Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B21—MECHANICAL METAL-WORKING WITHOUT ESSENTIALLY REMOVING MATERIAL; PUNCHING METAL
  • B21D—WORKING OR PROCESSING OF SHEET METAL OR METAL TUBES, RODS OR PROFILES WITHOUT ESSENTIALLY REMOVING MATERIAL; PUNCHING METAL
  • B21D43/00—Feeding, positioning or storing devices combined with, or arranged in, or specially adapted for use in connection with, apparatus for working or processing sheet metal, metal tubes or metal profiles; Associations therewith of cutting devices
  • B21D43/02—Advancing work in relation to the stroke of the die or tool
  • B21D43/04—Advancing work in relation to the stroke of the die or tool by means in mechanical engagement with the work
  • B21D43/10—Advancing work in relation to the stroke of the die or tool by means in mechanical engagement with the work by grippers
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B21—MECHANICAL METAL-WORKING WITHOUT ESSENTIALLY REMOVING MATERIAL; PUNCHING METAL
  • B21D—WORKING OR PROCESSING OF SHEET METAL OR METAL TUBES, RODS OR PROFILES WITHOUT ESSENTIALLY REMOVING MATERIAL; PUNCHING METAL
  • B21D5/00—Bending sheet metal along straight lines, e.g. to form simple curves
  • B21D5/04—Bending sheet metal along straight lines, e.g. to form simple curves on brakes making use of clamping means on one side of the work
  • B21D5/042—With a rotational movement of the bending blade

Definitions

• the invention relates to a processing machine for workpieces made of flat material, in particular sheet metal parts, comprising at least one work station, which is designed as a bending station, in which the workpiece aligned parallel to a bending plane for performing a bending operation can be clamped by means of a lower beam and an upper beam and longitudinally by means of a bending beam a bending edge is bendable, as well as a manipulator device with a gripper for holding the workpiece and with a positioning device for the gripper, with which the gripper can be moved in a first direction transverse to the bending edge in the bending plane and rotated about an axis perpendicular to the bending plane.
• Processing machines of this type are known as bending centers from the prior art, with these only offering the possibility of carrying out only one type of bending operation and also only a limited number of the same.
• the invention is therefore based on the object of improving a processing machine of the generic type in such a way that, in addition to a type of bending operation, other processing operations are possible in order to finish machining a sheet metal part, at least in terms of its shape.
• This object is achieved according to the invention in a processing machine of the type described in the introduction in that the gripper can be moved with the positioning device in a second direction parallel to the bending plane and in a vertical direction perpendicular to the bending plane.
• this embodiment of the processing machine according to the invention makes it possible, on the one hand, to carry out bending operations with which an edge region is bent in one direction and, on the other hand, to perform bending operations with which an edge region is bent in the opposite direction.
• the positioning device can be designed in the most varied of ways.
• the positioning device for realizing the movement in one of the directions has a longitudinal guide extending parallel to a longitudinal direction, on which a longitudinal slide carrying the gripper is held.
• the gripper can be moved in the longitudinal direction in a simple manner, in particular when the gripper is to be movable in the longitudinal direction over long distances.
• the adjustment of the gripper perpendicular to the bending plane can also be implemented in a wide variety of ways. For example, it would be conceivable to position the gripper in the height direction relative to the longitudinal slide using a suitable height adjustment device.
• the longitudinal guide can be adjusted in the height direction by means of a height adjustment device.
• the height adjustment device is preferably designed in such a way that it has a parallel guide held on a machine frame for the longitudinal guide, so that the longitudinal guide as a whole can be moved in the height direction in mutually parallel positions.
• a transverse guide with a cross slide movable along this is arranged on the longitudinal slide, so that the cross slide then in turn carries the gripper.
• the gripper itself could be designed in a wide variety of ways. For example, it would be conceivable to design the gripper as a suction gripper, which grips the workpiece on one side. But it would also be conceivable to design the gripper as a magnetic gripper, which also acts on the workpiece on one side under the action of magnetic forces, which, however, presupposes that the workpiece is made of a material which is subject to magnetic attraction by a magnet.
• a particularly universal solution which also securely grips the workpiece, provides that the gripper grips the workpiece with the gripper elements which overlap on an upper side and a lower side.
• Such mechanical and non-positive gripping of the workpiece can be used universally for any type of workpiece and also allows the most secure non-positive fixing of the workpiece.
• the gripper could be designed such that it grips the workpiece in each case in an edge region, for example as a gripper gripper.
