JPH07116945A - Tool management device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a tool management device capable of reducing work loads and also immediately dealing with working failures when they are generated by collecting measured data on-line from each CNC in the case when a produc tion manager grasps the operational situation of each working cell. CONSTITUTION:A tool management device is provided with an information collecting means 1 which collects data measured by each cell on a cell controller from machine tools 4, 5...(n) via a communication line and collects the measured information of the machine tools and tool information on-line when working failures are generated. It is further provided with a tool managing means 2 which manages measured data of the respective machine tools and specifies tools determined detective. The measured data and the measured information are displayed together by a display means 3. Thus, a production manager can carry out a centralized control on tool lives, etc., on the cell controller side based on the data measured by each cell. Further, pieces of information necessary for operations after working and for working preparation can be displayed altogether by specifying the tools used for working.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a tool management device, and more particularly to a tool management device for managing tools based on measurement data of machining results obtained by operating a plurality of machine tools.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a processing factory in which a large number of numerically controlled machine tools are installed, a computer controlled FA system (Factory Au) is used to realize an efficient production plan of products.
tomationSystem) has been introduced. This type of FA system includes a plurality of machining cells including a pallet for supplying a workpiece (hereinafter referred to as "workpiece") to each numerically controlled machine tool, and machining to be performed by the machine tool on these machining cells. It is composed of a cell controller for instructing and controlling a schedule and a host computer for instructing the cell controller of an optimal production plan in a processing cell.

In the above cell controller, a plurality of machining programs are stored for each product, and these NC programs are read out in a predetermined order and transferred to a numerical control device (hereinafter, referred to as "CNC") of each machining cell. Control the machine tool. In addition, the CNC of each processing cell collects as measurement data on the tool used in the machine tool based on the data measured on the work after machining,
It has a tool management program for management. According to this tool management program, the quality of the tool is judged according to the machining result, and when a new production plan is instructed from the host computer, the tool used for each machining cell based on the request for line setup change. Is selected.

Further, conventionally, when the machining schedule is changed on the basis of the measurement data aggregated for each machining cell, not only the work of replacing the jig corresponding to the workpiece to be machined with the pallet but also the necessary tools. All of the work of relocating the machine to each machine tool also relied on manpower.

[0005]

By the way, after finishing the machining, the machining state of the work is measured in each machining cell to ensure the machining accuracy necessary for the work. When the measured data of the work after machining was processed as a machining defect, the tool that caused the machining defect was only specified for each machining cell. The larger the processing plant, the greater the amount of work. Moreover, in order to change to the optimum machining schedule, the production manager must collect the tool life value from each machining cell that manages the tool state.

That is, since the machining state of the work is collected and managed in units of machining cells, the machining schedule is changed not only when the production plan of the entire factory is changed but also when a machining defect of the product is detected. In this case, the production manager must start by collecting information for new preparatory work. Therefore, the line of the processing factory is stopped for a long time, and there is a problem that it is difficult to avoid a decrease in production efficiency.

Further, since the tool management is executed only in the CNC of the processing cell, an efficient machine operation cannot be performed unless the production manager who is familiar with the setting of the processing schedule does the processing preparation work. There was a point.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and when the production manager grasps the operating status of each processing cell, the measurement data from each CNC is collected online and the labor is required. It is an object of the present invention to provide a tool management device capable of reducing the above problems and being able to immediately respond when a machining defect occurs.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tool management device that facilitates the setting work of a machining schedule by a production manager by collectively collecting and managing measurement data even in a cell controller. is there.

[0010]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a tool management device for managing tools based on measurement data of machining results of operating a plurality of machine tools is executed by the machine tools. Information collecting means for collecting the measured data for each machining process together with the measured information and tool information through a communication line, and managing the measured data of each machine tool based on the information collected by the information collecting means. A tool management device is provided, which further comprises a tool management unit that determines the quality of the tool corresponding to the machining result.

Further, in the tool management device for managing the tool based on the measurement data of the processing result of operating a plurality of machine tools, the tool management means has a display means for displaying the tool information determined to be defective processing. A tool management device having the above is provided.

[0012]

The information collecting means collects the measurement data of each machining cell from the machine tool to the cell controller via the communication line, and collects the measurement information and tool information of the machine tool online when a machining defect occurs. . The tool management unit manages the measurement data of each machine tool and identifies the tool that has become defective. Therefore, the display means outputs the measurement data together with the measurement information.

