JPS6338276B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a jig for positioning a predetermined workpiece when welding and assembling the workpiece in, for example, an automobile assembly process.

As is well known, in the automobile assembly process,
Many vehicle body components, including panels, are assembled by welding, and it is common for individual workpieces to be positioned using a welding jig that serves as a shape receiver and subjected to the above-mentioned welding.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a conventional welding jig for assembling a vehicle body, particularly a jig for positioning a front pillar W as a workpiece.
As shown in the figure, a plurality of gauge posts 2 are erected on the jig base 1, and the upper end of each gauge post 2 has a shape receiver corresponding to the cross-sectional shape of each part of the workpiece W. A gauge plate 3 having a surface 3a is attached to each, and a locating pin 5 is attached via a bracket 4 as required. A clamp device 6 is attached to each gauge plate 3, and this clamp device 6 is composed of a clamper 7 that rotates to open and close with respect to the receiving surface 3a, and an actuator 8 that drives the clamper 7 to open and close. Then, as shown in the figure, the workpiece W is firmly clamped between the receiving surface 3a and the clamper 7 as if it were held between them.
Thereafter, predetermined spot welding is performed using a welding robot (not shown).

Note that 9 is a dowel pin that controls the relative positioning of the jig base 1 and each gauge post 2, and 10 is a mounting bolt.

In the case of such conventional welding jigs for car body assembly, the accuracy of the product after welding is determined by the accuracy of the welding jigs, so the gauge plate 3 and gauge post 2 must be firmly connected. At the same time, this gauge post 2 is fixed to the jig base 1 with a mounting bolt 10, and the final accuracy of the jig itself is guaranteed with a dowel pin 9. Therefore, the gauge plate 3 The shapes of the receiving surface 3a and the clamper 7 are limited to and specialized for only one type of workpiece W. For this reason, for example, in a so-called mixed production system where multiple car models are assembled on the same line, it is not possible to handle multiple car models unless the entire jig including the jig base is replaced, resulting in a lack of versatility. be.

In view of the above points, this invention was made mainly for the purpose of making the jig itself more versatile.For this purpose, the present invention has developed a gauge that can create any receiving surface shape. A gauge unit having a plate is held by an industrial robot, and the gauge unit is further equipped with a gauge plate constituted by a thin plate laminate formed by laminating a large number of strip-shaped thin plates, and this gauge unit is attached to one end of the gauge plate. a transducer unit that is arranged to face the gauge plate and create an arbitrary receiving surface shape on the other end side of the gauge plate; a drive mechanism that moves the transducer unit in a two-dimensional direction; It is composed of a tightening mechanism that holds the created receiving surface shape on the other end side, and can be applied to various types and shapes of workpieces by changing the receiving surface shape substantially according to the cross-sectional shape of the workpiece. It is something.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings from FIG. 2 onwards.

2 and 3 show an embodiment of the present invention, in which 21 is a jig base, 22 is an orthogonal coordinate type three-axis industrial robot (hereinafter simply referred to as a robot), and each robot 22 is an actuator. _M1 ,
It operates in the X, Y, and Z directions by the action of M ₂ and M ₃ , and a gauge unit 24 is attached to each end via a mounting bracket 25.

As shown in FIG. 3, this gauge unit 24 has a gauge plate 28 configured by housing a thin plate laminate 46 formed by aligning and stacking a large number of strip-shaped thin steel plates in a casing 26 together with a pair of pressure plates 27. On the other hand, an ultrasonic transducer unit 29 is disposed below the thin plate laminate 46 so as to face it, and this ultrasonic transducer unit 29 is rotationally driven by pulse motors 30 and 31, respectively. It is configured to be movable in two-dimensional directions of Y and Z using screw shafts 33 and 34. Then, the pressure of the actuator 35 clamping the thin plate laminate 46 is weakened to such an extent that the thin plate laminate 46 does not come loose, and the ultrasonic transducer unit 29 is driven while feeding in the Y and Z directions. A receiving surface 28 having a desired shape on the upper end surface side of the thin plate laminate 46
It is possible to create a. Among the above components, the ultrasonic transducer unit 29 is formed by the pulse motors 30, 31 and the screw shafts 33, 34.
The pressure plate 27 and the actuator 35 constitute a tightening mechanism 60 for the gauge plate 28.

