JPH047056A - Method and nozzle for applying flowable material such as seal material by industrial robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To carry out sealing work of high accuracy by simultaneously injecting a flowable material from a plurality of the jet orifices provided to a coating nozzle under constant pressure. CONSTITUTION:The sealing material supply gun 24 being the end ejector of a robot 10 and a sealing material coating nozzle 26 are positioned at the parting line of two panel parts in a car body. Subsequently, the sealing material is injected to the region of the parting line of the panel parts from the sealing material supply gun 24 under proper pressure through the sealing material coating nozzle 26. The sealing material is simultaneously injected as many sealing material beads to come into contact with the region of the parting line of the panel parts and the respective sealing material beads are diffused after the contact with the panel parts to be mixed each other to coat the parting line. This sealing material is dried. By this method, the accuracy of sealing work is enhanced.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention provides a coating method in which a fluid material such as a sealing material, caulking material, adhesive, etc. is applied along the seam line of plate materials using an industrial robot. The present invention relates to a fluid material application nozzle that is attached to a fluid material jetting gun provided as an end effector of an industrial robot to apply fluid material to a target region of a material seam by contacting and diffusing the fluid material.

[Prior art]

For example, in the manufacturing process of automobiles, it is common practice to apply sealants to various parts of the interior and exterior of the vehicle body to impart various properties such as waterproofing, dustproofing, soundproofing, and rustproofing. . In particular, a process of applying a sealing material along the seam line of a panel material made of a press-formed part such as a door is performed. Furthermore, in recent years, sealing materials, caulking materials, and the like are frequently applied in the fields of architecture and construction. In this case, for example, there is a tendency to use industrial robots to automate the sealing material application process in the automobile manufacturing process. Referring now to FIG. 5, there is illustrated an example of the structure of a joint between two material plates that requires application of a sealant. In other words, (a) in Figure 5
1 shows a state in which the sealing material 2 is applied along the line 1 of the seam where two plate materials are overlapped.叉、fifth
Figure (b) shows the seam line 3 of two right-angled bent plate materials.
5(c) shows a state in which the sealing material 2 is applied along the seam line 4 of the folded and bent plate material.

When applying sealant along the seam line of the sheet material as described above, conventionally, the sealant was applied to the seam line of the sheet material from a nozzle attached to a fluid sealant supply gun. The method used was to spray the sealant onto the surface of the material plate, spread the sealant to cover the seam line by bringing it into contact with the surface of the material plate, and then harden it to seal the seam line. In this case, the conventional method of ejecting the fluid sealing material using a nozzle was to form one rod-shaped ejected stream 2a and eject it from one nozzle hole 6 as shown in FIG. If the seam line where there is In the one-recommendation seal construction method in which the seal is moved to a position, as shown in the figure, during the position determination process by the robot, the target may be missed due to positioning deviation, and complete coverage with the sealant may not be guaranteed.

On the other hand, in order to avoid such a neck point, as shown in the front and side views of FIGS. By ejecting the adhesive sealing material 2 into a flat bead 2b that widens at the end and moving the nozzle in a direction perpendicular to the flat surface, the seam line is covered thinly and widely, and the seam line with the sealing material 2 is This was an attempt to achieve a line seal. However, even in this case, if the seam line of the material plates is not always a straight line as shown in the diagram, but a curved line, it is necessary to move the nozzle along the curved line. , it is necessary to control the nozzle to rotate gradually, and in order to perform this with the end effector of an industrial robot, it is necessary to increase the robot's degree of freedom of movement by one, which ultimately reduces the cost of the sealing method. There was a problem that led to an increase. Further, in order to generate the flat bead 2b, it is necessary to set the pressure for extruding the fluid sealing material in the nozzle hole 7a to an appropriate level to ensure the formation of the flat bead.

Furthermore, as shown in the front and bottom views of FIGS. 8(a) and 8(b), one fluid sealing material ejection hole 8a of the nozzle is provided, and a pressure air ejection hole 8b is provided around the ejection hole 8a. In some cases, the jet bead 2c of the sealing material is diffused by a rotating flow of the same pressure air and brought into contact with the seam line of the material plates, so that the sealing material completely covers the seam line. .

However, in this case, the internal structure of the nozzle must have two structures, one for supplying the fluid sealing material and the other for supplying the pressurized air jet flow, which inevitably complicates the structure.
In addition, it is necessary to adjust the degree of diffusion of the fluid sealing material by adjusting the flow rate of the ejected air flow, and it is impossible to adjust the air flow rate with a nozzle attached to the sealing gun of the end effector of an industrial robot. There are problems that make control operations difficult.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The conventional sealing methods described above require the tip of the robot arm to move in a narrow space inside the car body, especially in the automobile manufacturing process, where sealing work is also carried out inside the car body. There is a demand for the development of a simple and highly accurate sealing method and for the provision of equipment for realizing it.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a sealing method that improves the conventional sealing method using a flowable sealing material and makes it possible to achieve high-precision sealing work without mistakes such as missing the mark by using an industrial robot; In order to accomplish this, the present invention aims to provide a nozzle that is attached to a fluid supply gun used as an end effector of a robot and achieves the ejection of a desired fluid.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention uses a nozzle as a porous nozzle that is attached to a gun for supplying a fluid material such as a sealing material, coke material, or adhesive used as an end effector of an industrial robot, or is formed directly at the tip of the gun. Multiple beads of fluid material are ejected along the seam line of the material plates, and the jet flow of the multiple fluid material beads comes into contact with the target area and spreads, thereby reliably covering the seam line. The object of the present invention is to provide a construction method for achieving a nozzle at a seam, and also to provide a nozzle that achieves this.

