A front clamping device and fixture for conveying body-in-white top cover

Abstract

This invention, belonging to the automotive industry, discloses a front clamping device for conveying body-in-white (BIW) roof covers and a jig for using the device. Bolts installed on the suspension brackets abut against the hanger rods to create a counterbalancing torque, preventing the BIW roof cover from falling due to the suspension bracket tipping. The device can be applied to various BIW roof conveying processes during BIW assembly.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention belongs to the field of automobile industry and particularly discloses a front clamping device for conveying a body-in-white top cover and a fixture using the device. Background Art

[0002] Existing body-in-white (BIW) welding lines produce multiple models in a mixed production process. After the roof is welded on the subassembly fixture, it is automatically transported to the final assembly line via a roof conveyor. The roof conveyor clamps and releases the roof, precisely positions the roof fixture and the main assembly fixture, and automatically raises and lowers, moving horizontally. Most importantly, it supports the mixed production of different models on the same line. When lifting the roof from the fixture, the hoist must be precisely aligned and docked to prevent it from falling. When docking and joining the main assembly station, the roof hoist must be precisely positioned to ensure precise alignment with the other subassemblies and ensure the accuracy of the vehicle body, particularly the dimensional precision of the windshield. Therefore, the roof conveyor not only transports the roof but also, most importantly, provides precise positioning. Because the positioning and clamping and conveying mechanisms are all contained within the roof hoist, the roof hoist is complex and bulky.

[0003] The front clamping device of the top cover conveyor is shared by multiple models, so a model switching mechanism is added to it. The positioning device and the cylinder clamping device are both in the front clamping device, which makes the front clamping device too heavy. After the top cover hoist is raised, the center of gravity of the front clamping device deviates from the straight line where the cylinder guide rod is located. The bottom of the guide rod is connected to the front clamping device bracket at only one point, and the rigidity is insufficient, causing the front clamping device to be in a tilted state and unable to clamp the front part of the top cover. During transportation, the front top cover is extremely easy to shake, which often causes the cylinder to fail to sense the signal and send out an abnormal signal, causing the top cover conveyor to stop in mid-air. Resetting can only be achieved through human intervention in the air. Frequent failures result in a long cumulative downtime. At the same time, the tilt of the front clamping device makes it difficult to clamp the high top cover, causing the top cover to often fall off during transportation, resulting in the scrapping of the top cover and the shutdown of the equipment. Summary of the Invention

[0004] To solve the problems in the background technology, the present invention provides a front clamping device for conveying a body-in-white roof and a fixture using the same. The specific technical solutions are as follows:

[0005] The cam is secured to the chassis and has a bottom end secured to the chassis by a spring which is secured to the chassis by a spring which is secured to the chassis by a spring which is secured to the chassis by a spring which is secured to the chassis by a spring.

[0006] This design prevents the bracket from rotating around the end of the guide rod due to the reverse rotational torque formed by the product of the guide sleeve's support force on the bolt and the thickness of the bracket, thereby avoiding accidents such as the BIW roof falling off or being unable to be clamped due to the bracket fixed with the clamping device tipping over.

[0007] Preferably, matching nuts are provided on the bolt at positions outside the two ends of the threaded through hole.

[0008] The design of the back nut limits the rotation of the bolt due to force during the top cover transportation process, ensuring that one end of the bolt is always in contact with the guide sleeve, so that the supporting force continues to exist. The reverse rotation torque can balance the tilting torque of the bracket, more reliably avoiding the bracket from tipping over.

[0009] Preferably, a concave structure is provided on the guide sleeve at a portion in contact with the bolt.

[0010] This prevents the bolt from slipping relative to the cylindrical outer surface of the guide sleeve, thereby ensuring reliable contact between the bolt and the guide sleeve.

[0011] The present invention also provides a jig, which includes the above-mentioned front clamping device for conveying the white body top cover. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0012] Figure 1 Schematic diagram reflecting the tilting principle of the bracket in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0013] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram reflecting the torque acting on the bracket in the prior art in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0014] Figure 3 Schematic diagram of a bolt generating a reverse balancing torque in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0015] In the figure: 1. Back nut; 2. Guide sleeve; 3. Connecting block; 4. Bolt; 5. Guide sleeve connecting bolt; 6. Guide rod; 7. Bracket; 8. Vehicle body roof; 9. Front end clamping assembly connecting arm; 10. Clamping cylinder; 11. Pressure block; 12 Clamping claw; 13 Base. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of the present invention more clearly apparent, the present invention is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments. It is apparent that the described embodiments are only a portion of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of them. All other embodiments derived by persons of ordinary skill in the art based on these embodiments without inventive effort are also within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0017] like Figure 1-2 As shown, the bottom of the bracket 7 of the existing front clamping device is connected to the horizontal square fixing plate fixed under the vertical guide rod 6 by four bolts. The left side of the bottom of the bracket 7 is connected to the top clamping assembly, and the right side is connected to the front clamping assembly. The front clamping assembly includes a front clamping assembly connecting arm 9, a clamping cylinder 10, a pressure block 11 and a clamping claw 12. The device is simplified to a lever with a fulcrum 0. It can be seen that the gravity on the left side of the bracket 7 at point 0 is G, and the force arm is x. The gravity on the right side is F, and the force arm is y. If G*x=F*y, a balanced state can be achieved, but in reality G*x is much larger than F*y. It is only because the fixing plate fixes it on the guide rod 6 that it does not obviously tip over. However, it will still cause a slight tilt due to insufficient rigidity at the connection. In order to illustrate the situation more clearly, we will magnify this tilt, as shown in Figure 1 During the production process, the pressing block 11 is offset from the working position due to its tilt and cannot clamp the vehicle body roof 8 located on the base 13.

