DE29819775U1 - Device for transporting workpiece parts - Google Patents

Description

Applicant: Müller Weingarten AG Schussenstr. 34
88250 Weingarten

The invention relates to a device for transporting workpiece parts according to the preamble of claim 1.

State of the art

In so-called large-part step presses, workpieces are processed in a number of forming stations. Transport within the press is carried out, for example, by means of a suction bar or a gripper. After the last processing stage, the completely formed workpiece parts are removed from the press and fed to a stacking device. A storage area for workpiece parts in an empty stage of such a large-part step press provided after the last processing stage is described in EP 0 423 749. DE 32 36 145 A1 describes a device for storing the workpieces after the last processing stage. In this device, the workpieces removed from the press are fed to a stacking system by means of a finished part conveyor designed as a conveyor belt.

A similar device is shown in the publication in the magazine »Werkstatt und Betrieb 119 (1986) 5", pages up to 357. Here, the workpieces are separated in the last operation and placed on a shelf using double grippers. With the help of a part-specific frame, which is equipped with a vacuum suction device, the

Workpieces are transferred from this storage area to a cyclic conveyor during the next unloading stroke. This brings the parts step by step into the work area of an industrial robot. The industrial robot is equipped with a vacuum suction frame to pick up the workpieces. These are then placed in layers and in an orderly manner in a centered transport container.

The conventional transport of finished parts on conveyor belts or cyclic conveyors, for example to the removal robot, appears to be problem-free if the parts transported in this way are dimensionally stable and easy to handle. However, today's large-scale step presses produce extremely large parts that have, for example, a low drawing depth and/or many cutouts and are therefore considered to be unstable rather than stable workpieces in terms of handling. Transporting such parts on a conventional conveyor belt certainly presents problems with subsequent handling.

Object and advantages of the invention:

The invention is based on the object of proposing a device for transporting workpiece parts, which is particularly suitable for handling large-area parts from a large-part step press.

This object is solved by the features of patent claim 1. The subclaims specify advantageous and expedient further developments of the device according to patent claim 1.

By means of the invention, an advantageous disposal system is proposed in connection with a large-part transfer press with a very safe transport, especially of unstable parts, even at high cycle rates, so that their

subsequent stacking takes place without affecting the surface quality.

The invention provides in particular that the workpieces are placed on a conveyor device, preferably designed as a cyclic conveyor, after passing through the press, whereby special part-specific templates are provided for placing the workpieces in order to obtain a defined support for the workpieces. In this way, unstable workpieces in particular are placed and transported in a defined position. Such a template support on a cyclic conveyor therefore has the advantage that even sensitive parts can be handled without problems.

The templates for the cyclic conveyor can be changed automatically in order to adapt them to different workpieces.

The device according to the invention is particularly suitable for very large parts such as car or minibus roofs, side panels or floor panels for such vehicles. However, it can also be used for medium-sized double parts such as car doors on the left and right.

The transport of the optimally positioned and correctly supported parts e.g. to a removal robot is advantageously carried out by lowering the templates using a production axis, whereby the parts come to rest on an underlying parts tray of a transport device, e.g. a transport trolley. This parts tray takes over the workpiece and transports it in one transport step to the next transport stage within the cyclic conveyor. This transport stage can, for example, be a control stage or the final removal stage.

Similar to a so-called "shuttle", the parts are picked up on a special parts storage by a carriage that moves back and forth and are then transported to the next transport stage in cycles. This means that the part reaches the last transport stage in the correct position, from where it is picked up by the industrial robot in the correct position and placed in a stacking magazine.

The proposed arrangement also allows for very short distances to the stacking point, which makes transport safer and leads to shorter installation lengths.

The removal robot can also be equipped with a suction spider automatically. This allows the various transport devices to be adapted to the different workpiece conditions.

Further details and advantages of the invention emerge from the embodiments explained below with reference to the drawings.

Show it

Fig. 1 shows a device according to the invention for

automatic stacking of side panels with a shuttle device and robot in top view,

Fig 2 a modified device according to Fig. 1 for the automatic stacking of floor panels and

Fig. 3 a modification of Fig. 1 for the automatic stacking of double parts with a 3-lane double belt and robot for removing the parts.

Description of the implementation examples

The device 1 shown in Fig. 1 is used for the automatic stacking of workpiece parts 2 which are designed, for example, as Kf&zgr; side panels for a minibus. Fig. 1 shows the rear end of a large-part multi-stage press 3 with the last forming station 4 and a last empty stage 6 of the press arranged between the press stands 5. Sliding tables 7 are used to exchange, among other things, the tools of the forming station 4. The carriages 9 for the template carriers of the last forming stage are removed via a removal station 8.