The production manager can centrally manage the tool life and the like on the side of the cell controller based on the measurement data in each processing cell. In addition, the tools used for machining can be specified, and the information necessary for the post-machining work and the machining preparation work can be collectively displayed as appropriate.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an FA to which the tool management device of the present invention is applied.
It is a connection schematic diagram of a system. The tool management device is connected to a plurality of processing cells on the side of the cell controller and collects data (hereinafter, referred to as “measurement data”) measured about a work after processing, and information collecting means 1. The tool management means 2 manages measurement data. The tool management means 2 further has a display means 3 for outputting predetermined measurement data to the production manager.

The information collecting means 1 is connected to the machine tools 4, 5 ... N arranged on the side of each machining cell through a dedicated communication line, and the machining process executed by the machine tool online. The measurement data for each is collected. This measurement data is, for example, three-dimensional measurement data such as a work shape and a machining shape, and has conventionally been collected and managed in a machining cell unit in a CNC that controls each machine tool.
In the present invention, the information collecting means 1 constitutes a communication network with a plurality of machine tools by, for example, a communication interface board, and outputs the measurement data and the tool information of the machine tools to the cell controller side as well. be able to.

The tool managing means 2 collectively manages the measurement data of each machine tool based on the information collected by the information collecting means 1. That is, when the measurement information and tool information are transferred online to the cell controller along with the measurement data of each machine tool, whether or not the set machining accuracy has been achieved is aggregated for each machining process, and the machining result is calculated. The quality of the tool corresponding to is judged. Further, for a machine tool in which a machining defect has occurred, data necessary for specifying a tool such as a corresponding tool list is created and displayed on the display means 3.

Here, the measurement information of the machine tool includes machining method number, machining part name, machining program number, measurement method information such as measurement scale data, measurement setting coordinate value information, measurement request accuracy data, and repeated measurement number data. The tool information includes tool number, pot number, correction value data, remaining life time data, set life time data,
Includes tool usage time for each process.

FIG. 2 is a hardware block diagram of a cell controller to which the tool management device of the present invention is applied.
In the figure, a cell controller 10 receives a production planning command from a host CPU (host computer) 20 and sends control information such as a processing command to the processing cells 30, 40, 50. On the contrary, various data such as measurement data for each machining process is sent from each machine tool of these machining cells 30, 40, 50 to the host CPU 20. In addition, inside the processing cell 30,
It has a numerically controlled machine tool, a CNC 30a, and other robots and work loaders (not shown). Similarly,
Inside the processing cells 40, 50, the CNC 40 is
a, 50a, etc.

The cell controller 10 is mainly composed of a main CPU board 11. The main CPU board 11 has a processor, a ROM, a RAM and the like mounted on one board, and the following various elements are connected via a bus 19.

HDD (hard disk drive) 13
a is, for example, SCSI (Small Computer System Interf
ACE) is connected to the bus 19 via a hard disk interface 13 such as ace), and in addition to production plan data for determining a machining schedule, a totalization processing program or the like corresponding to the tool management means 2 in FIG. Shared RAM1
Reference numeral 5 is a DRAM, and stores data such as measurement information and tool information on each CNC side input via a communication interface described later.

The graphic control circuit 14 converts the digital signal into a signal for display and gives it to the display device 14a.
The display device 14a is, for example, a CRT or a liquid crystal display device, and displays a data list created by, for example, performing a totalizing process described later, and tool information determined by the tool management means 2 to be a machining failure.

The mouse interface 16 is the mouse 1
A command signal instructed by the production manager is input via 6a, and is notified to the main CPU board 11 via the bus 19. The I / O board 18 exchanges input / output signals with the processing cells 30, 40, 50. The communication interface 17 uses Ethernet for configuring a LAN. The communication interface 17 is connected to the host CPU 20 by a communication line 21. The communication lines 31, 41 and 51 are connected to a plurality of machine tools via the CNCs 30a, 40a and 50a of the processing cells 30, 40 and 50.