That is, according to the present invention, there is a method of applying a fluid material such as a sealant along the seam line of two plate materials or plate material parts using a fluid material application gun equipped with a fluid material extrusion nozzle of an industrial robot. In this step, the fluid material is simultaneously jetted out at a constant pressure from a plurality of fluid material jetting holes provided in the nozzle of the fluid material application gun, and the approximate center of the nozzle is moved by the industrial robot along the line of the seam. An industry in which the fluid material is spread along the seam line by contacting the material surface or the surface of the material portion on both sides of the seam line of the plate material with the fluid material jet flow. A method for applying a fluid material such as a sealant using a robot is provided.

In a nozzle that is attached to a fluid material application gun of an industrial robot whose movement is controlled along a line of seam between two plate materials or plate material parts, and sprays a fluid material such as a sealant to a target position, The nozzle is composed of a multi-hole nozzle having a fluid material inner chamber and a plurality of fluid jet holes communicating with the fluid material inner chamber, and is configured to bring a plurality of beads of the fluid material into contact with an area centered on the target position. A fluid material application nozzle for an industrial robot is provided. Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail based on embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 shows an industrial robot that performs the coating method of the present invention for applying fluid materials such as sealants, caulking materials, adhesives, etc., and an end effector equipped with a nozzle for jetting the fluid material attached to its tip. a perspective view schematically showing a gun;
FIGS. 2(A) and (B) are cross-sectional views showing one embodiment of a fluid material jet nozzle, FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a fluid material jet nozzle according to another embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a modified version of the fluid material jet nozzle. FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view of a fluid material jetting nozzle according to an example.

In FIG. 1, an industrial robot (10) as an example to which the present invention is applied is formed as an articulated robot, and has a swivel base 14 on the top of a fixed base 12. The first robot arm 16 is swingably provided, and the first robot arm 16 is swingably provided.
A second robot arm 18 is provided at the tip of the robot arm 16 so as to be pivotable in the upward and downward directions. The second robot arm 18 is equipped with a robot wrist 20 at its tip that has multiple degrees of freedom of movement. And this robot wrist 20
A fluid material supply gun 24 is attached via a bracket 22, and a fluid material application nozzle 26 according to the present invention is formed integrally or as a separate part at the tip of the fluid material supply gun 24, and is fixed with a screw bolt or the like. It is provided in a structure that is attached using means.

In other words, the fluid material supply gun 24 and the fluid material application nozzle 26 form an end effector of the robot. Reference numeral 27 is a supply vibrator for supplying a fluid material such as a sealing material from a supply source.

Now, according to the coating process of applying the fluid material according to the present invention (hereinafter, an example in which the fluid material is a sealing material) is applied, the sealing material supplying gun 24, which is the end effector of the industrial robot 10 described above, and the sealing material can be used. First, the material application nozzle 26 is
For example, it is positioned at the joint line of two panel plate parts in the body of an automobile. Next, the sealant is sprayed from the sealant supply gun 24 under appropriate pressure through the sealant application nozzle 26 onto the seam area of the panel board parts. At this time, according to the present invention, the sealant ejected from the sealant application nozzle 26 is simultaneously ejected as a multi-sealant bead, and comes into contact with the seam area of the panel board components, thereby forming each sealant. The material beads spread out and intermingle with each other after abutting to properly cover the seam line.

When this sealing material dries, it begins to exhibit a sealing effect.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention in which a plurality of sealant ejection holes 26a concentrically surrounding the sealant application nozzle 26 are formed at the tip thereof.
The sealing material 2 in the inner chamber 26b of the nozzle 26 becomes a plurality of sealing material beads 2d, comes into contact with the vicinity of the seam line 34 of the panel board 30, 32, and spreads, forming a wide coating film and aligning the same. A state in which the eye 34 is covered to achieve a seal is shown. Note that (B) in Fig. 2 is the same as Fig. 2 (Δ).
FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line 2B-2B of FIG.

