TWI860550B - Tube cutting method - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a tube cutting method, performed by a robotic arm laser tube processing machine. The robotic arm laser tube processing machine including a multi-axis robotic arm, a laser cutting head disposed on one end of the multi-axis robotic arm, a multi-axis turntable device located across from the multi-axis robotic arm, and a movable carrier disposed on the multi-axis turntable device. The method includes securing a tube to the movable carrier, and then using the laser cutting head to cut off a front section and a rear section of the tube.

Description

Pipe cutting method

The present invention relates to laser cutting technology, and in particular to a method for cutting pipes using a robotic laser cutting machine.

The existing robotic arm laser cutting machine mainly includes a multi-axis robotic arm and a laser head installed on the multi-axis robotic arm. The multi-axis robotic arm can rotate and move in multiple dimensions, so that the laser head can perform the desired cutting path and achieve the desired cutting result. For example, Taiwan Patent I520808 discloses a 3D cutting processing device, whose multi-axis robotic arm has six-axis movement directions, and its turntable is located opposite to the multi-axis robotic arm and has a seventh axis of rotation. In this way, a laser cutting head installed at one end of the multi-axis robotic arm can perform laser cutting on a special-shaped pipe according to a preset laser cutting path.

However, if the shape of the pipe itself is complex and the end face shape to be cut is also complex, this kind of 3D cutting processing device with seven-axis motion direction may not be able to cope with it. In addition, how to cut pipes is also a long-term research topic in the industry.

The present invention provides a pipe cutting method, which is performed by using a robot-type pipe laser processing machine. The robot-type pipe laser processing machine includes a multi-axis robot; a laser cutting head, which is arranged at one end of the multi-axis robot; a multi-axis turntable device, which is located opposite to the multi-axis robot; a movable platform, which is arranged on the multi-axis turntable device; and a computer control device. The movable platform is used to place a pipe. The laser cutting head is used to perform laser cutting on the pipe. The multi-axis robot controls the moving path of the laser cutting head, and the multi-axis turntable device drives the movable platform to rotate in at least two directions. The computer control device can control the movements of the multi-axis robot arm, the laser cutting head, the multi-axis turntable device and the movable platform according to the preset cutting path.

In one embodiment, the multi-axis turntable device includes a base, an arm disposed on a surface of the base and capable of rotating relative to the surface, a turntable disposed on a bearing surface of the arm and capable of rotating relative to the bearing surface, a first drive device, and a second drive device. The arm is an L-shaped arm and includes a vertical extension portion and a horizontal extension portion extending horizontally from one end of the vertical extension portion to a length in the direction of the robot arm. One end of the vertical extension portion is disposed on a surface of the base and can rotate relative to the base with a central axis of the surface as an axis. The central axis is a horizontal axis. One end of the horizontal extension portion is connected to the other end of the vertical extension portion. A bearing surface on the other end of the horizontal extension portion is parallel to the horizontal axis. The horizontal extension part is at a distance from the horizontal axis, the length of which is greater than the length of the vertical extension part. The first driving device is used to drive the arm to rotate so that the bearing surface of the arm rotates around the horizontal axis. The turntable is located on the bearing surface of the arm and can rotate around the horizontal axis as the bearing surface of the arm rotates. The turntable also rotates around a central axis of the bearing surface, and the central axis of the bearing surface is a vertical axis. The second driving device is used to drive the turntable to rotate. In one embodiment, the movable platform is fixed on the turntable of the multi-axis turntable device and is located between the turntable and the horizontal axis, wherein the movable platform includes a base fixed on the turntable, a slide rail arranged on the base, a moving platform that can move along the slide rail and is used to place a pipe, a fixing device arranged on the moving platform and used to fix the pipe, and a moving driving device used to drive the moving platform to move, wherein the base has two opposite side edges, and the moving platform has two opposite side edges, one side edge of the base and one side edge of the moving platform both face the multi-axis robot arm, and the slide rail The movable platform is located between the two sides of the base, so that the movable platform can move along the slide rail between the two sides of the base toward the direction approaching the multi-axis robot arm or away from the multi-axis robot arm. The movable platform has two support blocks separated by a distance, and the two support blocks are used to support the pipe. The fixing device is used to fix the pipe. When the movable platform is located at a position point, a front section of the pipe protrudes from one side of the movable platform and one side of the base. When the movable platform is located at another position point, a rear section of the pipe protrudes from the other side of the movable platform and the other side of the base. In one embodiment, the pipe cutting method includes: fixing a pipe on the two supporting blocks of the movable platform of the movable platform, the movable platform is located at the position point so that the front section of the pipe protrudes from one side of the movable platform of the movable platform and one side of the base; using a laser cutting light emitted by the laser cutting head to cut the front section of the pipe; in the process of cutting the front section of the pipe by the laser cutting light, driving the first driving device to drive the arm to rotate about the central axis of the table surface so that the front section of the pipe rotates accordingly; after the front section of the pipe is cut by the laser cutting light, driving the arm to rotate about the central axis of the table surface The moving drive device drives the moving platform to move linearly from the position point to the other position point in a direction away from the multi-axis robot arm, so that the rear section of the pipe protrudes from the other side of the moving platform and the other side of the base, and then the second drive device drives the turntable to rotate, so that the rear section of the pipe comes to the position where the front section was originally located; the rear section of the pipe is cut by a laser cutting light emitted by the laser cutting head; during the process of cutting the rear section of the pipe by the laser cutting light, the first drive device drives the arm to rotate around the central axis of the table, so that the rear section of the pipe rotates accordingly.

