JPH068335Y2 - Control cable outer casing - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a control cable for remote operation, which is arranged to smoothly move joints such as arms and limbs of a working robot. The present invention relates to an outer casing having good flexibility and good twistability.

<Prior art> In order to move the flexion and extension of joints such as the limbs, wrists, ankles, and limbs of the work robot smoothly like a human, the driving device in the center of the robot is operated by remote control using a control cable. The movement is transmitted to the bending and stretching mechanism of the joint,
This is smoothly stretched, bent, or twisted a little.

For example, the wrist portion of the robot is required to be twisted and moved in the up, down, left, and right directions in addition to being bent and extended in one direction. For this reason, the control cable for remotely controlling the movement of the control cable also bends or twists as the robot moves.

The control cable is a slender hollow tube made of a tightly wound spiral tube or a synthetic resin tube in which a metal wire is wound to give flexibility, and a flexible wire made of a stranded metal wire in the inner hole of the outer casing. The inner casing is slidably inserted, and both ends of the inner cable are connected to the drive portion of the drive unit and the driven portion of the operated portion.The outer casing that guides the inner cable and protects it is Both terminals are locked together by a locking part near the driving part and a locking part near the driven part. That is, the drive unit is moved to push and pull the inner cable to slide it in the inner hole of the outer casing, and the movement is transmitted to the driven unit to move the driven unit to remotely control the device.

<Problems to be solved> The outer casing of the conventional control cable is
A metal wire plated with tin or zinc is wound in a spiral shape to form a spiral tube, and the outer circumference of the spiral tube is coated with a synthetic resin having good flexibility.

Although the outer casing of such a structure is flexible,
The extra length of the inner cable (hereinafter referred to as “floating length”) that penetrates the outer casing by bending and extends to the outside depends on the size of the so-called clearance between the outer diameter of the inner cable and the inner diameter of the outer casing. It changes a lot. For this reason, the movement length of the drive part changes depending on the bending degree of the outer casing, so the amount of movement of the driven part may be changed and the momentum may not be transmitted sufficiently, resulting in insufficient movement at the joint part and satisfactory work. I can't.

In addition, in the joints that are vertically and horizontally twisted and twisted, the outer casing does not move sufficiently if it is not twisted following the bending and stretching operations. Due to the tin or zinc plating used for rust, the slip between the wires is poor, and a large external force is required to twist them. Therefore, the robot apparatus must be made larger and stronger, and if it is made smaller, bending, stretching and twisting are insufficient and a complete robot cannot be obtained.

<Means for Solving the Problem> The present invention improves the bending and twisting of the outer casing and reduces the change in the floating length due to bending and stretching, so that the metal wire forming the spiral tube has a trapezoidal section. Two types of metal wires with an oval cross section. The hypotenuses of the trapezoidal irregular lines and the end circles of the oval wires are placed in parallel so that they touch each other, with the trapezoidal short sides inside. It is wound around a tightly wound spiral tube, and the metal wire is coated with a lubricating film with good lubricity to eliminate changes in the floating length and to improve the sliding between the wires of the spiral tube, thus bending the outer casing. It is a product that has good properties, twisting and restoring properties.

<Embodiment> The present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. A control cable (1) shown in FIG. 1 has a flexible metal stranded wire or the like in an inner hole of an outer casing (2) of a flexible hollow tube. The inner cable (3) is made to slidably pass through, and the locking component (31) is fixed to the end thereof. The inner cable (3) connects the locking part (31) to the driving part of the driving device and the driven part (neither shown) of the operated device, and the end of the outer casing (2) is locked near the driving part. The inner cable (3) is pushed and pulled by sliding the inner cable (3) by locking the locking part (neither shown) near the driven part and the driven part, and moving the driving part to move the inner cable (3). Is transmitted to the driven portion and moved to remotely operate the operated portion.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the outer casing (2) has a deformed wire (21) made of a metal having a trapezoidal cross section and an oval made of a metal which is formed by rolling a round wire with a rolling mill or the like. Line (22)
With the short side of the irregular line (21) and the plane of the elliptical line (22) facing the inner hole side, and the mutual lines are oval in the central portion of the hypotenuse of the irregular line (21). The wires (22) are arranged in parallel so that the end circles of the wires (22) come into contact with each other, and the spiral tubes (23) are wound by winding them, and the outer periphery of the spiral tubes (23) is coated with a synthetic resin (24) having good flexibility. There is. The spiral tube (23)
In order to form the shape, two deformed wires (21) and elliptical wires (22) are arranged in parallel, and the trapezoidal short side of the deformed wire (21) and the oblong shape of the oblong wire (22) are formed. The end of the wire is fixed so that the part contacts the core wire of the winding machine (not shown), the core wire is rotated, and a compressive force is applied to the spiral tube (23) by giving the wire material a constant acute delivery angle. The wire rod is wound while being fed so as to form a tight spiral tube (23).

