The present invention relates to a maintenance system for a wire transport system of a wire discharge processing machine.
In a wire transport system of a wire discharge processing machine, it is known that occurrence of tension fluctuation in wire feeding causes effects such as generation of striations on a work and it is needed to adjust to reduce the tension fluctuation. The wire transport system is composed of components such as a plurality of pulleys and motors. If the wire discharge processing machine is used for a long period, a transport system such as a pulley wears or is decentered to cause vibration, which causes the tension fluctuation. Thus, maintenance such as component replacement is needed.
Therefore, in a conventional technology, a tension meter is attached to the wire transport system, a wire is fed at a constant speed, and the tension fluctuation is measured. When fluctuation has become large, component replacement is performed. Moreover, in Patent Literature 1, the total use time of each maintenance-needed component used in the discharge processing machine is calculated, percentage data of this total use time with respect to a reference time is calculated, and the time for replacement of each maintenance-needed component is determined based on this percentage data.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. S59-115124
However, in the conventional technology of providing the tension meter, the tension meter is needed, so that a serviceman of a service company needs to visit a factory of a user with the measuring instrument and performs measurement for measurement of a machine of the user. Moreover, determination of which component needs to be replaced depends on the experience, so that the adjustment is costly and time-consuming. Furthermore, in the conventional technology in Patent Literature 1, the time for replacement is determined based on only the total use time of each component, so that there is a problem that the time for replacement for each component cannot be accurately determined.
The present invention is achieved in view of the above, and has an object to obtain a maintenance system for a wire transport system of a wire discharge processing machine capable of accurately determining the time for maintenance of various components used in the wire transport system without using a measuring instrument.
In order to solve the aforementioned problems and attain the aforementioned object, the maintenance system for the wire transport system of the wire discharge processing machine is provided with: a wire discharge processing machine that includes a measuring unit that measures a physical amount corresponding to tension of a wire in a wire transport system and a recording unit that records the physical amount measured by the measuring unit; an analyzing unit that obtains at least one of an average value, variation, and frequency analysis data of recorded physical amount as an analysis result of the physical amount; a determining unit that compares the analysis result with a reference value and determines whether maintenance is needed based on a comparison result; and a displaying unit that displays a determination result.
According to the present invention, a physical amount corresponding to tension of a wire in a wire transport system is measured, at least one of an average value, variation, and frequency analysis data of the measured physical amount is obtained as an analysis result of the physical amount, and this analysis result is compared with a reference value to determine whether maintenance is needed based on a comparison result, so that it becomes possible to accurately determine the time for maintenance for various components used in the wire transport system without using a measuring instrument.
1 WIRE FEEDING UNIT
2 UPPER WIRE GUIDE UNIT
3 LOWER WIRE GUIDE UNIT
4 WIRE COLLECTING UNIT
10 WIRE (ELECTRODE WIRE)
11 WIRE BOBBIN
13 MT ROLLER (MAIN TENSION ROLLER)
13
a, 13b MT PINCH ROLLER
14 MT MOTOR
15 ENCODER
16 WIRE HOLDING ROLLER
17 LOWER ROLLER
18 COLLECTING ROLLER
18
a COLLECTING PINCH ROLLER
19 COLLECTING MOTOR
20 WORK PROCESSING SPACE
31 FLUCTUATION RECORDING UNIT
31
a MOTOR CONTROL UNIT
32 FLUCTUATION ANALYSIS UNIT
33 MAINTENANCE NECESSITY DETERMINING UNIT
34 DISPLAY UNIT
35 FLUCTUATION RECORDING FILE
36 FLUCTUATION ANALYSIS RESULT FILE
37 DETERMINATION REFERENCE DATA
70 WEB SERVER (SERVER)
90 WIRE DISCHARGE PROCESSING MACHINE
95 NC CONTROLLER
100 WIRE DISCHARGE PROCESSING APPARATUS
W WORK
Exemplary embodiments of a maintenance system for a wire transport system of a wire discharge processing machine according to the present invention will be explained below in detail based on the drawings. This invention is not limited to the embodiments.
