JPH0579453B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an assembly device for precision instruments such as watches.

[Conventional technology]

When assembling parts into a base part using a robot or a pick-and-press, the parts are assembled by regulating their position, such as by using a parts feeder or a special tray for the parts.

[Problems to be solved by the invention] However, when assembling a wide variety of small quantities of built-in parts using robots or pick-and-press machines, the following parts supply method is required when switching from one model to another to be assembled. There was a problem.

(1) When supplying assembled parts with a parts feeder,
Balls must be converted manually and a large number of balls must be prepared. Also, as the number of assembled parts in the ball decreases, the supply rate decreases.

(2) When supplying assembled parts using a special tray, is it necessary to mold them in order to precisely control the position of the assembled parts?
High-precision trays must be made by cutting with NC machines, and the number of trays increases in proportion to the types of parts to be assembled, which is a factor in increasing costs.

Therefore, in order to solve these conventional drawbacks, the present invention aims to improve the material feeding device and method, and to speedily and easily assemble a wide variety of assembled parts in small quantities with high precision.

[Means for solving problems]

A television camera is provided at the chucking position of the robot, a tray on which a plurality of built-in parts are placed is made of semi-transparent material, and a light source is provided on a tray conveyance device that places and moves the plurality of trays.

In addition, a chuck holder containing a plurality of different chucks is provided, a sensor is provided near the belt conveyor to detect the switching pallet, and a sensor is provided to detect the dummy tray on the tray conveying device, making it easy to switch between different models. A switching pallet and a dummy tray each having a detection mark were arranged correspondingly.

[Effect]

Since a light source is applied from below to the tray positioned in the picking section corresponding to the assembly stage, the posture of the assembled parts can be accurately read by the television camera.

Also, when a switching pallet is detected by a sensor near the belt conveyor, a different chuck is attached to the assembly robot, and the tray transport device is driven until a dummy tray is detected, and all trays in between are moved from the supply section to the collection section. This allows us to quickly respond to chucks for different models and different built-in parts.

[Examples] Examples of the present invention will be described in detail below based on the drawings.

1 to 5 show an embodiment of the present invention, in which reference numeral 1 is a base part such as a watch base plate, 2 is a pallet on which the base part is placed, 3 is a belt conveyor for conveying the pallet 2, and 4 is a belt conveyor for conveying the pallet 2. For example, it is an assembly robot of the orthogonal coordinate type, and is provided corresponding to the assembly stage 100 on the belt conveyor 3. Pallets 2 are positioned on each assembly stage 100 in a conventional free flow manner. Reference numeral 5 denotes a chuck having a vacuum hole, for example, provided at the tip of the assembly robot 4, 6 a television camera integrally provided near the chuck 5, 7 a chuck provided adjacent to the belt conveyor 32 and corresponding to the assembly robot 4. A light reflection type sensor 8 detects the switching pallet 16 shown in FIG.
A tray conveying device 9 provided correspondingly is a tray made of a translucent material and on which a plurality of assembled parts 10 are placed, and a plurality of trays are movably placed on the conveying device 8. That is, the trays 9 on the supply section P side are conveyed one by one in the direction of arrow a through a cylinder (not shown) and positioned on the picking section Q.
When the picking is finished and the assembled parts 10 are gone,
It is conveyed again in the direction of arrow D by a cylinder (not shown) and collected by the collection section R. 1
1 is a light source housed in a housing 12 embedded in the upper part of the tray conveying device 8; 13 is a cloudy plate provided to cover the light source 11 and placed at the position of the picking section Q; the light from the light source 11 is The light is evenly scattered and transmitted through the tray 9. 14
5 is a sensor provided on the tray conveying device 8 to detect the dummy tray 17 shown in FIG. It stores 5d.

The switching pallet 16 and the dummy tray 17 are the fourth
As shown in FIG. 5, holes 16a and 17a are provided at one end as detection marks, respectively.

