JPH05145B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Field of Application) The present invention relates to an electrode exchange device that makes it possible to automatically exchange electrodes while maintaining a welding atmosphere.

(Conventional technology) For example, in TIG welding (inert gas welding using a tungsten electrode), the tungsten electrode is a consumable item, so to maintain a normal welding arc condition, the tungsten electrode must be replaced at regular intervals. Must. However, since there is no conventional welding torch with automatic electrode exchange,
A regular TIG welding torch is used, and when the tungsten electrode reaches its usage limit, the welding torch must be removed from the welding chamber and the tungsten electrode replaced manually. Then the original tungsten electrode aiming position (vertical, horizontal plane)
It had been readjusted.

However, such a configuration has the following problems. That is, when the welding torch is removed to replace the electrode, the welding chamber to which the welding torch is attached is opened, and the welding atmosphere is destroyed. Therefore, it is necessary to return to the original welding atmosphere after that, but this requires a long time, which poses a problem that not only the electrode replacement work but also the welding work itself becomes long in the future.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in conventional welding equipment, it is not possible to automatically replace the electrodes, and if the electrodes are replaced manually, the welding atmosphere will be destroyed and the As a result, there is a problem that not only the electrode replacement work but also the welding work itself becomes long.The present invention was made based on this point, and its purpose is to replace the electrode with a new one during welding. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electrode exchange device capable of exchanging electrodes while maintaining a gas atmosphere in a welding chamber when the need arises.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) That is, the electrode exchange device according to the present invention includes a welding chamber that covers a welding location, and a welding torch body that is held substantially perpendicularly to the upper surface of the welding chamber and has a tip within the welding chamber. a shielding gas supply means for supplying shielding gas into the welding chamber through a gas flow passage formed in the welding torch body; and a plurality of welding electrodes provided in the welding torch body and inserted from above. a guide sleeve; an electrode holding means provided at the lower end of the guide sleeve for holding the lowest welding electrode among the plurality of welding electrodes inserted into the guide sleeve; and an upper part of the welding torch body. an electrode extrusion means provided in the welding chamber for pushing out the welding electrode held by the electrode holding means downward; and an electrode extrusion means rotatably provided in the welding chamber and pushed out from the tip of the welding torch body by the electrode extrusion means. a change arm that regulates the position of the tip of the electrode; a solenoid that rotates the change arm from a position below the welding torch body during welding to a retracted position that does not interfere with welding; and a solenoid that controls the tip of the welding torch body by the electrode pushing means. and a detection switch that detects whether or not the welding electrode pushed out from the switch contacts the change arm, and stops the pushing operation of the electrode pushing means when the welding electrode contacts the change arm. This is what I did.

(Function) In other words, in the present invention, a change arm that regulates the position of the tip of the welding electrode pushed out from the tip of the welding torch body is rotatably provided in the welding chamber, and the change arm is moved from a position below the welding torch body during welding. A solenoid is provided to rotate the solenoid to a retracted position that does not interfere with welding, and a detection switch is provided that stops the extrusion operation of the electrode extrusion means when the welding electrode extruded from the tip of the welding torch body comes into contact with the change arm. This allows the electrode to be replaced while maintaining the gas atmosphere within the welding chamber.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of an electrode exchange device according to this embodiment, and reference numeral 1 in the figure is a torch body, and a guide sleeve 2 is provided inside the torch body 1. As shown in FIG. An insulating sleeve 3 is connected to the upper part of the guide sleeve 2, and a plurality of TIG welding electrodes (hereinafter abbreviated as electrodes) 4 are connected to the axial center of the guide sleeve 2 and the sleeve 3 upwardly. Guide hole 5 to be inserted
is formed. A shield gas hose 6 and a welding power source cable (not shown) are connected to the side surface of the torch body 1. The shielding gas supplied through the shielding gas hose 6 flows into the gas chamber 8 formed on the outer circumferential side of the guide sleeve 2 through the gas hole 7 formed in the lower part of the torch main body 1. Temporarily accumulates in The shielding gas accumulated in the gas chamber 8 flows into the lower cup 10 through a rectifying hole 9 formed below the gas chamber 8.

Extrusion means 11 is provided above the insulating sleeve 3.
is installed. The configuration of this extrusion means 11 will be explained below. Reference numeral 11a in the figure is a feed roller holder, and a feed roller 12, a feeding motor 13, and a motor gear 14 connected to the feeding motor 13 are attached to the feeding roller holder 11a. As shown in the figure, two feed rollers 12 are attached, and rotate so as to sandwich the cylinder rod 15, thereby feeding the cylinder rod 15 downward in the figure. The cylinder rod 15 is inserted into the guide hole 5 from above any N electrodes 4 set. The electrode 4 pushed out into the cylinder rod 15 is held by a holding means 16 . This holding means 16 includes the guide sleeve 2
A chuck 16b provided at the lower end of the chuck 16b, and a collet 16a provided on the outer periphery of this chuck 16b.
and a spring 17 that presses the collet 16a from above. As a result, the chuck 16b is pressed in the radial direction and holds the electrode 4. Therefore, in order to push out this electrode 4 and set a new electrode 4, press the spring 1
The cylinder rod 15 must be pushed out with a force greater than 7. Above cylinder rod 15
The upwardly protruding portion of the feed roller holder 11a is covered by a cylinder cover 18. This is cylinder rod 1 from the strength point of view.
This is because the material No. 5 is a conductor to prevent electric shock. Incidentally, if the cylinder rod 15 is made of an insulator, the cover 18 becomes unnecessary. The cylinder cover 18 is detachable and is configured to be removed when the electrode 4 is preset.