1: Multi-axis robotic arm

100: Ground

2: Laser cutting head

3: Multi-axis turntable device

31: Base

311: Countertop

312: Central axis

32: Arm

321: Loading surface

322: Central axis

33: Turntable

4.4a: Movable platform

41, 41a: Base

411, 412: Side

42: Slide rail

42a: Rotating seat

43: Mobile platform

431:Support block

43a: Rotating drive device

44:Fixed device

8: Pipe fittings

81, 82: End

83: Elastic band

84: Central axis

85: Half-cut marks

851: Starting point

852: Ending point

86: Half-cut marks

861: Starting point

862: Ending point

87: Cutting marks

871: Uncut part

9: Pipe fittings

90: Central axis

91: First part

92: The latter part

Figure 1 shows a schematic plan view of a preferred embodiment of the robotic arm laser pipe cutting machine of the present invention.

Figure 2 shows a three-dimensional view of the movable carrier 4 of the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG3 shows that the moving platform 43 on the movable carrier 4 carries the pipe 9 and moves from one position to another.

Figure 4-9 shows a schematic diagram of the laser cutting head 2 of the preferred embodiment of the present invention cutting the tube 9 on the movable carrier 4.

Figure 10 shows a three-dimensional view of another movable carrier 4a used in the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 11 shows that the two rotating seats 42a on the movable carrier 4a carry another type of pipe 8 and rotate 180 degrees counterclockwise.

Figures 12-13 and 15 show schematic diagrams of the laser cutting head 2 of the preferred embodiment of the present invention cutting another type of pipe 8 on another type of movable carrier 4a.

Figures 14 and 16 schematically show the cutting marks 85 formed by the other type of pipe fitting 8 of the present invention after a batch of multiple half-cuts. Figure 17 schematically shows the cutting marks 86 formed by the other type of pipe fitting 8 of the present invention after another batch of multiple half-cuts.

FIG. 18 shows a three-dimensional view of a finished pipe 88 cut from the other pipe 8.

