The invention relates to a press forming method in which a slide plate is maintained to be horizontal during press forming, using a press machine that drives a slide plate or a pressing plate by a plurality of drive sources, e.g. servo-motors, to press-form.
A press machine for press-forming a work-piece has a structure which has a fixed plate, a slide plate opposite to the fixed plate, a fixed die disposed on the fixed plate and a movable die disposed on the slide plate facing the fixed plate to open and close the movable die against the fixed die by moving the slide plate relatively to the fixed plate. In a small press machine, there is a single drive source provided in a center of a slide plate. Using a large slide plate, the single drive source disposed in a center of the slide plate cannot uniformly press the slide plate. Therefore, using a plurality of drive sources to cause a uniform pressing force on a slide plate, each of the plurality of drive sources presses a respective engaging portion disposed on the slide plate to form a press plane on the slide plate. As the plurality of drive sources, two, four or six ones, for example, have been used.
When a slide plate is descending against a fixed plate to close a movable die against a fixed die and to increase a pressing force, magnitudes of loads working on the movable die through a plate to be formed are changing and working positions of the loads on the movable die are, also, varying. The variations of the magnitudes and the working positions of the loads cause imbalance on load working on the slide plate. A distance from a working position of a load on the slide plate to a drive source, also, is varied. Then, imbalance in load moments acting to the drive sources is caused.
When servo-motors are used for drive sources of a press machine, revolutions of the servo-motors are delayed by loads working to the drive sources. So, since a drive source subjected to a large load is more delayed in proceeding than a drive source subjected to a small load, a slide plate is caused to incline relatively to a fixed plate. The inclination of the slide plate causes a die to incline and often to be injured. When the inclination of the slide plate is small, the die is not injured but may reduce accuracy in press-forming a work-piece.
As a countermeasure, an inclination of a slide plate has been corrected by detecting/measuring the inclination of the slide plate during a progress of the press-forming and adjusting a driving signal supplied to each of the drive sources to reduce/eliminate the inclination of the slide plate. Such a feed-back control can prevent the slide plate from inclining during press-forming.
However, when a slide plate inclination is prevented during press-forming by the feed-back control, a cycle of press forming takes a long time. In a press-forming of a work piece, it is usual that a same kind of work-pieces is repeatedly formed to produce a large number of work-pieces. If a cycle of press-forming takes a long time, there is a problem that a production of a large number of work-pieces takes an extremely long time.
An object of the invention, therefore, is to provide a press-forming method that enables press-forming at a high forming speed suitable for mass production, while maintaining a slide plate horizontal.
A press forming method of the invention comprises the steps of:
Saying in more detail, the press forming method of the invention comprises the steps of.
In the press forming method described above, it is desirable that the reference drive source is a drive source having a minimum displacement delay from the instructed displacement at a displacement among the plurality of drive sources.
Also, in the press forming method of the invention, it is desirable that the predetermined value for comparing the difference between the displacement delay of each of the plurality of drive sources and the reference delay is a first predetermined value, and the method further comprises:
Referring to
Four of the combinations of servo-motors and decelerating mechanisms are mounted on the upper support plate 30 as drive sources 60a, 60b, 60c and 60d. Drive shafts 61a, 61b, 61c and 61d that extend in a downward direction from each of the drive sources through through-holes provided in the upper support plate 30 are engaged with each of engaging portions 62a, 62b, 62c and 62d on the slide plate 40. For example, a ball screw is attached to each of the drive shafts so as to convert revolution into an up and down movement, and the slide plate is moved up and down by revolution of the serve-motors. Driving mechanisms are constructed by the drive sources, the drive shafts and the engaging portions.
It is preferable that these drive sources are positioned so that pushing pressure onto the slide plate by a plurality of drive sources 60a, 60b, 60c and 60d horizontally presses the slide surface and is distributed uniformly on the slide plate. It is preferable that these servo-motor drive sources generate the pushing pressure of equal magnitude to each other, namely, generate equal output force.
As is apparent from the plan view of
The reference plate 70 that is provided under the upper support plate 30 with a clearance with the upper support plate in
A control system block diagram of the press machine is illustrated in
When a work-piece is press-formed, a distance by which each of the drive sources descends by a driving signal which is inputted into each of the drive sources when there is no load is referred to as an instructed displacement. Since load acts on each of the drive sources engaged with the slide plate as a result of press-forming a work-piece, the descending distance or displacement of each of the drive sources delays from the instructed displacement due to the load. While trial forming of the work-piece is performed in step 2, delay from the instructed displacement of each of the drive sources is measured in step 3.