Next, the position of the electrode 4 in the vertical direction is detected, and this is carried out by the position detecting means 19 . The position detection means 19 is composed of a solenoid 19a, a change arm 20 attached to the solenoid 19a, and a proximity switch 21, as shown in FIG. That is, under normal conditions, the change bar 20 is at the position detection position shown by the solid line in the figure, and when the electrode 4 is pushed out by the pushing means 11 , the tip of the lower electrode 4 touches the change arm 20.
comes into contact with. This causes the solenoid 19a to operate and rotate the change arm 20 to the position shown by the two-dot chain line in the figure (retreat position). This rotation of the change arm 20 activates the proximity switch 21 to stop the motor 13 of the extrusion means 11. The extrusion means 11 and the position detection means 19
Both are connected to a control device (not shown), and are configured to start the electrode exchange operation after a predetermined number of welds or a predetermined number of welds have been completed. In addition, the reference numeral 22 in the figure is a welding chamber, and the reference numeral 23 is a welding object 25.
(shown in FIG. 3), and reference numeral 24 is a chuck turning mechanism.

The operation will be explained based on the above configuration. First, before starting welding, the cylinder cover 18 is removed and arbitrary N electrodes 4 are set from the feed roller 12 into the guide hole 5. Next, one cylinder rod 15 is set from above the electrode 4.
At this time, each of the N electrodes 4 and the cylinder rod 15 are sequentially set so that no gaps occur. The delivery length of the cylinder rod 15 is greater than the length of the electrode 4. By selecting various lengths of the cylinder rod 15 and the length of the insulating sleeve 3, it is possible to set any electrode 4.

Welding is performed from the above-mentioned set state, and when a predetermined number of welds or a predetermined number of welds are completed, an electrode replacement operation command is output from the control device, and the electrode replacement operation is started. First, regarding the feeding operation of the cylinder rod 15, the feeding motor 13 is driven to rotate the feeding roller 12 via the motor gear 14 in the direction shown by the arrow in the figure. This forces the cylinder rod 15 downward. By extruding the cylinder rod 15, the electrode 4 is extruded. Then, as shown in FIG. 2, the tip of the electrode 4 located at the lower end comes into contact with the change arm 20. Due to this contact with the change arm 20, the change arm 20 is slightly separated from the proximity switch 21, so the proximity switch 21 is activated to stop the feeding motor 13. Therefore, the electrode 4 is stopped at a predetermined position and is held by the chuck 20. On the other hand, the change arm 20 is rotated by the operation of the solenoid 19a to a retracted position that does not interfere with the welding operation. This completes the electrode replacement operation and starts the welding operation. If the electrodes 4 are pushed out one after another, new electrodes 4 will be automatically replaced. FIG. 3 shows a state in which the position of the workpiece 25 is fixed by the positioning mechanism 23 and the chuck rotation mechanism 24, and at this time the change arm 20 is in the retracted position as described above.

According to this embodiment, the following effects can be achieved.

(1) First, if N electrodes 4 are set in advance,
The electrodes 4 are automatically replaced with new electrodes 4 one after another. At this time, the horizontal positioning of the electrode 4 is performed by the chuck 2, and the vertical positioning is performed accurately by the feeding motor 13, the solenoid 19a, the change arm 20, the proximity switch 21, etc., so that the electrode 4 can be positioned at the desired position. Electrode 4 can be set.

(2) Next, when replacing the electrode 4, there is no need to open the welding chamber 22 as in the conventional case, so the welding atmosphere is not destroyed when the electrode 4 is replaced, and there is no need to create a welding atmosphere again. Therefore, the time required not only for replacing the electrode 4 but also for a series of welding operations can be significantly shortened. Furthermore, since the welding environment is stable, high quality welding can be provided.

In the above embodiments, TIG welding in which no welding wire is used is shown as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to any welding in which an arc is generated using an electrode.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, the present invention provides a rotatable change arm for regulating the position of the tip of a welding electrode in a welding chamber, and also allows the change arm to be moved from a position below the welding torch body during welding to avoid interference with welding. By providing a solenoid that rotates the welding torch to a retracted position and a detection switch that stops the extrusion operation of the electrode extrusion means when the welding electrode extruded from the tip of the welding torch body comes into contact with the change arm, the welding If it becomes necessary to replace the electrode with a new one during the welding chamber, the electrode can be replaced while maintaining the gas atmosphere within the welding chamber.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 3 are diagrams showing one embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an electrode exchange device, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing position detection by a position detection means, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a welded object. It is a diagram showing a state in which an object is fixed. 1... Welding torch body, 2... Guide sleeve, 3
…Insulating sleeve, 4…TIG welding electrode, 5…Guide hole, 11 …Extrusion means, 16 …Holding means, 19
...Position detection means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 a welding chamber that covers a welding location; a welding torch body that is held substantially vertically above the welding chamber and has a tip within the welding chamber; a guide sleeve provided in the welding torch main body into which a plurality of welding electrodes are inserted from above; and a guide sleeve provided in the lower end of the guide sleeve and provided in the guide sleeve. electrode holding means for holding the lowest welding electrode among the plurality of welding electrodes inserted into the welding torch body; and pushing out the welding electrode provided at the upper part of the welding torch body and held by the electrode holding means downward. electrode extrusion means;
a change arm rotatably provided in the welding chamber and regulating the position of the tip of the welding electrode pushed out from the tip of the welding torch body by the electrode pushing means; A solenoid rotates the solenoid from a position to a retracted position that does not interfere with welding, and detects whether or not the welding electrode pushed out from the tip of the welding torch body by the electrode pushing means comes into contact with the change arm. 1. An electrode exchanging device comprising: a detection switch that stops the extruding operation of the electrode extruding means when the electrode comes into contact with the change arm.