air volume necessary for cooling the blower can be secured, and the unevenness of the adsorption surface Therefore, when an air leak occurs, the valve closes instantly to prevent the pressure from rising.
Avoid falling the wall traveling device. At this time, the supply of the cooling air is stopped for a short time, but the valve is opened soon and the circulation of the air is restarted, so that there is substantially no influence on the cooling. An example of the specifications of the vacuum generator 8 is shown below. Structure Single-stage compression, direct cooling method Maximum vacuum degree (mmAq) 1950 Designed vacuum degree (mmAq) 1400 Weight (kg) 1.7 Dimensions (mm) 150φ × 120 Vacuum generator is not limited to this. It is possible to use a vacuum generator of the two-stage compression method or the external fan cooling method, for example.
In the case of the two-stage compression method, the structure is complicated and the weight increases, but the vacuum generation efficiency is low. Therefore, the one-stage compression method is used here. Further, in the case of the external fan cooling system, the cooling effect is excellent, but if a constant amount of cooling air is constantly sucked into the negative pressure chamber via the negative pressure control valve as in the present invention, the external fan is not necessary. Since it is no longer used, we adopted a direct cooling method that can be miniaturized. The tube type negative pressure seal 17 provided along the peripheral edge of the opening for keeping the negative pressure by slidably sealing the contact portion between the suction moving device 4 and the suction surface 2 has high sealing performance and is flat. In this case, the protrusion 32 made of a flexible elastic material is attached to the spring 34.
The force of contacting the suction surface 2 makes it possible to maintain the sealing effect.
The protective cover 33 reduces the risk of tube puncture or breakage. Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, this device has a front body portion and a rear portion, each of which has an individual vehicle body portion 1, a traveling portion 3 for traveling them on an adsorption surface 2 such as a wall surface, and a suction cup device. The front part and the rear part are connected via a turning and swinging mechanism 5 on the upper part of the vehicle body. The adsorption / movement device 4 has a negative pressure chamber 6 of an octagonal tubular body whose lower part is opened, and a negative pressure control valve 7 and a vacuum generator 8 are provided on the ceiling wall thereof. In this example, the traveling unit 3 is outside the sealing means of the suction moving device 4. The suction / movement device 4 has a range finder 18 therein, which enables measurement of traveling distance and movement to a predetermined position. The traveling unit 3 includes traveling wheels 19 and a traveling-wheel driving motor 20 that rotates and drives the traveling wheels 19.
When adsorbing onto the adsorbing surface 2, the traveling wheels 19 come into contact with the adsorbing surface 2 so that the entire adsorbing movement device can travel along the adsorbing surface 2. The state of the traveling operation of the suction-moving device having the above configuration is as follows. That is, when the vacuum generator 8 is operated, the suction transfer device 4
Since a negative pressure is generated between the negative pressure chamber 6 and the suction surface 2 of the suction transfer device 4, the tube type negative pressure seal 17 at the peripheral edge of the opening of the suction moving device 4 is attached to the suction surface 2.
Therefore, even if the suction surface 2 is a vertical wall surface or a ceiling surface, the suction moving device is held by the suction surface 2, and at the same time, the traveling wheel 19 also contacts the suction surface 2. Therefore, when the traveling wheel drive motor 20 of the traveling unit 3 is operated to rotate the traveling wheels 19, the suction moving device travels along the suction surface 2. Further, the traveling direction can be changed by operating the front and rear turning mechanisms 5 to rotate the suction moving device 4 or changing the number of rotations of the left and right traveling wheels 19. The suction moving device of the present invention can move from a horizontal wall surface to a vertical wall surface or vice versa. FIG. 6 and FIGS.
Referring to the drawings, the traveling operation when moving from the horizontal floor surface 21 to the vertical wall surface 22 will be described. First, as shown in FIG. Whenever
The suction transfer device 4 behind the suction transfer device toward the vertical wall surface 22 is surely adsorbed to the horizontal wall surface 21 by the function of the tube-type seal and the negative pressure control valve, and the suction transfer device 4 in front of the suction transfer device 4 is adsorbed. After releasing, the connecting mechanism 5 is operated to move the front suction moving device 4 to the vertical wall surface as shown in FIG.
Swing it up parallel to 22. In this state, the rear traveling wheel drive motor 20 is operated to rotate the traveling wheels 19 and move forward, so that the front suction moving device 4 is brought into contact with the vertical wall surface 22 as shown in FIG. Next, a negative pressure is applied to the front suction-movement device 4 so that the suction-movement device 4 is sucked onto the vertical wall surface 22, and then the front and rear traveling wheel drive motors 20 are driven.