When the rotation of the core wire is stopped and the end of the wire rod is unfixed, the spiral tube (23) is rewound so that it extends somewhat. Therefore, in the wound spiral tube (23), the end circle of the elliptical line (22) is located at the center of the hypotenuse of the profile line (21).

At the time of winding, by changing the delivery angle, the compressive force at the time of winding is changed to change the extension at the time of rewinding, and the contact points where the deformed wire (21) and the oval wire (22) are arranged in parallel can be changed. .

Further, the wire rods of the deformed wire (21) and the oval wire (22) are coated with a chemical conversion film such as a zinc phosphate film of trade name Bondelube on the outer surface, or a molybdenum disulfide film is fixed by baking means. Alternatively, an inner cable (25) that is lubricated by hard chrome plating to improve the slidability between the wire bodies of the spiral tube (23) and prevents the wire body from rusting and slides in the inner hole ( The slidability of 3) is improved.

<Operation> When the outer casing (2) is flexed and bent, the movements of the deformed line (21) and the oval line (22) are as shown in FIG. Although a force is applied in the direction of contraction, the end circle of the elliptical line (22) moves toward the inner hole so as to be pushed out along the hypotenuse of the irregular line (21), and prevents the irregular line (21) from approaching each other. Absent.

Also, the oppositely curved rows of profile lines (21) move away from each other, while the oval lines (22) move outward so as to fill them. This movement is because the surface of the wire body is coated with a lubricating coating (25) with excellent lubricity, so that the oval wire (22) moves smoothly, and the bending and stretching movement of the outer casing (2) is easy and smooth. Is. For this reason, the outer casing (2) can be bent slightly. At the same time, even when the outer casing (2) is twisted, it can be easily twisted by smooth sliding between the wire bodies. Furthermore,
When the outer casing (2) is strongly bent, the elliptical wire (22) protrudes from its short side portion so as to be pushed between the deformed wires (21) on the bent side, so that the inner cable (3) is connected to the spiral tube (23). Since it works to push it up from the wall surface of the inner hole, the change in the floating length of the inner cable (3) is reduced, and the operation amount loss is also reduced.

<Effect> The flexible spiral tube of the outer casing of the present invention is coated with a lubricating coating with good lubricity, and the irregular shape wire and the elliptical wire are wound side by side in close contact with each other. The movement is smooth and adapts well to intense bending and stretching. Further, even if the outer casing is bent, the amount of change in the floating length of the inner cable is small, the transmission effect is improved, and the function of the drive portion is sufficiently transmitted to the operated portion, so that the operation loss of the device is also reduced. In addition, even when the control cable is used in a twisted state, the twisting and sliding between the deformed line and the semicircular line is smooth, so that the operation is not hindered. Since the metal wire uses two types of wires, a trapezoidal cross section and an oval cross section, and the wire width of the metal wire is large, the spiral tube can be made thinner, and the spiral tube can be thinner than the conventional outer casing. The outer diameter can be made thin, and at the same time, the weight can be reduced and the material can be omitted.

Also, when the wire width of the strand becomes large in the winding work of the spiral tube, compared with the conventional spiral tube, the winding work with a large wire width is wound faster in the winding work of a certain time, so the winding work is significantly efficient. Can be seen and the cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged transverse sectional view of an outer casing, FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of a metal wire body, and FIG. 4 is an explanation when the outer casing is bent. FIG. 1 ... Control cable 2 ... Outer casing 21 ... Deformed wire, 22 ... Oval wire 23 ... Spiral tube, 24 ... Coating 25 ... Lubrication coating, 3 ... Inner cable

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] 1. An outer casing of a control cable for remotely controlling bending and stretching of arms and the like of a work robot, wherein two kinds of metal wires having a trapezoidal cross section and an oval cross section are alternately arranged in parallel to form a trapezoidal shape. The end circle of the elliptical wire is in contact with the center of the hypotenuse part of a certain irregular wire, and the spiral side is wound into a spiral tube with the short side of the irregular wire and the oblong portion of the oval wire inside. The outer casing is characterized in that the surface of the deformed wire or the elliptical metal wire is coated with a lubricating material having a good lubricity.