A fully automatic ball nut loading device and method

Abstract

The present invention discloses a fully automatic ball loading device and method for ball nuts, the device comprises a shell, a lifting mechanism is installed on one side of the shell, a ball storage box is fixedly installed on the top of the other side of the shell, a motor b and a sleeve are fixedly installed on the lifting mechanism, a spiral shaft is rotatably connected in the sleeve, the upper end of the spiral shaft is drivingly connected with the output shaft of the motor b, a goal hole and a ball outlet hole are respectively opened at the upper and lower ends of the sleeve, and the goal hole is connected to the bottom of the ball storage box through a telescopic guide tube. The present invention can realize the fully automatic assembly of ball nuts, greatly improve the installation efficiency, reduce the labor intensity, and improve the assembly qualification rate; in addition, since the sleeve and the rotating shaft can be freely selected according to different models of ball nuts, it has strong universality.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to a fully automatic ball-loading device and method for a ball nut, belonging to the technical field of ball nut assembly. Background Art

[0002] The nominal diameter of the ball nut is decreasing with the actual demand, and the diameter of the steel ball is also gradually decreasing. The existing methods of installing balls for blind hole ball nuts are all done manually, and the way to install the balls is to manually pick them up and place them one by one with tweezers. There is no reliable and efficient measure. When the number of ball nut assembly columns is large, the nut raceway is deep, the lighting conditions are poor, and the ball jumping phenomenon may occur during assembly, causing jamming. Assembly failure requires re-cleaning and assembly. After assembly is completed, it is generally necessary to test its preload force. If it does not meet the design requirements, the ball diameter needs to be changed frequently. When the operator does not operate according to regulations and directly touches the ball with the skin during installation, the sweat on the hands may cause the ball to rust, the ball surface finish is not enough, the ball diameter decreases during friction, and the surface corrodes, resulting in a reduction in the life of the ball screw pair. Frequent assembly results in increased economic costs and waste of human resources. So far, there is only a simple tooling for installing balls for through-hole ball nuts. The mandrel is inserted into the nut and the steel ball is poured in to complete the assembly. However, this method is not applicable to blind hole ball nuts, and a reliable and feasible fully automatic ball installation device has not yet been invented. Therefore, the prior art still has deficiencies and needs further improvement. Summary of the invention

[0003] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a fully automatic ball nut loading device and method, which can realize mechanized ball loading, greatly improve the installation efficiency, and has a simple structure and strong versatility, so as to solve the shortcomings of the prior art.

[0004] The technical solution of the present invention is as follows: a fully automatic ball loading device for ball nuts comprises a shell, a lifting mechanism is installed on one side of the shell, a ball storage box is fixedly installed on the top of the other side of the shell, a motor b and a sleeve are fixedly installed on the lifting mechanism, a spiral shaft is rotatably connected in the sleeve, the upper end of the spiral shaft is transmission-connected to the output shaft of the motor b, a ball entry hole and a ball outlet hole are respectively opened at the upper and lower ends of the sleeve, and the ball entry hole is connected to the bottom of the ball storage box through a telescopic catheter.

[0005] Furthermore, the lifting mechanism includes a screw rotatably connected to the shell, a motor a is fixedly installed in the shell and at the top of the screw, and the output shaft of the motor a is transmission-connected to the upper end of the screw, a slider is threadedly connected to the screw, a slide groove is opened on the side wall of the shell and close to the screw, and the slider is slidably matched with the slide groove, and the motor b and the sleeve are fixedly installed on the upper and lower sides of the slider respectively.

[0006] Furthermore, the sleeve is fixedly connected to the slider via bolts.

[0007] Furthermore, a chuck is fixedly installed at the bottom of the shell, and a chuck claw is movably connected to the chuck.

[0008] At the same time, the present invention also provides a fully automatic ball nut loading method based on the above-mentioned ball nut fully automatic ball loading device, the method is to put the ball nut to be assembled into a chuck, fix it on the chuck by the chuck claws, and the motor a is activated to drive the screw to rotate, and move the slider on the screw to a specified position, so that the ball outlet hole of the sleeve is aligned with the last raceway of the ball nut; the balls are poured into the ball storage box, and the balls enter the sleeve from the ball hole through the telescopic guide tube under the action of gravity; at this time, the motor b is activated to drive the spiral shaft to rotate, and the balls are sent to the position of the ball outlet hole of the sleeve, and the balls are squeezed out by the subsequent balls and enter the raceway of the ball nut. When the last row of raceways of the ball nut is assembled, the motor a is rotated to move the ball outlet hole downward by 2 times the pitch of the ball nut, and align it with the raceway of the next row of the ball nut that needs to be loaded with balls, and the above actions are repeated until all the raceways of the ball nut are assembled.