[0018] The front clamping device for conveying the BIW roof of the present invention is used. The guide rod 6 is located at the top of the bracket and is fastened to the clamp-type guide sleeve 2 through the guide sleeve connecting bolt 5, so that its inner wall fits the outer surface of the guide rod 6. The top of the bracket 7 is provided with a connecting block 3 with a built-in threaded hole. The connecting block 3 is welded to the bracket 7 and becomes a part of the bracket 7. The axis of the threaded hole is consistent with the front-to-back direction of the vehicle body corresponding to the BIW roof and intersects with the axis of the guide rod. The screw length of the bolt 4 matched with the threaded hole is greater than the distance between the front end of the threaded hole and the guide sleeve and does not interfere with the bracket. In this way, when the bolt 4 passes through the threaded hole and is screwed in the direction of the guide rod 6, it will eventually contact the outer wall of the guide sleeve 2. A concave structure is provided at the contact point of the outer wall to prevent the contact end of the bolt 4 from slipping. In order to prevent the bolt 4 from withdrawing from the threaded hole during the movement of the bracket, the bolt 4 is provided with a matching back nut 1 at the position outside the two ends of the threaded hole.

[0019] When the bolt 4 exerts a pressure of N on the cylinder guide rod 6 and the thickness of the bracket is z, the new lever balance equation is G*x=F*y+N*z. Due to limited space, the mechanism of the present invention must be placed in a suitable position. Since the distance between the bottom of the bracket and the bottom of the cylinder is very short after the vehicle type switching device is switched to a low-top vehicle type, the length z of the lever arm used to suppress the tilting of the bracket 7 in the present invention is at most 120mm of the height of the bracket, otherwise it will cause interference. Figure 3 Obviously, the reverse torque formed by the product of the reaction force N exerted by the guide rod 6 on the bolt 4 and the thickness z of the bracket can suppress the overturning of the bracket 7, thus avoiding the occurrence of the accident of the vehicle body roof 8 not being able to hold it firmly and the vehicle body roof 8 falling off.

[0020] The front clamping device for conveying the BIW top cover is fixed on a jig to realize the conveyance of BIW top covers of different vehicle models, which constitutes another embodiment of the present specification: a jig using the above-mentioned front clamping device for conveying the BIW top cover.

[0021] Finally, it should be noted that the above descriptions are merely preferred embodiments of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the aforementioned embodiments, those skilled in the art will be able to modify the technical solutions described in the aforementioned embodiments or substitute equivalents for some of the technical features. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, and improvements made within the spirit and principles of the present invention shall be included within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A front clamping device for conveying a body-in-white top cover, comprising a horizontally arranged bracket, a fixing plate, and a guide rod extending from a vertically arranged hydraulic cylinder, wherein one end of the guide rod is outside the hydraulic cylinder and passes through the bracket and is fixed to the bottom of the bracket through the fixing plate, the guide rod is located above the body-in-white top cover to be conveyed, a front end clamping assembly is provided below the bracket on the side of the guide rod close to the front end of the body-in-white top cover to be grasped, and a top clamping assembly is provided below the bracket on the other side of the guide rod, characterized in that The guide rod is located at the top position of the bracket and is fixed with a guide sleeve that surrounds the guide rod in a hoop-like manner. A threaded through hole is provided on the bracket on the side of the guide sleeve near the front end of the white body top cover that is grasped. The axis of the threaded through hole is consistent with the front and rear direction of the vehicle body corresponding to the white body top cover and intersects with the axis line of the guide rod; it also includes a bolt that matches the threaded through hole, and the screw length of the bolt is greater than the distance between the front end of the threaded through hole and the guide sleeve and does not interfere with the bracket.

2. A front clamping device for conveying a body-in-white roof according to claim 1, characterized in that: Matching nuts are provided on the bolt at positions outside the two ends of the threaded through hole.

3. A front clamping device for conveying a body-in-white roof according to claim 2, characterized in that: A concave structure is provided on the guide sleeve at a position in contact with the bolt.

4. A jig, characterized by: The invention comprises a front clamping device for conveying a body-in-white top cover according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

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