The workpiece transport system of the press transfer transports the workpiece 2 by means of a suction bar transfer or a gripper rail transfer in a so-called half transport step from the last forming station 4 to the following empty stage 6 and from there in an equal transport step to the first deposit station 11 of a cyclic conveyor 10 downstream of the press. The cyclic conveyor 10 has special templates 14 in its first deposit stage 11, which enable a defined support for the relatively unstable workpiece. Such a cyclic conveyor is also referred to as a "shuttle".

The defined support of the unstable parts is necessary because these parts require defined support due to their size and low drawing depth. Simply placing them on a conveyor belt would result in an undefined placement.

The parts are transported within the cycle conveyor 10 to the subsequent transport stages 12, 13 by means of a further, only indicated transport device 16, 17, which e.g. can be designed as a movable transport carriage (shuttle device)

are designed. The movable carriages themselves are equipped with their own parts storage 15, on which the workpieces are placed for transport (horizontal axis). The transport carriage has its own drive, &zgr;. &Bgr;. by means of a motor and toothed belt, and usually follows a constant path.

In the three transport stages 11, 12 and 13, a stationary, but vertically movable parts storage with template 14 is provided, with a vertical production axis and with, for example, 5 storage bars each for holding the templates. First, the workpieces 2 are placed by the transport system of the press on the templates of the raised parts storage 14. These parts storages are then moved down so that the workpieces reach parts storages that can be moved with the carriages, which in turn have fixed change part holders. In this case, the

The changeable parts can be inserted manually or automatically as a template on the stationary and movable parts shelves. For the automatic conversion of the changeable parts, i.e. the templates, a separate robot 18 takes the required changeable parts from a magazine 19.

The magazine 19 can also have spacers that are placed on the workpieces by the robot 18 in order to keep the unstable parts at a distance and, if necessary, to protect the surface.

The middle transport stage 12 serves as a control stage. Accordingly, the third transport stage 13 is assigned an ejection track 20 for reject or control parts 21.

The transfer of the workpieces for transport from stage 12 to 13 is carried out by lowering the stationary parts storage and thus placing them on the parts storage of the

movable carriage as already described.

The third transport stage 13 is assigned two robots 22, 23 that can be moved transversely to the longitudinal direction 24 of the press line. This allows the robots to take the required suction spiders or gripping devices for the workpiece transport from laterally arranged change magazines 25, 26. The suction spiders are changed from the storage area automatically; for this purpose, the robots 22, 23 can be moved transversely to the transport direction of the press.

The robots 22, 23 alternately remove the workpieces from the third transport stage 13 of the cyclic conveyor 10 and place them in two assigned stacking magazines 27, 28 for the robot 22 and 29, 30 for the robot 23. The stacking magazines filled in pairs by a robot are then brought to a type of circular conveyor 31, which feeds empty stacking magazines 32 and removes full stacking magazines 33. The circular conveyor 31 is assigned a turning station 34 in the lower branch shown in Fig. 1 and a further turning station 35 in the upper branch, in which the respective container carrier is rotated by 90°. Downstream of the turning station 34 there is a lifting station 36 for stacking two containers and a further station 37 for removing two containers stacked on top of each other using a transport vehicle 38. The container carriers present in each case are brought from the stations 36, 37 via a cross conveyor 39, 40 to the container loading station 41 or to the lifting station 42 for separating two containers. A transport vehicle 38' conveys two empty containers lying on top of each other to the container loading station 41. In the turning station 35 the containers are checked, inspected and, if necessary, rejected as defective in the station 43.

Two additional conveyor belts 44, 45 can be provided in the middle, which can be used for manual part removal if necessary.

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can be moved directly to the cycle conveyor 10. For example, the robots 22, 23 can place the parts directly on the conveyor belts 44, 45, from where they are removed manually.

The cyclic conveyor 10 can also be provided with an additional belt conveyor 46, which allows a combination with a normal conveyor belt for corresponding parts.

The robot 18 is used for the automatic conversion of the interchangeable parts in the parts storage area and for the supply of part spacers. For example, for closed, large-area outer skin parts, foam panels of a specific size can be inserted for each part.