In the process of press-forming a work-piece, it is general to change the descending speed of the slide plate at each stage of press-forming the work-piece, such as the stage of forming a large part of the work-piece, the stage of forming a small part of the work-piece, the stage of applying uniform load after the press-forming of the work-piece is substantially finished, and the stage of making the slide plate ascend. At each of these stages, load acting on the slide plate and each of the drive sources from forming dies changes. Thus, it is assumed that the work-piece press-forming process is divided into a plurality of forming stages, and the descending speed of the slide plate can be made constant during each of the stages.
The slide plate descends from displacement 0, and forming starts at displacement 10, and one of stages of forming is set to be from displacement 1m
After the process step, the difference between the maximum delay of each of the drive sources from the instructed displacement and the reference delay is compared with a predetermined value, and a driving speed of the reference drive source in the trial forming in step 2 is compared with a target speed of the reference drive source for production forming. In the following process steps, speed of each of the drive sources is adjusted so that the slide plate inclination is within a predetermined value, and the speed of each of the drive sources is increased to a target speed for the production forming, to meet the speed of each of the drive sources suitable for the production forming.
The largest delay of each of the drive sources is compared with the delay of the reference drive source (for example, the minimum delay among the maximum delays of the respective drive sources), and it is judged whether the difference between these delays is a difference in delay to such an extent as not to cause damage to the mold, namely, the slide plate inclination is about 100 μm at the maximum or not. As another determination reference, it is judged whether the slide plate inclination is small enough to ensure sufficient production accuracy or not. An allowable value of the slide plate inclination capable of ensuring sufficient product accuracy is required to be extremely smaller than the allowable value of the slide plate inclination to the extent which does not causes damage to the mold, and the judgment reference is that the difference in delay is about 3 μm.
In step 4 in
When the difference between the maximum delays δb, δc and δd of the drive sources 60b, 60c and 60d and the reference delay δmin is larger than the first predetermined value α1, the flow goes to step 5. In step 5, the speed of each drive source n is compensated in accordance with the difference between the maximum delay δn and the reference delay δmin, so that the difference in delay is eliminated. If the maximum delay among δb, δc and δd occurs to the drive source 60c as in the example shown in
In the invention, a compensation increments ΔVn (n: b, c, d) of respective speeds of the drive sources can be prepared as follows. A delay δn of an actual displacement from an instructed displacement is generally expressed by a function of a speed Vn and a load Pn in the portion on which the load P acts, and therefore, δn=f (Vn, Pn). The speed Vn at which the delay δn of the drive source n becomes equal to the delay δmin of the drive source 60a can be prepared as follows.
Namely, in order to satisfy δn−δmin=0, f (Vn, Pn)=f (Va, Pa) (here, Pa is a load acting on the drive source 60a) is satisfied, and therefore the speed Vn required by the drive source n can be prepared by previously measuring the loads Pa and Pn (n: b, c, d) which act on the drive sources 60a, 60b, 60c and 60d in each stage of the press-forming. The speed Vn thus prepared is the result of adding the compensation increment ΔVn to the speed Va of the drive source 60a. The speed of each of the drive sources can be set by adding 50 to 90% of the prepared compensation increment ΔVn by using a safety factor: 50 to 90%.
In step 6, it is judged whether the speed of each of the drive sources is a target speed for the production forming or not. It is judged whether the difference between the speed during the aforementioned trial forming of each of the drive sources and the target speed for the production forming is within a predetermined speed difference or not, and when it is not within the predetermined speed difference, a speed increment ΔV′ is prepared and the speed increment ΔV′ is added to the speed of each of the drive sources to make the speed closer to the target speed. As shown in step 7, the speed of each drive source n becomes V (speed during the previous trial forming)+ΔVn (compensation increment)+ΔV′(speed increment).
In step 6, it is not necessary to perform judgment for all the drive sources, but judgment is performed for only one of the drive sources, and in accordance with the result, the speed increment ΔV′ is added to the speeds of all the drive sources. For example, it is preferable that the drive source for which the judgment is performed is the reference drive source with the smallest delay among the drive sources. The drive source with the smallest delay among the drive sources is the one with the slowest speed, and therefore, the entire drive source speeds can be made to reach the target speed in a short time by a small number of repetitions of the loop for correcting the speed. The speed increment prepared and added here is preferably set at about ⅓ of the difference between the target speed and the previous trial forming speed when the determination and the loop of correcting the speed are repeated about three times. If the speed is increased too abruptly, a large inclination occurs to the slide plate during the next trial forming and a trouble sometimes occurs. Therefore, it is suitable to prepare a proper speed increment experimentally or in simulation.
