The present invention relates to a cylinder device including a rotation mechanism.
The following Patent Literatures disclose cylinder devices including a mechanism configured to rotate a shaft member housed in a cylinder body.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-69384 discloses a rotary drive motor (brushless DC motor) configured to rotate a shaft member.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2017-133593, a rotation drive portion is provided to rotate a shaft member at a predetermined angle. The rotation drive portion includes a rotary motor such as a stepping motor or a servo motor.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2017-9068, a rotation drive portion is attached to a shaft member. The rotation drive portion includes a rotor and a stator surrounding a periphery of the rotor. A magnet is disposed on the rotor, and a coil is disposed on the stator. The shaft member is rotationally driven by an electromagnetic action.
However, there are problems that power consumption is increased and compactification cannot be appropriately achieved in the conventional configuration in which the shaft member is rotated by a motor or the like. In other words, heat is generated by use of the motor, and thus power consumption easily increases. Further, since the shaft member is mechanically rotated, a rotation mechanism becomes complicated, and compactification cannot be appropriately achieved. In addition, rotation unevenness is required to be prevented.
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has an object to provide a cylinder device capable of preventing rotation unevenness while reducing power consumption and achieving compactification.
The present invention is to provide a cylinder device including: a cylinder body; and a shaft member supported in the cylinder body, the cylinder body being provided with a rotation port that communicates with an outer circumferential surface around the shaft member and rotates the shaft member based on a supply and discharge of a fluid.
In the present invention, preferably, the shaft member includes a rotating portion in which concave parts and convex parts are alternately continuous with each other along the outer circumferential surface, and the rotation port communicates with the rotating portion.
In the present invention, the shaft member is preferably supported to be capable of stroke.
In the present invention, preferably, the shaft member includes a rotating portion on the outer circumferential surface in a middle in the shaft direction, and stroke ports are provided in the cylinder body on a front side and a rear side of the rotating portion to stroke the shaft member by the supply and discharge of the fluid, the rotation port communicating with the rotating portion being provided between the stroke ports.
In the present invention, the rotation port is preferably formed to be plural in number.
In the present invention, the shaft member preferably includes a fluid bearing, the shaft member being supported in a state of floating in the cylinder body.
According to the cylinder device of the present invention, it is possible to prevent rotation unevenness while reducing power consumption and achieving compactification.
An Embodiment (hereinafter, abbreviated as “embodiment”) of the present invention will be described in detail below.
A cylinder device 1 shown in
In the present embodiment, the shaft member 3 is rotatably supported. On the other hand, a stroke of the shaft member 3 is arbitrary. In other words, the cylinder device 1 of the present embodiment may be configured to enable only rotation of the shaft member 3, or may be configured to enable both rotation and stroke of the shaft member 3. However, a description will be made below with respect to the cylinder device 1 which allows the shaft member 3 to be stroked in a shaft direction while rotating.
The term “rotation” means that the shaft member 3 rotates about a shaft center O which is the center of rotation (see
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
The concave parts 9 and the convex parts 10 forming the rotating portion 11 are formed at regular intervals in a circumferential direction. Further, the concave parts 9 and convex parts 10 are formed with a predetermined width in the shaft direction (X1-X2 direction). Each of the concave part 9 and the convex part 10 has a width larger than a diameter of each of rotation ports 31 and 32 which will be described below. In the configuration in which the shaft member 3 strokes as in the present embodiment, a width of the rotating portion 11 in the shaft direction is set according to the stroke amount of the shaft member 3.
Unlike the intermediate part 4d, the front part 4c and the rear part 4e of the piston 4 are formed in a columnar shape. Thereby, air bearings 21 to 23, which will be described below, are disposed on the front part 4c and the rear part 4e, and the piston 4 can stably float in the cylinder body 2.
The cylinder device 1 of the present embodiment is configured in which a fluid acts on the rotating portion 11 disposed on the outer circumferential surface around the shaft member 3 and thus the shaft member 3 can rotate about the shaft center O which is a center of rotation.
A cylinder chamber 12 is provided inside the cylinder body 2. Further, an insertion portion 13 is provided which penetrates from the cylinder chamber 12 to a front end surface 2a of the cylinder body 2 and is continuous with the cylinder chamber 12.
As shown in
The cylinder chamber 12 is a substantially cylindrical space having a diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the piston 4. Further, the cylinder chamber 12 is formed to have a length dimension in the X1-X2 direction longer than the length dimension L1 of the piston 4. Therefore, the piston 4 is movably housed in the cylinder chamber 12 in the shaft direction (X1-X2 direction).