FIG1 shows a preferred embodiment of the robot-type laser tube cutting machine of the present invention, which includes a multi-axis robot 1, a laser cutting head 2 disposed at one end of the multi-axis robot 1, a multi-axis turntable device 3 located opposite the multi-axis robot 1, a movable platform 4 disposed on the multi-axis turntable device 3, and a computer control device (not shown in the figure). In this embodiment, the multi-axis robot 1 is a six-axis robot, which can be selected from existing six-axis robots and will not be described in detail. The multi-axis turntable device 3 is a two-axis turntable device. Therefore, the robot-type laser tube cutting machine has a total of eight rotatable axes, and the arrows in the figure indicate the rotation directions of the eight axes. The multi-axis turntable device 3 includes a base 31, an arm 32 disposed on a table 311 of the base 31 and capable of rotating relative to the table 311, and a turntable 33 disposed on a bearing surface 321 of the arm 32 and capable of rotating relative to the bearing surface 321. The arm 32 is an L-shaped arm, the table 311 faces the multi-axis robot arm 1 and is perpendicular to a ground 100, and the bearing surface 321 is parallel to the ground 100. Therefore, the arm 32 rotates around a central axis 312 of the table 311, which is a horizontal axis, and the turntable 33 rotates around a central axis 322 of the bearing surface 321, which is a vertical axis. In addition, there is a first driving device (not shown in the figure) for driving the arm 32 to rotate, and a second driving device (not shown in the figure) for driving the turntable 33 to rotate. The first and second driving devices can be selected to include a motor, and the motor can be a servo motor.

As shown in FIG2 , the movable platform 4 includes a base 41 fixed to the turntable 33, a slide rail 42, a moving platform 43 that can move along the slide rail 42, a fixing device 44 disposed on the moving platform 43, and a moving drive device (not shown) for driving the moving platform 43 to move. The moving drive device can be a drive device including a motor, and the motor can be a servo motor or a linear motor. The base 41 has two opposite sides 411 and 412, and the two ends of the slide rail 42 are respectively located at or near the two sides 411 and 412. The moving platform 43 can move back and forth between two positions separated by a distance on the slide rail 42. FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 show that the moving platform 43 is located at the two positions, respectively. In this embodiment, the two positions are two movement end points of the moving platform 43. The fixing device 44 is used to fix a pipe 9 on the moving platform 43. In this embodiment, the moving platform 43 has two support blocks 431 separated by a distance. The two support blocks 431 are used to support the pipe 9. The fixing device 44 is used to fix a part of the pipe 9, and the part of the pipe 9 is located between the two support blocks 431. The fixing device 44 is a swing arm that can swing up and down. It can be operated to swing upward to an open position to facilitate placing the pipe 9 on the two supporting blocks 431 of the moving platform 43. Once the pipe 9 is placed, it can be operated to swing downward to a fixed position. At this time, as shown in Figure 2, one end of the fixing device 44 presses down on the part (middle position) of the pipe 9, so that the pipe 9 is fixed on the moving platform 43.

When the arm 32 of the multi-axis turntable device 3 is driven to rotate, the movable platform 4 will rotate with the rotation of the arm 32 around a central axis 90 of the tube 9. At the same time, the tube 9 rotates around the central axis 90.

To cut the two ends of a pipe, for example, to cut a front section 91 and a rear section 92 of the pipe 9, the base 41 of the movable platform 4 needs to be locked on the turntable 33. As shown in Figure 1. At the beginning, as shown in Figures 4 and 4A, the movable platform 4 is facing downward, and the front section 91 of the pipe 9 protrudes from the side 411 of the base 41, so that the laser cutting head 2 on the multi-axis robot arm 1 can emit a cutting laser beam to cut the front section 91. During the process of cutting the pipe 9 with the cutting laser beam, the arm 32 is driven to rotate. Figures 5 and 5A show that the arm 32 rotates 90 degrees counterclockwise around the central axis 90. FIG6 shows that the arm 32 rotates 360 degrees (or almost 360 degrees) counterclockwise, so the pipe 9 rotates 360 degrees (or almost 360 degrees) about the central axis 90, which makes the cutting laser light go around the outer wall of the pipe 9 once (or almost once), and thus cuts off the front section 91 (or almost cuts off, at this time, the front section 91 will be separated from the pipe 9 as long as a slight force is applied).