Is operated to move the front suction-moving device 4 upward as shown in FIG. 7D, and draw the rear suction-moving device 4 toward the vertical wall surface 22. Then, after the suction of the rear suction moving device 4 is released, the front suction moving device 4 is further moved upward to separate the rear from the horizontal wall surface 21 as shown in FIG. As shown in (f) and (g), the connecting mechanism 5 is operated to bring the rear suction moving device 4 into contact with the vertical wall surface 22 in parallel, and then a negative pressure is applied to cause suction. In this way, the suction moving device can move from the horizontal floor surface 21 to the vertical wall surface 22. The movement from the vertical wall surface 22 to the horizontal floor surface 21 is also performed by the same operation. It should be noted that, instead of the negative pressure control valve 7 in the suction transfer device 4 shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a suction cup device provided with a hole for appropriately sucking cooling air of the vacuum generator 8 and the suction device of this embodiment. When the moving device 4 was compared in terms of adsorption characteristics, as long as there was no air leakage from the seal portion, both showed no increase in the pressure in the negative pressure chamber 6 and the same result. However, when air leaks from the seal portion, in the case of the former suction cup device without the negative pressure control valve, the pressure in the negative pressure chamber 6 increased at once, and then increased. In the adsorption transfer device 4 of the present embodiment, the pressure in the negative pressure chamber 6 momentarily increased, but instantaneously recovered to the original pressure level. As is clear from this, the suction transfer device 4 with the negative pressure control valve of the present invention is provided with the negative pressure control valve 7,
Even if there are some irregularities on the suction surface 2, or even if there is a large groove through which air leaks from the seal portion 7, the suction movement device 4
It is possible to keep the pressure in the negative pressure chamber 6 substantially constant. That is, the suction transfer device of the present invention is the suction transfer device 4
Since the pressure in the negative pressure chamber 6 is stabilized, the reliability of the suction performance of the suction cup is increased, and at the same time, the running performance is also stabilized. Further, the air volume necessary for cooling the vacuum generator can be always secured in the negative pressure chamber 6 of the adsorption transfer device 4. Burnout of the vacuum generator 8 is also prevented. [Advantages of the Invention] As described above, the suction-moving device of the present invention uses a tube-type negative pressure seal, and this tube is provided with a protrusion by a flexible elastic body, Even if the tube is punctured, the protruding portion is pressed against the suction surface by the spring and the seal is maintained. Also, the negative pressure control valve used is a pressure control valve that keeps the pressure constant while introducing air into the negative pressure space, and the negative pressure is directly received by the valve body to open and close the valve to maintain the negative pressure. Because of the configuration
It is lightweight, has a simple structure, and can be constructed compactly, and even in a low negative pressure region, it reacts instantly to the pressure change and can accurately adjust the pressure on the negative pressure side. By guiding the valve rod using the ball bearing, the valve can be moved smoothly without the spring being twisted or bent, and the reliability and responsiveness can be further improved. In particular, when a direct cooling type blower is used, the amount of gas discharged from the negative pressure side is substantially constant, which is effective in preventing burnout of the vacuum generator. In this way, the adsorption performance is stable and compatible with the traveling performance. As a result, the adsorption moving device of the present invention has a function of traveling on a discontinuous wall surface in a horizontal → vertical → horizontal manner. It is getting higher.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the suction moving device of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the suction moving device of FIG. 1, and FIG.
The figure is a side view of the suction transfer device of FIG. FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view showing a pressure control valve used in the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a plan view of the pressure control valve of FIG. 6 (a) to 6 (g) are conceptual diagrams illustrating the traveling modes of the suction moving device shown in FIGS. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view showing a tube-type sealing means used in the suction moving device of the present invention. 1 ... Car body part 2 ... Adsorption surface 3 ... Traveling part 4 ... Adsorption moving device 5 ... Coupling mechanism 6 ... Negative pressure chamber 7 ... Negative pressure control valve 8 ... Vacuum generating means 9 ... Valve seat 10 …… Valve 11 …… Valve 12 …… Guide post 13 …… Spring 14 …… Ball bearing 15 …… Case 16 …… Differential partition 17 …… Seal means (Tube type negative pressure seal) 18 …… Distance meter 19 …… Traveling wheel 20 …… Motor 21 …… Horizontal floor 22 …… Vertical wall 31 …… Tube 32 …… Tube inside projection 33 …… Protective cover 34 …… Spring A …… Ambient pressure side B …… Negative pressure side

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A suction cup device provided with a vacuum generating means in a negative pressure chamber having sealing means for a suction surface, and a negative pressure control valve for maintaining a pressure in the negative pressure chamber at a predetermined value by introducing outside air. A vehicle body part provided with traveling wheels and driving means for the vehicle body, two vehicle bodies that are attracted to a wall surface to travel, and two vehicle bodies that are connected to each other and turn on a continuous adsorption surface; In a suction moving device composed of a connecting mechanism capable of swinging up one vehicle body to another suction surface while adsorbing one vehicle body to another suction surface, the sealing means is a flexible tubular shape filled with gas. A body that has a protrusion that goes from the attachment side to the suction cup device to the adsorption surface side inside is attached to the negative pressure chamber via a spring. Separates the space from the negative pressure space An opening is provided in the bottom of the case of a bottomed tubular body, a valve seat is formed on the outside of the bottom, and a valve body that penetrates the opening and extends in the axial direction of the tubular body is provided at one end that is in contact with the valve seat from the outside. A valve rod with a spring receiving member at the other end is allowed to move in the axial direction.The valve itself is fixed to the case and attached by a guide with bearings to open and close the valve. A spring is provided between the valve and the spring receiving member to urge the valve rod in the valve closing direction by a compressive force so that the valve is fixed between the upstream (positive pressure) side and the downstream (negative pressure) side of the valve. The valve is opened to allow the air to flow while the pressure difference exists, and the valve is closed when the pressure difference falls below a certain value due to the increase in the negative pressure side pressure acting directly behind the valve body. An adsorption transfer device characterized by being a thing.