In the states of
As shown in
Further, as shown in
The cylinder device 1 of the present embodiment is an air bearing-type cylinder device, and a plurality of air bearing spaces 16, 17, and 18 are provided between the shaft member 3 and an internal space of the cylinder body 2. As shown in
As shown in
Although not being limited, an example of each of the air bearings 21 to 23 can include an air bearing in which a porous material using sintered metal or carbon is formed in a ring shape or an orifice throttle-type air bearing.
As shown in
The compressed air is supplied to each of the air bearing pressurizing ports 27 to 29, and thus the compressed air uniformly blows onto surfaces of the piston 4 and the piston rod 5 through the each of the air bearings 21 to 23. Thereby, each of the piston 4 and the piston rod 5 is supported in a state of floating in the cylinder chamber 12 and the insertion portion 13.
In the cylinder device 1 of the present embodiment, the compressed air is supplied and discharged from the rotation ports 31 and 32 facing the rotating portion 11 of the shaft member 3. Thus, the fluid acts on the rotating portion 11 to generate a rotational force, and the shaft member 3 can rotate about the shaft center O which is the center of rotation. In the present embodiment, the shaft member 3 can rotate in a state of floating in the cylinder body 2. Since the shaft member 3 and the cylinder body 2 are not in contact with each other, a rotational resistance can be reduced and the rotation can be made with high accuracy.
The rotation port 31 shown in
In the present embodiment, the piston 4 of the shaft member 3 is supported in the state of floating in the cylinder chamber 12 of the cylinder body 2 by the air bearing-type configuration, and accordingly minute gaps 30 are formed between the rotation ports 31 and 32 and the rotating portion 11 as shown in
In the present embodiment, a differential pressure between the first fluid chamber 14 and the second fluid chamber 15 is generated using a supply and discharge of the compressed air from the stroke ports 25 and 26 communicating with the cylinder chamber 12 in the state where the shaft member 3 floats in the cylinder body 2. Thereby, the piston 4 can be stroked in the shaft direction (X1-X2 direction). Although not shown, a cylinder control pressure can be appropriately adjusted by servo valves that communicate with the stroke ports 25 and 26, respectively.
From the states of
A front wall 40 is provided between the cylinder chamber 12 and the insertion portion 13, and the piston 4 is regulated so as not to move forward from the front wall 40. Further, as shown in
Alternatively, from the states of
A rear wall 42 of the cylinder chamber 12 is a regulatory surface that regulates the movement of the piston 4 to the rear side (X2), and the piston 4 can hardly move rearward from the rear wall 42. Further, as shown in
As shown in
In the present embodiment, a position of the piston 4 can be measured by the sensor 50 disposed in the hole 8. An example of the sensor 50 can include an existing sensor such as a magnetic sensor, an eddy-current sensor, or an optical sensor.
Position information measured by the sensor 50 is transmitted to a control unit (not shown) through a cable 51 (see
Further, the sensor 50 can also measure a rotational frequency of the shaft member 3. Based on rotation information measured by the sensor 50, a rotation pressure can be adjusted to control a rotational frequency of the rotating portion 11.
Hereinafter, a description will be made with respect to the form of the rotation ports 31 and 32 for facilitating the rotation of the rotating portion 11. All the drawings described below are partial cross-sectional views taken in a direction orthogonal to the shaft direction (X1-X2 direction).
For example, as shown in
In
The respective rotation ports 31 and 32 are disposed on the substantially opposite sides through the shaft member 3 in
In
Features of the present embodiment will be described.
The present embodiment is to provide the cylinder device 1 including the cylinder body 2 and the shaft member 3 supported in the cylinder body 2, the cylinder body 2 being provided with the rotation ports 31 and 32 that communicate with the outer circumferential surface around the shaft member 3 and rotate the shaft member 3 based on the supply and discharge of the fluid.
In the present embodiment, as described above, the cylinder body 2 is provided with the rotation ports 31 and 32 communicating with the outer circumferential surface of the shaft member 3 such that the fluid acts on the outer circumferential surface of the shaft member 3 to rotate the shaft member 3. According to such a configuration, it is possible to reduce power consumption and achieve compactification as compared with the conventional configuration using a rotary motor such as a stepping motor or a servo motor.
In the present embodiment, prevention of rotation unevenness can be made. The “prevention of rotation unevenness” will be described in detail. In the present embodiment, the rotating portion 11 is configured on the outer circumferential surface of the shaft member 3 that coincides with the rotating direction. Therefore, the distances from the rotating portion 11 to the rotation ports 31 and 32 can always be substantially constant without being changed depending on the rotation of the rotating portion 11 or the stroke of the shaft member 3. For example, in a configuration in which the distances from the rotating portion to the rotation ports change depending on the stroke of the shaft member 3, a rotation pressure changes, resulting in uneven rotation. On the other hand, according to the present embodiment, since the distances from the rotating portion 11 to the rotation ports 31 and 32 can be kept substantially constant, the rotation pressure does not change and rotation unevenness can be prevented.
