TWI894915B - Operation driving mechanism of tool magazine - Google Patents

Abstract

An operation driving mechanism of tool magazine includes a fixed base, a rotary disc, a driving motor, an active member, a passive member, and a gear device. The rear side of the rotary disc is rotatably disposed on the fixed base. A rotating gear is disposed on the front side of the rotary disc, with a plurality of tool pockets arranged around the outer side of the rotating gear. The driving motor is disposed on the front side of the rotary disc and has a rotation shaft. The active member is connected with the rotation shaft and rotates along with it. The active member has two protruding shafts. The passive member is connected with the active member and provided with a plurality of grooves around its periphery. The grooves are disengageably engaged with the protruding shafts, such that the active member drives the passive member to rotate intermittently. The gear device is connected between the rotating gear and the passive component. Therefore, the tool pockets on the rotary disc achieve a precise rotation and positioning during the tool-changing process.

Description

Tool magazine drive mechanism

This application relates to a disc-type tool magazine, and more particularly to a tool magazine drive mechanism that drives a turntable by intermittent rotation.

The traditional machine tool tool magazine drive mechanism primarily consists of a disc-type tool magazine, a servo motor, a speed reducer, a transmission, and an encoder. The tool magazine features a turntable and multiple tool holders, each housing a different tool. The servo motor is connected to the speed reducer, which, through the transmission, drives the turntable. The encoder detects the servo motor's rotor speed and angle to ensure the turntable accurately rotates to the designated position.

Because the aforementioned mechanism uses a servo motor as its power source and requires an encoder for use, the cost of the mechanism is relatively high. Furthermore, the servo motor, speed reducer, transmission device, and encoder are all located on the back of the tool magazine, making maintenance difficult.

To address the aforementioned issues, this application discloses a tool magazine drive mechanism that uses a conventional electric motor as the power source for the intermittent mechanism, eliminating the need for a costly servo motor and effectively reducing overall system costs. Furthermore, the mechanism ensures precise rotation and positioning of the tool holder, improving tool change efficiency.

To achieve the aforementioned objectives, the present application provides, in one embodiment, a tool magazine rotation drive mechanism, which includes a fixed base, a turntable, a drive motor, a driving member, a driven member, and a gear device. The turntable has a front side and a rear side. The rear side of the turntable is rotatably mounted on a fixed seat. The front side is provided with a rotating gear, and a plurality of knife sleeves are arranged around the outer side of the rotating gear. The drive motor is arranged on the front side of the turntable and has a rotating shaft. The driving member is connected to the rotating shaft and rotates with it. The driving member has two cams. The driven member is connected to the driving member and has a plurality of grooves around the circumference of the driven member. The grooves clutch and engage the two cams to enable the driving member to drive the driven member to produce intermittent rotation. The gear device is connected between the rotating gear and the driven member.

Thus, the present application does not use a servo motor as a driving source, thus avoiding a complex control system and corresponding electronic components, thereby effectively reducing the cost of the entire system.

At the same time, this application uses an intermittent device to drive the rotation of the turntable, so that the tool sleeve on the turntable can be accurately rotated and positioned during the tool changing process, thereby improving the efficiency and accuracy of the tool changing operation.

In addition, the drive motor, active parts, driven parts and gear device of this application are all located on the front side of the turntable, which has the advantage of being easy to repair and maintain.

To facilitate the explanation of the central concept of this application as expressed in the above-mentioned application content column, specific embodiments are presented. Furthermore, to better explain the principles of this application, specific language will be used to describe these examples. However, it should be made clear that this does not limit the scope of this application.

Those skilled in the relevant art may conceive of and make various modifications and further improvements, including the technical features described herein and any other applications of the principles of this application. Such modifications and applications should be considered within the scope of this application. Furthermore, to improve readability, some of the illustrations may omit parts of components or use phantom lines to depict them.

Referring to Figures 1 to 11 , the tool magazine drive mechanism 100 of the present application includes a fixed base 10, a rotary disc 20, a drive motor 30, a driving member 40, a driven member 50, and a gear assembly 60. The tool magazine drive mechanism 100 is used in a machine platform 1 of a processing machine. The drive mechanism 100 is mounted on the machine platform 1 using the fixed base 10. As shown in Figures 2 and 3 , the rotary disc 20 is located in front of the fixed base 10, and the tool changer 2 is located behind the fixed base 10.

