JPS5817709B2 - General-purpose welding line - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a general-purpose welding line that can sequentially perform predetermined welding operations on various workpieces that have slightly different shapes depending on the type of vehicle, such as automobile doors, on one line. It is.

Conventionally, this type of solution line has been constructed as shown in FIG. 1, for example.

That is, a plurality of welding machines 1.degree.2 are arranged in tandem, and while workpieces are sequentially fed to these welding machines from the left side in the figure, predetermined welding is performed on each workpiece in sequence.

Then, the workpieces are transported progressively by placing them on a roller conveyor type transfer bar of 3°4.5, and hooking the workpieces with the extra fingers 6 and drag fingers 7, or pushing them with the bushing fingers 8. The workpiece is guided by workpiece guards 9 and 10 on the transfer bar while it is being conveyed sequentially.

The fingers 6-8 are each pivoted by pins 13-15 on a carrier 12 moving along a rail 11, connecting each carrier 12 to a common reciprocating rod 16.

This rod 16 is connected to a mechanism 1B that converts the rotation of the motor 17 into reciprocating motion, thereby moving the carrier 12 to the rail 11.
It is possible to move back and forth along the

A hydraulic cylinder 19 is connected to each drag finger 7,
When extended, the drag finger 7 is lifted from the illustrated workpiece engagement position, and at the same time, this drag finger engages with the bent end 6a of the extra finger 6, thereby lifting the extra finger from the illustrated workpiece engagement position. shall be.

Further, a hydraulic cylinder 20 is connected to the bushing finger 8, and when the bushing finger 8 is contracted, the bushing finger 8 is lifted from the illustrated work engagement position.

The above-mentioned upward movement of each finger 6 to 8 is carried out in synchronization with the return movement of the carrier 12 (movement to the left in the figure), thereby allowing the fingers 6 to 8 to move over the workpiece that has been engaged up to now and onto the subsequent workpiece. reach.

By lowering the descendant fingers 6 to 8 to the illustrated workpiece engagement position by the reverse operation of the cylinders 19 and 20, each finger engages the subsequent workpiece, and the carrier 12 moves forward (towards the right in the figure). movement), each finger advances the subsequent workpiece it engages.

Through this operation, the workpieces are sequentially fed into the welding machine 1.2, and predetermined welding operations are sequentially performed.

Welding machines 1 and 2 (only welding machine 1 will be explained because they all have the same configuration) have fixtures 2 and 2 in the machine frame 21.
2 (detailed illustration omitted for clarity), the fixture comprises four posts 23 (although only two are visible).

) and four posts 25 (however, only two are visible).

) and alighting 26.

The post 23 has a fitting hole 27, and the post 25 has a shaft portion 25a that fits into the fitting hole 27.

These upper and lower molds can be relatively displaced toward or away from each other under guidance by the fitting hole 27 of the corresponding post 23, 25 and the shaft portion 25a.

The upper mold 24 has bolts etc. (
Not shown.

), and the lower die 26 is mounted on a platen 30 that moves up and down with bolts or the like (not shown).

). The transfer bar 4 is connected to the upper die 24
When the workpiece reaches the transfer bar, the workpiece is positioned and lifted by a locating pin (not shown) of the lower die 26 that rises together with the platen 30, and the upper die 24 and the lower die Electrodes of type 26 (not shown).

) and weld by applying pressure between them. Note that when the type of work to be welded changes, it is necessary to replace the fixture 22 with a corresponding one.

In this work, first, the upper mold 24 and the lower mold 26 are integrated by clamping the posts 23 and 25 with bolts or the like to prevent relative displacement (the means for this is not shown), and then the upper mold 24
At the same time, the bolts and the like that were fixing the lower die 26 to the platen 30 are released.

Next, the platen 30 is lowered and the integrated fixture 22 is suspended on the rail 29 via the rollers 28.
The fixture 22 is taken out from the machine frame 21 along the rail 29, and a new fixture is brought to a predetermined position in the machine frame 21 by the reverse procedure of the above-described removal operation, completing the replacement of the fixture.

Therefore, in the above-mentioned conventional general-purpose welding line, when the type of work to be welded is changed, the work of replacing the fixture 22 is performed while the first mold 24 and the lower mold 26 are combined as described above. Welding machines 1 and 2
Transfer bar 4 that supports the workpiece transported to
It is necessary to separate the transfer bars 3 and 5 from the front and rear transfer bars and fix them to the upper mold 24 or the lower mold 26.

