Metal deforming – With means to handle work or product – With means to store workpieces
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-06
2002-10-15
Tolan, Ed (Department: 3725)
Metal deforming
With means to handle work or product
With means to store workpieces
C072S016400, C072S017300, C072S082000, C072S405130, C072S405160, C072S422000, C414S796700, C414S796900, C700S109000, C700S114000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06463781
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for drawing an outer cylinder of a rubber bush comprising an inner cylinder serving as a shaft member, the outer cylinder disposed around the inner cylinder and a rubber elastic body interposed between the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder.
2. Description of the Related Art
An outer appearance of the rubber bush is shown in FIGS.
1
. This rubber bush
1
is used for a connecting portion of an automobile such as a suspension, and comprises a metal inner cylinder
2
serving as a shaft member, a metal outer cylinder
3
coaxially disposed around the inner cylinder
2
, and an elastic body such as a rubber
4
interposed in the space between the inner cylinder
2
and the outer cylinder
3
.
A molding process of the rubber bush
1
will be explained briefly. First, the inner cylinder
2
and the outer cylinder
3
are positioned in predetermined positions in a forming die. Then, rubber material is charged into the forming die an injection molding method or the like. With this process, the rubber bush
1
having a shape shown in
FIG. 1
can be formed. After the rubber bush
1
is taken out from the forming die, the rubber
4
shrinks and thus, an outer peripheral portion of the rubber
4
and an inner peripheral surface
3
a
try to separate from each other. To prevent the separation of the rubber
4
and the outer cylinder
3
, adhesive is applied to the inner peripheral surface
3
a
of the outer cylinder
3
, thereby preventing the rubber
4
and the outer cylinder
3
from separating from each other.
However, the rubber
4
still tries to shrink after the formation, residual distortion remains in the rubber bush
1
, and this residual distortion adversely affects quality of the rubber bush
1
. Thereupon, in order to eliminate the residual distortion, the outer cylinder
3
is subjected to drawing working to reduce its diameter. For this purpose, a system for drawing the outer cylinder of the rubber bush
1
is known. A structure of conventional the system is shown in FIGS.
9
.
FIG. 9A
is a plan view of the system. This system comprises a turning table
100
on which a large number of formed rubber bush
1
are on standby, a drawing apparatus
101
for drawing an outer cylinder of the rubber bush
1
, and a robot apparatus
102
for transferring the rubber bush
1
from the turning table
100
to the drawing apparatus
101
.
The turning table
100
is provided with six piling portions
100
A,
100
B, . . . along the circumferential direction of the turning table
100
. As shown in
FIG. 9B
, a plurality of rubber bushes
1
are piled up in the vertical direction on the piling portion. A chuck member
102
a
of the robot apparatus
102
grasps the rubber bush
1
located at a height of a robot grasping position of the piling portion
100
A and transfers it to the drawing apparatus
101
. The rubber bush
1
located at the grasping position is shown with a symbol
1
A.
If the rubber bush
1
at the grasping position was transferred, the chuck member
102
a
sets a next rubber bush (located immediately below the transferred rubber bush) to a grasping position, a pushing-up member
103
is driven upward by means of a linear motor or the like. With this operation, the next chuck operation is ready.
At present, three rubber bushes
1
are piled up on the piling portion
100
A, and if all of the rubber bushes
1
are transferred by the robot apparatus
102
, the rubber bushes
1
on the other piling portion
100
B are transferred.
The action in such a case will be explained. First, the pushing-up member
103
is driven downward for standby (shown with phantom line).
Next, the turning table
100
is turned in a direction of an arrow (clockwise direction) to move the piling portion
100
B to a position where the piling portion
100
A existed. A turning amount of the turning table
100
is about 60° in the example shown in FIG.
9
A. Then, the pushing-up member
103
is driven upward again, and one of the uppermost rubber bush
1
is grasped and set to the grasping position. Thereafter, the robot apparatus
102
restarts the transfer operation.
However, the above structure has the following problem. That is, when the piling portions are switched, an operation for retreating the pushing-up member
103
and an operation for turning the turning table
100
through a predetermined angle are required. Therefore, cycle time for transferring the rubber bush becomes longer when the piling portions are switched, which lowers productivity. More specifically, the cycle time when the piling portions are not switched can be some seconds, but if the piling portions are switched, the Cycle time is deferred to about 20 seconds.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Thereupon, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system for drawing an outer cylinder of a rubber bush having high operational efficiency and capable of maintaining the same cycle time even if piling portions are switched or not switched.
To achieve the above object, there is provided a system for drawing an outer cylinder of a rubber bush comprising an inner cylinder serving as a shaft member, the outer cylinder disposed around the inner cylinder and a rubber elastic body interposed between the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder, comprising
a first turning table having at least two piling portions on which the rubber bushes to be drawn are piled up in a vertical direction;
a second turning table having at least two piling portions on which the rubber bushes to be drawn are piled up in a vertical direction;
a first driving apparatus for bringing up the rubber bushes piled up on the piling portion of the first turning table to a predetermined robot grasping position;
a second driving apparatus for bringing up the rubber bushes piled up on the piling portion the second turning table to a predetermined robot grasping position;
a drawing apparatus having a die for drawing the outer cylinder of the rubber bush;
a robot apparatus for grasping and transferring the rubber bush located at the robot grasping position to set the same to a predetermined position of the die;
a control apparatus for controlling the robot apparatus such that the rubber bushes from the piling portion of one of the first and second turning tables are sequentially transferred to the die, and if the transfer of all the former rubber bushes from the piling portion was completed, the rubber bushes from the piling portion of the other one of the first and second turning tables and transferred.
The system of the present invention includes the first and second turning tables each having at least two piling portions on which the rubber bushes to be drawn are piled up in a vertical direction. The robot apparatus grasps and transfers the rubber bush located at the robot grasping position to the die of the drawing apparatus.
Here, it is supposed the robot apparatus sequentially transfers the rubber bushes from the piling portion of the first turning table. If all the rubber bushes piled up on the piling portion are transferred, it is necessary to switch the piling portions. At that time, the piling portion of the second turning table is selected as the piling portion on which the next rubber bush is to be transferred. While the rubber bushes are transferred from the first turning table, the second turning table can finish setting the rubber bushes to the robot grasping position. Therefore, during the switching of the piling portions, there is no loss of time by the rotating operation of the turning table and the operation of the driving apparatus. While the rubber bushes are transferred from the second turning table, the first turning table can finish setting rubber bushes to the robot grasping position. Thereafter, the transfer from the first turning table and the transfer from the second turning table are alternately repeated.
As described above, it is possible to provide a system for drawing the outer cylinder of the rubber bush capable of maintaining the same cycle time ev
Nakai Osamu
Watanabe Toshihiro
Jordan and Hamburg LLP
Tolan Ed
Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd.
LandOfFree
System for drawing outer cylinder of rubber bush does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with System for drawing outer cylinder of rubber bush, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and System for drawing outer cylinder of rubber bush will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2999937