Patent Application
20230356429
The present disclosure relates to the assembling and the manufacturing of a wooden panel assembly, for example for the manufacturing of construction systems. For example, the present disclosure intends to permit the manufacturing of wooden panel assemblies, such as when they are made of a series of superimposed layers that comprise a series of wooden elements and insulation elements. The wooden elements usually have the shape of “slats”. Those panels are known in the field as “Cross-Laminated Timber” or “CLT”.
Several techniques are known to manufacture wooden panel assemblies. A first technique consists of having workers assembling the slats manually, but this has the drawback of being long and expensive.
A second technique consists of using tools that are electronically controlled. For instance, FR-2951975-A1 discloses an assembling machine including a wooden slat positioning tool and a wooden slat securing tool, which are both mounted on a frame in order to move them and make them operate at different positions on the wooden panel to be assembled.
A third technique consists of using an end-of-arm tool, or “EOAT”. This tool is already used in conventional robotic wooden handling production lines. It is usually disposed at the end of an articulated arm, which handles and moves the tool. The EOAT is then intended to perform a specific operation.
The drawback of such tools is that they are usually intended to perform a very specific operation. When it comes to assembling large panels with large slats, it thus requires accordingly large end-of-arm tools, often with vacuum components to grip the slats. This result is a static, inflexible and bulky frame, which is carried by the articulated arm, and which is not satisfying for wood panel assembling.
Also, in the known solutions using EOAT, the tool is intended to perform the very same task, repeatedly (i.e. for instance either picking, or positioning, or screwing a given workpiece), and it is intended to always operate the same type of workpiece (i.e. for instance either a wooden element, or an insulation element). This tool lacks enough flexibility to accommodate variations in the elements to be manipulated.
For instance, CN-106541483-A discloses a production line for wood pallets, which includes two arm-tool pairs 14-41 and 24-42, where the tool 41 and 42 of each pair is only a nailing station. Before nailing the transverse slats of the wood pallet, the proper positioning of these slats is achieved by a separate conveyor. Tools 41 and 42 operate independently from each other, at different levels of the production line.
When the production requires that the tools accommodate variations from a function to another, or from a workpiece to another, it is known to undock a given tool from the articulated arm, and then to dock another one on the arm, by means of tool changers. However, such solution is expensive, slow, and prone to fail, which means that it requires additional services and maintenance.
To avoid such tool changes, it is also known to have as many arm-tool pairs as functions to be performed and workpieces to be operated, and then to switch from a pair to another. However, the drawback of this solution is that it increases both the overall cost of the assembling device, and the floor space needed to host so many arm-tool pairs and change them during production.
Another alternative is to use telescopic structures and/or actuators in order to change the size of a given EOAT. However, these additional components have the inconvenient of decreasing the reliability of the assembling device, which is thus more prone to fail. These components will thus require more complex control means, which leads to an increased complexity of the assembling device.
In any case, the known tools are only intended to operate wooden slats, while other type of elements—notably, insulation panels—need to be operated separately by proper operating tools, which adds even more complexity and floor space.
In all those known solutions, the operating tools are not designed to handle wooden slats of any length, notably very short slats (length inferior to 1 meter) and very long slats (length of at least 5 meters). Now, it is known that long and very long wooden slats have a certain curvature, which means that their straightness deviates from the nominal end-to-end straightness. If such long slats are assembled on the panel without straightness correction, the resulting panel will not meet the quality requirements. Now, to correct the straightness of long slats before assembling them, an additional tool will be required, which, again, will increase the complexity and the floor space of the assembling machine. In addition, handling long and very long slats may require specific tools, which are large and accordingly expensive.
In case the panel assembly includes a plurality of superimposed layers, all layers including a series of wooden slats, while some of them also include a series of insulation panels (acoustic, thermal, or other), where the wooden slats of each layer are secured to the wooden slats of adjacent layers, none of the existing machines allow to assemble such panel in a satisfying manner.