For this reason, when replacing the fixture 22, it is necessary to precisely match the level of transfer bar 4 with transfer bars 3 and 5, and transfer bar 4 and transfer bars 3 and 5 are discontinuous. For,
Even if the leveling described above is accurate, the workpiece is likely to get caught at the discontinuous part of the transfer bar, which will cause the line to stop many times and not only will the rabbit angle operation rate drop significantly. , which hindered line automation.

Furthermore, due to the configuration of the transfer bar, the workpiece can only be transported by being hooked or pushed by the various fingers 6 to 8, and if the moving speed of these fingers is increased,
Even after the fingers stop, the workpiece still moves a certain amount due to inertia, so the moving speed of the fingers (workpiece conveyance speed) cannot be made as fast as the one shown above, which tends to increase line waste time.

In addition, in this conveyance method, the workpiece is slid on the transfer bars 3 to 5, so the workpiece is likely to be damaged and the incidence of defective products tends to be high.

The present invention provides a continuous shuttle bar common to each welding machine.
Used in place of transfer bars in conventional lines,
Nevertheless, if the upper mold and lower mold are constructed so that they can be separated when the fixture is replaced, and the workpiece is transported progressively by the reciprocating movement of the shuttle bar itself, then the conventional method described above can be improved. This idea was put into practice based on the recognition that various problems on the line could be solved all at once.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to illustrated embodiments.

In the present invention, a welding machine is configured as shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, for example.

This welding machine includes a material 33 consisting of four columns 31 and a crown 32 that integrally connects the upper ends of these columns, and a cover 34 covers the lower side of the machine frame.

A platen 35 is provided inside the machine frame 33 covered with a cover 34 so as to be movable up and down, and a fixture 36 (detailed arrangement of welding electrodes etc. is omitted from illustration) is installed between this platen and the crown 32 as described below. It is inserted so that it can be replaced.

The fixture 36 includes an upper mold 39 consisting of an upper plate 37 and posts 38 hanging from the four corners of this plate, and a lower mold 39 comprising a lower plate 40 and posts 41 vertically installed at the four corners of this plate. 42.

The lower end surface of the post 38 of the upper mold 39 is located slightly above a shuttleper 52, which will be described later, and has a fitting hole 43 that opens in this lower end surface.

On the other hand, the post 41 of the lower die 42 has a shaft portion 41 a that fits into the fitting hole 43 .

At the lowest position of the platen 35, the shaft portion 41a
The upper surface is located below the shuttleper 52 and both posts are spaced apart from each other, and the post 41
The post 41 is moved along with the stroke of the platen 35 so that the shaft portion 41a of the
Set the length.

The upper mold 39 moves the roller 44 provided on the post 38 to the support 31
It is made to engage on a rail 45 provided in the frame 33, and can be moved in and out of the machine frame 33 along this rail.

For this purpose, the rails 45 are provided to protrude from the machine frame 33 as shown in FIG. 4, and extend in a direction perpendicular to the workpiece transport direction (left-right direction in FIG. 2).

The lower die 42 is supported on an appropriate number (four in the illustrated example) of support pieces 46 welded onto the platen 35, and is normally immovable by a clamp 47 and a stopper 51, which will be described in detail later.

A large number of lift rollers 48 are arranged in two rows on the platen 35 in a direction perpendicular to the workpiece conveyance direction (horizontal direction in FIG. 2). It is lowered by contraction of the lift cylinder 48a.

Two rows of multiple guide rollers 49 are also provided on the platen 35 and are arranged parallel to the direction in which the lift rollers 48 are arranged. A guide rod 50 for approximately positioning the lower plate 40 is fixed to the lower surface of the lower plate 40.

The lower mold 42 is positioned in the longitudinal direction of the guide rod 50 by a pair of stoppers 51, which are provided on the platen 35 so as to face both ends of the guide rod 50.

In this configuration, a plurality of welding machines are arranged in tandem, similar to the conventional line described above with reference to FIG. 1, and in the present invention, two continuous shuttlepers 52 common to these welding machines are provided.

Each shuttleper 52 is movably supported via rollers 54 on brackets 53 fixed to the struts 31 of each welding machine at several appropriate locations in the longitudinal direction, and is supported by a well-known rack and pinion device (not shown). makes it reciprocate with a constant stroke.

Brackets 55 that extend below the shuttleper 52 are provided on the platen 35, and workpiece support pieces 56 that rise above the shuttleper 52 when the platen 35 rises as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 are planted on each of these brackets. Set up

FIG. 5 specifically shows the clamp 47 mentioned above.

