Tool changing – Process
Patent
1997-04-14
1998-04-07
Briggs, William R.
Tool changing
Process
83481, 483 13, 483 31, 483 63, 483901, B23Q 3157, B26D 124
Patent
active
057357820
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a device and a method for setting up and dismantling a set of tools on a tool magazine, for example slitting tools in a slitter. Such a slitter comprises a mill stand with an upper and a lower roll, on which a number of tools are set up, such as cutting rings, spacer rings, and pressure disks. A long plate wound on a roller is brought to run through the mill stand, whereby the plate is cut into smaller widths suited to the customers.
BACKGROUND ART
A production cycle in a slitter comprises cutting out, tool exchange, adjustments, etc. The productive part of the cycle is the actual cutting out, that is, the time it takes to cut out a plate in a mill stand. The inactive part of the cycle may be designated set-up time, which substantially comprises time for handling the plate and time for setting up and dismantling cutting tools on the mill stand. Cutting out in a mill stand of a plate from a plate roll of about 60 tons takes about 10 minutes whereas the set-up time is considerably longer. For efficient production it is required that, above all, the set-up time be minimized and that part of the set-up time may occur in parallel with the cutting out.
A method for setting up a mill stand is known, in which a set-up device with four pairs of bars are used as intermediate storage for pre-mounted tool sets for cutting out. The set-up device is adapted to be moved between a mounting station, where premounting of tool sets takes place, and a docking station at the mill stand, where the pairs of bars of the set-up device are docked with the roll pair in the mill stand. For this purpose, the end wall of the mill stand can be opened and the rolls be removed from each other such that tool sets from the bars of the set-up device may be independently transferred to the rolls of the mill stand. After setting up, the end wall is closed and the rolls are moved towards each other such that the lower and upper cutting tools engage with each other. The method may also be used when dismantling tool sets, in which case the procedure described above is carried out in reverse order.
Such a plant with a set-up device provided with bars is described, for example, in the pamphlet "Rational Coil Slitting System" (RCSS), published by, inter alia, ABB Production Development AB, and shown is FIG. 1. Two robots are each fetching tools with the aid of an annular gripper from a plurality of tool magazines in separate tool storages and mount the tools on the pair of bars. One robot mounts on the upper bar and the other robot on the lower bar. A tool set comprises a combination of a large number of annular tools, such as cutting rings, spacer rings, and pressure disks. The tools are stored, with their plane surfaces horizontally oriented, as piles in vertical tool magazines. For fetching a tool, each robot gripper is first oriented horizontally over the pile of tools in a selected magazine, whereupon the gripper is lowered until mechanical contact is obtained with the uppermost tool. Three mechanical hooks grip centrally from the inside about the annular tool and lift it out of the tool magazine. The robot then positions the gripper transversally with the secured tool and at the same time moves it to a point right in front of the bar served by the robot. During the movement, the gripper is aligned such that the tool is oriented with its axis parallel to and centred with the longitudinal axis of the bar. Upon attained position and alignment, the tool is pushed onto the bar and detached from the gripper, whereafter the robot returns to mount the next tool in a repeated cycle. When dismounting, the method described above is carried out in reverse order.
Whereas previously the tools were mounted manually direct on the pair of rolls in the mill stand, the introduction of the set-up device entails a considerable saving of time since the tool mounting may be carried out in parallel with the cutting out in the mill stand. The introduction of robots for mounting of the tool sets on the set-up device
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Asea Brown Boveri AB
Briggs William R.
LandOfFree
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