A needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line

Abstract

This invention discloses a needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line, comprising: a tube packaging unit, a tube cutting unit, a grinding unit, a cleaning unit, and a quality inspection unit arranged sequentially along the conveyor path. The tube packaging unit is adapted to combine multiple standard tubes into a bundle with a fixed cross-sectional shape and then package and fix it. The tube cutting unit is adapted to cut the bundled tubes into smaller bundles of standard length according to a predetermined length. The grinding unit is adapted to smooth the cut surfaces of the smaller bundles of tubes. The cleaning unit is adapted to clean the ground smaller bundles of tubes to obtain needle-type pen tip blanks. The quality inspection unit is adapted to automatically screen out defective needle-type pen tip blanks using a machine vision system and collect qualified needle-type pen tip blanks. This needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line can improve the automation level of needle-type pen tip blank processing and the efficiency and accuracy of defective product detection.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of pen manufacturing technology, and in particular to a production line for cutting and inspecting needle-type pen tip blanks. Background Technology

[0002] The pen tip is a crucial component of a ballpoint pen, and its precision significantly impacts the pen's quality. Due to its small size, the production process generally demands high-precision machining. Taking needle-type pen tip blanks as an example, the raw material is standard tubing, which is prone to deformation during processing. Especially under improper handling by workers, the machining precision of the pen tip can be severely affected, consequently impacting the quality of the ballpoint pen. Therefore, ensuring the machining precision of the pen tip is a prerequisite for producing high-quality ballpoint pens that meet writing requirements. In the ballpoint pen manufacturing industry, with continuous social development and technological advancements, mechanized, automated, and standardized production has become the development trend in pen tip processing. Machine vision (MV) is a technology and method that provides image-based automatic inspection and analysis for applications such as automated inspection and process control. Its main characteristic is that it uses robots to replace human eyes for measurement and judgment. An image acquisition device converts the captured target into an image signal, which is then transmitted to a dedicated image processing system. Based on pixel distribution and information such as brightness and color, it is converted into a digital signal. The image system performs various calculations on these signals to extract the target's features, thereby judging the quality of the product. The manufacturing process of needle-type pen tip blanks includes a defect detection step, which generally relies on manual operation, resulting in low detection efficiency and a high error rate.

[0003] Therefore, it is necessary to propose a new type of needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line to improve the automation level and production capacity of needle-type pen tip blank processing. Summary of the Invention

[0004] The purpose of this invention is to provide a production line for cutting and inspecting needle-type pen tip blanks, which makes the needle-type pen tip blank processing and production process more automated and has higher production capacity and inspection capabilities.

[0005] To solve the above-mentioned technical problems, the present invention provides a production line for cutting and inspecting needle-type pen tip blanks.

[0006] It includes: a pipe packaging unit, a pipe cutting unit, a grinding unit, a cleaning unit, and a quality inspection unit arranged sequentially along the conveyor path. The pipe packaging unit is suitable for combining multiple standard pipes into a bundle of pipes with a fixed cross-sectional shape, and for packaging and fixing the bundle of pipes.

[0007] The pipe cutting unit is adapted to cut the bundled pipes into smaller bundles of standard length according to a predetermined length.

[0008] The grinding unit is adapted to grind the cut surfaces of the small bundles of pipes smooth.

[0009] The cleaning unit is adapted to clean the small bundles of tubing after polishing to obtain needle-shaped pen tip blanks;

[0010] The quality inspection unit includes a machine vision system, a rejection mechanism, and a collection mechanism. The machine vision system is adapted to screen the needle-shaped pen tip blanks through image acquisition and detection to identify defective needle-shaped pen tip blanks. The rejection mechanism is adapted to automatically screen out the defective needle-shaped pen tip blanks. The collection mechanism is adapted to collect the qualified needle-shaped pen tip blanks.

[0011] Furthermore, the pipe packaging unit is a packaging machine, which has a replaceable fixed slot fixture. The fixed slot fixture is suitable for using a special packaging film to combine multiple standard pipes into a bundle of pipes with a fixed cross-sectional shape, and for shrinking and fixing the bundle of pipes by heating the packaging film.

[0012] Furthermore, the packaging machine is adapted to change the cross-sectional shape of the bundled tubing by replacing the fixed slot tooling, and the cross-sectional shape includes a regular quadrilateral.

