JP2026004860A - Irradiation device - Google Patents

Abstract

An illumination device capable of irradiating an illumination target with light rays from multiple directions is provided.
[Solution] An irradiation device (6) that irradiates an irradiation target (103) with a light beam (104) includes an irradiation unit (30) that irradiates the light beam (104) in a predetermined direction, and a reflection unit (40) that is arranged on the side of the irradiation unit (30) that faces the predetermined direction and reflects the light beam (104). The reflection unit (40) has a recess (43) that is recessed in the predetermined direction so that the irradiation target (103) can be placed in a groove, and mirror surfaces (44a, 45a) that are provided on inner groove surfaces (44, 45) of the recess (43) and reflect the light beam (104). The recess (43) has a V-shaped groove shape in a cross section that intersects with the predetermined direction.
[Selected figure] Figure 9

Description

The present invention relates to an irradiation device that irradiates a light beam onto an irradiation target.

Electric wires with terminals have been proposed for use in communication between devices mounted on vehicles, power supply, etc. For example, in one conventional electric wire with terminals, the connection between the conductor core wire of the electric wire and the terminal is covered with an anticorrosive agent to prevent corrosion due to water exposure (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2019-129067

One method for covering the connection point between the conductor core of an electric wire and a terminal with an anticorrosion agent is to apply a liquid anticorrosion agent (hereinafter also referred to as an application agent) to the connection point and then harden the application agent. For example, an ultraviolet-curing resin can be used as such an anticorrosion agent. When an ultraviolet-curing resin is applied to the contact point between the conductor core of an electric wire and a terminal, the resin may spread not only over the top surface of the contact point, but also near the side and bottom surfaces of the contact point. In this case, simply irradiating the top surface of the terminal with ultraviolet light may not properly harden the entire resin.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide an irradiation device that can irradiate an object with light rays from multiple directions.

To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the irradiation device of the present invention has the following features:

An irradiation device that irradiates an irradiation target with a light beam,
an irradiation unit that irradiates the light beam in a predetermined direction;
a reflecting section that is arranged to receive the light beam emitted by the irradiating section and that reflects the light beam,
The reflecting portion is
a recessed portion recessed in the direction so that the irradiation target can be placed in the groove; and a mirror surface portion provided on an inner surface of the groove of the recessed portion to reflect the light beam.
It is an irradiation device.

With the irradiation device of the present invention, when an irradiation target (e.g., the terminal portion of a terminal-attached electric wire) is placed in the groove of the recessed portion of the reflecting unit and light rays (e.g., ultraviolet light) are irradiated from the irradiation unit, the irradiated light rays not only strike the irradiation target directly, but also strike the irradiation target after being reflected by the mirrored portion of the reflecting unit. Therefore, an irradiation device of this configuration can irradiate the irradiation target with light rays from multiple directions.

The present invention has been briefly described above. Furthermore, the details of the present invention will become clearer by reading the detailed description of the invention described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a corrosion prevention treatment device incorporating an irradiation device of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a rear view of the conveying section shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a top view of the conveying section shown in FIG. 4(a) to 4(d) are diagrams for explaining the flow of processing when the corrosion prevention processing is performed on the electric wire with terminal by the corrosion prevention processing device shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the entire UV irradiation unit shown in FIG. FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of part A in FIG. FIG. 7 is a side view of part A in FIG. 5 as seen from the side. FIG. 8 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 7, showing a state in which the irradiation portion and the reflection portion constituting the UV irradiation unit have each moved from their original positions to the irradiation positions. FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line BB in FIG.

<Embodiment>
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. For convenience of explanation, "front,""rear,""left,""right,""upper," and "lower" will be defined as shown in Fig. 1 etc. The "front-rear direction,""left-rightdirection," and "upper-lower direction" are mutually orthogonal.

Figure 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of a corrosion prevention treatment device 1 incorporating an application device (application unit 5) of the present invention. The corrosion prevention treatment device 1 shown in Figure 1 is a device that applies a coating agent (corrosion prevention agent) 101 composed of an ultraviolet-curable resin (UV-curable resin) to the end of a terminal-attached electric wire 100 (a so-called workpiece; see also Figure 4). As shown in Figure 4(a), the terminal-attached electric wire 100 includes an electric wire 102 and a terminal 103 attached to the end of the electric wire 102. The electric wire 102 has its end coated with a coating 102A, exposing the conductor core 102B. The terminal 103 is crimped to the coating 102A and the conductor core 102B exposed at the end. The corrosion prevention treatment device 1 covers the connection between the conductor core 102B and the terminal 103 with coating agent 101, thereby preventing corrosion at the connection between the conductor core 102B and the terminal 103.