The turntable 20 has a front surface 21 and a rear surface 22. The rear surface 22 of the turntable 20 is rotatably mounted on the fixed base 10. A rotating gear 23 is mounted on the front surface 21, and a plurality of tool holders 24 are mounted around the outer side of the rotating gear 23. Each tool holder 24 is used to insert a tool, and the tool holder 24 can be exchanged with the tool on the main spindle of the processing machine through the tool changing mechanism 2.

In addition, the turntable 20 has an opening 25 that passes through the front side 21 and the rear side 22. The rotating gear 23 is arranged around the circumference of the opening 25. The outer circumference of the rotating gear 23 has a tooth portion 231, and the gear portion 231 is engaged and connected with the gear device 60.

The drive motor 30 is a conventional electric motor mounted on the front side 21 of the turntable 20 and has a rotating shaft 31. In the present embodiment, a support plate 70 is further included. The support plate 70 is assembled to the mounting base 10 through the opening 25 and supports the drive motor 30. In some embodiments, the support plate 70 is connected to the mounting base 10 via a plurality of brackets 71 extending through the opening 25. This allows the support plate 70 to mount the drive motor 30 on the front side 21 of the turntable 20, facilitating assembly and maintenance. The rotating shaft 31 is not coaxial with the axis of the rotating gear 23, meaning that the drive motor 30 is offset relative to the rotating gear 23.

The active member 40 is connected to the rotating shaft 31 of the drive motor 30 and rotates with it. The active member 40 has two cams 41 facing the turntable 20. Each cam 41 is rotatably mounted on a bearing 42. In the embodiment of the present application, the two cams 41 are symmetrically arranged at an angle of 180 degrees.

Another embodiment of the present application further includes an angle sensing device 80 comprising a proximity switch 81 and two sensed protrusions 82 disposed around the active member 40. The proximity switch 81 senses the sensed protrusions 82 to detect rotational information of the active member 40 and, based on this rotational information, generates a corresponding signal to control the operation of the drive motor 30. The two sensed protrusions 82 are symmetrically arranged at a 180-degree angle, and are staggered at 90 degrees relative to the two cams 41. In this application, there are two proximity switches 81 and four sensed protrusions 82.

The follower 50 is connected to the driver 40 and rotates with it. A plurality of grooves 51 are arranged around the circumference of the follower 50. These grooves 51 clutch together the two cams 41, causing the driver 40 to drive the follower 50 in intermittent rotation. In this embodiment, the follower 50 comprises a driven shaft 52 mounted on a carrier plate 70. A plurality of spacers 53 are arranged around the driven shaft 52, with a groove 51 located between every two spacers 53. Six grooves 51 are arranged at 60-degree intervals. Furthermore, each spacer 53 has a force-applying section 531 and a connected sliding section 532 on both sides, allowing the cam 41 to slide in contact with the bearing 42. The force-applying section 531 of each spacer 53 tapers toward the axis of the follower 50, and each force-applying section 531 is straight, while each sliding section 532 is arc-shaped.

The gear assembly 60 is connected between the rotating gear 23 and the driven member 50. The gear assembly 60 includes a driven gear 61, a first drive gear 62, and a second drive gear 63. The driven gear 61 is connected to the driven shaft 52. The first drive gear 62 and the second drive gear 63 are coaxially connected to the carrier plate 70. The first drive gear 62 engages with the driven gear 61, while the second drive gear 63 engages with the tooth portion 231 of the rotating gear 23. The reduction gear ratio between the second drive gear 63 and the rotating gear 23 is 5:1. The blade housing 24 comprises 30 gears. In other words, the setting angle of each tool sleeve 24 is 12 degrees, that is, when the driven member 50 rotates 60 degrees, the rotating gear 23 can rotate 12 degrees, that is, the tool sleeve 24 rotates to a tool changing position.

The device further includes a cover 90 that covers the active member 40, the driven member 50, and the gear assembly 60 to provide a protective effect and function.

Please refer to Figures 6 to 11, which illustrate the intermittent rotation of the active member 40 by the driven member 50, thereby intermittently driving the rotating gear 23. As shown in Figure 6, the two cams 41 are a first cam 411 and a second cam 412, respectively. The first cam 411 is at the top and the second cam 412 is at the bottom. The first cam 411 and the second cam 412 are simultaneously in contact with the two sliding sections 532 of the corresponding spacer 53, which represents the initial position of the active member 40.

