阅读说明：本技术 自动换刀机构的换刀控制方法 (Tool changing control method of automatic tool changing mechanism ) 是由 张庆三 于 2018-07-06 设计创作，主要内容包括：一种自动换刀机构的换刀控制方法,以具备主轴、螺帽、换刀臂、第一马达及第二马达为前提,且螺帽与主轴为螺旋对配合,使得换刀臂在旋转扣刀、松刀下降、旋转换刀、上升夹刀及旋转归位的换刀程序当中,因部分的程序同步启动第一马达及第二马达而使得主轴能同时产生转动及轴向移动,因而可以缩短换刀的时间以提升换刀效率。(A tool changing control method of an automatic tool changing mechanism is based on the premise that a main shaft, a nut, a tool changing arm, a first motor and a second motor are provided, and the nut and the main shaft are in spiral pair matching, so that the tool changing arm can synchronously start the first motor and the second motor to enable the main shaft to simultaneously rotate and axially move in a tool changing procedure of rotary tool fastening, tool loosening and descending, rotary tool changing, tool clamping and rotary resetting, and tool changing time can be shortened to improve tool changing efficiency.)

1. A tool changing control method of an automatic tool changing mechanism is characterized in that the automatic tool changing mechanism comprises a main shaft, a nut, a tool changing arm, a first motor and a second motor, wherein the main shaft is provided with an outer spiral structure, the nut is provided with an inner spiral structure matched with the outer spiral structure, the tool changing arm is combined at one end of the main shaft, the first motor is used for driving the main shaft to rotate, and the second motor drives the nut to enable the main shaft to linearly displace between a first position and a second position; the control method comprises the following steps:

step A: the first motor and the second motor are synchronously operated, wherein the first motor drives the spindle to rotate, and the second motor drives the nut to maintain the spindle at the first position;

and B: the first motor stops operating, the second motor continuously drives the nut to make the main shaft move downwards;

and C: starting the first motor to drive the main shaft to rotate;

step D: the first motor stops operating, the second motor continuously drives the nut to make the main shaft move upwards;

step E: the first motor and the second motor are driven synchronously, wherein the first motor drives the spindle to rotate, and the second motor drives the nut to maintain the spindle at the first position.

2. The tool changing control method of claim 1, wherein the first motor in step a rotates the spindle in a first direction and the second motor rotates the nut in a second direction, wherein the first direction and the second direction are opposite.

3. The tool changing control method of claim 2, wherein the second motor of step B rotates the nut in a second rotational direction.

4. The tool changing control method of claim 3, wherein in step C, the first motor and the second motor are synchronously operated, and the second motor rotates the nut in a first direction to move the spindle down to the second position during the course of the spindle rotation, and then drives the nut to change the nut to rotate in a second direction to move the spindle up.

5. The tool changing control method of claim 4, wherein the second motor of step D rotates the nut in a first direction.

6. The tool change control method of claim 5, wherein the first motor of step E rotates the spindle in the second direction and the second motor rotates the nut in the first direction.

Technical Field

The invention relates to an automatic tool changing mechanism; in particular to a tool changing control method of an automatic tool changing mechanism.

Background

The automatic tool changing mechanism of the processing machine is arranged between the tool magazine and a main shaft head of the processing machine and roughly comprises a control system and a tool changing arm, wherein the control system is provided with a shaft which can be controlled to rotate or linearly displace, and the tail end of the shaft is fixedly connected with the tool changing arm.

The shaft of the known control system is controlled by two motors to rotate or linearly displace respectively, so as to drive the tool changing arm to exchange tools on the tool magazine and the spindle head, more specifically, one motor is dedicated to control the rotation of the shaft, and the other motor is used to control the shaft to move up and down, so that the tool changing arm sequentially comprises: and (3) tool changing procedures such as rotating and buckling the tool, loosening the tool and descending the tool, rotating and changing the tool, ascending the clamping tool, rotating and returning and the like.