The corrosion prevention treatment device 1 includes a conveying unit 2, a wire supplying unit 3 that sets terminal-attached wires 100 on the conveying unit 2, an imaging unit 4 that images the terminal-attached wires 100 conveyed by the conveying unit 2, an application unit 5 (see also Figure 4(b)) that applies coating agent 101 to the ends of the terminal-attached wires 100 conveyed by the conveying unit 2, a UV irradiation unit 6 (see also Figure 4(c)) that irradiates the applied coating agent 101 with ultraviolet light 104, a control unit 7 that controls these units, and a display unit 8.

The above-mentioned electric wire supply unit 3, imaging unit 4, application unit 5, and UV irradiation unit 6 are arranged side by side in the left-right direction. From right to left, they are arranged in the order of electric wire supply unit 3, imaging unit 4, application unit 5, and UV irradiation unit 6.

The configuration of the conveying unit 2 will now be described. As shown in Figures 2 and 3, the conveying unit 2 has four rear wire chucks 21 and four front wire chucks 22. The four rear wire chucks 21 are arranged side by side at equal intervals in the left-right direction. The four rear wire chucks 21 are arranged so that they can move freely in the left-right direction between a first position and a second position.

In the first position, as shown in Figures 2 and 3, each of the four rear wire chucks 21 faces the wire supply unit 3, imaging unit 4, coating unit 5, and UV irradiation unit 6 in the front-to-rear direction. In the second position, the rightmost rear wire chuck 21 faces the imaging unit 4 in the front-to-rear direction, the second-right rear wire chuck 21 faces the coating unit 5 in the front-to-rear direction, the second-left rear wire chuck 21 faces the UV irradiation unit 6 in the front-to-rear direction, and the leftmost rear wire chuck 21 is located to the left of the UV irradiation unit 6.

As shown in FIG. 3, the four front wire chucks 22 are arranged further forward in the front-to-rear direction than the four rear wire chucks 21 (closer to the wire supply unit 3, imaging unit 4, application unit 5, and UV irradiation unit 6). The four front wire chucks 22 are arranged at equal intervals in the left-to-right direction and face the wire supply unit 3, imaging unit 4, application unit 5, and UV irradiation unit 6 in the front-to-rear direction. The four front wire chucks 22 do not move in the left-to-right direction.

Next, the configuration of the rear wire chuck 21 and front wire chuck 22 will be described. All four rear wire chucks 21 have the same configuration. Each rear wire chuck 21 has a cubic main body 23 and a pair of chucks 24, 24 that are attached to the main body 23 so as to be able to open and close freely and that clamp and hold the terminal-attached wire 100 from the left and right.

The chuck portion 24 has an arm 24A attached to the main body 23 so that its first end is rotatable around an axis along the front-to-rear direction, and a chuck claw 24B attached to the second end of the arm 24A. When the second ends of the pair of arms 24A, 24A are rotated so that they protrude left and right from the main body 23, the pair of chuck claws 24B, 24B open, releasing their hold on the terminal-attached wire 100. When the second ends of the pair of arms 24A, 24A are rotated so that they protrude upward from the main body 23, the pair of chuck claws 24B, 24B close, allowing them to clamp and hold the terminal-attached wire 100 from the left and right.

The front wire chuck 22 has a similar configuration to the rear wire chuck 21, so a detailed description of the front wire chuck 22 will be omitted here. The main body 23 of the rear wire chuck 21 is attached to a slider (not shown) that moves left and right.

