Patent Application
20240308009
The present invention relates to a tool transport device that transports a tool between a machine tool including a tool magazine holding a plurality of tools and a tool storage device storing a plurality of tools.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-131937 discloses a known machine tool that includes a tool changer with the tool magazine as mentioned above. This tool changer is disposed in the vicinity of the machine tool. This tool changer is configured to grip a tool stored in the tool magazine with a tool gripping member and attach the tool to a spindle of the machine tool and to grip a tool attached to the spindle with the tool gripping member and detach the tool from the spindle and then store the tool into the tool magazine.
The tool gripping member is arranged to be movable between a tool receiving position and a tool transferring position and to be able to perform attachment/detachment of a tool at the tool receiving position and the tool transferring position. Further, the tool changer has a nozzle that is arranged to operate in conjunction with the tool gripping member and selectively ejects either air or oil toward the tool. The tool changer is configured to eject air toward a shank of the tool from the nozzle at a position before gripping of the tool with the tool gripping member and eject oil toward the shank of the tool from the nozzle at a position at which the tool is separated from the tool gripping member.
According to the disclosure, this tool changer provides the following effects. That is to say, the ejection of air toward the shank of the tool from the nozzle at the position before gripping of the tool with the tool gripping member cleans the shank of the tool, e.g., removes foreign objects adhering to the shank of the tool. Therefore, disadvantages caused by adhering foreign objects sticking fast to the tool, such as deterioration of the accuracy in attaching the tool to the spindle for the next cutting and failure to pull out the tool from the spindle, are prevented. Further, the ejection of oil toward the shank of the tool from the nozzle at the position at which the tool is separated from the tool gripping member improves the lubricity of the shank of the tool and prevents rusting or the like on the shank of the tool.
Patent Literature 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-131937
In the field of machine tools as described above, unmanned continuous operation for a long period of time has been planned in recent years. Further, various kinds of machining are performed in one machine tool nowadays. On these backgrounds, the number of tools to be stored and prepared in the tool magazine is now extremely large. On the other hand, there is a natural limit to the tool capacity of the tool magazine because of an issue in the installation space for the tool magazine.
Therefore, a machining system has been proposed in which a large-capacity tool storage device able to store a large number of tools is provided, a plurality of machine tools are arranged around the tool storage device, and a tool transport device is provided to transport a tool between a tool magazine of each machine tool and the tool storage device. In this machining system, it is possible to supply a tool necessary for each machine tool, from among the tools stored in the large-capacity tool storage device, to the tool magazine of the machine tool as necessary and as appropriate, which achieves both the unmanned continuous operation for a long period of time and the performance of various kinds of machining in one machine tool.
By the way, chips produced in machining and coolant used in the machining adhere to the tool used in the machining. Therefore, if the tool is transported to the tool storage device by the tool transport device as it is, the adhering chips and coolant may fall off during the transport, which leads to the problem that the transport path of the tool transport device and the periphery of the transport path are contaminated by the fallen-off chips and coolant. Further, the adhering chips and coolant may also fall off in the tool storage device, which leads to the problem that the interior of the tool storage device is contaminated by the fallen-off chips and coolant.
Similarly to the above-described conventional example, it is conceivable to eject air toward the tool to be transferred from the tool magazine to the tool transport device, thereby removing chips and coolant adhering to the tool. However, this measure results in the problem that the tool transfer area and the periphery of the tool transfer area are contaminated by the blown-off chips and coolant. Therefore, this measure is not a fundamental solution for protecting the transport path of the tool transport device and the periphery of the transport path from contamination by chips and coolant.
The present invention has been achieved in view of the above-described circumstances, and an object of the invention is to provide a tool transport device which is able to, in transporting a tool received from a tool magazine, clean the tool without contaminating the periphery of the tool magazine with chips and coolant.
To solve the above-described problem, the present invention provides a tool transport device transporting a tool between a machine tool including a tool magazine holding a plurality of tools and a tool storage device storing a plurality of tools, including:
This tool transport device transports a tool, for example, between one or more machine tools each including a tool magazine holding a plurality of tools and a tool storage device storing a plurality of tools. More specifically, under control by the controller, the moving table of the moving device moves between the working position set for each tool magazine and the working position set for the tool storage device, and the tool attachment/detachment robot arranged on the moving table performs extraction of a tool and storage of a tool from and into a target tool magazine and performs extraction of a tool and storage of a tool from and into the tool storage device.