• a gripper gripper it is particularly advantageous, in particular in order to be able to grip and hold the workpiece securely, if the gripper has an approximately C-shaped gripper bracket on which the gripper elements are held.
• the C-shaped gripper bracket is preferably designed such that the gripper elements can grip the workpiece in a central region thereof.
• Such a gripping of the workpiece in a central area has the great advantage that the bending of the edge areas without bending when different edge areas Influence on the central area in which the gripping takes place and thus has no influence on the gripping of the workpiece.
• the gripper elements are rotatably arranged on the gripper bracket so that the gripper bracket itself does not have to be subjected to rotation, but instead the workpiece can be rotated simply in that the gripper elements themselves can be rotated relative to the gripper bracket.
• the gripper elements can be designed in a wide variety of ways. For example, it would be conceivable to provide a gripper plate as the gripper elements and a gripper bell as a counterpart to this, in order to grasp the workpiece in the central area as large as possible. As an alternative to this, it is also conceivable, in particular if the sheet metal parts are small, to provide two strip-shaped gripper elements which can be moved towards one another as gripper elements.
• the processing machine according to the invention has at least one work station designed as a bending station.
• An especially advantageous solution of the bending machine according to the invention provides that the workpiece can be positioned with the gripper in several work stations arranged in succession in the longitudinal direction.
• This solution has the great advantage that not only a work station designed as a bending station is now available for machining the workpiece, but also further work stations in which, in principle, the most varied of machining operations can be carried out. Examples of such different edits would be next to that Bending any kind of deforming processing, but also punching, cutting or labeling or machining.
• At least one of the further work stations is designed as a bending station. This creates the possibility of providing different bending tools, in particular also with different widths, in the individual bending stations in order to be able to work with tools that are precisely adapted to the respective bending operation. This is particularly important if only partial areas of a workpiece are to be bent without colliding with the rest of the workpiece.
• a particularly expedient solution provides that all bending stations have a common lower beam, a common upper beam and a common bending beam.
• This design of the bending stations creates the possibility of working with as little drive and control effort as possible, since only a drive for moving the lower beam and upper beam relative to one another and a drive for moving the bending beam is required in order to be able to operate all the bending stations.
• each bending station has its own bending beam tool, this bending beam tool sitting on the bending beam common to all bending stations.
• each bending station has its own upper beam tool and / or its own lower beam tool, but all of which are seated on the lower beam or upper beam common to all bending stations.
• the defined alignment of the workpiece in the insertion station could be done in a variety of ways. For example, it would be possible to measure the workpiece in the insertion station. A particularly inexpensive solution, however, provides that the workpiece can be positioned exactly in the insertion station by means of stop elements provided therein.
• a particularly expedient alignment of the workpiece is possible if it can be placed on a table in the insertion station and can be positioned on it in a defined manner.
• the removal of the workpiece no further details were given in connection with the previous description of the individual exemplary embodiments. It would also be conceivable, for example, to solve the removal of the sheet metal part by removing it from the last work station. However, it is particularly favorable if the workpiece can be inserted into a removal station after it has passed through the work stations.
• Such a solution has the great advantage that the removal station can be designed regardless of the design and mode of operation of the last work station in each case, and thus a wide variety of sheet metal parts can also be removed from the same removal station.
• a solution in which the removal station has one or more conveyor belts on which the workpiece can be placed by means of the gripper is particularly expedient.
• the workpiece in particular between the insertion station and the removal station, can be gripped in a single orientation relative to the gripper elements, that is to say that no gripping, for example between the insertion station and the removal station , takes place, and thus the one-time defined positioning of the workpiece, for example in the insertion station, leads to a one-time defined orientation relative to the gripper elements, which is then maintained for the entire machining operations, so that the detection of this unique orientation with the desired accuracy up to Completion of all processing in all workstations relative to the gripper elements is sufficient for positioning the workpiece in all workstations.
• Figure 1 is a plan view of an embodiment of a processing machine according to the invention.
• FIG. 2 shows a perspective view, partially in cross section, in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1 of the manipulator device and the insertion station;
• Fig. 3 is a perspective and cross-sectional view in the direction of arrow B in Fig. 1 of the bending cell in the area of the second work station and
• Fig. 4 is a schematic representation of a processing of an exemplary workpiece, the processing in the processing machine according to the invention and the shape of the sheet metal part after processing are shown on the left side. Show in detail
• 4a an insertion of the sheet metal part in the insertion station and picking it up by means of the gripper; 4b a bending over of a first edge region in the first work station;
• Fig. 4f a bending of a fifth edge area in the second work station
• Fig. 4g inserting the finished bent sheet metal part in the removal station.