It is accordingly an object of the present disclosure to provide a device and a method for assembling a panel including a series of superimposed layers having wooden slats and insulation panels, which is versatile enough to operate different types of slats, including short and long wooden slats, as well as insulation panels, and to perform various tasks, while reducing cost, complexity, and floor space.
To this end, the present disclosure relates to an assembling device for manufacturing a panel assembly, wherein the panel assembly may include a plurality of wooden slats and insulation panels, each wooden slat having a given length and a given straightness, wherein the assembling device may include at least two tooling systems, wherein each tooling system may include an articulated arm and a multifunctional tool disposed at the end of the articulated arm, and wherein the assembling device may include a tooling controller communicatively coupled to the tooling systems and programmed to instruct the tooling systems to operate the wooden slats and the insulation panels in order to assemble the panel assembly Each tooling system may include (i) wooden slat gripping means configured to grip a wooden slat, and having a centerline, (ii) wooden slat positioning means configured to position the gripped wooden slat at the appropriate place on the panel assembly, (iii) wooden slat securing means configured to secure the positioned wooden slat to at least one other wooden slat, (iv) insulation panel gripping means configured to grip an insulation panel, (v) insulation panel positioning means configured to position the gripped insulation panel at the appropriate place on the panel assembly, or combinations thereof. The tooling systems may be instructed by the tooling controller so that, if the length of a wooden slat exceeds a predetermined threshold, the wooden slat gripping means grip the wooden slat at different parts and move relatively to each other in order to align their centerlines and correct the straightness of the wooden slat.
By providing several types of operating means on each end-of-arm tool, the assembling device of the disclosure may be capable of performing a variety of operations, including gripping, positioning and, if need be, securing the slats. This may also allow limiting the number of tools to be used to manufacture panel assemblies.
Additionally or alternatively, using at least two end-of-arm tools capable of operating either independently or cooperatively, depending for example on the type and on the size of the slat to be handled, may offer more flexibility than may be offered by using several independent tools. For example, when it comes to handling long and very long wooden slats, the disclosure may provide a specific operation which may allow them to be handled with a high accuracy and/or for a reduced cost, and/or may allow for correction of the straightness of the wooden slat without requiring an additional tool for the sole purpose of such a prior correction.
Overall, with a multi-purpose and modular pair of tooling systems, which may include a variety of operating means, and may be programmed to handle and assemble all types of slats, the automated assembling of a panel can be improved, while being very compact, cost-effective, and easy to use.
Optionally, in order to correct the straightness of the wooden slats before its assembling, the tooling systems are instructed so that, for the wooden slat whose length exceeds the predetermined threshold, the relative movement of the wooden slat gripping means is made so that a lateral pressure is generated on at least one part of the wooden slat.
For the purpose of this straightness correction, the tooling systems may be instructed so that, for the wooden slat whose length exceeds the predetermined threshold, the relative movement of the wooden slat gripping means is made so that the straightness of the wooden slat reaches nominal wooden slat straightness.
Optionally, to accommodate short wooden slats, the tooling systems are instructed so that, if the length of a wooden slat does not exceed a predetermined threshold, the wooden slat is gripped and positioned by the wooden slat gripping means and the wooden slat positioning means of only one tooling system. The disclosure may take benefit from the fact that short wooden slats may need no cooperation between two tooling systems.
Optionally, the predetermined threshold is comprised between 50 and 150 centimeters, optionally between 100 and 130 centimeters, and optionally around 120 centimeters. Such threshold may accommodate the size of the tools, thereby keeping the tools too close during operations, and may take into account the fact that the straightness of shorter wooden slats might not deviate from nominal straightness.
Optionally, in order to allow a proper securing of wooden slats, the tooling systems are programmed so that a pressure is made, by the wooden slat gripping means and the wooden slat positioning means, on portions of the wooden slat where the wooden slat securing means are intended to secure the wooden slat to the wooden slats of adjacent layers.
Optionally, at least one of the wooden slat gripping means (and further optionally each of them) includes a gripper.
Optionally, at least one of the wooden slat securing means (and further optionally each of them) include a series of screwdrivers.
