The present invention relates to a device carriage with a carriage base for accommodating an object to be transported, and a primary part or a secondary part of a linear motor, which is fastened on the carriage base. The term “device carriage” is in this case understood to mean any component of a device which is or can be provided with guides in order to move a body or a device component along the guide. Such device carriages are generally used in production machines, robots etc., but also in straight transport systems. The carriage is usually driven by a linear motor.
Linear motors are generally built-in motors, i.e. the motor components are made available to the user in a construction kit. The user must then produce the complete machine-building, mechatronic construction around the motor itself. Each component of the construction kit therefore needs to be developed to have sufficient intrinsic rigidity and is therefore often unnecessarily heavy.
Furthermore, measurement systems, connections, guides and the like need to be attached to the respective carriage of the linear motor used. The user therefore often has to screw on numerous adaptors. In this case, unfavorable positions for the components to be attached, for example the displacement measurement system, often need to be chosen for space-saving reasons.
The object of the present invention is therefore to propose a device carriage which has sufficient intrinsic rigidity, is as small as possible and is as light as possible.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by a device carriage with a carriage base for accommodating an object to be transported, and a primary part or a secondary part of a linear motor, which is fastened on the carriage base, a seat being integrally formed on the carriage base and being used as the housing or housing part of the primary part or the secondary part, and the primary part or the secondary part being fastened in or on the seat.
Advantageously, the carriage base therefore at the same time forms the motor housing, with the result that mechanical interfaces between the two components can be dispensed with. This increases the intrinsic rigidity or else a reduction in the wall thicknesses can be achieved given the same rigidity. Both cases save on space and weight.
Preferably, the primary part or the secondary part of the linear motor is cast into the seat. In this way, the rigidity of the drive can be further increased.
Furthermore, the seat of the carriage base for the primary part can have four or five side walls and be open on one or two sides. This results in a primary part which is substantially only open in the direction towards the secondary part and can be inserted into the seat from there. In this case, one or more openings can be arranged on one of the side walls in order to guide one or more electrical lines from the outside to the primary part. These openings can also be used for fitting plugs and strain-relief devices, for example.
Furthermore, the primary part can have a cooling device, one or more cooling lines of which is/are guided through one of the side walls. It is therefore not necessary to fit a special adaptor for cooling lines on the device carriage.
In accordance with a special embodiment, the device carriage according to the invention can be integrally connected to a housing of a machine component or to the machine component itself. In this case, the housing of the machine component or the machine component itself has the function of a device carriage, on which, in addition to the primary part, only guide elements for the linear movement need to be or are fitted.
The device carriage according to the invention can generally have a guide device in order to guide it along its movement. This guide device can in particular be mechanical or magnetic in nature.
In addition, as has already been mentioned for electrical lines and cooling lines, a mechanical interface for fitting a measurement system or a guide component can be integrated in the carriage base. This makes it possible to avoid separate adaptors which often mean a loss in rigidity and an increase in weight.
Finally, a housing for a measurement sensor system can also be integrally formed on the carriage base. This also makes it possible to increase the rigidity and reduce the total mass.
The present invention will now be explained in more detail with reference to the attached drawings, in which:
The exemplary embodiments described in more detail below represent preferred embodiments of the present invention.
For better understanding of the invention, primary part housings in accordance with the prior art will first be briefly explained with reference to
The primary part housing is intended to be fitted on a user-specific carriage. For this purpose, special bores 7 are arranged on the primary part housing, which bores 7 make it possible to screw or otherwise fasten the primary part housing on the corresponding carriage. In order that the wall thickness in the region of the bores 7 is sufficiently high, a housing reinforcement 8 is integrally formed in this region of the bores 7. As a result of the primary part housing being screwed to a carriage, there are a plurality of disadvantages: firstly, the carriage/primary part housing arrangement is overall less rigid owing to the screw-type connection, and secondly the reinforcements 8 and the fastening screws result in weights which reduce the dynamics of the linear motor.
According to the invention, the device carriage 10 reproduced schematically in cross section in
Side walls 15, which form a seat for a primary part 16 of a linear motor, are integrally formed on the device carriage 10 between the guide carts 12. A secondary part 17 of the linear motor, which is fastened on the machine bed 14, is positioned opposite the primary part 16.
As a result of the fact that the seat of the primary part, i.e. the housing of the primary part with the side walls 15, is integrally connected to the carriage base 18, all of the known mechatronic problems, such as oscillations, rigidity, etc., can be managed significantly more effectively. For this purpose, fitting elements are also arranged on the device carriage 10 in order to be able to attach, for example, measurement systems, guides and the like directly on the machine carriage and therefore also directly on the primary part housing. No additional adaptors are therefore required for the fitting process, which adaptors represent potential weak points on the linear motor. The mass of the overall system is thereby reduced considerably.
As a result of the fact that fastening elements for fastening the primary part housing on the carriage, but also fixedly predetermined connection possibilities for electronics and cooling do not need to be provided, as is the case in standard motors, the variance in terms of connection possibilities as regards cable feeder direction, cooling connection etc. is a multiple greater.
In
In practice, the carriage section forming the primary part housing is configured in such a way that the user can screw his carriage onto the primary part from above. Alternatively, the primary part is cast directly into the seat formed by the side walls 15 as early as during manufacture of the carriage. As a result, the carriage can be delivered already with the primary part. This means that the user can configure his carriage as desired and only needs to provide space for the primary part. For this purpose, only the required number of side walls (preferably 5) on the carriage need to be formed from the point of view of the user.
The block 192 illustrated in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2006 038 416.4 | Aug 2006 | DE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/EP07/58351 | 8/13/2007 | WO | 00 | 2/18/2009 |