• FIG. 1 An exemplary embodiment of a processing machine according to the invention shown as a whole in FIG. 1, exemplarily designed as a bending machine, comprises an insertion station 10, work stations 12a and 12b, which are merely examples of a number of workstations to be selected depending on the type of processing, and a removal station 14.
• the processing machine In order to transport a workpiece 16, in this case a sheet metal part to be bent, from the insertion station 10 into the work stations 12a and 12b and the removal station 14 of the processing machine, the processing machine is provided with a manipulator device designated as a whole, which can be controlled by a machine control 20 is. With this The manipulator device 18 receives the sheet metal part 16 in the loading station 10 and transports it to the work stations 12a and 12b in such a way that edge regions 22a, 22b, 22c, 22d and 22e can be bent there along bending lines 24a, 24b, 24c, 24d and 24e .
• the manipulator device 18 comprises a manipulator frame, designated as a whole by 30, relative to which a longitudinal guide 32 is held height-adjustable in the direction of a height direction Z by means of a height adjustment device 34.
• the height adjustment device 34 comprises a plurality of parallel guides 36 which guide a base 38 of the longitudinal guide 32 parallel to the height direction Z.
• the height adjustment device 34 also comprises lifting devices 40, for example in the form of hydraulic cylinders, with which the base 38 can be moved in the height direction Z in a defined manner.
• the longitudinal guide 32 in turn comprises two parallel longitudinal guideways 42, which also run parallel to a longitudinal direction Y, the longitudinal direction Y preferably running in the horizontal direction, while the height direction Z preferably running in the vertical direction.
• a longitudinal slide On the longitudinal guideways 42, a longitudinal slide, designated as a whole by 44, is mounted so as to be movable in the longitudinal direction Y.
• a threaded spindle 46 is preferably provided, the spindle nut 48 of which is fixedly connected to the longitudinal slide and which can be driven in a controlled manner via a spindle drive 50 driven by the machine control 20.
• a transverse guide tracks 52 Arranged on the longitudinal slide 44 are two transverse guide tracks 52 which run parallel to one another and on which a transverse slide 54 can be moved in a transverse direction X transverse to the longitudinal direction Y.
• This cross slide 54 is also preferably adjustable in the transverse direction X by means of a threaded spindle 56, the spindle nut 58 of which is seated firmly on the cross slide 54, and can be controlled by the machine controller 20 by means of a cross spindle drive 60.
• a gripper designated as a whole by 62, which comprises an upper gripper element 64 and a lower gripper element 66, the upper gripper element 64, for example, being movable in a direction 68 towards or away from the lower gripper element around the sheet metal part 16 to grab.
• the upper gripper element 64 can be adjusted by means of a gripper drive 70, for example in the form of a hydraulic cylinder.
• the lower gripper element 66 is rotatable about an axis D which runs parallel to the direction 68.
• the lower gripper element 66 can be driven by means of a rotary drive 72.
• the lower gripper element 66 is in turn rotatably held on a lower arm 74 of a C-shaped gripper bracket designated as a whole by 76, the rotary drive 72 also being arranged on the lower arm 74. Furthermore, the upper gripper element 64 is slidably held in the direction 68 on an upper arm 78 of the C-shaped gripper bracket and the upper arm 78 also carries the gripper drive 70. The workpiece is now gripped between the upper gripper element 64 and the lower gripper element 66 also to be able to rotate about the axis D, the upper gripper element 64 is also additionally rotatably mounted about the axis D on the upper arm 78 of the C-shaped gripper bar 76.
• the C-shaped gripper bracket 76 in turn sits on the cross slide 54 and extends with its arms 74 and 78 approximately parallel to the transverse direction X, the arms 74 and 78 being rigidly connected to one another via a web 80 which is on one of the gripper elements 64, 66 opposite side of arms 74 and 76.
• the longitudinal direction Y and the transverse direction X are preferably parallel to a horizontal plane and the axis of rotation D is perpendicular to this.
• the gripper 62 is arranged such that its gripper elements 64 and 66 are arranged facing the insertion station 10 as well as the work stations 12a and 12b and the removal station 14, while the web 80 seen in the transverse direction X is arranged opposite the gripper elements 64 and 66.