Optionally, to accommodate insulation panels, the tooling systems are instructed so that an insulation panel is gripped and positioned by the insulation panel gripping means and the insulation panel positioning means of only one tooling system. The disclosure thus may take benefit from the fact that insulation panels needs no cooperation between two tooling systems.
Optionally, at least one of the insulation panel gripping means includes a series of needles designed to penetrate at least partially within and to be ejected from an insulation panel.
Optionally, at least one of the wooden slat positioning means and the insulation panel positioning means (and further optionally all of them) includes a linear guide. The linear guide may allow positioning the gripping means with an improved accuracy, and/or may help the assembling of the insulation panels between the wooden slats by press fit.
Optionally, the assembling device of the present disclosure further comprises a holding structure designed to hold the panel assembly as it is operated by the tools. The tools may thus operate upon the slats and assemble the panel on the holding structure.
The present disclosure also relates to a method for manufacturing a panel assembly by means of the assembling device according to the present disclosure. The panel assembly may include a plurality of superimposed layers which may include a series of wooden slats, each wooden slat having a given length and a given straightness, at least one of the layers optionally also including a series of insulation panels, the wooden slats of each layer being secured to the wooden slats of adjacent layers. According to the present disclosure, the method may include a series of layer assembling cycles, each layer assembling cycle consisting of assembling a layer of the panel assembly and comprising one or more of the steps of:
By operating differently upon insulation panels, short wooden slats and long wooden slats, by the individual functioning of one tooling system, or by the cooperative functioning of two tooling systems, the present disclosure may provide a more versatile way of assembling a panel.
Optionally, to correct the straightness of a long wooden slat, when operating a wooden slat whose length exceeds a predetermined threshold, the relative movement of the wooden slat gripping means is made so that a lateral pressure is generated on at least one part of the wooden slat, and so that the straightness of the wooden slat reaches a nominal wooden slat straightness.
The present disclosure also relates to a panel assembly manufactured by the method of the present disclosure.
It is another object of the disclosure to provide an assembling device for manufacturing a panel assembly, the assembling device comprising a plurality of tooling systems, each tooling system comprising an articulated arm and a multifunctional tool disposed at an end of the articulated arm, such that the plurality of tooling systems comprise a plurality of multifunctional tools, wherein the plurality of multifunctional tools may comprise one or more of each of:
Optionally, one or more of the following may be applicable:
It is also another of the disclosure to provide a method for manufacturing a panel assembly, the method comprising:
Optionally, the alignment of the two slat gripping elements results in the large-length wooden slat reaching a nominal straightness.
Other features and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent from the following description of embodiments of the disclosure, given below for illustrative purposes, by reference to the annexed drawings.
The goal of the assembling device according to the present disclosure is to manufacture a series of panel assemblies, which will then be assembled to obtain a construction system, an example of which is given on
The assembling device of the present disclosure may be suited for the manufacturing of the panel assembly 10 as depicted on
The second layer 110 also includes five wooden slats, the first four of which are referenced 111, 113, 115 and 117, with a similar distribution, except that the wooden slats of the second layer are orthogonal to the wooden slats of the first layer. More generally, the wooden slats of each layer (for instance, layer 110) are parallel to each other, but are orthogonal to the wooden slats of the adjacent layers (for instance, layers 100 and 120). The layers are thus “crossed”, and the panel assembly 10 is well known in the art as a “Cross-Laminated Timber” or “CLT”.
The wooden slats 101, 103, 105, 107 of the first layer 100 may be secured to the wooden slats 111, 113, 115, 117 of the second layer by a series of screws or any other solid securing means, like nails, even though screws are disclosed herein. A set of four screws may be used at the contact zone between two slats of adjacent layers, in order to go through those slats and to secure them to each other. For instance, four screws may be put through the contact zone between slats 101 and 111, but also through the contact zone between slats 101 and 113, slats 101 and 115, and slats 101 and 117. The same applies to the slats of all the other layers, so that the wooden slats of each layer can be secured to the wooden slats of adjacent layers.