Next, the moving platform 43 moves to the other side, as shown in FIG. 7 and FIG. 7A, so that the rear section 92 of the pipe 9 protrudes from the side 412 of the base 41. Then, as shown in FIG. 8, the computer control device causes the turntable 33 to rotate 180 degrees (for example, 180 degrees counterclockwise), so that the movable platform 4 rotates 180 degrees accordingly, and the pipe 9 on the movable platform 4 rotates 180 degrees accordingly, so that the rear section 92 of the pipe 9 comes to the original position of the front section 91 due to the aforementioned rotation. At this time, the laser cutting head 2 can cut the rear section 92 like cutting the front section 91, as shown in FIG. 9, but at this time the arm 32 is driven to rotate clockwise. In this way, the cutting operation of the front and rear sections 91 and 92 of the pipe 9 is completed.

In the above-mentioned cutting process, the multi-axis robot arm 1 will move and adjust the position of the laser cutting head 2 according to the preset cutting path, so that the port shapes at both ends of the pipe 9 after cutting the front and rear sections 91 and 92 meet the desired shapes. For example, the ports at both ends of the pipe 9 shown in the figure are respectively beveled ports.

FIG. 10 shows another movable carrier 4a, which includes a base 41a fixed on the turntable 33, two rotating seats 42a arranged on the base 41a, and a rotating drive device 43a for driving one of the rotating seats 42a to rotate. The rotating drive device 43a can be a drive device including a motor, and the motor can be a servo motor. The two rotating seats 42a can carry the two ends 81 and 82 of a pipe 8. In this embodiment, two elastic bands 83 can be used to respectively fasten the two ends 81 and 82 of the pipe 8 to the two rotating seats 42a, but this is not limited to this, and other fixing devices (such as the above-mentioned fixing device 44) can also be used to fix the two ends 81 and 82 of the pipe 8. In this embodiment, the rotating drive device 43a can drive the rotating seat 42a to rotate forward and reverse. FIG. 11 shows that the rotating drive device 43a drives the rotating seat 42a and the pipe 8 thereon to rotate 180 degrees counterclockwise. At this time, as long as the rotating drive device 43a drives the rotating seat 42a to rotate 180 degrees clockwise, the rotating seat 42a and the pipe 8 thereon will return to the state shown in FIG. 10.

To cut a pipe into several sections, for example, to cut the pipe 8 into several sections, the base 41a of the movable stage 4a needs to be locked on the turntable 33. At the beginning, as shown in FIG. 12 and FIG. 12A, the laser cutting head 2 then performs multiple half cuts on the pipe 8. Each time a half cut is performed, the arm 32 needs to rotate 180 degrees around a central axis 84 of the pipe 8, so that the pipe 8 rotates 180 degrees around the central axis 84. When the laser cutting head 2 performs the first half cut from one end 81 of the pipe 8, the arm 32 needs to rotate 180 degrees counterclockwise, as shown in FIG. 13, so that the pipe 8 rotates 180 degrees counterclockwise around the central axis 84. Next, the laser cutting head 2 moves forward a distance along the length direction of the pipe 8 toward the other end 82 of the pipe 8, and then performs the second half-cut. At this time, the arm 32 needs to rotate 180 degrees clockwise and return to the state shown in Figure 12, so that the pipe 8 rotates 180 degrees clockwise around the central axis 84. Then, the laser cutting head 2 continues to move forward a distance along the length direction of the pipe 8, and then performs the third half-cut. At this time, the arm 32 needs to rotate 180 degrees counterclockwise and become the state shown in Figure 13..., and so on, to complete multiple half-cuts of the pipe 8. As shown in Figure 14, N half-cut marks 85 have appeared on the pipe 8 due to the N times of the aforementioned half-cutting performed by the laser cutting head 2, and each half-cut mark 85 has a starting point 851 and an end point 852.

Next, the driving device 43a drives the rotating seat 42a to rotate 180 degrees counterclockwise, so that the pipe 8 rotates 180 degrees counterclockwise, as shown in Figures 15 and 15A. At this time, the pipe 8 exposes the other side to be cut to the laser cutting head 2. The other side is shown in Figure 16. The dotted line in the figure shows the half-cut marks 85 of the previous cutting, which are roughly located on the back of the other side.