As shown in FIG. 7 , when the active member 40 rotates 30 degrees clockwise from the position shown in FIG. 6 , the first cam 411 and the second cam 412 are in a slipping state relative to the spacer 53 , and the first cam 411 gradually disengages the sliding section 532 clockwise, while the second cam 412 moves into the groove 51 . At this time, the first cam 411 and the second cam 412 have not yet pushed the follower 50 .

As shown in FIG8 , when the active member 40 rotates another 30 degrees clockwise from the position in FIG7 (i.e., the active member 40 rotates 60 degrees), the first cam 411 has disengaged from the spacer 53, and the second cam 412 has further entered the inner end of the groove 51 and pushed against the force-applying section 531 of the spacer 53, causing the second cam 412 to push the spacer 53, thereby gradually driving the follower 50.

As shown in Figure 9, the active member 40 continues to rotate to a 90-degree position, positioning the first cam 411 and the second cam 412 in the left and right positions as shown in the figure. At this point, while the second cam 412 pushes against the force application section 531 of the spacer 53, the follower 50 has gradually rotated 30 degrees.

Continuing with Figure 10 , the active member 40 continues to rotate to the 120-degree position. At this point, the first cam 411 gradually rotates closer to and contacts the spacer 53. The second cam 412 moves to the middle of the groove 51 and pushes against the spacer 53, allowing the driven member 50 to continue rotating to the 60-degree position. At this point, the gear assembly 60 drives the rotating gear 23 12 degrees, allowing the tool holder 24 to rotate to a tool-changing position.

As shown in FIG11 , when the active member 40 rotates another 60 degrees clockwise from the position shown in FIG10 (i.e., the active member 40 rotates 180 degrees), the first cam 411 and the second cam 412 each abut against the sliding section 532 of the spacer 53 and slip (at this point, the first cam 411 and the second cam 412 do not push the driven member 50 ), causing the first cam 411 to be positioned downward and the second cam 412 to be positioned upward.

Thus, according to the aforementioned description of the movements in Figures 6 to 11 , in the embodiment of the present application, the active member 40 achieves a 180-degree rotation, while the driven member 50 achieves a 60-degree rotation. It is particularly noteworthy that during the rotation of the active member 40 from 0 to 60 degrees, the driven member 50 remains stationary. However, when the active member 40 rotates from 60 to 120 degrees, the driven member 50 rotates 60 degrees accordingly, and when the active member 40 rotates from 120 to 180 degrees, the driven member 50 remains stationary. In view of this, the present application employs a linkage structure between two cams 41 and the driven member 50, allowing the driven member 50 to rotate 120 degrees while the active member 40 rotates one circle. Through this cooperation, the tool sleeve 24 on the turntable 20 can rotate to two tool-changing positions, effectively increasing the operating range of the turntable 20.

When the active member 40 rotates at a constant angular velocity through a predetermined angle, it does not drive the driven member 50. However, when the active member 40 continues to rotate through another predetermined angle, it does drive the driven member 50. This mechanism allows the rotating gear 23 to rotate intermittently, facilitating the rotational positioning of the tool holder 24 during tool changes.

Therefore, the active member 40 and the driven member 50 in this application can be regarded as an intermittent device. The drive motor 30 is used to drive the intermittent device, so that the active member 40 and the driven member 50 can be intermittently transmitted in a clutched manner, thereby driving the rotating gear 23 to rotate intermittently, so as to achieve precise rotation and positioning of the turntable 20, facilitating the tool changing operation.

In summary, this application has the following advantages:

1. The drive motor 30 of this application is a general electric motor, which avoids the complex control system and corresponding electronic components required for the use of a servo motor, thereby reducing the cost of the overall system.

2. This application uses an intermittent device to drive the rotation of the turntable 20, so that the tool sleeve 24 on the turntable 20 can be accurately rotated and positioned during the tool changing process, thereby improving the efficiency and accuracy of the tool changing operation.

3. The drive motor 30, the driving member 40, the driven member 50 and the gear device 60 of the present application are all arranged at the front side of the turntable 20, which is convenient for maintenance and repair.

Although this application is described based on a preferred embodiment, those skilled in the art will be able to make various modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of this application. The above embodiments are intended only to illustrate this application and are not intended to limit the scope of this application. Any modifications or variations that do not violate the spirit of this application are within the scope of this application.