This clamp has a stand 57a fixed on the platen 35 and an arm 59 pivoted to the bracket 57 by a pin 58, and a cylinder device 60 is inserted into a long hole 59a at one end of the arm.
A pressing member 61 for pressing the lower plate 40 is screwed onto the other end of the piston rod 60a.

Thus, when the cylinder device 60 contracts, the arm 59 rotates around the pin 58 in the direction of the arrow, and the pressing member 61 separates from the lower plate 40, so that the lower play 1 and therefore the lower mold 42 are The lower mold 42 can be released from the platen 35, and when the cylinder device 60 is extended, the lower mold 42 can be released from the platen 35 by rotating the arm 59 in the opposite direction.
can be suppressed and fixed.

Although not shown, the clamp 47 is attached to the crown 3.
2, and thereby the upper mold 39 is connected to the crown 32.
to be able to be pressed and fixed appropriately.

FIG. 6 shows the detailed structure of the stopper 51 described above.

Each stopper is provided with a claw 62 that rotates between the illustrated position where it engages with the end surface of the guide rod 50 and a position where it does not interfere with the guide rod 50, and this claw is fixed to the platen 35 by a pin 63 on a bracket. It is pivoted to 64.

A lever 66 is further supported on the bracket 64 by a pin 65, one end of the lever and the claw 62 are connected via a link 67, and the other end of the lever 66 is connected to a bracket 68 fixed on the platen 35. A cylinder device 69 is pivotally inserted between them.

When the cylinder device 69 is contracted, the lever 66 rotates in the direction of the arrow, the claw 62 is rotated in the direction of the arrow via the link 6T, and the stopper 51 releases the guide rod 50.

In FIGS. 2 and 4, reference numeral 70 denotes a cart used to replace the fixture 36 to accommodate the new type of workpiece when the type of workpiece to be welded is changed.

As shown in FIG. 7, this trolley 70 is composed of a base 71 and an upper base 72 arranged one above the other and connected by a pantograph device 73.

The base 71 is equipped with wheels 75 that roll on rails 74 laid on the ground, and is capable of self-propelled in a direction across the shuttleper 52.

The upper stand T2 can be moved up and down with respect to the base 71 via the pantograph device 73 by expanding and contracting a hydraulic cylinder 76 (see FIG. 8) installed between the base 71 and the pantograph device 73.

A large number of rollers 77 for supporting fixtures are rotatably provided on the upper surface of the upper table 72, and a chain 78 wound around the rollers in the arrangement direction is provided at the center of the upper table T2.

The chain 78 is provided with one protrusion 80 that collides with a protrusion T9 protruding from the lower surface of the lower plate 40 while the chain 78 is being driven.

). The operation of the general-purpose welding line of the present invention configured as described above will be explained next.

Each workpiece to be welded is supported on the shuttle bar 52 by claws (not shown) at regular intervals (corresponding to the stroke of the shuttleper), and the workpieces are fed from one end of the line (see Fig. 2). When the shuttleper 52 makes a backward movement (moves to the left in FIG. 2), the movement is made each time.

When the workpiece reaches the fine welding machine in the line, that is, the fissure 36 by the forward movement of the shuttleper 52, each welding machine raises the lower mold 42 relative to the upper mold 39 by raising the platen 35, As a result, the work corresponding to A is raised from the shuttleper 52 while being positioned using the locate pin.
The workpiece is pressed between electrodes (not shown) in the fissure 36 to perform predetermined welding on the workpiece.

At the same time, the workpiece holding piece 56 is lifted together with the platen 35 via the bracket 55, and the workpieces supported on the shuttleper 52 at the front and rear of each welding machine are lifted from the shuttleper 52.

In this way, all the workpieces on the shuttle nose 52 are lifted from this shuttleper, and during this time the shuttleper 52 moves back by a distance corresponding to the distance between the workpieces.

During this return movement, the above-mentioned welding is performed on the workpiece, and after the shuttleper 52 completes the return movement, the platen 3 of each welding machine
5 descends, and all the workpieces that have been lifted from the shuttleper 52 as described above fall onto the claws of the shuttleper 52 that were supporting the preceding workpieces.

Thereafter, the shuttleper 52 makes the next forward movement to sequentially feed the workpieces, and by repeating this cycle, a predetermined weld is applied to each workpiece, and all the welded workpieces are transferred to other parts of the line. It is taken out from the end (right end in Figure 2).