In controlling the tool attachment/detachment robot to extract a tool from a target tool magazine, the controller loads the extracted tool into the air blow box through the opening and ejects pressurized air into the air blow box from the pressurized air ejection unit. Thereby, chips and coolant adhering to the extracted tool are blown off by the pressurized air so that the tool is cleaned. The thus cleaned tool is stored into the tool storage device by the tool transport device.
Thus, in this tool transport device, a tool extracted from the tool magazine is cleaned and then transported to and stored into the tool storage device. This prevents the occurrence of the problem that chips and coolant fall off during the transport and contaminate the transport path and the periphery of the transport path.
Note that the opening is preferably provided in a top surface of the air blow box. By virtue of gravity, this configuration prevents chips and coolant blown off from the tool by pressurized air from jumping out of the air blow box.
The tool transport device may have a configuration in which the pressurized air ejection unit includes a nozzle body disposed in the air blow box so as to eject pressurized air supplied from a pressurized air supply source, and a control valve controlled by the controller so as to control supply of pressurized air to the nozzle body. With this configuration, pressurized air with a high flow velocity is ejected from the nozzle body that has a throttle. Therefore, chips and coolant are blown off more successfully, so that the tool is cleaned more effectively. Further, the supply of pressurized air to the nozzle body is controlled (ON and OFF) with the control valve. Therefore, it is possible to eject pressurized air from the nozzle body only when the tool is loaded in the air blow box, which prevents wasteful power consumption.
The tool transport device may have a configuration in which the controller is configured to execute, as operations for extracting the tool from the tool magazine, at least a moving operation of moving the moving device to the working position set for the tool magazine, an extracting operation of causing the tool attachment/detachment robot to extract the tool from the tool magazine, a loading operation of causing the tool attachment/detachment robot to load the extracted tool into the air blow box, an ejecting operation of ejecting pressurized air from the nozzle body for a predetermined time by opening the control valve of the pressurized air ejection unit, an unloading operation of causing the tool attachment/detachment robot to unload the tool from the air blow box, and a stopping operation of stopping the ejection of pressurized air from the nozzle body by closing the control valve of the pressurized air ejection unit.
Further, the tool transport device may have a configuration in which the controller is configured to execute the moving operation and the extracting operation sequentially, then execute the loading operation and the ejecting operation simultaneously or such that one of the loading operation and ejecting operation precedes the other one of the loading operation and ejecting operation but these operations overlap each other for a predetermined time, and then execute the unloading operation and the stopping operation simultaneously or such that one of the unloading operation and stopping operation precedes the other one of the unloading operation and stopping operation. With this configuration, the execution of the loading operation and the execution of the ejecting operation overlap each other and the execution of the unloading operation and the execution of the stopping operation overlap each other. This enables the entire tool to be cleaned more effectively and reduces the processing time for cleaning the tool.
Further, the tool transport device may have a configuration in which the controller is configured to, in the loading operation, cause the tool attachment/detachment robot to rotate the tool about an axis of the tool for a predetermined time after loading the tool into the air blow box or a configuration in which the controller is configured to, in the loading operation, cause the tool attachment/detachment robot to reciprocate the tool in an axial direction of the tool for a predetermined time after loading the tool into the air blow box. Alternatively, the tool transport device may have a configuration in which the controller is configured to execute the rotating operation and the reciprocating operation sequentially in any order or simultaneously. These configurations enable chips and coolant adhering to the tool to be removed more effectively.
Further, the tool transport device may have a configuration in which the air blow box has a discharge port open to a bottom surface thereof and the air blow device has, at a position under the air blow box, a filter member for capturing chips. With this configuration, among chips and coolant blown off from the tool by pressurized air, the chips that are solid objects are captured by the filter member, while the coolant that is purified by the filter member is collected through the discharge port of the air blow box.
With the tool transport device according to the present invention, a tool extracted from the tool magazine is cleaned and then transported to and stored into the tool storage device; therefore, the occurrence of the problem that chips and coolant fall off during the transport and contaminate the transport path and the periphery of the transport path is prevented.
Hereinafter, a specific embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
As illustrated in
Each machine tool M is provided with a tool magazine TM storing a plurality of tools T and is configured to perform predetermined machining using the tools T stored in the tool magazine TM. Each machine tool M includes a numerical controller (not illustrated). The numerical controller (not illustrated) numerically controls motion mechanism units and controls operation of the tool magazine TM.