[0009] In the above method, the outer diameter of the sleeve is d, and the minor diameter of the screw matched with the ball nut is d1, then d=d1.

[0010] Due to the adoption of the above technical solution, the advantages of the present invention are: the present invention can realize the fully automatic assembly of ball nuts, greatly improve the installation efficiency, reduce the labor intensity, and improve the assembly qualification rate; in addition, since the sleeve and the rotating shaft can be freely selected according to different types of ball nuts, the universality is strong. Therefore, the present invention not only has a wide working range and high reliability, but also does not require manual operation, avoids rust and falling of the ball, but also has the advantages of simple and compact structure, stable working performance, strong versatility, etc. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] Figure 1 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the present invention;

[0012] Figure 2 yes Figure 1 3D view of

[0013] Figure 3 It is a cross-sectional view of the sleeve and ball nut when assembled.

[0014] The marks in the accompanying drawings are: 1-housing, 2-motor a, 3-motor b, 4-ball storage box, 5-telescopic guide tube, 6-sleeve, 7-screw shaft, 8-ball outlet hole, 9-chuck, 10-screw, 11-slider, 12-chuck claw, 13-slide groove, 14-ball, 15-ball entry hole, 16-ball nut. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0015] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more clear, the present invention is further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0016] The present invention discloses a fully automatic ball loading device for ball nuts, comprising a housing 1, a lifting mechanism installed on one side of the housing 1; a ball storage box 4 is fixedly installed on the top of the other side of the housing 1, a motor b3 and a sleeve 6 are fixedly installed on the lifting mechanism, the lifting mechanism comprises a lead screw 10 rotatably connected to the housing 1, a motor a2 is fixedly installed in the housing 1 and located on the top of the lead screw 10, and the output shaft of the motor a2 is transmission-connected to the upper end of the lead screw 10, a slider 11 is threadedly connected to the lead screw 10, and a slider 11 is threadedly connected to the side wall of the housing 1 and close to the lead screw 10. A slide groove 13 is provided near the lead screw 10, and the slider 11 is slidably matched with the slide groove 13. The motor b3 and the sleeve 6 are fixedly mounted on the upper and lower sides of the slider 11, respectively, and the sleeve 6 is fixedly connected to the slider 11 by bolts, so as to facilitate the replacement of sleeves 6 of different specifications; a spiral shaft 7 is rotatably connected in the sleeve 6, and the upper end of the spiral shaft 7 is drivingly connected to the output shaft of the motor b3. A goal hole 15 and a ball outlet hole 8 are provided at the upper and lower ends of the sleeve 6, respectively, and the goal hole 15 is connected to the bottom of the ball storage box 4 through a telescopic guide tube 5. A chuck 9 is fixedly mounted at the bottom of the housing 1, and a chuck claw 12 is movably connected to the chuck 9.

[0017] At the same time, the present invention also provides a method for fully automatic ball nut loading based on the above-mentioned fully automatic ball nut loading device, which is to put the ball nut 16 to be assembled into the chuck 9, fix it on the chuck 9 by the chuck claw 12, and drive the motor a2 to rotate the screw 10, move the slider 11 on the screw 10 to a specified position, so that the ball outlet hole 8 of the sleeve 6 is aligned with the last raceway of the ball nut 16; pour the ball 14 into the ball storage box 4, and the ball 14 is moved by the telescopic guide under the action of gravity. The tube 5 enters the sleeve 6 from the ball hole 15; at this time, the motor b3 is activated, driving the screw shaft 7 to rotate, and the ball 14 is sent to the position of the ball hole 8 of the sleeve 6. The ball 14 is squeezed out by the subsequent balls and enters the raceway of the ball nut 16. When the last row of raceways of the ball nut 16 is assembled, the motor a2 rotates to move the ball hole 8 downward by 2 times the pitch of the ball nut 16, and aligns with the raceway of the next row of the ball nut 16 to be loaded with balls. Repeat the above action until all the raceways of the ball nut 16 are assembled. The outer diameter of the sleeve 6 is d, and the minor diameter of the screw rod matched with the ball nut 16 is d1, then d=d1.