In the wire feeding unit 1, a wire bobbin 11, on which an electrode wire (hereinafter, simply wire) 10 is wound and which pays out the electrode wire 10, feeding rollers 12a and 12b, a main tension roller (hereinafter, MT roller) 13, MT pinch rollers 13a and 13b, an MT motor 14 that belt drives the MT roller 13, and an encoder 15 attached to the rotating shaft of the MT motor 14 are included. In the upper wire guide unit 2, a pair of wire holding rollers 16 is provided. In the wire collecting unit 4, a lower roller 17, a collecting roller 18, a collecting motor 19 that rotationally drives the collecting roller 18, and a collecting pinch roller 18a are provided.
The MT roller 13 is arranged on a wire transport path between the wire bobbin 11 and the upper wire guide unit 2, and is belt driven by the MT motor 14 to brake running of the wire 10 thereby applying tension to the wire 10. The two MT pinch rollers 13a and 13b, which sandwich the wire 10 with the MT roller 13, press the MT roller 13. The wire holding rollers 16 are rotatable in a pulling and transporting direction of the wire 10 and do not rotate in an opposite direction thereto. Therefore, when the wire 10 is disconnected in a work processing space 20 while processing a work W, the wire 10 is prevented from being wound up by the MT roller 13 and being extracted out of the upper wire guide unit 2. The collecting motor 19 rotationally drives the collecting roller 18 to collect the wire 10 running between the collecting roller 18 and the collecting pinch roller 18a into a not-shown wire collecting box.
In this wire transport system, the wire 10 paid out from the wire bobbin 11 is pulled and collected at a predetermined speed via the feeding rollers 12a and 12b, the MT roller 13, the wire holding rollers 16, the work processing space 20, the lower wire guide unit 3, the lower roller 17, and the collecting roller 18 by rotationally driving the collecting motor 19 and the MT motor 14. The encoder 15 for controlling rotation of the MT motor 14 is directly connected to the rotating shaft of the MT motor 14, and encoder data (encoder pulse) as a position signal is output from the encoder 15.
In the NC controller 95, a fluctuation recording unit 31, a fluctuation analysis unit 32, a maintenance necessity determining unit 33, and a display unit 34 are included. The fluctuation recording unit 31 includes a motor control unit 31a that controls driving of the collecting motor 19 and the MT motor 14 in a maintenance mode, and samples the output of the encoder 15 as a tension measuring unit at a predetermined sampling frequency for a predetermined time in a state where the collecting motor 19 and the MT motor 14 are driven by the motor control unit 31a and records the sampled encoder data in a fluctuation recording file 35. The fluctuation analysis unit 32 analyzes the encoder data recorded in the fluctuation recording file 35, performs calculation of an average value δ and a standard deviation σ and performs a frequency analysis (FFT processing), and records the analysis result thereof in a fluctuation analysis result file 36. The maintenance necessity determining unit 33 determines whether maintenance is needed by comparing each analysis data recorded in the fluctuation analysis result file 36 with determination reference data 37 and displays the determination result thereof on the display unit 34. On the display unit 34, various messages indicating whether or not maintenance is needed are displayed.
Thereafter, the fluctuation recording unit 31 reads the encoder data from the encoder 15 at a predetermined sampling frequency for a predetermined time and sequentially records the read encoder data in the fluctuation recording file 35 (Steps S140 to S160). After finishing the data recording for the predetermined time, the fluctuation recording file 35 is closed (Step S170).
The fluctuation recording unit 31 calculates the rotation speed of the MT motor 14 by taking a derivative of the encoder data by calculating the difference between the encoder recorded value at the first sampling time and the encoder recorded value at the second sampling time that are read out, and records the calculated difference data (speed data) in an encoder-value difference file 40. Next, the fluctuation recording unit 31 reads out an encoder recorded value at the third sampling time from the fluctuation recording file 35, calculates the rotation speed of the MT motor 14 by calculating the difference between the encoder recorded value at the second sampling time and the encoder recorded value at the third sampling time, and records the calculated difference data (speed data) in the encoder-value difference file 40. Such process is repeated to obtain a number of pieces of difference data corresponding to the number of samples (Steps S230 and S240).