Then the laser cutting head 2 starts to perform multiple half cuts from the other end 82 of the pipe 8 in the same manner as described in the previous paragraph, but this time the laser cutting head 2 moves backwards along the pipe 8 each time, that is, the next half cut is performed after each backward movement of a preset distance.

Each of the above half-cutting is performed according to the corresponding half-cutting path preset in the computer control center. Each half-cutting path is determined according to the needs, so that the laser cutting head 2 can perform laser cutting according to the preset half-cutting path, and the arm 32 and the turntable 33 can also rotate in coordination with the preset half-cutting path.

After completing another batch of multiple half-cuts of the tube 8 as described above, as shown in FIG. 17 , N half-cut marks 86 have appeared on the tube 8 due to another batch of N half-cuts performed by the laser cutting head 2. Each half-cut mark 86 has a starting point 861 and an end point 862, but the starting point 861 does not necessarily exist, because the starting point 861 can coincide with the starting point 851 of the corresponding half-cut mark 85 or maintain a small distance. If they coincide, the starting point 861 does not exist. Each pair of half-cut marks 85 and 86 forms a cutting mark 87 that almost surrounds the pipe 8. Each cutting mark 87 has at least one uncut portion 871, but each cutting mark 87 can also have two upper and lower uncut portions 871 as shown in the figure, that is, the two ends of the half-cut mark 85 in each cutting mark 87 and the two ends of the corresponding half-cut mark 86 are opposite to each other through two uncut portions 871. The width of the uncut portion 871 is very small, for example, about 1mm, 0.75mm, 0.5mm or 0.25mm. These uncut portions 871 allow the sections 88 of the pipe 8 to remain temporarily connected after being cut, ensuring that the sections 88 will not be broken into multiple pieces during the aforementioned cutting process.

After the above cutting is completed, the pipe 8 is taken out. With a little force, the pipe 8 can be decomposed into several sections, and several finished pipes 88 are taken out from them, as shown in Figure 18. The rest are waste. Both ends of each finished pipe 88 have the desired port shape. It should be pointed out that in the above cutting process, the multi-axis robot 1 will adjust the position of the laser cutting head 2 according to the preset half-cutting path movement, so that the port shapes at both ends of each finished pipe 88 meet the expectations.

1: Multi-axis robotic arm

2: Laser cutting head

3: Multi-axis turntable device

100: Ground

31: Base

311: Countertop

312: Central axis

32: Arm

321: Loading surface

322: Central axis

33: Turntable

4: Movable platform

41: Base

42: Slide rail

43: Mobile platform

Claims (7)

