Material or article handling – Apparatus for moving intersupporting articles into – within,... – Stack forming apparatus
Reexamination Certificate
2002-12-09
2004-11-16
Hess, Douglas (Department: 3651)
Material or article handling
Apparatus for moving intersupporting articles into, within,...
Stack forming apparatus
C414S792900, C414S802000, C414S902000, C901S007000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06817829
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a work loading method for an automatic palletizer preferable for reduction in cycle time of press working, a work loading method and a work loading apparatus that are preferable for positioning a work, which is carried out of a press, with a centering device and transferring it to a pallet with a robot and the like, and an attachment replacing method for the work loading apparatus, which is preferable for replacing an attachment for positioning the work and an attachment of a loading robot for holding the work, according to the work.
BACKGROUND ART
An automatic palletizer which is placed at a work carrying-out side of a press line is for automatically holding and transferring a worked work (a panel and the like), which is carried out with a carrying-out conveyor or the like and is positioned with a centering device, and loading it into a pallet to house it therein. Here, as one of important factors to improve cycle time of a press work line, the cycle time of an automatic palletizer is cited. Several automatic palletizer systems are conventionally proposed for this purpose, and for example, the automatic palletizer apparatus disclosed in Japanese Granted Patent No. 3134599 is known. FIG.
36
and
FIG. 37
are a plan view and a side view of the automatic palletizer apparatus disclosed in the same patent, and the prior art will be explained below according to FIG.
36
and FIG.
37
.
A carrying-out conveyor
154
is provided at a work carrying-out side of a press
152
, and a vertically separating conveyor
155
for vertically separating works W is provided at an end portion of the carrying-out conveyor
154
at a downstream side. Conveyors
156
and
157
are respectively provided at an upper and lower carrying-out ports of the vertically separating conveyor
155
, and two out of palletizing robots
161
a
,
161
b
,
161
c
and
161
d
are placed on a left and two on a right in a work transfer direction of each of the conveyors
156
and
157
, four palletizing robots in total. Each of the robots
161
a
to
161
d
holds and transfers the worked works W, which are positioned by centering devices (not shown) provided at the conveyors
156
and
157
, and loads them into a pallet
162
to house them therein.
In the automatic palletizer apparatus disclosed in the above-described Japanese Granted Patent No. 3134599, palletization is performed with a plurality of robots
161
a
to
161
d
, and therefore the cycle time can be improved. However, in order to avoid interference between a plurality of robots, they are placed with the large spacing between them in the vertical and horizontal directions. Consequently, a large installation space is required for the automatic palletizer apparatus, thus causing the problem that the entire press line becomes long and the exclusive area of the line occupies a large area in the factory building area. For such a reason, an automatic palletizer apparatus, which can respond to a short cycle time of press working by reducing the installation space for a plurality of robots and eliminating the interference between the robots, is demanded.
Incidentally, when a work such as a panel carried out of the transfer press is loaded into the pallet with use of the robots, cycle time of the devices at the downstream side such as loading robots takes a longer time with respect to the cycle time of the press (press cycle), which becomes an obstacle in the improvement in the cycle time of the entire press working line. As loading devices to solve this problem, the ones that are disclosed in Japanese Granted Patent No. 2677082 and the above-described Japanese Granted Patent No. 3134599 are known.
FIG. 38
is a plan view of a work loading device disclosed in Japanese Granted Patent No. 2677082. A feed bar
70
for carrying out the work W such as a panel that is worked by forming by the transfer press located at the left side of
FIG. 38
is provided at the carrying-out side of the press. A transfer conveyor
72
, which receives the work W from the feed bar
70
and transfers it to a positioning device
73
in the direction shown by the arrow T in
FIG. 38
by intermittent feeding, is provided to penetrate through the positioning device
73
. Pallet transfer devices
76
and
77
, which carry the pallets
71
in and out of two loading stations
74
and
75
at the upper and lower side of
FIG. 38
, are placed. Two robots
78
and
79
, which alternately hold the work W positioned by the positioning device
73
and load it into pallets
71
located at the aforementioned respective loading stations
74
and
75
, are placed between the positioning device
73
and each of the pallet transfer devices
76
and
77
, respectively.
According to the above-described constitution, a loading operation is alternately performed by two of the robots
78
and
79
for one of the positioning device
73
, and therefore each of the robots
78
and
79
loads the work W for every two shots of the transfer press. Consequently, each of the robots
78
and
79
can move to the next operation while avoiding interference between the robots during the cycle time of each other in order that the cycle time is within two press cycles, whereby the cycle time of the work loading is reduced to make it possible to improve productivity.
However, in the work loading device disclosed in Japanese Granted Patent No. 2677082, two of the robots
78
and
79
perform a loading operation at the same time when the work of transfer press is two-piece working. Consequently, the cycle time of the robots does not catch up with the press cycle, and the cycle time of the entire press working line has to be increased, thus reducing productivity. The two-piece working is to work the works by dividing the works laterally into two in the transfer direction for each one shot of the press.
The aforementioned
FIGS. 36 and 37
are also the work loading devices. Namely, the carrying-out conveyors
154
and
154
, which are placed side by side laterally in two rows and transfer the works W worked by forming by the press
152
to an inspection station
153
, are provided at the press
152
. A pair of vertically separating conveyors
155
and
155
on the left and right, which are able to oscillate in an up-and-down direction around an oscillation center O by the operation of a cylinder unit
155
a
, are provided to be able to receive the works W from the carrying-out conveyors
154
and
154
at the downstream side of the carrying-out conveyors
154
and
154
, connectingly to the inspection station
153
. A pair of left and right carrier conveyors
156
and
156
at an upper part and a pair of left and right carrier conveyors
157
and
157
at a lower part are provided at the downstream side of the vertically separating conveyors
155
and
155
to be able to receive the works W that are vertically separated at the vertically separating conveyors
155
and
155
. The carrier conveyor
157
at the lower side is provided to extend to the downstream side to be longer than the carrier conveyor
156
at the upper side. Further, the respective end portions at the downstream side of the carrier conveyors
156
and
157
form work positioning sections
158
, and a positioning lifter
160
for positioning is provided at a lower part of each of the work positioning sections
158
. The robots
161
a
,
161
b
,
161
c
and
161
d
which take out the works W transferred to the respective work positioning sections
158
by the carrier conveyors
156
and
157
and positioned are placed at the side of the respective work positioning sections
158
. The pallets
162
and
162
into which the works W are loaded are placed at both sides of each of the robots
161
a
to
161
d.
According to the above-described constitution, the works W that are carried out of the press
152
are alternately separated vertically by the vertically separating conveyors
155
and are transferred to the work positioning sections placed up and down. Consequently, each of the robots
161
a
to
161
d
loads the w
Kameda Shigetaka
Moriyasu Takashi
Shimizu Kengo
Shiroza Kazuhiko
Yoshida Toshiyuki
Hess Douglas
Komatsu Ltd.
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