[0018] Embodiments of the present invention:

[0019] Taking the ball nut 16 with a nominal diameter of 16mm, a lead of 3, and 3 required rows as an example, the required ball diameter of the ball nut 16 is 2mm. After calculation, the minor diameter of the lead screw matched with the ball nut 16 is d1=14mm, so the diameter of the sleeve 6 is d=d1=14mm. After calculation, the effective thread length of the ball nut 16 is 18mm, so the height between the ball hole 8 and the bottom of the sleeve 6 is h=h1=18mm.

[0020] During assembly, the ball nut 16 to be assembled is placed in the chuck 9 and fixed on the chuck 9 by the chuck claw 12. The motor a2 is activated to drive the screw 10 to rotate, and the slider 11 on the screw 10 is moved to the specified position, so that the ball outlet hole 8 of the sleeve 6 is aligned with the last raceway of the ball nut 16; the balls 14 are poured into the ball storage box 4, and the balls 14 enter the sleeve 6 from the ball hole 15 through the telescopic guide tube 5 under the action of gravity; at this time, the motor b3 is activated to drive the screw shaft 7 to rotate, and the balls 14 are sent to the position of the ball outlet hole 8 of the sleeve 6, and the balls 14 are squeezed out by the subsequent balls and enter the raceway of the ball nut 16. When the last row of raceways of the ball nut 16 is assembled, the motor a2 is rotated to move the ball outlet hole 8 downward by 2 times the pitch of the ball nut 16, and align with the raceway of the next row of the ball nut 16 where the balls need to be loaded, and the above actions are repeated until all the raceways of the ball nut 16 are assembled.

Claims

1. A fully automatic ball-loading device for a ball nut, comprising a housing (1), characterized in that: A lifting mechanism is installed on one side of the housing (1), a ball storage box (4) is fixedly installed on the top of the other side of the housing (1), a motor b (3) and a sleeve (6) are fixedly installed on the lifting mechanism, a spiral shaft (7) is rotatably connected in the sleeve (6), the upper end of the spiral shaft (7) is drivingly connected to the output shaft of the motor b (3), a ball inlet hole (15) and a ball outlet hole (8) are respectively opened at the upper end and the lower end of the sleeve (6), and the ball inlet hole (15) is connected to the bottom of the ball storage box (4) through a telescopic guide tube (5); The lifting mechanism comprises a lead screw (10) rotatably connected to the housing (1), a motor a (2) is fixedly mounted in the housing (1) and located at the top of the lead screw (10), and the output shaft of the motor a (2) is drivingly connected to the upper end of the lead screw (10), a slider (11) is threadedly connected to the lead screw (10), a slide groove (13) is provided on the side wall of the housing (1) and close to the lead screw (10), and the slider (11) is slidably matched with the slide groove (13), and the motor b (3) and the sleeve (6) are fixedly mounted on the upper and lower sides of the slider (11) respectively; The sleeve (6) is fixedly connected to the slider (11) via bolts; A chuck (9) is fixedly mounted on the bottom of the housing (1), and a chuck claw (12) is movably connected to the chuck (9); When the ball nut fully automatic ball loading device is in operation, the ball nut (16) to be assembled is placed in the chuck (9), fixed on the chuck (9) by the chuck claw (12), the motor a (2) is actuated to drive the lead screw (10) to rotate, and the slider (11) on the lead screw (10) is moved to a specified position, so that the ball outlet hole (8) of the sleeve (6) is aligned with the last raceway of the ball nut (16); the ball (14) is poured into the ball storage box (4), and the ball (14) enters the sleeve (6) from the ball hole (15) through the telescopic guide tube (5) under the action of gravity; at this time, the motor b (3) is actuated to drive the screw shaft (7) to rotate, and the ball (14) is sent to the position of the ball outlet hole (8) of the sleeve (6), and the ball (14) is squeezed out by the subsequent ball (14) and enters the raceway of the ball nut (16).

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