Each tool storage rack 6 consists of a plurality of holding frames 8 and a casing-like support frame 7. The holding frames 8 are erected at predetermined intervals along the B-C direction. The support frame 7 supports the holding frames 8. Each holding frame 8 has cutouts on both side faces thereof. The cutouts are arranged at predetermined pitches and are formed to be open outward. Tools T are engaged with and held by the cutouts in a state of being inserted in the cutouts.
The tool transport device 10 has a moving device 11, a moving table 15, a temporary tool placement table 20, a tool attachment/detachment robot 25, an air blow device 30, and a controller 50. The moving device 11 is arranged along the B-C direction. The moving table 15 is moved by the moving device 11. The temporary tool placement table 20, the tool attachment/detachment robot 25, and the air blow device 30 are arranged on the moving table 15. The controller 50 controls operations of the moving device 11, tool attachment/detachment robot 25, and air blow device 30.
The moving device 11 consists of a pair of guide rails 14, a support base 12, and a drive device 13. The guide rails 14 are arranged in parallel along the B-C direction to guide movement of the moving table 15. The support base 12 supports the guide rails 14. The drive device 13 moves the moving table 15.
For example, the drive device 13 consists of a rack (not illustrated) arranged along the B-C direction on the support base 12, a pinion gear (not illustrated) arranged on the moving table 15, and a motor (not illustrated) driving the pinion gear (not illustrated). The pinion gear (not illustrated) meshes with the rack (not illustrated). The pinion gear (not illustrated) is rotated by the motor (not illustrated), so that the moving table 15 is guided by the guide rails 14 and moved along the B-C direction through the meshing between the pinion gear (not illustrated) and the rack (not illustrated).
The position of the moving table 15 in the B-C direction is detected, for example, by a position detector (not illustrated) that consists of a scale (not illustrated) arranged along the B-C direction on the support base 12 and a reader (not illustrated) arranged on the moving table 15 to read a position on the scale (not illustrated). Under control by the controller 50, the moving table 15 is driven by the drive device 13 based on position information detected by the position detector (not illustrated) to move to a working position set for each machine tool M and a working position set for each tool storage rack 6. In this example, the position shown in
The robot 25 is composed of a six-axis articulated robot that has at the distal end of an arm thereof a hand 26 (end effector) for gripping a tool T. Under operation control by the controller 50, the hand 26 is moved to positions within a three-dimensional space and brought into poses. The hand 26 is composed of the so-called gripper that is able to grip an end of the tool T located on the side opposite to the cutting edge of the tool T.
The temporary tool placement table 20 has a holding frame 21 that has a plurality of cutouts 22. The cutouts 22 are arranged at predetermined pitches in the vertical direction and formed to be open outward. Tools T are engaged with and held by the cutouts 22 in a state of being inserted in the cutouts 22. The temporary tool placement table 20 is disposed within the motion range of the hand 26 of the robot 25.
The air blow device 30 has a rectangular air blow box 31, a rectangular collection box 36, a compressor 41 as a pressurized air supply source, a pipe 39, and a control valve 40. The collection box 36 is joined to a bottom surface of the air blow box 31. The control valve 40 is arranged in the middle of the pipe 39.
The air blow box 31 has in a top surface thereof a top opening 32 for loading and unloading of a tool T and has a bottom opening 35 in the bottom surface thereof. Further, the air blow box 31 has two upper nozzles 33, 33 at upper positions and two lower nozzles 34, 34 at lower positions in the interior space thereof. One side of the pipe 39 is branched and connected to each nozzle 33, 33, 34, 34. The other side of the pipe 39 is connected to the compressor 41. The air blow box 31 is disposed within the motion range of the hand 26 of the robot 25.
Thus, pressurized air is supplied from the compressor 41 to the nozzles 33, 33, 34, 34 through the pipe 39 and ejected from the nozzles 33, 33, 34, 34. The supply of pressurized air to the nozzles 33, 33, 34, 34 as well as stop of the supply are controlled by the control valve 40 that is controlled by the controller 50. In this example, the ejecting direction of each nozzle 33, 33, 34, 34 is set to a direction toward the center axis of the tool T loaded in the air blow box 31. However, the ejecting direction is not limited to this direction. The ejecting direction can be set appropriately to such a direction that chips and coolant adhering to the tool T are blown off effectively.
