Metal working – Method of mechanical manufacture – Assembling or joining
Patent
1985-04-15
1987-03-10
Rosenbaum, Mark
Metal working
Method of mechanical manufacture
Assembling or joining
29407, 29701, 29703, B21D 3903, B23Q 1700, B23P 2100
Patent
active
046481672
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a robot designed for assembling constitutive parts of objects, an assembling method using the robot, and the utilization of the method for assembling in series the constitutive parts of objects.
At present, the use of industrial robots is becoming increasingly diversified: new sections of the industry are progressively introducing the use of robots into areas where they were previously unknown; also, the operations robots are required to carry out are evolving to become for example more complex, more delicate, or more accurate. In manufacturing operations where large series of objects are processed, steps such as for example assembling, fitting, screwing or welding need to be done very accurately. Consequently, the objects have to be positioned very accurately on the working area.
Although the parts to be assembled can be positioned on the working area as accurately as needed by appropriate positioning devices, the processing of large series of objects requires a number of ancillary operations which are complex, and therefore slow down the whole operation. The problem which still remains to be solved today concerns the transport of the parts to the working area and their placement in contact with certain constitutive elements of the positioning system to give them the position and the orientation they need to have in the subsequent assembling step. These parts are still very often positioned by hand. In other cases, and in particular for transporting and positioning in series parts on the working area, plates are used for ensuring this positioning. Such plates can be made for example from thermoplastic material. The present day techniques of molding or thermoforming for example cannot provide plates which would adapt with a sufficient degree of accuracy to the parts which are to be manipulated, in particular when some of the steps mentioned above are to be carried out. In fact, the assembling robots known at this time cannot be used for transporting and positioning collectively and rationally series of parts to be assembled. These problems are advantageously overcome by using the robot of the present invention.
The present invention has precisely for object a robot designed for assembling constitutive parts of objects comprising at least one working head with a tool for performing above the working area with at least three degrees of freedom movements controlled by a program and a device in the working area providing for an accurate positioning of the parts to be manipulated in predetermined positions and orientations, characterized in that it comprises at least one removable preformed receptacle providing for the collective transport of the parts to be assembled to or from the working area, said receptacle being configured to maintain with a certain tolerance said parts in relative positions and orientations similar to those determined by the device and arranged to coperate with the latter.
The appended drawings illustrate purely by way of examples certain embodiments of the invention described above.
FIG. 1 is a side view of the robot according to the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the robot illustrated in FIG. 1,
FIGS. 3 and 4, respectively 5 and 6 are fragmentary plan views or side views of two particular versions of the robot of the invention, and
FIG. 7 and respectively 8 and 9 are a fragmentary paln view and fragmentary side views of yet another version of the robot of the invention.
Referring now to the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 1 and 2, the robot comprises a base 1 supporting the posts 2 on which are mounted the carrying means 3 for guiding at least one working head 4. Said working head comprises a main body 5 cooperating with the guiding means 3 on the top of which is mounted a housing 5' and a motor 6, or any other device capable of rotating said working head around its axis 7. It is for example through this axis 7 that the head 4 can be connected to the control means. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the head 4 is provided wi
REFERENCES:
patent: 4080730 (1978-03-01), Woodman
patent: 4476627 (1984-10-01), Matsuura et al.
IEEE Transactions on Computer "An Experimental System for Computer Controlled Mechanical Assembly" vol. 24, #9, pp. 879-888, Sep. 1975.
C O D Inter Techniques SA
Nichols Steven
Rosenbaum Mark
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