• the height adjustment device 34 together with the longitudinal guide 32, the longitudinal slide 44 and the cross slide 54 and the drives 50 and 60, forms a positioning device 82 for the gripper 62 which can be controlled by the machine control 20
• the insertion station 10 in turn comprises, as is also shown in FIG. 2, a base frame 90 which carries a table 92 with a table surface 94, on which the still unprocessed sheet metal part 16u can be placed.
• a base frame 90 which carries a table 92 with a table surface 94, on which the still unprocessed sheet metal part 16u can be placed.
• stop elements 96a, 96b and 96c are also provided on the table 92, against which the sheet metal part 16u can be placed with the edge regions 22a and 22c and thus clearly defined with regard to its position relative to the longitudinal direction Y and the transverse direction X. is positionable.
• the table 92 is provided with a recess 100 which, when the sheet metal part 16 is positioned as defined by the stop elements 96a to c, engages the lower gripper element 66 allowed on an underside 102 of the sheet metal part in the central area 98, while the upper gripper element 64 can simultaneously be placed in the central area 98 on an upper side 104 of the sheet metal part 16 and thus the sheet metal part 16 can be clamped between the gripper elements 66 and 64, in which case the Gripper drive 70 applies a clamping force to the upper gripper element 64 in the direction of the lower gripper element 66.
• the sheet metal part 16 can thus be picked up in a defined orientation relative to the longitudinal direction Y and transverse direction X by the gripper 62 in the insertion station 10.
• both workstations 12a and 12b are arranged in a bending cell, designated as a whole by 110, which has a bending cell frame 112, on which a bending cheek, designated as a whole by 114, is arranged so as to be pivotable about a pivot axis 116, with a Swivel drive 118 is provided.
• a first bending beam tool 120 assigned to the first work station 12a and also at a distance from it a second bending beam tool 122 assigned to the second work station 12b, which can be moved by a joint pivoting movement of the bending beam 114 about the pivot axis 116.
• the bending cell 110 additionally comprises a lower beam 126, shown in FIG. 3 as an example using the example of the second work station 12b, with a lower beam tool 128, which is firmly attached to the Bending cell frame 112 is connected, and an upper beam 130 with an upper beam tool 132, which is movable relative to the lower beam 126 in a clamping direction 134.
• the upper cheek 130 is mounted on the bending cell frame 112 via an arm 136 so as to be pivotable about an axis 138.
• the lower beam 126 and the upper beam 130 also extend through the area of the first work station 12a and there also carry the lower beam tools 128 and upper beam tools 132 required for the bending operations to be carried out there.
• the lower beam tools 128 and the upper beam tools 132 preferably define a uniform bending edge 140, which runs through both work stations 12a and 12b, around which a bending operation can be carried out by means of the bending beam 114 and the respective bending beam tools 120 or 122.
• the bending edge 140 preferably extends parallel to the longitudinal direction Y of the manipulator device 18 and, as shown in FIG. 3, the lower beam tools 128 and the upper beam tools 132 are arranged such that they hold the workpiece 16 in the clamped state fix with its central area 98 lying in a bending plane 142 which runs parallel to the longitudinal direction Y and the transverse direction X.
• the edge region 22 to be bent can be bent out of the bending plane 142, the respective bending beam tool provided, in FIG. 3 the second bending beam tool 122, directly adjacent to the bending edge 140, acts on the respective edge region 22 when pivoting the bending cheek 114.
• the finally finished bent sheet metal part 16g can be placed on the removal station 14 after all bending operations have been carried out.
• This comprises two conveyor belts 150 running parallel to one another, with which the completely bent sheet-metal part 16g placed thereon can be removed in a removal direction 152.
• FIGS. 4a to 4g The function of a processing machine according to the invention is illustrated using the example of the sheet metal part 16 in FIGS. 4a to 4g.
• the sheet metal part 16 is inserted into the processing machine according to the invention by placing it with the edge regions 22a and 22c on the stop elements 96a to c and thereby clearly positioning it in its insertion position.
• the still unbent sheet metal part 16u is picked up by means of the schematically illustrated gripper 62, which grips the sheet metal part 16u in the central region 98.
• the sheet metal part 16 is then transported into the first work station 12a, the sheet metal part 16 being rotated by 90 ° with respect to its orientation in the insertion station 10, so that the edge region 22a is bent over in the first work station 12a can, namely along the bending line 24a.
• the sheet metal part 16 is inserted into the first work station 12a such that the bending line 24a is congruent with the bending edge 140 of the bending cell 110, the upper cheek 130 being raised in the opposite direction to the clamping direction 134 for inserting the sheet metal part and after exact positioning of the sheet metal part 16 in the direction the lower beam 126 is moved in order to clamp the sheet metal part 16 between the lower beam tool 128 and the upper beam tool 132.