The other robots 22, 23 are used to rotate and convey the workpieces and to automatically stack them in containers or to place them on conveyor belts in manual stacking operations. The robots are arranged in a hanging position. Two stations 25, 26 are provided for automatically changing the suction spiders for the robots.

In the embodiment according to Fig. 2, workpieces in the form of a base plate 47 are handled in a system with an almost identical design. The cycle conveyor 10 is designed as a belt conveyor 46 and has the previously described parts storage 14 only in its third transport stage 13. The workpiece 47 is therefore transported via the belt conveyor 46 to the third transport stage 13 and the height-adjustable parts storage 14 with corresponding templates is used to align the workpiece 47 in the correct position for targeted removal by the two robots 22, 23.

The transport trolleys (shuttles) described in Fig. 1 are in the embodiment according to Fig. 2 by the belt conveyor

46. Nevertheless, the correct alignment of the
Workpiece using the height-adjustable parts shelves
(templates) in the transport position assigned to the robots 22, 23.

The embodiment according to Fig. 3 finally shows a variant of the embodiment according to Fig. 2, in which two double parts 48, 49 are handled as the workpiece instead of a base plate 47. In this case, the
Double parts are also fed to the two robots 22, 23 by means of a belt conveyor 46. In this position or transport stage 13, a stationary
Height-adjustable parts storage 14 for each workpiece 48, activated in order to make the parts available to the robots for removal in an accurate and correct position.

The invention is not limited to the embodiment shown and described. Rather, it also includes all modifications and changes within the scope of
Intellectual property rights claims.

List of reference symbols:

1 Furnishings 31 Course Sponsors 2 Workpiece parts 32 Stack magazine in 3 Large part step press 33 Stacking magazine 4 last forming station 34 Turning station, 5 Press stand 35 Turning station 6 Empty stage 36 Lifting station 7 Sliding table 37 Acceptance station &dgr; Removal station 38 Transport vehicle 9 Dare 39 Cross conveyor 10 Cycle conveyor 40 Cross conveyor 11 Transport station 41 Container loading station 12 Transport station 42 Lifting station 13 Transport station 43 station 14 Parts storage/template 44 Conveyor belt 15 Parts storage/template 45 Conveyor belt 16 Transport facility 46 Belt conveyor 17 Transport facility 47 Floor panel 18 robot 48 Double parts 19 magazine 20 Exclusion track 21 Rejects/control parts 22 robot 23 robot 24 Longitudinal direction 25 Magazine 26 Magazine 27 Stacking magazines 28 Stacking magazines 29 Stacking magazines 30 Stacking magazine ■&lgr; ■

Claims (11)

Expectations: 1. Device for transporting workpiece parts, in particular following the forming stages of a large-part step press, transfer press, press line or the like, characterized in that a conveyor device (10) has at least one transport station (11-13) which has a stationary, height-adjustable parts storage or template (14). 2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the conveyor device is designed as a cycle conveyor (10), with at least two transport stations (11 to 13) and at least one stationary, height-adjustable parts storage (14) in at least one transport station (13). 3. Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the conveyor device is designed as a cycle conveyor (10), wherein at least two and in particular three stationary, height-adjustable parts storage areas (14) are provided and that at least one and in particular two movable carriages with their own parts storage area (15) are provided, which transport the workpieces to the subsequent transport stations (12, 13). 4. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the stationary, height-adjustable parts storage (14) in a transport station (11 to 13) can be moved vertically downwards in order to transfer the workpiece to the parallel, horizontally movable parts storage (15) of the transport carriage between the transport stations. 5. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that an end-side transport station (13) of the conveyor device (10) is provided with at least - 12 - one and in particular two robots 22, 23 are assigned, which have a part receiving device such as suction spiders, grippers or the like and serve to remove the workpieces from a parts storage area (13). 6. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the conveyor device 10 is alternatively or cumulatively designed as a cycle conveyor with movable carriages and/or as a belt conveyor (46). 7. Device according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that the conveying device (10) has three transport stations (11, 12, 13), with a front loading station (11), a middle control station (12) and a subsequent removal station (13). 8. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the conveyor device (10) with the robot (22, 23) is assigned a subsequent conveyor device (31) which serves to feed empty and remove filled stack magazines (32, 33). 9. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the magazines (32, 33) can be fed into and removed from the system as containers stacked one above the other, with lifting stations (36, 42) and/or rotating stations (34, 35) serving to handle the filled or empty containers. 10. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that an automatic template changeover is provided by means of a robot (18). 11. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least one station (25, 26) with robot for automatic changing of the suction spiders.