A pipe cutting method is performed using a robot-type pipe laser processing machine, the robot-type pipe laser processing machine comprising: a multi-axis robot arm; a multi-axis turntable device, located opposite to the multi-axis robot arm and comprising a base, an arm, a first driving device, a turntable, and a second driving device, wherein the arm is an L-shaped arm and comprises a vertical extension portion and a horizontal extension portion extending horizontally from one end of the vertical extension portion to the direction of the robot arm for a certain length. One end of the extension part is arranged on a table surface of the base, and can rotate relative to the base with a central axis of the table surface as the axis, the central axis is a horizontal axis, one end of the horizontal extension part is connected to the other end of the vertical extension part, a bearing surface on the other end of the horizontal extension part is parallel to the horizontal axis and a distance from the horizontal axis, the length of the horizontal extension part is greater than the length of the vertical extension part, and the first driving device is used to drive the arm to rotate so that the bearing surface of the arm rotates around The horizontal axis rotates, the turntable is located on the bearing surface of the arm and can rotate around the horizontal axis as the bearing surface of the arm rotates, the turntable also rotates around a central axis of the bearing surface, the central axis of the bearing surface is a vertical axis, and the second driving device is used to drive the turntable to rotate; a movable platform is fixed on the turntable of the multi-axis turntable device and is located between the turntable and the horizontal axis, wherein the movable platform includes a base fixed on the turntable, a base disposed on the base A slide rail, a moving platform that can move along the slide rail and is used to place a pipe fitting, a fixing device disposed on the moving platform and used to fix the pipe fitting, and a moving driving device used to drive the moving platform to move, wherein the base has two opposite sides, the moving platform has two opposite sides, one side of the base and one side of the moving platform both face the multi-axis robot arm, and the slide rail is located between the two sides of the base so that the moving platform can move along the slide rail between the two sides of the base. The moving platform is provided with two support blocks spaced a certain distance from each other, the two support blocks are used to support the pipe fitting, and the fixing device is used to fix the pipe fitting, wherein when the moving platform is located at a position point, a front section of the pipe fitting protrudes from one side of the moving platform and one side of the base, and when the moving platform is located at another position point, a rear section of the pipe fitting protrudes from the other side of the moving platform and the other side of the base; a thunderbolt a laser cutting head, located opposite to the other end of the arm and disposed at one end of the multi-axis robot arm, for cutting the pipe on the moving platform; and a computer control device, capable of controlling the movements of the multi-axis robot arm, the laser cutting head, the multi-axis turntable device and the movable platform; wherein the pipe cutting method comprises: fixing a pipe on two supporting blocks of the movable platform of the movable platform, the movable platform being located at the position point so that the front section of the pipe protrudes from one side of the movable platform of the movable platform and one side of the base; using a laser cutting light emitted by the laser cutting head to cut the front section of the pipe; in the process of cutting the front section of the pipe by the laser cutting light, the first driving device drives the arm to rotate about the central axis of the table surface so that the front section of the pipe rotates accordingly; after the front section of the pipe is cut by the laser cutting light, the moving driving device drives the moving platform to move linearly from the position point to the other position in a direction away from the multi-axis robot arm point, so that the rear section of the pipe protrudes from the other side of the moving platform and the other side of the base, and then the second driving device drives the turntable to rotate, so that the rear section of the pipe comes to the original position of the front section; the rear section of the pipe is cut by a laser cutting light emitted by the laser cutting head; and in the process of cutting the rear section of the pipe by the laser cutting light, the first driving device drives the arm to rotate around the central axis of the table, so that the rear section of the pipe rotates accordingly. For example, in the pipe cutting method of item 1 of the patent application, the movable platform of the robot-type pipe laser processing machine can make a central axis of the supported pipe and the central axis of the table be on the same axis. For example, in the pipe cutting method of item 1 or 2 of the patent application, the fixing device of the robot arm type pipe laser processing machine includes a swing arm, which can be operated to swing upward to an open position or swing downward to a fixed position. When the swing arm is in the open position, the pipe can be placed on the two supporting blocks of the moving platform. When the swing arm is in the fixed position, one end of the swing arm presses down on the pipe. In the pipe cutting method as described in claim 1, during the process of the laser cutting light of the laser cutting head cutting the front section of the pipe, the multi-axis robot is also used to adjust the position of the laser cutting head. In the pipe cutting method as described in claim 1, during the process of the laser cutting light of the laser cutting head cutting the rear section of the pipe, the multi-axis robot is also used to adjust the position of the laser cutting head. The pipe cutting method as described in claim 1, wherein in the front stage of the laser cutting light cutting the pipe, the first driving device drives the arm to rotate 360 degrees in one direction, and in the rear stage of the laser cutting light cutting the pipe, the first driving device drives the arm to rotate 360 degrees in the opposite direction. A pipe cutting method includes: Fix a pipe on a rotatable movable carrier, and make a front section of the pipe protrude from one side of the movable carrier; use a laser cutting head to cut the front section of the pipe; use the movable carrier to drive the pipe to move to the other side of the movable carrier, so that a rear section of the pipe protrudes from the other side of the movable carrier, and the other side of the movable carrier is relative to the one side of the movable carrier, and then, rotate the movable carrier so that the rear section of the pipe comes to the position where the front section was originally located; and use the laser cutting head to cut the rear section of the pipe.

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