Patent Application
20180065829
The present invention relates to a motion platform technology, and more particularly to a motion platform having a wire-shaped body winding mechanism.
Regarding general automated mechanical devices such as a motion platform, repeated movement may cause damages to cables under automatic operation of a set stroke, and therefore, to protect the cables, an elastic sleeve pipe having desired strength and a protecting chain can be used to protect the cables in the prior art. The elastic sleeve pipe is relatively weak in telescopic and bending deformation capabilities, and is limited in application. The chain structure of the protecting chain allows diversified changes in shape, and thus the protecting chain is widely applied to protect cables in the technical field of motion platforms.
However, when the conventional protecting chain is deformed, the volume of sound produced when the chain links move relative to each other and contact the mechanical surface are usually very loud, and meanwhile the weight of the chain may easily cause undesired vibration during movement. Therefore, in addition to the noises that affect the human health, the protecting chain is inapplicable in fields having high accuracy requirements because of the undesired vibration.
Therefore, the present invention is mainly directed to provide a motion platform having a wire-shaped body winding mechanism, which can coil cables on the motion platform, protect the cables, make the peripheral environment of the motion platform neat, and cause no noise or vibration.
To achieve the above objective, the motion platform having a wire-shaped body winding mechanism provided by the present invention has the main technical feature that a winding mechanism is combined on a motion platform to wind and accommodate a wire-shaped body having the desired length for movement of the platform and can wind or release the wire-shaped body with the displacement of the motion platform, so as to increase or reduce the length of the wire-shaped body extending out of the winding mechanism to conform to change of the position of the motion platform.
In the specific technical content, the motion platform having a wire-shaped body winding mechanism includes a fixed seat, a movable seat, a winding mechanism and a wire-shaped body. The fixed seat is used as a base for disposing other constituting elements, and capable of defining a virtual reference point at a fixed position according to the spatial position of the fixed seat. The movable seat is movably combined on the fixed seat and capable of performing movement like rotation or reciprocating displacement in a uniaxial or multiaxial direction, and changes positions relative to the fixed seat during the movement. The winding mechanism is combined on the fixed seat and has a rotary member for winding the wire-shaped body. The wire-shaped body has its main part except for the two ends wound on the rotary member, and has one end connected to a connecting portion of the movable seat and the other end corresponding to the position of the reference point.
Therefore, when the movable seat moves relative to the fixed seat and changes the distance between the connecting portion and the reference point, the length of the wire-shaped body extending out of the winding mechanism changes with the coiling or release of the wire-shaped body by the winding mechanism, such that the extension length of the wire-shaped body is similar to the distance between the connecting portion and the reference point.
As for the technical means of combining the winding mechanism and the fixed seat, no matter the winding mechanism is fixedly combined on the fixed seat or movably combined on the fixed seat in a sliding manner, the efficacies of the winding mechanism in coiling the wire-shaped body and in simplifying the environment and avoiding noises and vibration for the entire motion platform are not affected.
Accordingly, any winding mechanism capable of winding the wire-shaped body so as to control the length of the wire-shaped body extending out of the winding mechanism to conform to change of the spatial position of the movable seat relative to the fixed seat is considered as a technical means for achieving the main objective of the present invention, and the specific technical content of the winding mechanism is not limited.
Therefore, examples made for better understanding the present invention shall not be regarded as limitations to the present invention. Accordingly, the structure of the winding mechanism includes a first central shaft and two second central shafts parallel to the first central shaft, and the wire-shaped body is wound on the periphery of each second central shaft in an interlaced manner.
Further, the rotary member has a first rotary body that takes the first central shaft as a geometric center and rotates about the first central shaft, and two second rotary bodies that respectively take the second central shafts as geometric centers and are separately arranged at an axial end of the first rotary body, where the wire-shaped body is wound on the second rotary bodies in an interlaced manner.
To enable the relative displacement between the wire-shaped body and the second rotary bodies, the second rotary bodies can be made to respectively rotate about the second central shafts, or the contact surfaces of the second rotary bodies and the wire-shaped body have low friction, such that the relative displacement between the wire-shaped body and the second rotary bodies in the winding process can be carried out smoothly without hindering.
Further, the virtual reference point is used for describing the distance between relative positions after change of the spatial positions caused by movement of the movable seat and does not physically exist. Therefore, no matter being located at the fixed seat or the winding mechanism, the virtual reference point can be used for describing change of the displacement of the movable seat as long as the position of the virtual reference point is fixed.
In addition, the wire-shaped body is not limited to a cable for signal transmission, and may also be a delivery pipeline for transferring other substances like electric power, light, water, gas or oil which falls in the scope of the wire-shaped body of the present invention.
First, referring to
The structure of the motion platform (10) having a wire-shaped body winding mechanism includes a fixed seat (20), a movable seat (30), a winding mechanism (40) and a wire-shaped body (50).