Note that the above configuration is processed and controlled by a CPU (not shown).

Next, the operation will be explained.

First, when the pallet 2 is conveyed in the direction of the arrow on the belt conveyor 3 and positioned on a predetermined assembly stage 100, the chuck 5 of the assembly robot 4 picks up the assembled part 10 from the tray 9 of the picking section Q. This assembled part 10 is pressed onto the base part 1. At this time, since the attitude of the embedded component 10 on the tray 9 is constantly determined through the light source 11 and the television camera 6,
0 can be picked up accurately if only the front and back sides are selected and placed.

The base parts 1 that have been pressed (assembled) are sequentially transported to the next assembly stage 100.

When there are no assembled parts 10 on the tray 9 of the picking section Q, that is, when the counter of the assembly robot 4 reaches the number of assembled parts 10 on the tray, the tray transport device 8 is driven to collect the empty tray 9. Transport to the position where the part is missing. At the same time, the next tray 9
From there, it is conveyed onto the picking section Q.

Next, a case where the model of the base component 1 is changed will be described.

First, the sequence of the chuck 5, built-in parts 10, and each assembly robot 4 corresponding to the model to be changed is input and set in a CPU (not shown) in advance.
A switching pallet 16 and a dummy tray 17 are provided as pallets and trays corresponding to the switching section.

When the sensor 7 detects the hole 16a of the switching pallet 16, this detection signal becomes a flag for model switching, and the assembly robot 4 and tray transport device 8
Receives switching command from CPU. That is, check 5
is stored in the chuck holder 15, and a chuck having a shape corresponding to the next model is selected from among chucks 5a to 5d and mounted on the assembly robot 4. at the same time,
The tray conveying device 8 drives the tray 9 to convey until the sensor 14 detects the dummy tray 17, so that the assembled part 10 corresponding to the next model is located in the picking section Q.

In this embodiment, holes and reflective sensors are used as detection marks and sensors for the switching pallets and dummy trays, but it goes without saying that the same effect can be obtained by using other known detection means.

Further, as the assembly robot, other robots such as a cylindrical coordinate type and an articulated type can be used.

〔effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the assembly robot and
The tray, TV camera, and tray conveyance device are all driven by CPU control, a light source is provided under the tray, and chuck switching is automatic.
It is possible to respond instantaneously to frequent changes of installed parts, and it is also possible to accurately detect the position and orientation of installed parts that are stored separately. or,
Since it is no longer necessary to restrict the position of assembled parts on the tray, external setup such as tray filling work is greatly eased.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a plan view of the assembly device, FIG. 2 is a side view of the assembly robot and assembly stage, FIG. 3 is a front view of the tray conveyance device, and FIG. 4 is a switching pallet. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the dummy tray. 2...Pallet, 4...Assembling robot, 6...
TV camera, 8...Tray conveyance device, 9...Tray, 11...Light source, 15...Chuck holder,
16...Switching pallet, 17...Dummy tray.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A pallet on which base parts are placed, a belt conveyor that conveys this pallet, a plurality of assembly robots provided corresponding to the assembly stages on this belt conveyor, and a robot integrated with the robot near the chuck of this robot. A television camera installed in the assembly stage, a tray formed of a translucent member on which a plurality of assembled parts are mounted, and a tray provided corresponding to the assembly stage, and a plurality of trays movably placed therein, In the assembly device, the assembly device includes a tray conveying device provided with a light source in the tray conveyor, and a chuck holder provided near the assembly robot and housing a plurality of different chucks. Sensors are provided to detect the dummy trays on the tray conveyance device, and when a switching pallet with a detection mark is detected, a different chuck from the chuck holder is attached to the tip of the assembly robot as appropriate, and the detection An assembly apparatus characterized in that the tray conveying device is driven until a dummy tray having a blank mark is detected, and the tray is empty conveyed from a supply section to a collection section.