In practice, in the configuration of
The wooden slats may have different sizes and shapes, as long as some of them have an elongated shape, which is where an aspect of the present disclosure will apply. The height and width of those wooden slats is usually around a few centimeters. The length may vary along a wider range, from less than 1 meter (which will be considered as short slats), to 3 meters (long slats), and even more than 5 or 6 meters (very long slats).
The wooden slats also have a given straightness, which corresponds to the deviation between the actual direction of the wooden, regarding a nominal direction which is usually a straight line. In other words, the straightness of a wood represents the fact that it is shaped or not as a straight line. The more the wood is shaped has a straight line, the less it deviates from its nominal straightness. Such deviation is also known in the art as “wood warping”. It may stem from stresses, uneven shrinkage, or uneven moisture. It may depend on multiple factors, such as wood species, grain orientation, air flow, sunlight, uneven finishing, or temperature.
Since the panel assemblies should be made of a series of straight wooden slats, the fact that some of the wooden slats are not straight enough is detrimental to the overall performance of the panel assembly. To overcome this straightness defect, either the slat is rejected (but this is not cost-efficient), or it is corrected before being assembled (but it may require additional tools).
Between the wooden slats of the layers, insulation panels are interleaved. On
The panel assembly of
As a non-limiting example, the panel assembly can be “laminated”, i.e. the surface of at least some wooden slats may be laminated to provide means to avoid the two adjacent wooden slats will slides relatively to each other at the level of their contact interface. For instance, laminating may consists of providing grooves on the surface of wooden slats: on the front side of a slat of a given layer (for instance, slat 101), and on the back side of a slat of an adjacent layer (for instance, slat 111), so that the respective grooves interact with each other and thus prevent any sliding. Other means may be suitable to avoid such sliding, for instance gluing the wooden elements with each other, in addition to screwing means that may be used to secure the wooden elements together and secure the successive layers with each other.
In reference to
According to the present disclosure, the assembling device 1 includes at least two tooling systems, while in the example below the assembling device includes two tooling systems 2 and 3. The first tooling system 2 is represented from three different perspectives on
The multifunctional tool 2B is attached to the end of the arm 2A, and is intended to perform certain operations. Such tool is usually call “end-of-arm tooling” or “EOAT”. It usually includes one or several operating means. In order to assemble panel assemblies such as the panel 10, the tool 2A is designed to perform operations on wooden slats and insulation panels, notably gripping, positioning and, if need be, securing the slats. The tool 2B—or EAOT—will thus travel with the arm motion.
According to the present disclosure, the tool 2B includes five operating means 21 to 25. All these operating means are attached to a framework 20, which is in turn attached to the end of the articulated arm 2A. With this variety of operating means, the assembling device has the capability to operate both wooden slats and insulation panels, without needs to shift to another tooling system. It is thus more flexible.
The structure of the tool 2B is shown on
In details, the tool 2B first includes wooden slat gripping means 21 intended to pick a wooden slat, by gripping (or trapping) it (here, “picking” and “gripping” are used to refer to the same operation). In this example, the wooden slat gripping means 21 is a mechanical gripper, which includes two fingers 21A, 21B parallel to each other and bound by an actuator 21C, for instance a pneumatic actuator, which can approach or distance the fingers from each other. The gripping means can grip and pick a wooden slat by getting its fingers closer (see
The wooden slat gripping means 21 have a centerline C21. In the example of fingers 21A, 21B, the centerline corresponds to the line located at the middle of the fingers and parallel to the fingers (visible on
The tool 2B also includes wooden slat positioning means, whose function is to position a gripped wooden slat at the appropriate place on the panel assembly 10, before it will be secured to other wooden slats. In this example, this function is attributed to the arm 2A, as the traveling of the arm 2A will move the whole tooling system—and thus the gripping means—at the appropriate position.
The tool 2B also includes wooden slat securing means 23, whose function is to secure the positioned wooden slat to at least one wooden slat of an adjacent layer (for instance, to secure slat 101 to slat 111). To this end, the wooden slat securing means 23 include a series of screwdrivers 230. In this example, four screwdrivers are provided, so slats 101 and 111 will be secured to each other, at their contact zone, by means of four evenly distributed screws that are injected simultaneously by the four screwdrivers 230. The screwdrivers may be controlled by an electronic controller, and actuated by a pneumatic head in order to achieve top and down movements.