The conveying operation of the conveying unit 2 configured as described above will now be described. The wire supply unit 3 sets the terminal-attached wire 100 in the rightmost rear wire chuck 21 and front wire chuck 22 (holding it in the correct position). Next, the front wire chuck 22 is opened, and the rear wire chuck 21 is moved from the first position to the second position. This transports the terminal-attached wire 100 to the imaging unit 4, where it can be held by the front wire chuck 22, which is the second from the right and positioned opposite the imaging unit 4. The rear wire chuck 21 is then opened and returned from the second position to the first position, allowing the terminal-attached wire 100 to be held by the rear wire chuck 21, which is the second from the right. By repeating this process, the terminal-attached wire 100 can be transported sequentially to the wire supply unit 3, imaging unit 4, coating unit 5, and UV irradiation unit 6.

The wire supply unit 3 has a work setting jig (not shown). When an operator inserts the end of the terminal-attached wire 100 into the work setting jig and it abuts against the positioning wall inside the work setting jig, the front wire chuck 22 closes. This allows the front-to-rear position of the terminal 103 of the terminal-attached wire 100 to be determined.

The imaging unit 4 has a camera (not shown) and a ring-shaped illumination unit (not shown) located below the camera. The camera is attached facing downwards. When the terminal-attached wire 100 is transported to the imaging unit 4 and held by the front wire chuck 22 facing the imaging unit 4 in the front-to-rear direction, the terminal 103 comes within the imaging range of the camera.

The applicator unit 5 includes a nozzle (not shown) that dispenses the coating material 101 toward the target (terminal 103 of the terminal-attached electric wire 100), a tank (not shown) that stores the coating material 101, and piping (not shown) that connects the tank and nozzle. The liquid coating material 101 stored in the tank is supplied to the nozzle via the piping and dispensed from the nozzle. The nozzle is movable left and right and forward and backward by left and right cylinders (not shown) and front and rear cylinders (not shown). When the terminal-attached electric wire 100 is transported to the applicator unit 5 and held by the front electric wire chuck 22 that faces the applicator unit 5 in the front and rear directions, the terminal 103 comes within the dispensing range of the nozzle. The applicator unit 5 may further include an ultraviolet light source (not shown) that temporarily irradiates ultraviolet light. If the coating material 101 cannot be transported to the UV irradiation unit 6 within a predetermined time after being dispensed onto the terminal-attached electric wire 100, ultraviolet light may be temporarily irradiated from an ultraviolet light source to prevent dripping of the coating material 101.

As shown in Figure 5, the UV irradiation unit 6 has an irradiation unit 30 that irradiates ultraviolet light 104 (see Figure 4(c)) downward toward the irradiation target (terminal 103 of the terminal-attached electric wire 100), and a reflection unit 40 that is positioned below the irradiation unit 30 and reflects the ultraviolet light 104. The detailed configuration of the UV irradiation unit 6 will be described later. When the terminal-attached electric wire 100 is transported to the UV irradiation unit 6 and held by the front electric wire chuck 22 that faces the UV irradiation unit 6 in the front-rear direction, the terminal 103 comes within the irradiation range of the irradiation unit 30.

The control unit 7 is composed of a microcomputer that operates according to a program stored in the memory unit and is responsible for overall control of the corrosion prevention treatment device 1. The control unit 7 transports the terminal-attached electric wire 100 through the electric wire supply unit 3, the imaging unit 4, the coating unit 5, and the UV irradiation unit 6 in this order, sequentially setting the terminal-attached electric wire 100 (see FIG. 4(a)), applying the coating agent 101 (see FIG. 4(b)), and irradiating with ultraviolet light (see FIG. 4(c)). The coating agent 101, which is made of a UV-curable resin, is cured by irradiation with ultraviolet light. The control unit 7 measures the terminal position from the image of the terminal 103 captured by the imaging unit 4, determines the application position of the coating agent 101 based on the measured terminal position, and controls the movement of the nozzle of the applicator 5 to apply the coating agent 101 to the determined application position (i.e., the position that covers the exposed conductor core wire 102B). The display unit 8 sequentially displays the control status of the corrosion prevention treatment device 1 by the control unit 7 on a monitor or the like (not shown).

Next, the configuration of the UV irradiation unit 6 will be described in more detail with reference to Figures 5 to 9. As shown in Figure 5, the irradiation unit 30 and the reflecting unit 40 located below the irradiation unit 30, which constitute the UV irradiation unit 6, are arranged facing each other with a gap in the vertical direction. The irradiation unit 30 is movable vertically between its original position (see Figures 5 to 7) and an irradiation position below the original position (see Figure 8) by means of an upper and lower cylinder 31 (see Figure 5). The reflecting unit 40 is movable vertically between its original position (see Figures 5 to 7) and an irradiation position above the original position (see Figure 8) by means of an upper and lower cylinder 41 (see Figure 5).