Next, the process of collecting and totalizing measurement data by the tool management device of the present invention will be described. Figure 3
It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of tool management by the numerical control apparatus side. Further, FIG. 4 shows the procedure of the aggregation processing on the cell controller side. In each figure, the numerical value following S or P indicates a step number, and the details of step S10 in FIG. 3 are shown as steps P1 to P8 in FIG. [S1] When the cell controller 10 issues an instruction to start a machining schedule, the machining job is started by the CNC in each of the machining cells 30, 40 and the like. [S2] When a predetermined tool is selected and machining with a machine tool is actually started, measurement of machine operating time is started. [S3] After the machining job is started, it is constantly monitored whether the machine tool is operating normally. [S4] When it is determined that the processing is not normally performed,
Proceed to a predetermined abnormality processing routine such as stopping the machine. [S5] While normal machining continues, the machining time of each machine tool is measured. [S6] The tool life value is measured for each tool used in each machine tool, and the remaining service life time is determined from the service life set time set for the tool at the end of machining. [S7] S4 to S6 are repeated until the processing is completed. [S8] The machining state of the work is checked at the end of the unit job, and the machining accuracy is measured. [S9] The measurement data shows C of each processing cell when the measurement is completed.
The cell controller 10 performs the aggregation processing by the NC.
Transferred to. [S10] The cell controller 10 executes the measurement data totaling processing online. The details are shown in steps P1 to P8 of FIG. A part of the totalizing process in step S10 is similarly executed on the CNC side that controls each machine tool. [S11] The measurement information such as the measurement method and the tool information are transferred to the cell controller 10 even if some processing defect is found without the completion of the measurement, and the process proceeds to step S10. [S12] It is instructed to move to the next processing job. [S13] Until the series of machining schedules is completed,
S1 to 12 are repeated.

Next, how the cell controller 10 manages measurement data will be described. [P1] When the measurement of the machining accuracy is completed, the measurement data, the machining part name, the machining process, the required measurement accuracy, the measurement result,
Processing end time etc. are collected. [P2] Based on the collected information, the measurement data repeatedly measured corresponding to the machining process is read as the measurement value of the tool. [P3] Create a standard list for accuracy setting and share R
The standard value for each tool is read into AM15 or the like. [P4] The error limit of the accuracy setting value is tested, and a setting value for setting the error range of the read measurement value is created. [P5] The tool usage state is determined from the measured value based on the standard value, and the created error range set value is compared with the read measured value. [P6] The determination result of the tool usage state is created as a tool data list. [P7] A tool list determined to be defective is created. [P8] The tabulation result is displayed and output as a list or table of tool data on the display device 14a or the like.

5 and 6 are examples of display screens displayed on the display device of the cell controller. Figure 5
On the screen shown in (1), the usage state and life of each tool (five types in the figure) used by a certain processing cell in a specific operation mode are displayed as a series of tool data lists together with related tool information.

The screen shown in FIG. 6 is a tool table displaying the usage time of tools used for each machining program. Since the measurement data is collected online in the cell controller, when a tool determined to be defective in machining is found, the production manager can easily look at the tool table and select a new tool to be changed.

As described above, since the measurement information and the tool information are transferred to the cell controller online together with the measurement data, the machining defect is found and the tool causing the defect is specified, and the machining is promptly performed with a new machining schedule. You can drive the machine. Therefore, the conventional tool file management for each machining cell can be smoothly shifted to the centralized tool management in the cell controller, which enables further advanced tool management.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, when a plurality of machine tools are operated to realize an efficient production plan of products, the burden on the production manager is reduced and the work after machining is reduced. A tool management device that efficiently collects and manages measured data can be provided. Therefore, the production manager can surely grasp the operation status of each processing cell and immediately respond when a processing defect occurs.

Further, by collectively collecting and managing the measurement data even in the cell controller, the production manager can easily set the machining schedule.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic connection diagram of an FA system to which a tool management device of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a hardware block diagram of a cell controller.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure of tool management on the side of the numerical control device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a procedure of a tallying process on the cell controller side.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen displayed on the display device of the cell controller.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of a display screen.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Information collecting means 2 Tool management means 3 Display means 4, 5 ... n Machine tools

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A tool management device for managing a tool based on measurement data of a machining result obtained by operating a plurality of machine tools, wherein measurement data for each machining process executed by the machine tool is measured information and tools. Based on the information collected by the information collecting means and the information collecting means, which collects together with the information via the communication line,
A tool management device comprising: a tool management unit that manages measurement data of each machine tool and determines the quality of a tool corresponding to a machining result. 2. The tool management device according to claim 1, wherein the tool management means has a display means for displaying information on a tool determined to be defective.