That is, as is clear from the illustrations of this embodiment, since the ejected flow of the sealing material 2 is multi-lined, the panel plate 30.
When it comes into contact with the seam area 32, a diffusion effect is performed based on the fluidity of the sealant 2, and a coating layer of the sealant 2 that covers the seam line 34 can be reliably formed. In addition,
In the sealing material application nozzle 26 shown in FIG. 2, the sealing material jetting hole 26a is formed with a slight inclination toward the center line of the nozzle in a direction that widens toward the end, so that the sealing material bead 2d
After being ejected, it is ejected in a form that spreads downward, so that it comes into contact with both sides of the seam line 34 of the panel plates 30, 32 in a wide range, and spreads to cover exactly the position of the line 34. In this way, even if the nozzle tip is not precisely positioned on the seam line 34, or even when the seam line 34 is slightly curved, the degree of freedom of movement of the industrial robot can be utilized to approximately seal the target. Bead 2d of sealant 2 toward the area
By spouting out this, a sealing method is established that can reliably cover the seam line 34 of the panel plates 30 and 32 without missing the mark. In particular, since the sealing material jetting hole 26a is provided in a concentric arrangement surrounding the center hole, there is no asymmetry in the centerline opening of the sealing material jetting nozzle 26, which also makes it possible for the robot to control precise rotation. This is advantageous in that it is not required.

In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the nozzle ejection holes 26c are arranged on a double circumference, concentrically surrounding the center hole 26c in the sealing material application nozzle 26, thereby achieving a seal. An example in which the number of jet beads 2e of the material 2 is further increased is shown. In the sealant application nozzle 26 shown in FIG. 3, the ejection hole 26b may be formed as an inclined hole as in the example shown in FIG. has been done. By configuring the various sealing material application nozzles 26 in this way, the cross-sectional structure of the seam of the two material plates, which are the parts to be sealed, can be formed into, for example, a stepped structure, a matching groove structure, or a folded structure as shown in FIG. Since various structures such as the above are available, the number and arrangement of nozzle ejection holes can be appropriately selected experimentally depending on the structural state of the seam, and the optimum nozzle structure can be used. FIG. 3 shows a case where a sealant is applied to the seams 34 of the stepped structure of the panel plates 30 and 32.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment in which the sealant application nozzle 26 has two sealant ejection holes 26d. In this case, only two beads of sealant are ejected on both sides of the center of the nozzle 26, and therefore it is necessary to apply the sealant while rotating the nozzle 26 with respect to the center. In this case as well, as in the case of forming a flat sealing material bead as shown in Fig. 7, in which the ejection pressure of the sealing material bead is already described, it is essential to apply an appropriate pressure to form a sealing material bead with a flared shape. This method can avoid the disadvantage of being unsuitable for applying a sealing material using an industrial robot due to pressure selection, and can be applied to applying a sealing material using an industrial robot without any problems.

In the above embodiments, the fluid material is a sealing material, but it is equally applicable to the case where caulking material, adhesive material, etc. is applied along the seam line of two material plates. Needless to say.

Furthermore, although the present invention has been explained using the application of a sealant in the manufacturing process of automobiles as an example, it is also applicable when applying waterproof, soundproof, and dustproof seals to the joints of various panel boards used in modern architectural structures. can also be applied.

A perspective view schematically illustrating an industrial robot and a gun as an end effector equipped with a fluid jet nozzle attached to the tip of the robot. 3(A) and 3(B) are sectional views showing the configuration of a fluidized material jetting nozzle according to another embodiment in the same manner as FIG. FIG. 4 is a partial perspective view of a fluid material jetting nozzle according to a modified example;
Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing the cross-sectional structure of the seam of the material plates and the application state of the sealant, Fig. 6 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a conventional sealant application nozzle and the state in which the sealant is ejected, and Fig. 7 8A and 8B are cross-sectional views showing the state of a conventional sealant application nozzle and a flat sealant bead. FIGS. A cross-sectional view and a bottom view showing a spouting state.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a method of applying a fluid material such as a sealing material, caulking material, adhesive, etc. according to the present invention. , 26...Fluid material application nozzle 26a...
Sealing material ejection hole, 26b...inner chamber, 26c, 26d...
...Sealing material ejection hole.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method of applying a fluid material such as a sealant along the seam line of two plate materials or plate material parts using a fluid material application gun equipped with a fluid material application nozzle of an industrial robot. In this step, the fluid material is simultaneously ejected under a constant pressure from a plurality of fluid material injection holes provided in the fluid material application nozzle, and the approximate center of the fluid material application nozzle is moved by the industrial robot along the line of the seam. The fluid material is spread along the seam line by causing the fluid material jet flow to come into contact with the material surfaces or surfaces of the material portions on both sides of the seam line of the plate materials. A method for applying a fluid material such as a sealant using an industrial robot, characterized in that: 2. Fluid material application, which is equipped on a fluid material application gun of an industrial robot that is controlled to move along the seam line of two plate materials or plate material parts, and sprays a fluid material such as a sealant to a target position. In the nozzle, the fluid material application nozzle includes:
It consists of a multi-hole nozzle having a fluid material inner chamber and a plurality of fluid material ejection holes communicating with the fluid material inner chamber, and is capable of bringing a plurality of beads of the fluid material into contact with an area approximately centered on the target position. A fluid material dispensing nozzle for industrial robots featuring: 3. The plurality of fluid material ejection holes formed in the multi-hole nozzle have fluid material ejection holes formed in inclined holes that diffuse from the fluid material inner chamber side toward the outside of the nozzle with respect to the nozzle center line. A fluid material application nozzle for an industrial robot according to claim 2.