As shown in Figures 5 and 6, a substantially rectangular parallelepiped mirror mounting section 42 is disposed in the reflecting section 40. A downwardly recessed recess 43 (see Figure 6) is formed on the upper surface of the mirror mounting section 42. The recess 43 is defined by a pair of left and right groove inner surfaces 44 parallel to the front-to-rear direction and a front groove inner surface 45 parallel to the left-to-right direction, with the rear side open. The pair of left and right groove inner surfaces (flat surfaces) 44 are each inclined upward (so as to form a V when viewed from the front-to-rear direction) (see also Figure 9), and the front groove inner surface 45 is also inclined upward. A flat mirror 44a is detachably provided on each of the pair of left and right groove inner surfaces 44, and a flat mirror 45a is detachably provided on the front groove inner surface 45. Each of the mirrors 44a, 45a is capable of reflecting ultraviolet light 104.

As shown in FIG. 9, the UV irradiation unit 6 is further provided with a shielding plate 50 that blocks ultraviolet rays 104 leaking from a gap G (see FIG. 9) on the right side (i.e., the application unit 5 side) between the irradiation unit 30 and the reflection unit 40. This prevents the ultraviolet rays 104 leaking from the gap G from unintentionally hitting the terminals 103 (i.e., the terminals 103 from the previous process) of the terminal-attached electric wire 100 that are arranged opposite the application unit 5 (see FIG. 1, etc.) in the front-to-back direction. The configuration of the UV irradiation unit 6 has been described above.

As shown in Figures 5 to 7, the terminal 103 of the terminal-attached electric wire 100 transported by the transport unit 2 to the UV irradiation unit 6 is positioned within the irradiation range of the irradiation unit 30, between the irradiation unit 30 in its original position and the reflector 40 in its original position. Next, as shown in Figure 8, the irradiation unit 30 is moved downward from its original position to the irradiation position by the upper and lower cylinders 31 so as to approach the terminal 103, and the reflector 40 is moved upward from its original position to the irradiation position by the upper and lower cylinders 41 so as to approach the terminal 103. As a result, as shown in Figure 9, the lower part of the irradiation unit 30 is positioned adjacent to the upper side of the terminal 103, and the terminal 103 is positioned within the groove of the recess 43 of the reflector 40. Because the rear side of the recess 43 is open as described above, even when the terminal 103 is positioned within the groove of the recess 43, the electric wire 102 extending rearward from the terminal 103 does not interfere with the reflector 40 (more specifically, the mirror positioning unit 42). Next, ultraviolet light 104 is emitted downward from the lower part of the irradiation unit 30 toward the upper surface of the terminal 103 (see Figure 9). As a result, the liquid coating material 101 applied to the terminal 103 is irradiated with ultraviolet light 104, and the coating material 101, which is made of a UV-curable resin, is cured.

When the liquid coating material 101 is applied to the terminals 103, the liquid coating material 101 may spread not only onto the top surface of the terminals 103 but also onto the sides and back of the terminals 103. The UV irradiation unit 6 of this embodiment not only irradiates the top surface of the terminals 103 with ultraviolet light 104, but also irradiates the entire coating material 101, thereby properly curing the entire coating material 101.

Specifically, in the UV irradiation unit 6 according to this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 9 , ultraviolet light 104 emitted downward from the irradiation unit 30 is directed not only toward the top surface of the terminal 103, but also toward the pair of left and right mirrors 44a and 45a of the reflector 40. The ultraviolet light 104 directed toward the top surface of the terminal 103 directly strikes the top surface of the terminal 103. The ultraviolet light 104 directed toward the pair of left and right mirrors 44a and the front mirror 45a of the reflector 40 is reflected by the pair of left and right mirrors 44a and the front mirror 45a and strikes the side and back surfaces of the terminal 103. In this way, the ultraviolet light 104 strikes the entire outer periphery of the terminal 103. As a result, even if the liquid coating material 101 has spread to the side and back surfaces of the terminal 103, the entire coating material 101 applied to the terminal 103 can be properly cured.

