Material or article handling – Apparatus for moving intersupporting articles into – within,... – Stack forming apparatus
Patent
1998-02-11
2000-07-11
Morse, Gregory A.
Material or article handling
Apparatus for moving intersupporting articles into, within,...
Stack forming apparatus
36447801, 414797, 901 46, B65H 308
Patent
active
060863218
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a handling method and a robot used for the method, and more particularly to a handling method and a robot used for the method where works which are stacked on a stack base are loaded one by one to a working machine such as a press or a press brake or a packaging machine such as a binder, or machined works are stacked on a stack base one after another.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 10, this type of robot is disposed in the periphery of a working machine 50 and is provided with a plurality of arms 52 which are connected by a plurality of revolute joints 51. A hand 53 mounted on the front most arm 52 is regulated to trace a plurality of points which are preliminarily taught. The hand 53 is provided with a gripping element such as a vacuum cup 54 and a sensor 56 which detects a work 55 coming into contact with the vacuum cup 54 as the hand 53 is descended. To load the work 55 to the working machine 50, a work searching operation is carried out in which the ha nd 53 is firstly shifted to a position which is located a predetermined distance right above the works 55 stacked on a sheet stack base 57. The hand 53 is then descended slowly until the sensor 56 detects the vacuum cup 54 coming into contact with the work 55 and then the descending of the hand 53 is stopped. When the descending operation of the arm 52 is stopped upon detection of the work 55, the operation is succeeded by a next operation such as a transferring of the work 55 to the working machine 50. On the other hand, in case that a work 58 after machining is to be stacked on a product stack base 59 one after another, the above-mentioned operation is carried out substantially in the same manner but in a reverse mode. Namely, the sensor detects the work 58 gripped by the vacuum cup 54 coming into contact with the product stack base 59 and evacuates or releases the suction force of the vacuum cup 54 thus allowing the vacuum cup 54 to advance to a transferring of a next work 58 to the product stack base 59. In FIG. 10, a numeral 60 indicates a control panel.
In the above-mentioned method, the arm 52 is slowly descended from the highest position which is higher than the uppermost stacked work. Accordingly, in case that the works 55, 58 which are stacked on the stack base 57,59 are small in number, time is wasted and a cycle time is elongated. The task of the present invention substantially lies in making the cycle time short employing the above-mentioned conventional apparatus and method.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
The handling method according to the present invention is a method for approaching a work gripping hand toward a stack base and works stacked on the stack base so as to pick up or stack works and is characterized in that the method comprises (a) a step of positioning the hand a predetermined distance above the stack base, (b) a step of allowing the hand to approach at high speed to a deceleration starting position a predetermined distance higher than the height of works stored in a memory, (c) a step of making the hand to approach at low speed to the height of works stored in the memory from the deceleration starting position and (d) a step of stopping the hand at the height of works stored in the memory and gripping the work or releasing the gripped work.
An additional mode of the handling method according to the present invention comprises (a) a work search step of positioning the hand at a position a predetermined distance above the stack base and allowing the arm to approach the stack base at low speed until the work or the stack base disposed below the hand is detected and stopping the hand when the work or the stack base is detected, (b) a step of storing the detected position as the height of works, (c) a gripping step of gripping the work or releasing the gripped work at the hand stopped position, (d) an intermediate step for advancing to a next step, (e) a high speed approaching step of positioning the hand again at a position a predetermined distance a
REFERENCES:
patent: 4228993 (1980-10-01), Cathers
patent: 4547115 (1985-10-01), Charbonnet
patent: 4565478 (1986-01-01), Ericsson
patent: 4750132 (1988-06-01), Pessina et al.
patent: 4978275 (1990-01-01), Reid et al.
patent: 5017075 (1991-05-01), Block
Nakajima Atsushi
Shiomichi Yukimasa
Takahashi Toshiyuki
Morse Gregory A.
Toyo Kohan Co. Ltd.
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