However, in the above-mentioned conventional tool changing procedure, the two motors are controlled respectively and sequentially to complete the setting operation, i.e. the motor that moves backward must be started after the previous motor stops, so that the tool changing timing is delayed.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to provide a tool changing control method of an automatic tool changing mechanism, which can shorten the tool changing operation time.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a tool changing control method for an automatic tool changing mechanism, the automatic tool changing mechanism comprises a main shaft, a nut, a tool changing arm, a first motor and a second motor, wherein the main shaft has an outer spiral structure, the nut has an inner spiral structure matched with the outer spiral structure, and the tool changing arm is coupled to one end of the main shaft. The first motor is used for driving the main shaft to rotate, and the second motor drives the nut to make the main shaft linearly displace between a first position and a second position; the control method comprises the following steps: the first motor and the second motor are synchronously operated, wherein the first motor drives the spindle to rotate, and the second motor drives the nut to maintain the spindle at the first position; controlling the first motor to stop operating, and continuously driving the nut by the second motor to enable the spindle to move downwards; starting a first motor to drive a main shaft to rotate; controlling the first motor to stop operating, and continuously driving the nut by the second motor to enable the spindle to move upwards; the first motor and the second motor are driven synchronously, wherein the first motor drives the spindle to rotate, and the second motor drives the nut to maintain the spindle at the first position.

The tool changing control method of the invention is characterized in that the first motor in the step A drives the spindle to rotate in a first direction, the second motor drives the nut to rotate in a second direction, and the first direction and the second direction are opposite.

The tool changing control method of the invention is characterized in that the second motor in the step B drives the screw cap to rotate in a second rotation direction.

In step C, the first motor and the second motor are synchronously operated, and during the stroke of the rotation of the spindle, the nut is rotated in the first direction to move the spindle down to the second position, and then the nut is driven to change the direction to move the spindle up.

The tool changing control method of the invention, wherein the second motor of step D drives the nut to rotate in a first direction.

In the tool changing control method of the invention, the first motor in step E drives the spindle to rotate in the second direction, and the second motor drives the nut to rotate in the first direction.

The invention has the beneficial effects that:

the control method of the invention enables the first motor and the second motor to synchronously operate in the time sequence of tool changing, thereby achieving the effect of shortening the tool changing time.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an automatic tool changer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a base and a spindle in the control system according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a front view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a portion of the components of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is an exploded view of the components of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of the components of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a portion of the components of FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is an exploded view of the components of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a partial cross-sectional view of the components of FIG. 7;

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of a tool changing control method of the automatic tool changing mechanism according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 11 to 15 are schematic diagrams illustrating a tool changing operation of the automatic tool changer according to the preferred embodiment of the invention.

Wherein, the reference numbers:

100 control system

10 machine base

12 upper cover

14 motor base

16 body

18 base

20 spindle

22 external spiral structure

24 straight groove

30 first transmission unit

31 first shaft sleeve

31a straight groove

32 first shaft base

32a perforation

33 holder

33a ball

33b oil seal

34 steel ball

35 first motor

35a first output shaft

36 first belt pulley

36a perforation

36' first belt pulley

37 first belt

38 bolt

39 bolt

40 second transmission unit

41 second shaft sleeve

41a internal spiral structure

42 second axle seat

43 holder

44 steel ball

45 second motor

45a second output shaft

46 second pulley

46a perforation

46' second pulley

47 second belt

48 bolt

49 bolt

200 tool changing arm

A. B cutter

S1-S5 first to fifth steps

Detailed Description

To more clearly illustrate the tool changing control method of the automatic tool changing mechanism of the present invention, a preferred embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

Referring to fig. 1 to 3, the automatic tool changer applied in the method of the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a control system 100 and a tool changer 200. The control system 100 includes a base 10, a spindle 20, a first transmission unit 30 and a second transmission unit 40. The machine base 10 comprises an upper cover 12, a motor base 14, a body 16 and a base 18 which are sequentially butted from top to bottom; the main shaft 20 penetrates through the base 10, and is driven by the first transmission unit 30 to rotate and driven by the second transmission unit 40 to reciprocate along the axial direction, the bottom end of the main shaft 20 penetrates through the base 18 downwards and is fixedly connected with the tool changing arm 200, and the tool changing arm 200 includes following the rotation or axial movement of the main shaft 20: rotating the buckling knife, loosening the knife, descending, rotating the knife changing, ascending the clamping knife, rotating and returning and the like.

In the present embodiment, the upper half surface of the main shaft 20 has an external spiral structure 22 and a plurality of straight grooves 24 recessed along the axial direction, and the straight grooves 24 cut the external spiral structure 22.

The first transmission unit 30 includes a first nut 31, the second transmission unit 40 includes a second nut 41, wherein the spindle 20 penetrates the first nut 31 and the second nut 41, the spindle 20 and the first nut 31 are matched in a sliding pair (sliding pair) manner, and the spindle 20 and the second nut 41 are matched in a spiral pair (screen pair) manner.