Next, the work procedure when the type of workpiece to be machined is changed and the fixture 36 is replaced with a suitable one will be explained with reference to FIG.

In this embodiment, there are carts 70 7 of the same structure on both sides of the welding machine.
It is assumed that 0' is placed.

First, release the clamp 47 (see Figs. 2 to 5) and the stopper 51 (see Figs. 3 and 6), and
can be moved relative to the platen 35.

Further, in order to facilitate this relative movement, the lift roller 48 is raised to lift the lower mold 42 from the support piece 46, and the lower mold 42 is supported on the lift roller 48.

A clamp (not shown) similar to the above-mentioned clamp 47 that clamps the upper mold 39 to the crown 32 is also released, and the upper mold 39 can be moved along the rail 45 via the rollers 44.

Prior to these operations, the platen 35 is placed in the lowest position where the upper end of the post 41 of the lower mold 42 does not interfere with the shuttleper 52, and the lower mold 42 is separated from the upper mold 39.

Note that during this separation, the shaft portion 41a of the post 41 of the lower mold 42 is separated from the fitting hole 43 of the post 38 of the upper mold 39.

Next, as shown in FIG. 8, the cart 70 on one side (left side) of the welding machine is moved from point F to a position close to the welding machine, and the upper surface of the roller 7 on the cart is placed above the platen 35. The upper stand 72 is moved up and down relative to the base 71 to adjust the level so that it is at the same level as the upper surface of the lift roller 48.

Then, the chain 78 is driven to engage the claws 80 (see FIG. 7) with the projections 79 on the corresponding side of the lower plate 40, and the lower die 42 is moved from above the lift rollers 48 in the machine frame 33 to above the rollers 7 of the truck. put it on.

After that, the trolley 70 is moved back to point E.

On the other hand, the upper mold 39 is pulled out from inside the machine frame 33 along the rail 45 to point E.

With the upper mold 39 and the lower mold 42 pulled out from the machine frame 33 as described above, the cylinder device (however, it has the same arrangement as the cylinder device 76') is inserted.

), the pantograph device 73 raises the upper stand 72 relative to the base 71, and the opposite post 38.4
1. The upper mold and lower mold are combined by fitting together.

Thereafter, the trolley 70 is moved backward in the direction away from the welding machine to point F, and the rollers 4 of the upper mold 39 are
4 from the rail 45.

Next, the upper platform 72 of the cart is lowered, and the fixture 36 is
The upper mold 39 and lower mold 42 are brought together to the lowest level, and the fixture 36 is moved from the trolley 70 to a fixture storage area using a forklift or the like.

The new fixture 36' is brought from the fixture storage area using a forklift or the like onto a trolley 70' located on the opposite side (right side) of the welding machine, as shown in Figure 8.
point A).

Then, the upper platform 72' of the cart is raised from the base 71' by the cylinder device 76' and the pantograph device 73', and the fixture 36' is lifted until the roller 44' of the upper mold 39 is at the same level as the rail 45, and then Trolley 70
' is self-propelled toward the welding machine to point B, so that the roller 44' is engaged with the rail 45. Next, the cylinder device 76' is contracted to lower the upper table T2, and the lower die 42', which is lowered together with this, is lowered by the contraction of the cylinder device 76'. It is separated from the upper mold 39'.

In this state, the upper die 39 is pushed by hand and brought into the machine frame 33 along the rail 45, and the lower die 42' reaches position C where it comes into close contact with the welding machine by the self-propelled movement of the cart 70'.

At this time, the base 72' of the truck 70' is moved up and down to match the height of the upper surface of the roller of the base 72' with the height of the upper surface of the lift roller of the platen 35, and the chain 78' is driven to 79 (see FIGS. 2 and 7) on the corresponding side of the lower mold 42'.
′ onto the platen 35 is not hindered by the stopper 51 being deactivated by the above operation, and the lift roller 48 is at the upper row position by the above operation. Therefore, it can be easily carried out using these lift rollers.

During the above-mentioned cutting of the lower mold 42', the guide rod 50 fixed to the lower plate 40 enters between the rows of rollers 49 on the platen 35, and the lower mold 42' is moved perpendicular to the pushing direction. The position in the direction is regulated.

After pushing the lower mold 42', the stoppers 51 described above with reference to FIG. 6 are operated, and the claws 62 of these stoppers are activated.
are engaged with both end surfaces of the guide rod 50, thereby positioning the lower mold 42' in the pushing direction.