When the difference between the speed of the drive source during the previous trial forming and the target speed for the production forming is within the predetermined speed difference in the judgment of step 6, the flow goes to step 8. In step 8, the speed of each drive source n is set to be V (speed during the previous trial forming)+ΔVn (compensation increment). Here, the speed of the drive source is high enough to be able to be used in the production forming, and therefore, only the compensation increment for correcting the slide plate inclination is added.
When the difference between any of the maximums δn (n: a, b, c, d) of the delays of the actual displacements of the drive sources from the instructed displacement and the reference delay δmin is less than or equal to the first predetermined value α1, it is not necessary to prepare a compensation increment to correct the slide plate inclination. Thus, the flow goes to step 9, and it is judged whether the speed of the drive source is the target speed for the production forming or not, like in step 6. It is determined whether the difference between the speed of the drive source during the previous trial forming and the target speed for the production forming is within the predetermined speed difference or not, and when it is not within the predetermined speed difference, the flow goes to step 10. In step 10, the speed is set at the speed which is prepared by adding a speed increment ΔV′ to the speed of each of the drive sources. This is described for step 7 in the above, and therefore, refer to the explanation.
In steps 7, 8 and 10, the speed Vn of each drive source n is set at V (speed during the previous trial forming)+ΔVn (compensation increment)+ΔV′(speed increment), and the flow returns to step 2 to perform retrial forming. Subsequently, the delay of each of the drive sources from the instructed displacement is measured during the trial forming (step 3), the difference between the delay of each of the drive sources and the reference delay is compared with the first predetermined value α1 (step 4), and the speed of the drive source during the previous trial forming is compared with the target speed for the production forming (step 6 and step 9). Until the difference between the delay of each of the drive sources and the reference delay becomes less than or equal to the first predetermined value α1, and until the difference between the speed during the trial forming and the target speed is within the predetermined speed difference, step 5 for preparing the compensation increment ΔVn and the loop of preparing the speed increment ΔV′, resetting the speed of each of the drive sources in steps 7, 8 and 10 and performing the trial forming are repeated.
When the difference between the delay of each of the drive sources and the reference delay is less than or equal to the first predetermined value α1 in step 4, and when the difference between the speed of the drive source and the target speed is within the predetermined speed difference in step 9, the flow goes to step 15, and production forming of the work-piece can be performed by driving each of the drive sources at the speed set at this time. In the production forming, the speed of each of the drive sources is set to be the speed close to the target speed for the production forming, and therefore, press-forming can be performed at a high forming speed suitable for the production forming. However, the slide plate inclination is adjusted, based on the judgment whether the delay difference is less than or equal to the first predetermined value α1 or not in step 4. The first predetermined value α1 is a comparatively large value to an extent which does not cause damage to the mold, and therefore, it cannot be said that accuracy of the products is sufficiently ensured. Therefore, a second predetermined value α2 which is a smaller judgment value can be used in step 4 in order to see whether the inclination is small enough to ensure the accuracy of the products.
Alternatively, in step 11, the difference between the delay of each of the drive sources and the reference delay is judged about whether or not it is larger than the second predetermined value α2 which is smaller than the first predetermined value α1 and is the judgment value to the extent to ensure sufficient accuracy of the product, and when the difference between the delay of each of the drive sources and the reference delay is larger than the second predetermined value α2, the flow goes to step 12 and on. In step 12, an additional compensation increment of the speed of the drive source is prepared in accordance with the difference between the delay of each of the drive sources and the reference delay, the drive source speed is finely adjusted by using it, and trial forming of a work-piece is performed again in step 13. During the trial forming, the delay of each of the drive sources is measured in step 14, then the loop is repeated until the difference between the delay of each of the drive sources and the reference delay becomes less than or equal to the second predetermined value α2, and when the difference between the delay of each of the drive sources and the reference delay becomes less than or equal to the second predetermined value α2, the flow goes to step 15, where the production forming of a work-piece is performed. In this manner, a production forming can be performed at high forming speed suitable for the production forming when the work-pieces are manufactured in production forming, and the slide plate inclination to the extent of ensuring sufficient product accuracy is obtained.
When work-pieces are press-formed while the horizontal state of the slide plate is maintained by a feedback control, much time is taken for one cycle of the press-forming. However, if the production forming is performed by setting the speed of each of the drive sources so that the horizontal state of the slide plate can be maintained as in the invention, high descending speed of the slide plate can be selected in the production forming, and therefore, during press-forming, the forming can be performed at high forming speed suitable for production forming while the slide plate is maintained horizontal to the extent of ensuring sufficient product accuracy.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2002-311076 | Oct 2002 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/JP03/12939 | 10/9/2003 | WO | 00 | 2/9/2005 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2004/037530 | 5/6/2004 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20050257697 A1 | Nov 2005 | US |