Referring to fig. 4 to 6, the first transmission unit 30 further includes a first shaft seat 32, a retainer 33, a plurality of steel balls 34, a first motor 35, two first pulleys 36, 36', and a first belt 37. The first shaft seat 32 is locked inside the body 16 of the base 10 after passing through the through hole 32a by a plurality of bolts 38, the first nut 31 is disposed in the first shaft seat 32 and a retainer 33 is disposed between the first nut 31 and the first shaft seat 32, the retainer 33 includes a plurality of balls 33a and an oil seal 33b, so that the first nut 31 can rotate in situ relative to the first shaft seat 32; in addition, because the inner wall of the first nut 31 has a plurality of straight grooves 31a recessed along the axial direction, and the steel balls 34 are filled between the straight grooves 31a of the first nut 31 and the straight grooves 24 of the spindle 20, the spindle 20 can slide up and down relative to the first nut 31 in the axial direction.

The first motor 35 is fixed outside the body 16, and a first output shaft 35a of the first motor extends into the body 16; the first pulley 36 is locked at the bottom of the first nut 31 by a plurality of bolts 39 passing through the through holes 36a, the main shaft 20 passes through the first pulley 36, and the first pulley 36' is located at one side of the inside of the body 16 by being connected to one end of the first output shaft 35 a; the first belt 37 is wound around the first pulley 36 and the first pulley 36'. Thus, when the first output shaft 35a of the first motor 35 is driven to rotate, the first nut 31 is synchronously driven to rotate by the first belt 37, and the rotating first nut 31 drives the main shaft 20 to rotate due to the relationship of the steel balls 34.

Referring to fig. 7 to 9, the second transmission unit 40 further includes a second shaft seat 42, a retainer 43, a plurality of steel balls 44, a second motor 45, two second pulleys 46, 46' and a second belt 47. The second shaft seat 42 is locked in the motor seat 14 of the base 10 after passing through the through hole 42a by a plurality of bolts 48, the second nut 41 is arranged in the second shaft seat 42 in a penetrating manner, and can rotate in situ relative to the second shaft seat 42 by being arranged between the retainers 43 with the same structure as the retainer 33; in addition, the second nut 41 has an inner spiral structure 41a which is a spiral groove in cooperation with the outer spiral structure 22 of the spindle 20, and the steel balls 44 are filled between the outer spiral structure 22 and the spiral groove of the inner spiral structure 41a and can be circularly rolled in the outer and inner spiral structures.

The second motor 45 is fixed outside the motor base 14, and the second output shaft 45a extends into the motor base 14; the second pulley 46 is locked to the second nut 41 by a plurality of bolts 49 passing through the through holes 46a, the spindle 20 passes through the second pulley 46, the second pulley 46 'is connected to one end of the second output shaft 45a, and the second belt 47 is wound around the second pulley 46 and the second pulley 46'. Therefore, when the second output shaft 45a of the second motor 45 is driven to rotate, the second belt 47 indirectly drives the second nut 41 to rotate, and the rotating second nut 41 causes the steel balls 44 to roll cyclically between the inner spiral structure 41a and the outer spiral structure 22, thereby guiding the spindle 20 to ascend or descend.

The automatic tool changer applied in the method of the preferred embodiment of the present invention is described below with reference to fig. 10, and the tool changing control method and the tool changing operation thereof are described as follows, and it is stated that the first turning direction is counterclockwise and the second turning direction is clockwise.

Fig. 1 shows the tool changer arm 200 in a standby state. When the control system 100 receives the tool changing command, the first step S1 is to make the tool changing arm 200 rotate to lock the tool, specifically, to synchronously start the first motor 35 and the second motor 45, wherein the first output shaft 35a of the first motor 35 rotates in the first direction, and as can be seen from the above description, the first nut 31 rotating therewith will drive the spindle 20 to rotate in the first direction because the steel balls 34 are located between the straight groove 31a of the first nut 31 and the straight groove 24 of the spindle 20, however, because the spindle 20 simultaneously cooperates with the second nut 41 in a spiral pair manner, in order to avoid the axial displacement of the rotating spindle 20, the second motor 45 is selected to synchronously start to drive the second nut 41 to rotate in the second direction, so as to prevent the spindle 20 from generating the axial displacement, and thus the spindle 20 is defined as the first position P1, fig. 11 discloses that the spindle 20, which is not moved downward, rotates the tool changer 200 in situ, so that two ends of the tool changer 200 respectively engage with a tool a provided in a tool magazine (not shown) and a tool B on a spindle head (not shown) of a processing machine.