[0013] Furthermore, the pipe cutting unit has a cutting device, a clamping device, and a transport device. The transport device has a photoelectric sensor, which is adapted to control the transport device to continuously transport the bundled pipes to the cutting device at a preset length to obtain the cutting feed amount of the preset length. The clamping device is adapted to move the bundled pipes, and the cutting device is adapted to cut the bundled pipes into the smaller bundles of pipes.

[0014] Furthermore, the pipe cutting unit has a tool maintenance device, which is adapted to maintain the cutting device after the cutting device has repeated the cutting action a certain number of times.

[0015] Furthermore, the gripping device has a robotic arm, which is suitable for automatically gripping objects.

[0016] Furthermore, the grinding unit has a grinding tool and a template that can accommodate multiple bundles of pipes. The template is adapted to arrange the multiple bundles of pipes in sequence and combine them into a complete grinding surface. The grinding tool is adapted to grind the grinding surface.

[0017] Furthermore, the cleaning unit includes an ultrasonic cleaning device and a drying device. The ultrasonic cleaning device is adapted to clean the small bundle of tubing using ultrasonic waves to obtain needle-shaped pen tip blanks, and the drying device is adapted to dry the needle-shaped pen tip blanks.

[0018] Furthermore, the machine vision system includes an infrared sensor, a CCD camera, and an industrial control computer. The infrared sensor is adapted to identify the needle-shaped pen tip blank. When the needle-shaped pen tip blank for detection is detected, the infrared sensor triggers the CCD camera to acquire image information and transmits the acquired image information to the industrial control computer. The industrial control computer is adapted to use a deep learning neural network to analyze the image information to identify and screen defective needle-shaped pen tip blanks and transmit the determination information to the rejection mechanism.

[0019] Furthermore, the rejection mechanism includes a material vibrating plate, a turntable, and an air blowing nozzle. The material vibrating plate is adapted to arrange the needle-type pen tip blanks in an orderly manner and transport them into the turntable through vibration. If a defective product is detected, the air blowing nozzle is activated to remove the defective product from the turntable by blowing air. If no defective product is detected, the qualified needle-type pen tip blanks are collected into the collection mechanism.

[0020] The advantages of this invention over the prior art are as follows:

[0021] 1. The needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line of the present invention improves the automation level of pen tip processing through assembly line processing and has higher production capacity;

[0022] 2. The needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line of the present invention uses a machine vision system to inspect the finished needle-type pen tip blank, which improves the inspection efficiency and accuracy, and helps to improve the automation and standardization of the product. Attached Figure Description

[0023] The above-described technical content of the present invention and the following detailed embodiments will be better understood when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the drawings are merely examples of the claimed technical solutions. In the drawings, the same reference numerals represent the same or similar elements.

[0024] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of a standard pipe packaging and cutting process according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0025] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of a needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0026] The reference numerals in the attached figures are explained as follows:

[0027] 10 Standard single pipes

[0028] 11 Bundles of pipes

[0029] 12 First Conveyor Line

[0030] 13 Cutting blades

[0031] 14 Mechanical grippers

[0032] 15 robotic arms

[0033] 16 small bundles of pipes

[0034] 17 Templates

[0035] 18 Grinding Machine

[0036] 19 Grinding discs

[0037] 20 Second Conveyor Line

[0038] 21 First Cylinder

[0039] 22 Ultrasonic Cleaning Water Tank

[0040] 23 Second Cylinder

[0041] 24. Photoelectric Sensors

[0042] 25. Knife sharpener Detailed Implementation

[0043] The following detailed description of the features and advantages of the present invention is sufficient to enable any person skilled in the art to understand the technical content of the present invention and implement it accordingly. Furthermore, based on the specification, claims and drawings disclosed in the present invention, those skilled in the art can easily understand the related objectives and advantages of the present invention.

[0044] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of a standard pipe packaging and cutting process according to an embodiment of the present invention, as shown below. Figure 1 As shown, the standard pipe packaging and cutting process mainly includes two steps: First, a certain number of individual standard pipes 10 are packaged to obtain bundled packaged pipes 11 with a certain cross-sectional shape. It should be noted that the cross-sectional shape of the bundled packaged pipes 11 includes, but is not limited to, a regular quadrilateral. Second, the bundled packaged pipes are further processed, including, but not limited to, cutting, to obtain smaller bundles of pipes 16. In this embodiment, the standard pipe length used is 2m, including two specifications: outer diameter 0.7mm, inner diameter 0.4mm and outer diameter 0.8mm, inner diameter 0.5mm. Of course, other specifications can also be used as needed.