1: Machine 2: Tool Changer 100: Rotating Drive Mechanism 10: Fixed Base 20: Turntable 21: Front Side 22: Rear Side 23: Rotating Gear 231: Gear 24: Tool Holder 25: Opening 30: Drive Motor 31: Rotating Shaft 40: Active Drive 41: Cam 411: First Cam 412: Second cam 42: Bearing 50: Follower 51: Groove 52: Driven shaft 53: Spacer 531: Force-applying section 532: Sliding section 60: Gear assembly 61: Driven gear 62: First drive gear 63: Second drive gear 70: Carrier plate 71: Bracket 80: Angle sensor 81: Proximity switch 82: Detected protrusion 90: Cover

[Figure 1] is an exterior view of the tool magazine's operating drive mechanism installed on the processing machine.

[Figure 2] is an external view of the operating drive mechanism of the tool magazine in this application.

[Figure 3] is a side view of the operating drive mechanism of the tool magazine in this application.

[Figure 4] is a front view of the operating drive mechanism of the tool magazine in this application.

[Figure 5] is a partial structural exploded view of the operating drive mechanism of the tool magazine in this application.

Figures 6 to 11 are schematic diagrams showing the operating status of the active and passive parts of the tool magazine's operating drive mechanism.

2: Tool Changing Mechanism

10: Fixed seat

20: Turntable

21: Front side

23: Rotating gear

24: Knife Sheath

25: Opening

30: Driving motor

31: Axis

40: Active parts

41: Camshaft

42: Bearings

50: Follower

51: Groove

52: Driven shaft

53: Spacer

60: Gear device

61: Driven gear

62: First drive gear

63: Second drive gear

70: Carrier Plate

71: Bracket

80: Angle sensing device

81: Proximity switch

82: Detected convex part

Claims (9)

A tool magazine drive mechanism includes: a fixed seat; a turntable having a front side and a rear side, the turntable being rotatably mounted on the fixed seat with the rear side, the front side being provided with a rotating gear, the outer side of which is wound with a plurality of tool sleeves, and the turntable having an opening passing through the front side and the rear side. The rotating gear is arranged around the circumference of the opening; a drive motor is arranged on the front side of the turntable, and the drive motor has a rotating shaft; an active member is connected to the rotating shaft and rotates therewith, and the active member has two cams, and the two cams are symmetrically arranged at an angle of 180 degrees; a driven member is connected to the active member, The driven member is provided with a plurality of grooves around its periphery, which clutchly engage the two cams to cause the active member to drive the driven member to generate intermittent rotation; a supporting plate is assembled on the fixing seat through the opening, and the driving motor is mounted on the supporting plate; an angle sensing device is provided for detecting the rotation information of the active member, the angle sensing device includes a proximity switch and two sensed protrusions provided around the active member, the two sensed protrusions are symmetrically arranged at an angle of 180 degrees, and the two sensed protrusions are respectively staggered at an angle of 90 degrees with the two cams; and a gear device is connected between the rotating gear and the driven member. The tool magazine operating drive mechanism as described in claim 1, wherein the follower is wound with a plurality of spacers, and there is a groove between every two of the spacers. As described in claim 2, the tool magazine has an operating drive mechanism, wherein each of the spacers has a force-applying section and a connected sliding section on both sides for the two cams to slide in contact with each other; when the two cams simultaneously contact the two sliding sections, the two cams are in a sliding state relative to the spacers, and when one of the cams contacts one of the force-applying sections, it can push against the corresponding spacer, so that the active member intermittently drives the driven member. As described in claim 3, the two force-applying sections of each spacer are tapered toward the axis of the driven member, and each force-applying section is straight and each sliding section is arc-shaped. The tool magazine operating drive mechanism as described in claim 4, wherein the two cams are symmetrically arranged at an angle of 180 degrees. As described in claim 5, the tool magazine driving mechanism comprises six grooves arranged at intervals of 60 degrees. As described in claim 5, the tool magazine's operating drive mechanism, wherein the two cams are each rotatably mounted with a bearing. The tool magazine driving mechanism as claimed in claim 1, wherein the outer periphery of the rotating gear has a tooth portion engaged with the gear device, and the rotating shaft is not coaxial with the axis of the rotating gear. The operating drive mechanism of the tool magazine as described in claim 8, wherein the driven member has a driven shaft mounted on the supporting plate, the gear device includes a driven gear, a first drive gear and a second drive gear, the driven gear is connected to the driven shaft, the first drive gear and the second drive gear are coaxially connected to the supporting plate, and the first drive gear is engaged with the driven gear, and the second drive gear is engaged with the gear portion of the rotating gear; it further includes a cover member, which is covered on the driving member, the driven member and the gear device.