Here, the robot 22 is positioned by providing electrical position information to move the gauge unit 24 to a position according to the position information. Joint type, cylindrical coordinate type, polar coordinate type, etc. may be used alone or in combination, and the number of axes, control method, etc. may be arbitrarily set according to the intended operating range, etc.

In the jig of the above embodiment, for example, FIG.
Four types of panel works shown in B, C, and D W ₁ ,
When attempting to correspond to W ₂ , W ₃ , and W ₄ , the ultrasonic transducer unit 2 is equipped with numerical information corresponding to the cross-sectional shape of each panel work W ₁ , W ₂ , W ₃ , and W ₄ .
9, thereby controlling the feeding of the parts A, B, and
As shown in C and D, a receiving surface 28a corresponding to the cross-sectional shape of each workpiece may be created.

Furthermore, depending on the shape of the workpiece W, it may be necessary to change the position of the gauge unit 24 itself, but in that case, the gauge unit 24 itself can be moved by actuating the actuators _M1 to _M3 of the robot 22 shown in FIG. All you have to do is move it and position it at the required position. The above operation uses positional information stored in advance on the control device side, that is, information regarding the position of the gauge unit 24 itself, and information regarding the cross-sectional shape of each workpiece W ₁ , W ₂ , W ₃ , W ₄ , for example. This is done automatically by selectively calling based on vehicle type signals.

As described above, in the case of this embodiment, by using the thin plate laminate 46 as the gauge plate 28, it is possible to
With only one gauge plate 28, it is possible to handle a plurality of types of panel work.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the present invention, in which the gauge unit 24 and the articulated robot 36 are assembled together.
This combination was used as a positioning jig for assembling the body side Wb of an automobile.

In the case of this embodiment as well, the same effects as in the previous embodiment can be obtained.

In addition, in conventional jigs, all of the components are fixed, so it takes a lot of man-hours to correct or change the positioning accuracy of the jig itself. According to gauge unit 24
Since the robot is movable as necessary, the positioning accuracy can be easily and quickly corrected and changed by directly giving the correction amount as information to the robot.

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, a gauge unit having a gauge plate capable of creating an arbitrary receiving surface shape is held in an industrial robot. In addition to being able to handle the positioning of multiple types of workpieces and having excellent versatility, it also has the effect of making it easier and faster to correct or change accuracy errors in the jig itself compared to conventional methods.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing the configuration of a conventional welding jig for car body assembly, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the jig of the present invention, and Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of the gauge unit in Fig. 2. , FIGS. 4A, B, C, and D are perspective views showing the shape of the workpiece, FIGS. 5A, B, C, and D are explanatory views of the operation of the gauge unit in FIG. 2, and FIG. It is a perspective view showing an example of this. 22... Industrial robot, 24... Gauge unit, 27... Pressure plate, 28... Gauge plate, 28
a... receiving surface, 29... ultrasonic transducer unit, 30,
31... Pulse motor, 33, 34... Screw shaft, 35... Actuator, 46... Thin plate laminate, 50... Drive mechanism, 60... Tightening mechanism, W, W ₁ ,
W ₂ , W ₃ , W ₄ ...work.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A jig for receiving and positioning a workpiece with a gauge plate having a receiving surface corresponding to the cross-sectional shape of the workpiece, and a gauge unit having a gauge plate capable of creating an arbitrary receiving surface shape for industrial use. The gauge unit is held by a robot, and the gauge unit includes a gauge plate composed of a thin plate laminate formed by laminating a large number of strip-shaped thin plates, and is disposed at one end of the gauge plate so as to face the gauge plate. a transducer unit that creates an arbitrary receiving surface shape on the other end side of the gauge plate; a drive mechanism that moves the transducer unit in a two-dimensional direction;
A workpiece positioning jig comprising: a tightening mechanism that holds the shape of the receiving surface created on the other end side of the gauge plate.