To position the screwdrivers right above the wooden slate screwing position, the tool 2B also includes a linear guide 22, to which the wooden slat securing means 23 are attached, and which is pneumatically actuated, so that the securing means 23 can be travelled from left to right. This linear guide, optional, may be useful when the gripping means are designed to grip several contiguous wooden slats at the same time (for instance, two contiguous wooden slats), so the screwdrivers should be travelled on one slat or another.
On the other side of the tool, means to operate insulation panels are provided, also be reference to
The arms 24A, 24B can grip two different parts of the insulation panel 102. The arms 24A, 24B may be positioned around the extremity of the width of the insulation panel 102, to ensure not only satisfactory gripping but also an adequate press fit of the insulation panel between two wooden slats. To do so, the distance between arms 24A, 24B may be controlled. To this end, the tool 2B optionally includes a linear guide 25, to which the insulation panel gripping means 24 are attached, and on which the arms 24A, 24B can slide on left and right in order to be properly positioned. The linear guide may improve the positioning of the gripping means 24 before they grip the insulation panel.
The tool 2B may include insulation panel positioning means 25, whose function is to position a gripped insulation panel at the appropriate place on the panel assembly 10. In this example, again, this function is attributed to the arm 2A, as the traveling of the arm 2A will move the gripping means.
The insulation panels are intended to be inserted between slats by means of “press fitting”, i.e. by pressing a panel between two slats with the tooling system 2 as the panel is gripped by needle grippers 24A and 24B, so the panel will hold without falling down and without the need to secure it with staples. To do so, considering for instance the insulation panel 106, the dimensional clearances between the width of the insulation panel 106 and the inner edges of wooden slats 105 and 107 (that were assembled and secured to the panel assembly by the same tooling system 2) must be tighter than usual. The actual quantification of those dimensional clearances may be performed during the development of the panel assembly.
Other operating means may be added to the tool 2B to add more flexibility to the overall assembling device 1. However, it will be appreciated that when the panel assembly consists of a superimposition of several layers, with series of wooden slats and insulation panels, the above-described operating means may be sufficient to allow performing all the necessary operations on the slats.
The wooden slat operating means 21, 22, 23 are disposed on one side of the tool 2A, while the insulation panel operating means 24, 25 are disposed on the other side, with regard to the framework 20. With this configuration, the tooling system 2 may be able to shift easily from a wooden slat operation to an insulation panel operation, by a simple rotation of the tool 2B around the end of the arm 2A. In practice, when the tool is operating a wooden slat, the wooden slat operating means 21, 22, 23 are oriented on the proper side, while the insulation panel operating means 24, 25 are made inactive. Then, when the tool needs to operate an insulation panel, the arm 2A provides a 180-degree rotation of the tool 2B, so the insulation panel operating means 24, 25 are oriented on the proper side, while the wooden slat operating means 21, 22, 23 are made inactive. Whereas other distributions of the operating means on the tool 2B are contemplated, the configuration of
The second tooling system 3, visible on
According to the present disclosure, the tooling systems 2, 3 are instructed by a computing program (or tooling controller) to perform different types of operations, depending on the elements to be operated. For example, the tooling controller will instruct the tooling systems to accommodate three types of slats: insulation panels, “short” wooden slats, and “long” wooden slats. In the following description of the disclosure, any reference to “short” or “long” wooden slats will be made by comparison with a length threshold L, which will be discussed below.
The assembling device of the disclosure may be a part of a production line. In an example, the wooden slats and the insulation panels come from other machines located upstream in the production line. The elements may be tagged and uniquely identified by means of QR codes, and are tracked throughout the manufacturing process from raw material to finished slats of panels. A quality control of the elements may be performed on the production line before they reach the assembling device of the disclosure, so only valid elements will flow through the assembling process. At the entry of the assembling device, a QR code reader may read the QR code of each of the elements and inform the tooling systems on the slat or panel at hand. A sanity check may then be performed in order to verify that this element is indeed the next element that the tooling systems were expected to manipulate on the panel which is being currently assembled, and they can then perform the assembling of the element on the panel assembly. In this example, the length of the slat is simply read through the QR code, in connection with the tooling controller which was programed upfront and which stores the length of each referenced slat of the panel assembly.