[0045] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of a needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 As shown, the needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line includes a tube packaging unit, a tube cutting unit, a grinding unit, a cleaning unit, and a quality inspection unit arranged sequentially along the conveyor path. The tube packaging unit includes a packaging machine with replaceable fixing slot fixtures. These fixtures are suitable for using a special packaging film to package a certain number of single standard tubes 10 into bundles of tubes 11 with a regular quadrilateral cross-section. The bundles of tubes 11 are shrunk and fixed by heating the packaging film, preventing loosening or slippage of the packaged tubes and thus improving the accuracy of subsequent cutting processes. It is understood that the packaging machine can replace the fixing slot fixtures to allow the packaged bundles of tubes 11 to have cross-sectional shapes other than the regular quadrilateral.

[0046] The pipe cutting unit includes a first conveyor line 12, a cutting blade 13, a mechanical gripper 14, a robotic arm 15, a second cylinder 23, and a tool maintenance device 25. The first conveyor line 12 is equipped with a slot structure suitable for fixing bundled pipes 11 and a photoelectric sensor 24. The photoelectric sensor 24 is adapted to control the bundled pipes 11 to move equidistantly along a pre-set conveying path to obtain a consistent cutting feed. Driven by the second cylinder 23, the mechanical gripper 14 of the robotic arm 15 fixes the bundled pipes 11 into the slot of the first conveyor line 12 through a gripping action. After the first conveyor line 12 transmits the bundled pipes 11 a pre-set distance, the cutting blade 13 cuts the fixed bundled pipes 11 through a downward pressing action. By repeatedly transmitting and cutting the bundled pipes 11, small bundles of pipes 16 of standard length are continuously obtained. After the cutting blade 13 repeats the cutting action a certain number of times (approximately 10 times in this embodiment), the tool maintenance device 25 will automatically re-sharpen the cutting blade 13 to ensure its normal use and the accuracy of the cutting process. After the cutting is completed, the cut bundles of pipes 16 are moved to the grinding unit.

[0047] The grinding unit includes a mechanical gripper 14, a robotic arm 15, a template 17, a grinding machine 18, a grinding disc 19, a second conveyor line 20, and a first cylinder 21. The template 17 has multiple slots suitable for placing small bundles of pipes 16 with specific cross-sectional shapes (in this embodiment, 60 slots are set to place small bundles of pipes 16 with square cross-sections). The mechanical gripper 14 of the robotic arm 15 places the cut small bundles of pipes 16 into the template 17 and arranges them in sequence to form a combination of cut surfaces suitable for grinding that are opposite to the plane of the grinding disc 19. After the template 17 is placed on the second conveyor line 20 and transported to the predetermined position of the grinder 18, the template 17 is clamped by driving the first cylinder 21 to fix the template 17 and the small bundles of pipes 16 inside. The cut surfaces of the small bundles of pipes 16 are ground by using a special grinding disc 19 to remove the burrs on their surfaces and obtain a smooth cut surface. After that, the ground small bundles of pipes 16 are moved to the cleaning unit through the second conveyor line 20.

[0048] The cleaning unit includes an ultrasonic cleaning tank 22 containing a suitable cleaning liquid (such as water). Ultrasonic waves are emitted by an ultrasonic generator, causing the cleaning liquid inside the ultrasonic cleaning tank 22 to vibrate at high speed, cleaning the small bundles of tubes 16 after polishing. After cleaning, the small bundles of tubes 16 are taken out, unbundled, dehydrated and dried to form individual needle-shaped pen tip blanks.

[0049] The quality inspection unit comprises two parts: a visual inspection module and a defective product rejection module. The visual inspection module includes components such as an infrared sensor, a CCD camera, a lens, an industrial control computer, a light source, and a display screen. The defective product rejection module includes components such as a material vibrating plate, a turntable, an air blowing nozzle, and a collection box. The aforementioned needle-shaped pen tip blanks are placed on the material vibrating plate, and the vibration arranges them in an orderly manner, transporting them into the turntable. The infrared sensor identifies the needle-shaped pen tip blanks within the turntable and triggers the CCD camera to acquire image information. The acquired image information is transmitted to the industrial control computer, which uses, for example, a deep learning neural network design to analyze the image information. If a defective product is detected, the air blowing nozzle is activated to remove the defective product from the turntable by blowing air. If no defective product is detected, the qualified pen tip blanks slide down the turntable baffle into the collection box, thus completing the defective product rejection process.