The tilt angles of the pair of left and right mirrors 44a and the front mirror 45a are set so that the ultraviolet rays 104 uniformly hit the entire outer periphery of the terminal 103 (i.e., so that the entire coating material 101 applied to the terminal 103 can be properly cured), taking into consideration, for example, the shape and size of the terminal 103, the irradiation angle of the ultraviolet rays 104 from the irradiation unit 30, the distance between the terminal 103 and the irradiation unit 30, and the distance between the terminal 103 and the pair of left and right mirrors 44a and the front mirror 45a. Furthermore, while the mirrors 44a and 45a have a planar shape in this example, the mirrors 44a and 45a may have a quadratic curved surface shape in the cross section shown in Figure 9 to improve the light-focusing performance on the terminal 103.

<Other Aspects>
It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be adopted within the scope of the present invention. For example, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and modifications, improvements, etc. are possible as appropriate. Furthermore, the material, shape, dimensions, number, location, etc. of each component in the above-described embodiments are arbitrary as long as they can achieve the present invention, and are not limited thereto.

Here, the features of the above-described embodiment of the irradiation device (UV irradiation unit 6) according to the present invention are briefly summarized and listed below in [1] to [3].

[1]
An irradiation device (6) that irradiates an irradiation target (103) with a light beam (104),
an irradiation unit (30) that irradiates the light beam (104) in a predetermined direction;
a reflecting section (40) that is arranged to receive the light beam (104) emitted by the irradiating section (30) and that reflects the light beam (104),
The reflecting portion (40) is
The illumination device has a recess (43) that is recessed in the direction so that the irradiation target (103) can be placed in the groove, and mirror surfaces (44a, 45a) that are provided on inner surfaces (44, 45) of the groove of the recess (43) and reflect the light beam (104).
Irradiation device (6).

With the irradiation device configured as described above in [1], when an irradiation target (e.g., the terminal portion of a terminal-equipped electric wire) is placed in the groove of the recessed portion of the reflecting unit and light rays (e.g., ultraviolet light) are irradiated from the irradiation unit, the irradiated light rays not only strike the irradiation target directly, but also strike the irradiation target after being reflected by the mirrored portion of the reflecting unit. Therefore, an irradiation device configured as described above can irradiate the irradiation target with light rays from multiple directions.

[2]
In the irradiation device (6) described in [1] above,
The recess (43) is
A cross section intersecting the direction has a V-shaped groove shape.
Irradiation device (6).

In the illumination device configured as described above in [2], the recess has a V-shaped groove shape. This allows the mirrored surface to reflect the light so that it is focused toward the illumination target.

[3]
The irradiation device (6) according to the above [1],
The device further includes a shielding section (50) that blocks the light beam (104) leaking from a gap (G) between the irradiation section (30) and the reflection section (40).
Irradiation device (6).

With the irradiation device configured as described above in [3], light rays leaking from the gap between the irradiation unit and the reflection unit are blocked by the shielding unit. This prevents leaking light rays from unintentionally hitting an irradiation target when there is an irradiation target near the irradiation device.

6 UV irradiation section (irradiation device)
30 Irradiation part 40 Reflection part 43 Recessed part 44 Groove inner surface 44a Mirror (mirror surface part)
45 Groove inner surface 45a Mirror (mirror surface)
50 Shielding plate (shielding part)
103 Terminal (irradiation target)
104 Ultraviolet rays (light)
G Gap

Claims (3)

An irradiation device that irradiates an irradiation target with a light beam,
an irradiation unit that irradiates the light beam in a predetermined direction;
a reflecting section that is arranged to receive the light beam emitted by the irradiating section and that reflects the light beam,
The reflecting portion is
a recessed portion recessed in the direction so that the irradiation target can be placed in the groove; and a mirror surface portion provided on an inner surface of the groove of the recessed portion to reflect the light beam.
Irradiation device. 2. The irradiation device according to claim 1,
The recessed portion is
A cross section intersecting the direction has a V-shaped groove shape.
Irradiation device. 2. The irradiation device according to claim 1,
Further provided is a shielding portion that blocks the light beam leaking from a gap between the irradiating portion and the reflecting portion.
Irradiation device.