The collection box 36 has in a top surface thereof an opening 37 formed to correspond to the bottom opening 35 formed in the air blow box 31. The interior space of the air blow box 31 and the interior space of the collection box 36 communicate with each other through the bottom opening 35 and the opening 37. The collection box 36 has a filter 38 therein that is arranged at an intermediate position in the vertical direction to divide the interior space of the collection box 36 into two in the vertical direction. The space below the filter 38 in the collection box 36 is connected to a collection path (not illustrated) formed appropriately to connect to a drain collection unit of the machine tool M.
The controller 50 is composed of a computer including a CPU, a RAM, and a ROM and controls operations of the moving device 11, tool attachment/detachment robot 25, air blow device 30, and other elements as described above. The controller 50 operates the tool transport device 10 in accordance with a predetermined operation program to extract a commanded tool T from a commanded tool magazine TM and then transport the extracted tool T to store it into a commanded tool storage rack 6. Conversely, the controller 50 extracts a commanded tool T from a commanded tool storage rack 6 and then transports the extracted tool T to store it into a commanded tool magazine TM.
In particular, specific operations for causing the tool transport device 10 to extract a specified tool T from a specified tool magazine TM and store the tool T into a specified tool storage rack 6 under control by the controller 50 are described here. It is assumed that information on the target tool magazine TM, the target tool storage rack 6, and the target storage position in the tool storage rack 6 as well as the operation commands (extraction command and storage command) are transmitted from a host management device (not illustrated) to the controller 50. Further, information on the tool T to be extracted and the extraction command are transmitted from the host management device (not illustrated) to the numerical controller (not illustrated) of the machine tool M including the target tool magazine TM. Upon receiving these command and information, the numerical controller (not illustrated) moves the commanded tool T from the tool magazine TM to a set entry/exit position TMa and then transmits an extraction preparation completion signal to the controller 50.
Upon receiving the information on the target tool magazine TM, the target tool storage rack 6, and the target storage position in the tool storage rack 6 as well as the operation commands (extraction command and storage command) from the management device (not illustrated) as described above, the controller 50 first drives the drive device 13 of the moving device 11 to move the moving table 15 to the working position for the commanded tool magazine TM (moving operation). In this example, the moving table 15 is moved to the working position for the tool magazine TM shown in
Subsequently, upon completing the moving operation and receiving the extraction preparation completion signal from the target numerical controller (not illustrated), the controller 50 drives the tool attachment/detachment robot 25 to grip the tool T moved to the entry/exit position TMa in the tool magazine TM with the hand 26 and extract the tool T from the tool magazine TM (extracting operation). Thereafter, the controller 50 transmits an extraction completion signal to the numerical controller (not illustrated). Where there are two or more tools T to be extracted that are commanded by the host management device (not illustrated), the numerical controller (not illustrated) repeatedly carries out the process of moving the tool T to be extracted next to the entry/exit position TMa and transmitting the extraction preparation completion signal to the controller 50 after receiving the extraction completion signal from the controller 50.
Subsequently, as shown in
After pressurized air is ejected from the nozzles 33, 33, 34, 34 for a predetermined time as described above, the controller 50 drives the tool attachment/detachment robot 25 to unload the tool T from the air blow box 31 (unloading operation). Thereafter, the controller 50 inserts the unloaded tool T into an empty cutout 22 of the temporary tool placement table 20 so that the tool T is held by the temporary tool placement table 20 (temporary placing operation), and closes the control valve 40 to stop the ejection of pressurized air from the nozzles 33, 33, 34, 34 (stopping operation). Where there are two or more tools T to be extracted that are commanded by the host management device (not illustrated), the controller 50 sequentially executes the extracting operation, the loading operation, the ejecting operation, the unloading operation, the temporary placing operation, and the stopping operation after receiving the extraction preparation completion signal from the numerical controller (not illustrated) for each of the tools to be extracted.
After extracting the commanded tool T from the tool magazine TM, the controller 50 drives the drive device 13 of the moving device 11 to move the moving table 15 to the working position for the commanded tool storage rack 6 (transporting operation). Thereafter, the controller 50 drives the tool attachment/detachment robot 25 to store the tool T held on the temporary tool placement table 20 into the commanded storage position in the commanded tool storage rack 6 (storing operation). Where there are two or more tools T to be stored, this storing operation is executed for each tool T.
Thus, the controller 50 extracts the commanded tool T from the commanded tool magazine TM and then stores the tool T into the commanded tool storage rack 6. Further, the controller 50 is able to do the reverse in order to extract a commanded tool T from a commanded tool storage rack 6 and store the tool T into a commanded tool magazine TM. In this process, since the tool T in the tool storage rack 6 is supposed to be kept clean, the loading operation, the ejecting operation, the loading operation, the temporary placing operation, and the stopping operation that are to be executed in order to clean the tool T can be omitted.