With this positioning, the lower mold 42' remains at a predetermined position on the platen 35, and in this state the lift roller 48 is lowered to support the lower mold 42' on the support piece 46, and the clamp 42' described above with reference to FIG. The lower die 42' is fixed on the platen 35 by the operation of the lower die 42'.

Thereafter, the lower die 42' is lifted by the rise of the platen 35, and its post 41' is fitted into the post 38' of the upper die 39', thereby positioning the upper die 39', and the clamp described above with reference to FIG. The upper die 39' is fixed to the crown 32 using a ramp (not shown) similar to that of 47, and the fixture replacement is completed.

When replacing the fixture, the upper mold 39, 39' and the lower mold 42, 42' of the fixture are separated from each other, so that the fixture can be replaced without being interfered with by the shuttle bar 52. .

Fixture replacement may be performed only on one side of the welding machine.

Thus, in the general-purpose welding line of the present invention, as described above, the shuttle bar 52 that controls the progressive feeding of the workpiece is configured as a continuous body that is not divided at all, and this shuttle bar is provided in common to each welding machine, and the shuttle bar 52 itself is The structure is such that the workpiece supported on the shuttle bar is transported progressively through the reciprocating motion of the shuttle bar, so the workpiece does not get caught in the joints of the shuttle bar. There is no need to adjust the level of the transfer bar at all, which greatly simplifies the work of replacing fixtures, and at the same time, the progressive feeding of workpieces can be carried out flawlessly without any trouble, and the operating rate of the line can only be maintained at a high level. Not.

Line automation is easy.

Moreover, since the workpiece is supported on the shuttle bar 52 and is fed progressively by the reciprocating motion of the shuttle bar itself, the workpiece can be supported by the claws so that it will not move due to inertia even when the shuttle bar is stopped, and therefore the shuttle bar moving speed,
Therefore, it is possible to increase the progressive feed speed of the workpieces, and it is possible to shorten the dead time on the line.

Further, for the same reason, the workpiece does not slide along other articles during progressive feeding, so the workpiece is not damaged and there are almost no defective products.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing a conventional general-purpose welding line. FIG. 2 is a front view showing a general-purpose welding line of the present invention.
5 is a side view of a clamp in a welding machine according to the present invention, FIG. 6 is a side view of a stopper in a welding machine according to the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a side view of a stopper in a welding machine according to the present invention. 9 of the trolley used when changing fixtures on the line of the present invention. Figure 8 is an explanatory diagram of the procedure for changing fixtures in the line of the present invention. 31... Prop, 32... Crown, 3
3...Machine frame, 34...Cover, 35.
...Platen, 36°36'...Fixture, 38...Post, 39...
Upper die, 41... Post, 42... Lower die, 43... Post fitting hole, 44... Roller, 45... Rail, 46... Support piece, 47... Clamp, 48... Lift roller, 49... Guide roller, 50...
... Guide roller, 51 ... Stopper, 5
2...Shuttle bar, 53...Bracket, 54...Roller, 55...Bracket, 56...Work support piece, 57... ...
...Bracket, 58...Pivot pin, 59...
...Arm, 60...Cylinder device, 61
...Press member, 62...Claw, 63,6
5... Pivot pin, 64... Bracket, 66... Lever, 67... Link,
68... Bracket, 69... Cylinder device, 70, 70'... Cart, 71...
... Base, 72 ... Upper stand, 73 ... Punkgraph device, 74 ... Wheels, 76 ...
...Hydraulic cylinder, 77...Roller, 78...
...Chain, 79... Protrusion.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of welding machines, each of which is removably attached to a fixture with an upper die and a lower die that are movable relative to the upper and lower posts that are slidably fitted, are moved in a line in the progressive direction of the workpiece. and a series of progressive devices for sequentially feeding the workpiece to each welding machine, and in a welding line in which the fixtures are configured to be interchangeable, the progressive device is integrally formed so as to run vertically through the welding machine series, The upper and lower dies are removably clamped to a welding machine so that the upper and lower posts can be separated from each other by relative movement of the upper and lower dies and positioned above and below the progressive feeding device, respectively. A rail and a trolley are provided for pulling out the upper mold and the lower mold located at the upper and lower molds in a direction perpendicular to the progressive workpiece feeding direction after the clamp is released, and the lower mold supported by the trolley is suspended from the rail. A general-purpose welding line configured so that it can be combined with an upper die, and capable of loading and unloading replacement fixtures by running the truck in a direction perpendicular to the progressive workpiece feeding direction.