In the present embodiment, since the rotating portion 11 is configured on the outer circumferential surface of the shaft member 3 that coincides with the rotating direction, it is possible to prevent the generation of thrust in the shaft direction (X1-X2 direction) for the shaft member 3 based on the rotation of the rotating portion 11. Therefore, the shaft member 3 can be prevented from freely moving in the shaft direction or the stroke amount of the shaft member 3 can be prevented from being varied, so that no special means for controlling the stroke amount due to the rotation is required.
In the present embodiment, the shaft member 3 includes the rotating portion 11 in which the concave parts 9 and the convex parts 10 are alternately continuous with each other along the outer circumferential surface. Then, the rotation ports 31 and 32 are formed to communicate with the rotating portion 11. The rotation ports 31 and 32 preferably face the rotating portion 11.
With such a configuration, it is not necessary to provide the rotating portion 11 separately from the shaft member 3, and the rotating portion 11 can be formed in a simple shape. Accordingly, the cylinder device 1 can be made compact and manufacturing cost can be reduced.
In the present embodiment, the shaft member 3 is preferably supported to be capable of stroke. Thereby, the shaft member 3 can be stroked while rotating.
In the present embodiment, the shaft member 3 includes the rotating portion 11 on the outer circumferential surface in the middle in the shaft direction (X1-X2 direction). The stroke ports 25 and 26 are provided in the cylinder body 2 on the front side (X1 side) and the rear side (X2 side) of the rotating portion 11 to stroke the shaft member 3 by the supply and discharge of the fluid. Then, the rotation ports 31 and 32 communicating with the rotating portion 11 are preferably provided between the stroke ports 25 and 26.
As described above, according to the present embodiment, since the rotating portion 11 is provided in the middle of the shaft member 3, a rotation mechanism needs not to be separately provided, and the device can be made compact. Further, the cylinder body 2 is provided with the rotation ports 31 and 32 communicating with the rotating portion 11, and the stroke ports 25 and 26 are provided in front of and behind the rotation ports 31 and 32. Thereby, it is possible to manufacture the cylinder device 1 in which the shaft member 3 can be stroked while rotating with a simple structure.
In the present embodiment, one rotation port may be provided. However, in such a case, the fluid is supplied and discharged by the one rotation port, and thus it is necessary to divide a supply time and a discharge time from each other, make the rotation port large or the like. In order to easily control the fluid and realize a smooth fluid flow, a plurality of rotation ports 31 and 32 are preferably provided.
In the present embodiment, the shaft member 3 preferably includes a fluid bearing, and the shaft member 3 is preferably supported in the state of floating in the cylinder body 2. Thereby, the stroke and rotation can be performed with high accuracy. The air bearing is preferably used as the fluid bearing. Thus, sliding resistance during the stroke and rotation can be effectively reduced.
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and can be modified in various ways. In the above embodiment, the size and shape shown in the accompanying drawings can be appropriately changed within the range, in which the effects of the present invention are exhibited, without limitation. In addition, the above embodiment can be appropriately modified and implemented without deviating from the scope of the object of the present invention.
For example, the sensor 50 is not disposed as shown in
However, as shown in
The cylinder body 2 may be formed in such a manner that a plurality of divided cylinder bodies are assembled or integrated.
The cylinder body 2 and the shaft member 3 are made of, for example, an aluminum alloy and the like, but the material can be variously changed depending on the intended use, installation locations and the like without limitation.
As described above, according to the present embodiment, since the cylinder device 1 can be driven by the action of a fluid other than air, for example, a hydraulic cylinder can be exemplified in addition to the air bearing-type cylinder, as the cylinder device.
According to the present invention, it is possible to realize a cylinder device capable of preventing rotation unevenness while reducing power consumption and promoting compactification. The present invention may be either of a cylinder device capable of only rotation or a cylinder device capable of both rotation and stroke. According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain excellent rotation accuracy and rotational stroke accuracy. In this way, when the cylinder device of the present invention is applied to a use that requires high rotational accuracy and rotational stroke accuracy or the like, it is possible to reduce power consumption and promote compactification in addition to high accuracy.
While the present disclosure has been illustrated and described with respect to a particular embodiment thereof, it should be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that various modifications to this disclosure may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2018-227980 | Dec 2018 | JP | national |
This application is a National Stage application of International Patent Application No. PCT/JP2019/047152 filed on Dec. 3, 2019, which claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. JP2018-227980 filed on Dec. 5, 2018, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/JP2019/047152 | 12/3/2019 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20220025911 A1 | Jan 2022 | US |