As described above, the tool transport device 10 according to this embodiment is configured to clean a tool T extracted from the tool magazines TM with the air blow device 30 and then transport the tool T to the tool storage device 5 and store the tool T into the tool storage device 5. This prevents the occurrence of the problem that chips and coolant fall off during the transport and contaminate the transport path and the periphery of the transport path.
Further, the tool T is loaded into the air blow box 31 through the top opening 32 formed in the top surface of the air blow box 31. By virtue of gravity, this configuration prevents chips and coolant blown off from the tool by pressurized air from jumping out of the air blow box.
Further, in this example, pressurized air is ejected from the upper nozzles 33, 33 and lower nozzles respectively provided at the upper positions and lower positions in the interior of the air blow box 31. This configuration enables a flow of air with a high flow velocity to be ejected toward the tool T, so that the tool is cleaned more effectively. Further, the supply of pressurized air to the nozzles 33, 33, 34, 34 is controlled (ON and OFF) by the control valve 40 such that pressurized air is ejected from the nozzles 33, 33, 34, 34 only when the tool T is loaded in the air blow box 31. This configuration prevents waste of power.
Above has been described an embodiment of the present invention. However, it should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment and can be implemented in other manners.
For example, the controller 50 in the above-described embodiment is configured to sequentially execute the loading operation, the ejecting operation, the unloading operation, the temporary placing operation, and the stopping operation as operations for cleaning a tool T. However, the present invention is not limited to this configuration. The controller may be configured to execute the loading operation and the ejecting operation simultaneously or such that one of the loading operation and ejecting operation precedes the other one of the loading operation and ejecting operation but these operations overlap each other for a predetermined time, and then execute the unloading operation and the stopping operation simultaneously or such that one of the unloading operation and stopping operation precedes the other one of the unloading operation and stopping operation. With this configuration, the execution of the loading operation and the execution of the ejecting operation overlap each other and the execution of the unloading operation and the execution of the stopping operation overlap each other, which enables the entire tool T to be cleaned more effectively and reduces the processing time for cleaning the tool T.
Further, the controller 50 may be configured to, in the loading operation, cause the tool attachment/detachment robot 25 to rotate the tool T about an axis of the tool T for a predetermined time after loading the tool T into the air blow box 31. Alternatively, the controller 50 may be configured to cause the tool attachment/detachment robot 25 to reciprocate the tool T in an axial direction of the tool T for a predetermined time after loading the tool T into the air blow box 31. Alternatively, the controller 50 may be configured to execute the rotating operation and the reciprocating operation sequentially in any order or simultaneously. These configurations enable chips and coolant adhering to the tool T to be removed more effectively.
Further, in the above-described embodiment, pressurized air is ejected from the nozzles 33, 33, 34, 34 that have a throttle. However, the present invention is not limited to this configuration. As long as the effect of removing chips and coolant adhering to the tool T is obtained, being apart from whether the effect is good or not, the ejection of pressurized air into the air blow box 31 may be carried out by connecting a pipe 31 to the air blow box 31 so that pressurized air is ejected into the air blow box 31 from an opening of the pipe 31.
Further, the control valve 40 does not have to be provided if waste of power does not matter.
Further, in the above-described embodiment, one execution of the extraction, transport, and storage targets one tool magazine TM and one tool storage rack. However, the present invention is not limited to this configuration. One execution of the extraction, transport, and storage may target two or more tool magazines TM and two or more tool storage racks 6. In such a case, commanded tools T are extracted through sequential movement to commanded tool magazines TM and then the commanded tools T are stored through sequential movement to commanded tool storage racks 6.
The moving table 15 in the above-described embodiment is moved on the path formed by the guide rails 14. However, the present invention is not limited to this configuration. For example, the moving table 15 may be mounted on an automated guided vehicle and moved tracklessly by the automated guided vehicle.
As already mentioned above, the foregoing description of the embodiments is not limitative but illustrative in all aspects. One skilled in the art would be able to make variations and modifications as appropriate. The scope of the invention is not defined by the above-described embodiments, but is defined by the appended claims. Further, the scope of the invention encompasses all modifications made from the embodiments within a scope equivalent to the scope of the claims.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2021/007689 | 3/1/2021 | WO |