[0050] Those skilled in the art should recognize that the above embodiments are merely illustrative of the present invention, and various equivalent changes or substitutions can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Therefore, any changes or modifications to the above embodiments within the scope of the essential spirit of the present invention will fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention.

Claims

1. A production line for cutting and inspecting needle-type pen tip blanks, characterized in that, include: The assembly line is arranged in sequence with a pipe packaging unit, a pipe cutting unit, a grinding unit, a cleaning unit, and a quality inspection unit. The pipe packaging unit is adapted to combine multiple standard pipes into a bundle of pipes with a fixed cross-sectional shape and to package and fix the bundle of pipes. The pipe cutting unit is adapted to cut the bundled pipes from the pipe packaging unit into smaller bundles of standard length according to a predetermined length; The grinding unit has a grinding tool and a template that can accommodate multiple bundles of pipes. The template has multiple spaces suitable for placing the bundles of pipes, and is suitable for arranging and fixing multiple bundles of pipes from the pipe cutting unit in sequence and combining them into a complete grinding surface. The grinding tool is suitable for grinding the grinding surface. The cleaning unit is adapted to clean the small bundles of tubing after grinding from the grinding unit to obtain needle-shaped pen tip blanks; The quality inspection unit includes a machine vision system, a rejection mechanism, and a collection mechanism. The machine vision system is adapted to screen the needle-type pen tip blanks from the cleaning unit through image acquisition and detection to identify defective needle-type pen tip blanks. The rejection mechanism is adapted to automatically screen out the defective needle-type pen tip blanks. The collection mechanism is adapted to collect the qualified needle-type pen tip blanks.

2. The needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line according to claim 1, characterized in that, The pipe packaging unit is a packaging machine. The packaging machine has a replaceable fixed slot fixture. The fixed slot fixture is suitable for using a special packaging film to combine multiple standard pipes into a bundle of pipes with a fixed cross-sectional shape, and for shrinking and fixing the bundle of pipes by heating the packaging film.

3. The needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line according to claim 2, characterized in that, The packaging machine is adapted to change the cross-sectional shape of the bundled tubing by replacing the fixed slot tooling, and the cross-sectional shape includes a regular quadrilateral.

4. The needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line according to claim 1, characterized in that, The pipe cutting unit includes a cutting device, a clamping device, and a transport device. The transport device has a photoelectric sensor, which is adapted to control the transport device to continuously transport the bundled pipes to the cutting device at a preset length to obtain the cutting feed amount of the preset length. The clamping device is adapted to move the bundled pipes, and the cutting device is adapted to cut the bundled pipes into the smaller bundles of pipes.

5. The needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line according to claim 4, characterized in that, The pipe cutting unit has a tool maintenance device, which is adapted to maintain the cutting device after the cutting device has repeated the cutting action a certain number of times.

6. The needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line according to claim 4, characterized in that, The gripping device has a robotic arm, which is suitable for automatically gripping objects.

7. The needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line according to claim 1, characterized in that, The cleaning unit includes an ultrasonic cleaning device and a drying device. The ultrasonic cleaning device is adapted to use ultrasonic waves to clean the small bundles of tubing to obtain needle-shaped pen tip blanks. The drying device is adapted to dry the needle-shaped pen tip blanks.

8. The needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line according to claim 1, characterized in that, The machine vision system includes an infrared sensor, a CCD camera, and an industrial control computer. The infrared sensor is adapted to identify the needle-shaped pen tip blank. When the needle-shaped pen tip blank for detection is detected, the infrared sensor triggers the CCD camera to acquire image information and transmits the acquired image information to the industrial control computer. The industrial control computer is adapted to use a deep learning neural network to analyze the image information to identify and screen defective needle-shaped pen tip blanks and transmit the judgment information to the rejection mechanism.

9. The needle-type pen tip blank cutting and inspection production line according to claim 1, characterized in that, The rejection mechanism includes a material vibrating plate, a turntable, and an air blowing nozzle. The material vibrating plate is adapted to arrange the needle-shaped pen tip blanks in an orderly manner by vibration and convey them into the turntable. If a defective product is detected, the air blowing nozzle is activated to remove the defective product from the turntable by blowing air. If no defective product is detected, the qualified needle-shaped pen tip blanks are collected into the collection mechanism.

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