For insulation panels, such as slat 102, as shown on
The following operations may thus performed by the tooling system 2 (or by the tooling system 3 if need be):
In the example of
For “short” wooden slats, such as the slat 101′ visible on
The following operations may thus performed by the tooling system 2 (or by the tooling system 3 if need be):
If the slat 101′ must be secured to other slats such as slats 113, 115, 117, the arm 2A will move in order to locate the screwdrivers 230 on the contact zone of slat 101′ and any other slat, and then actuate the screwing.
For “long” wooden slats, such as the slat 101 visible on
To differentiate “short” and “long” wooden slats, a predetermined threshold L is set. Wooden slats whose length do not exceed this threshold (such as slat 101′) are considered as “short”, while wooden slats whose length exceeds this threshold (such as slat 101) are considered as “long”. A relevant threshold may be between 50 and 150 centimeters (inclusive), or even between 100 and 130 centimeters (inclusive), or even around 120 centimeters. This threshold is determined in order to accommodate the size of the tooling systems (too short slats cannot be gripped by two tooling systems), and takes into account the fact that the straightness of “short” wooden slats does not deviate much from nominal straightness.
For such “long” wooden slats, whose length L101 exceeds threshold L, the straightness S101 may deviate from nominal straightness S (i.e. from a straight line). The tooling systems 2, 3 are instructed to correct this straightness. To do so, two parts of the wooden slat (in this example, the extremities 101A and 101B) are gripped by the wooden slat gripping means 21 and 31, respectively. As mentioned above, the wooden slat gripping means 21 and 31 have centerlines C21 and C31, respectively. As the straightness S101 of slat 101 may not be a straight line, when the wooden slat gripping means 21 and 31 grip the slat 101, their respective centerlines C21 and C31 may not be aligned.
To correct this straightness, the wooden slat gripping means 21 and 31 are moved relatively to each other, here by means of the arms 2A and 3B, respectively, in order to align their centerlines C21 and C31. By doing so, the two gripped parts of the wooden slats (in this example, the extremities of the slat 101A and 101B) are moved relatively to each other. This relative movement can be achieved by moving both gripping means, or only one (for instance, 21) relatively to the other. This relative moment generates a lateral pressure on different parts of the slat (or on one part, relatively to the other). When the centerlines are indeed aligned, for instance along axis X-X′ on
The following operations may thus performed by the tooling systems 2, 3:
Again, if the slat 101′ must be secured to other slats such as slats 113, 115, 117, the arms 2A and 3A will move in order to locate the screwdrivers 230 and 330 on the contact zone of slat 101 and any other slat, and then actuate the screwing.
For each type of slat, the tooling systems may operate on the portion of the slat where it will be pressed or secured within the panel assembly. This means that, for the insulation panels, the gripping takes place in the zone where the pressure will later be made (just before the releasing of the slat). For the wooden slats, this means that the zone where the gripping means and the securing means operate is the contact zone between the wooden slat and the other wooden slat to which it is supposed to be secured (for instance, the contact zone between slats 101 and 111 in the example above).
The overall assembling process may be programmed and performed upon a panel plan, wherein the types, lengths, positions, etc. of the slats are mentioned. The tooling systems thus know what type of slat they operate, and accordingly what type of assembling steps they have to perform.
The manufacturing process can be made on a layer-by-layer basis, i.e. one layer at the time, starting from the eight layer to the first (or inversely, from the first layer to the last). In this case, the process may include a series of layer assembling cycles, each layer assembling cycle consisting of assembling one layer of the panel assembly, on a slat-by-slat basis, thereby applying the steps above depending on the type of slat considered.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20315408.3 | Sep 2020 | EP | regional |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2021/025340 | 9/10/2021 | WO |