The fluctuation analysis unit 32 calculates the average value δ and variation (for example, the standard deviation σ) of the encoder difference data recorded in the encoder-value difference file 40 (Step S250). The maintenance necessity determining unit 33 compares the calculated average value δ with a reference value C1. When the average value δ falls below the reference value C1, the maintenance necessity determining unit 33 determines that the slippage occurs in the wire transport system and therefore the tension value decreases, and displays that effect on the display unit 34 (Steps S260 and S270). Moreover, the maintenance necessity determining unit 33 compares the calculated standard deviation σ with a reference value C2. When the standard deviation σ exceeds the reference value C2, the maintenance necessity determining unit 33 determines that the tension fluctuation occurs in the wire transport system and displays that effect on the display unit 34 (Steps S260 and S270).
a) illustrates a waveform of the difference data of a normal machine and
Next, the fluctuation analysis unit 32 performs the frequency analysis (FFT processing) of the encoder difference data (Step S280) and stores the frequency analysis result in a frequency analysis file 41. The maintenance necessity determining unit 33 determines abnormality in each unit in the wire transport system individually based on the frequency analysis result stored in the frequency analysis file 41 (Step S290). A predetermined message is displayed on The display unit 34 in accordance with the presence or absence of occurrence of abnormality to urge a user to perform maintenance (Step S300).
c) illustrates the frequency analysis result of the encoder difference data shown in
As shown in
Therefore, as shown in
The NC controller 95 includes an association table as shown in
At Step S290 shown in
Next, at Steps S310 to S330 in
As above, in the first embodiment, the slippage in the wire transport system is detected based on the average and the variation of the speed data detected by the encoder provided in the wire transport system, so that the time for maintenance of various components used in the wire transport system can be accurately determined without using an additional measuring instrument. Moreover, in the first embodiment, the frequency analysis of the speed data detected by the encoder provided in the wire transport system is performed and it is detected for each component whether maintenance of each component configuring the wire transport system is needed based on this frequency analysis result, so that a maintenance worker need not inspect which component needs maintenance and therefore time and cost for the inspection can be reduced and maintenance workability can be improved. Moreover, in this first embodiment, it is determined whether vibration due to other components occurs based on the frequency analysis result, enabling to trigger maintenance with respect to the vibration due to other components.
In the above embodiment, the running speed of the wire is used as a physical amount for measuring the tension fluctuation of the wire transport system and the running speed of the wire is measured by the encoder 15 attached to the MT motor 14, however, the running speed of the wire can be measured by detecting the running speed of the collecting motor 19, the wire holding rollers 16, the lower roller 17, or the like provided in the wire transport system. Moreover, an encoder is employed as a measuring unit that measures the running speed of a roller or a motor, however, the running speed can be detected by other arbitrary detecting units. Furthermore, as a physical amount for measuring the tension fluctuation of the wire transport system, a load on the wire can be detected by a load cell other than the running speed of the wire, and moreover the tension fluctuation of the wire transport system can be measured by using other physical amounts.
Moreover, it is applicable to prepare the association table indicating association among each component, the corresponding frequency range, and the amplitude determination value C3 shown in
Furthermore, in the first embodiment, the first determination using the average and the variation of the encoder difference data, the second determination as determination of whether maintenance is needed for each component based on the frequency analysis result of the encoder difference data, and the third determination as the vibration determination due to other components are performed, however, it is applicable to determine whether maintenance is needed for the wire discharge processing machine by performing at least one of these three determinations.
On the other hand, in a personal computer (PC) 50 of a maintenance worker, the fluctuation analysis unit 32, the maintenance necessity determining unit 33, and the display unit 34 similar to those in the first embodiment are provided, so that determination of a fluctuation factor of the wire tension, determination of whether maintenance and inspection are needed, and determination of whether vibration due to other components occurs can be performed by the PC 50 of the maintenance worker. The fluctuation analysis unit 32, the maintenance necessity determining unit 33, and the display unit 34 can be mounted on any personal computer other than the personal computer of the maintenance worker.
Moreover, on the server 70 connected to the Internet, the fluctuation analysis unit 32, the maintenance necessity determining unit 33, and the display unit 34 similar to those in the first embodiment are provided. In this system in the third embodiment, for example, the server 70 is accessed from a PC 60 in a user's factory or the like and the fluctuation recording file 35 is uploaded to the server 70, whereby the server 70 performs determination of a variation factor of the wire tension, determination of whether or not maintenance and inspection are needed, and determination of whether or not vibration due to other components occurs in the similar manner to the above and displays the determination result on the PC 60. A user in a user's factory can determine whether or not maintenance is needed and the like by referring to the determination result displayed on the PC 60.
The maintenance system and the maintenance method for the wire transport system according to the present invention are useful for maintenance of a wire discharge processing machine.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/JP2009/001618 | 4/7/2009 | WO | 00 | 10/6/2011 |