• the sheet metal part 16 clamped in this way is still additionally held by the gripper 62.
• the edge region 22a is bent up out of the bending plane 142 in the direction of the upper beam tool 132 by means of the first bending beam tool 120.
• the upper cheek 130 is moved upwards in the opposite direction to the clamping direction 134 so that the edge region 22b is inserted into the work station 12a by moving the sheet metal part 16 in the bending plane 142 in the X direction and simultaneously rotating about the axis D, to perform bending along the bend line 24b.
• the edge region 22c is bent up, wherein, as a comparison of FIGS. 4c and 4d shows, a rotation of the sheet metal part 16 by 90 ° about the axis D and simultaneous movement of the same in the X direction is required in order to align the bending line 24c with the bending edge 140.
• the upper cheek tool 120 in the first work station 12a must be dimensioned such that it is able to engage between the raised edge regions 22a and 22b. If the bending line 24c is the longest of all the bending lines 24, the upper beam tool 120 must be dimensioned such that it can engage exactly between the raised edge regions 22a and 22b.
• the edge region 22c is bent up in the same way as already described in connection with FIGS. 4b and 4c by pivoting the bending cheek 114.
• the edge region 22d is bent over along the bending line 24d, in which case the edge region 22d is bent downwards out of the plane 142, that is to say towards the under beam tool 128 should.
• the bending beam 114 is brought into a bending starting position, in which it stands in front of the upper beam 130 and then pivoted in the bending direction, so that the sheet metal part 16 clamped between the lower beam tool 128 and the upper beam tool 132 is held in the bending plane 142 itself and only the edge region 22d is moved in the direction of the lower beam tool 128.
• the edge region 22c is bent, which is narrower than the edge region 22d and, as shown in FIG. 4f, requires bending around a bending line 24e which runs parallel to the bending line 24d but is arranged offset in the direction of the bending line 24c.
• the entire sheet metal part 16 is moved from the first work station 12a to the second work station 12b, as shown in FIGS. 4e and 4f. In the simplest case, this is done only by moving the entire gripper 62 in the longitudinal direction Y, for example without removing the sheet metal part 16 from the bending cell 110.
• the second bending beam tool 122 is provided, which is matched exactly to the width of the edge region 22e, that is to say the length of the bending line 24e, so that there is no collision between the second bending beam tool 122 and the other regions of the sheet metal part 16. If, as shown in this example, the edge region 22e is bent upwards in the direction of the upper beam tool 132, the bending beam 114 is again positioned in the initial bending position shown in FIG. 3 and pivoted in the bending pivot direction 144 in the same way as described in connection with the upward bending of the edge regions 22a to 22c.
• the gripper 62 is raised by the height adjustment device 34, which acts on the longitudinal guides 32, and after the gripper 62 is lifted, the same is moved in the X direction in such a way that the sheet metal part 16 is moved out of the bending cell 110 away from the bending edge 140 .
• the finished bent sheet metal part 16g is moved out of the second work station 12b and placed in the removal station 14 and placed on the two conveyor belts 150, which then move the sheet metal part in the removal direction 152.
• the upper edge of the conveyor belts 150 is preferably such that, in order to place the bent sheet metal part 16g thereon, the latter can be lowered again to the level of the bending plane 142.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Bending Of Plates, Rods, And Pipes (AREA)
• Electrical Discharge Machining, Electrochemical Machining, And Combined Machining (AREA)
• Threshing Machine Elements (AREA)
• Grinding And Polishing Of Tertiary Curved Surfaces And Surfaces With Complex Shapes (AREA)

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• 1997
  • 1997-09-12 PT PT97944876T patent/PT873207E/pt unknown
  • 1997-09-12 EP EP97944876A patent/EP0873207B1/fr not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1997-09-12 AT AT97944876T patent/ATE214984T1/de active
  • 1997-09-12 DK DK97944876T patent/DK0873207T3/da active
  • 1997-09-12 ES ES97944876T patent/ES2175471T3/es not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1997-09-12 JP JP10516167A patent/JP2000515816A/ja active Pending
  • 1997-09-12 WO PCT/EP1997/004997 patent/WO1998014288A1/fr not_active Ceased
• 1998
  • 1998-05-28 US US09/086,375 patent/US5964119A/en not_active Expired - Lifetime

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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