When the tool changer 200 finishes rotating and fastening the tool, the tool magazine and the spindle head simultaneously release the tool, and at this time, the first motor 35 stops rotating and the spindle 20 does not rotate any more, but the second motor 45 continues to drive the second nut 41 to rotate in the second direction, because the spindle 20 and the second nut 41 are engaged in a screw pair manner and the spindle 20 and the first nut 31 are engaged in a sliding pair manner, the second nut 41 rotating in situ drives the spindle 20 to move downward, as shown in fig. 12, the descending spindle 20 causes the tool changer 200 to pull down the double-sided tool, which is the second step S2.

Fig. 13 discloses a third step S3 of controlling the tool changer arm 200 to rotate for changing the double-sided tool. In this procedure, the first motor 35 is activated again and keeps controlling the first nut 31 to rotate in the first direction, so that the tool changing arm 200 performs a tool changing operation of rotating 180 degrees, and during this period, the second motor 45 drives the second nut 41 to rotate in the first direction, and then drives the second nut 41 to rotate in the second direction, the former drives the spindle 20 to move downward again, and the latter drives the spindle 20 to move upward, in other words, the 180 degree rotation of the tool changing arm 200 is divided into two stages: the tool changing arm 200 of the first stage rotates 90 degrees and descends along with the spindle 20, the tool changing arm 200 of the second stage ascends along with the spindle 20 while continuing to rotate 90 degrees, and the transition point of the first stage and the second stage is that the spindle 20 descends to the lowest point position (i.e. the second position P2 defined by the invention), so that the above-mentioned actors depend on the synchronous action of the first motor 35 and the second motor 45, and the rotating tool changing speed can be increased more efficiently. It can be seen from fig. 13 that the positions of tool a and tool B have been exchanged.

Fig. 14 discloses a fourth step S4 of controlling the spindle 20 to ascend such that the tool changer arm 200 brings the tool to the clamped position. In this process, the first motor 35 is controlled to stop to prevent rotation of the spindle 20, and the second motor 45 is still in motion but it drives the second nut 41 to change to a first rotational direction, again because the spindle 20 is in threaded engagement with the second nut 41 and in sliding engagement with the first nut 31, so that the spindle 20 is brought up to the clamped position (i.e., the first position P1) without rotation, and the tool a is again clamped by the spindle head of the machine, and the tool B is inserted into the corresponding pocket of the tool magazine.

In the fifth step S5, after the clamping operation is completed, the first motor 35 is started again, except that the first motor 35 drives the first nut 31 to rotate in the second direction, and the second motor 45 continues to operate but changes the second nut 41 to rotate in the first direction, which is a procedure for preventing the spindle 20 from shifting axially, and the spindle 20 rotates in the second direction to reversely rotate the tool changer 200 to return to the state shown in fig. 15 for the next tool change. That is, both ends of the tool changer arm 200 can be separated from the tool a and the tool B without hitting the tools.

The above is the explanation of the tool changing control method and the tool changing operation of the present invention. As can be seen from the above, in the tool changing procedures of the tool changing arm 200, such as rotating to fasten the tool, loosening the tool to descend, rotating to change the tool, ascending to clamp the tool, and rotating to return, the spindle 20 can rotate and move axially at the same time by synchronously starting the first motor 35 and the second motor 45 according to a part of the procedures, so that the tool changing time can be shortened, and the tool changing efficiency can be improved by the shortened time for the tool changing mechanism requiring precise and fast operation.

It should be noted that, the automatic tool changing mechanism for achieving the tool changing control method of the present invention is based on the premise that the automatic tool changing mechanism must include the spindle 20, the second nut 41, the tool changing arm 200, the first motor 35, and the second motor 45, and the composition or combination relationship of other components is not limited to all of the above structures, for example, the structure that can drive the spindle 20 to rotate and make the spindle 20 move up and down in the axial direction may be a structure that fills the steel balls 34 between the straight grooves 31a of the first sleeve 31 and the straight grooves 24 of the spindle 20, or alternatively, the steel balls may be omitted and the inner wall of the first sleeve may be provided with the number of protruding ribs corresponding to the number of the straight grooves of the spindle, and the purpose that the spindle 20 can be driven to rotate and make the spindle 20 move up and down in the axial direction can be achieved by the relationship that the protruding ribs are matched with the straight grooves. For example, in addition to the above structure, the motor may be mounted above the main shaft 20 to directly drive the main shaft 20 through the output shaft of the motor, so as to omit the belt and the belt pulley. It should be noted that the rotation direction of the output shaft of the motor is not limited to the same rotation direction as the main shaft, and the rotation direction of the output shaft and the rotation direction of the main shaft may be different but the efficiency is not changed by another transmission element between the output shaft and the main shaft.

The present invention is capable of other embodiments, and various changes and modifications may be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.