The fixed seat (20) has a seat body (21) and two guide rails (22), where the seat body (21) is approximately a rectangular block, and the guide rails (22) are fixed in parallel on an upper seat surface of the seat body (21).
The movable seat (30) has a carrying table (31), a plurality of sliding blocks (32) and a connecting portion (33). The carrying table (31) is in the shape of a block. The sliding blocks (32) are slidably connected to the guide rails (22) respectively and are fixedly connected to the carrying table (31), such that the carrying table (31) can perform reciprocating displacement linearly by means of the sliding blocks (32) along the rail direction of the guide rails (22). The connecting portion (33) is located on one side of the carrying table (31), protrudes out of the seat body (21) and is used for electrical connection to an external conventional connector element.
The winding mechanism (40) is fixed on one side of the seat body (21) and is preferably located, relative to the seat body, at a position adjacent to the starting point of reciprocating displacement of the movable seat (30), and has a rotatable rotary member (41) on which the wire-shaped body is wound.
The wire-shaped body (50) in the present embodiment is a plurality of parallel wires (51) for transmitting electric signals and is wound on the rotary member (41) of the winding mechanism (40), where one end of each wire (51) is electrically connected to the connecting portion (33), and the other end of each wire (51) is located inside the winding mechanism (40) and is electrically connected to a conventional connector (60) fixed on the winding mechanism (40).
A fixed relative position relationship between the conventional connector (60) and the fixed seat (20) is indirectly established through the technical means of fixing, and therefore, a virtual reference point at the position of the conventional connector (60) is defined according to the fixed position state of the fixed seat (20).
Therefore, when the movable seat (30) performs reciprocating displacement on the guide rails (22), the relative positions between the connecting portion (33) and the conventional connector (60) are changed as shown in
Further, in the winding mechanism (40) of the present embodiment, as shown in
Specifically, the rotary member (41) has a first rotary body (411), where one end of the first rotary body (411) is column-shaped and the column shaft forms the first central shaft, and the other end of the first rotary body (411) is plate-shaped; and two second rotary bodies (412) that are column-shaped, where the second rotary bodies (412) are in parallel and are separately and indirectly arranged on the plate-shaped axial end of the first rotary body (411), the column shafts of the second rotary bodies (412) form the second central shafts respectively, the distance between each second rotary body (412) and the first rotary body (411) is equal, and the wire-shaped body (50) is wound between the second rotary bodies (412) in an interlaced manner.
Therefore, when the rotary member (41) rotates about the first central shaft for coiling as shown in
On the contrary, when the rotary member (41) rotates about the first central shaft for releasing as shown in
To reduce the resistance resulting from the contact of the wire-shaped body (50) with each second rotary body (412) in the coiling or releasing process, the state of contact may be rolling connection or slidable connection with low friction. As for the technical means of rolling connection provided in the present embodiment, the rotary member (41) further includes two rotary sleeves (413) which are tubular and are respectively sleeved on the second rotary bodies (412) and are located between the surfaces of the sleeved second rotary bodies (412) and the wire-shaped body (50) in contact with the second rotary bodies (412), such that when the wire-shaped body (50) moves relative to the second rotary bodies (412), rolling can be carried out by means of the rotary sleeves (413), so as to reduce the resistance generated during movement of the wire-shaped body (50) and make the coiling or releasing operation smooth.
Further, to make the wire-shaped body (50) remain in the coiled state normally without the effect of an external force, the winding mechanism (40) further has an elastic member (42) such as a volute spring, where one end of the elastic member (42) is connected to the rotary member (41), and the other end of the elastic member (42) is fixedly connected to a housing (43) of the winding mechanism (40), so as to provide an elastic force enabling the rotary member (41) to rotate for coiling as shown in
Meanwhile, when the guiding direction provided by the guide rails (22) is located in the Z-axis direction the same as the gravity direction in three-dimensional movement directions, the motion platform (10) of the present invention adopts the winding mechanism (40) to accommodate and protect the wire-shaped body (50), which solves the problem of space limitation because the extension length of a cable exceeds the overall height of a machine as compared with the structure in the prior art where an elastic sleeve pipe is used to protect a cable.
According to the above description, the motion platform (10) having a wire-shaped body winding mechanism enables the extension length of a linear item to change with the position of the movable seat (30) by means of the winding mechanism (40), such that a proper number of columns of the pipeline are provided on the periphery of the motion platform and no undesired part is left, thereby realizing a neat environment, preventing the dropping pipeline from hindering the operation, and avoiding the noise or vibration produced in the prior art.
In addition to the above embodiment where the conventional connector (60) is combined to the winding mechanism (40), a conventional connector (60a) may also be fixed on one end of a seat body (21a) and independent of a winding mechanism (40a) in a motion platform (10a) having a wire-shaped body winding mechanism according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention as shown in
Further referring to a motion platform (10b) having a wire-shaped body winding mechanism according to a third preferred embodiment of the present invention as show in
