A station center pick-and-place device

Abstract

The application discloses a work station centering pick-and-place device, and relates to the technical field of assembly equipment. The device can adapt to the demand of assembly efficiency of multi-variety, small-batch products and new product development process, greatly reduces the trouble of operator cleaning of excess adhesive, and has high social and economic benefits. Through the design and application of the work station centering pick-and-place device, the single work station operation efficiency is improved by 30%, the device is suitable for single work station assembly demand of various products, reduces the types of clamping tools for on-site work operation, can save the design and manufacturing cost of various tooling, and reduces the on-site management cost.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of assembly equipment technology, and in particular to a station centering pick-and-place device. Background Technology

[0002] In the face of fierce market competition, the market and customers have increased their demand for personalized customization, and product production has shifted from mass production to a multi-variety, small-batch model. Especially in the process of new product development, small quantities of products are produced for trial production. When multiple products are produced for trial production at the same time, due to insufficient preparation of on-site assembly stations, a lot of manpower is often wasted on product assembly, trial production, and modification processes.

[0003] Existing automatic pick-and-place devices are typically used in highly automated production assembly lines, which are expensive and not very suitable for highly customized fixed products or assembly stations in the product development process.

[0004] For highly customized, fixed-position products and the efficiency improvement of assembly stations during product development, there are currently no widely applicable mechanisms or devices on the market. Therefore, the following two main problems exist in the assembly and adjustment process of such products:

[0005] 1. Operators often need to embed positioning blocks around the product to determine the center position of the installed parts, which results in low assembly efficiency.

[0006] 2. For adhesive-bonded parts, during product assembly, the parts to be bonded should be attached in one go to avoid back-and-forth movement, which could cause the welding agent to be applied to other parts, making cleaning difficult and reducing assembly efficiency. Summary of the Invention

[0007] In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a workstation centering pick-and-place device for overcoming or at least partially solving the above problems.

[0008] This invention provides the following solution:

[0009] A station centering pick-and-place device, comprising:

[0010] A positioning unit includes a support cylinder and four positioning arms. A first gear and a second gear, separated from each other, are fixedly mounted on the support cylinder. Each positioning arm includes a horizontally arranged telescopic rod and a vertically arranged support leg connected to the front end of the telescopic rod. The telescopic rod is provided with a rack extending axially along the telescopic rod. Two of the positioning arms each contain telescopic arms arranged along the X-axis, and the racks in each of the two positioning arms are meshed with the first gear. The other two positioning arms each contain telescopic arms arranged along the Y-axis, and the racks in each of the two positioning arms are meshed with the second gear.

[0011] The pickup and placement unit includes a pickup and placement rod connected to a pickup and placement execution component. A support cylinder is fitted around the pickup and placement rod and is rotatably connected to it. The axis of the pickup and placement rod coincides with the axis of the support cylinder, so that during the pickup process, after moving any of the positioning arms, the four positioning arms extend and retract by equal distances until they all contact the edge of the workpiece to be picked up, making the center of the pickup and placement rod coincide with the geometric center of the workpiece to be picked up, thus achieving centered pickup. During the assembly process, after moving any of the positioning arms, the four positioning arms extend and retract by equal distances until they all contact the step of the housing to be assembled, making the center of the pickup and placement rod and the geometric center of the workpiece to be picked up coincide with the geometric center of the housing to be assembled.

[0012] Preferably, the support cylinder is provided with an outer shell, and a support rod is provided on the outer shell, the support rod being used to connect to the transfer mechanism.

[0013] Preferably, the transfer mechanism includes a robotic arm.

[0014] Preferably, the release actuator includes a vacuum generator and a suction cup, wherein the vacuum generator is connected to the upper end of the pickup / release rod, and the suction cup is connected to the lower end of the pickup / release rod.

[0015] Preferably, the workpiece to be picked up or placed includes an LCD screen.

[0016] According to specific embodiments provided by the present invention, the present invention discloses the following technical effects:

[0017] This application provides a workstation centering pick-and-place device that can adapt to the assembly efficiency requirements of multi-variety, small-batch products and new product development processes. It also significantly reduces the hassle of cleaning excess adhesive for operators, resulting in high socio-economic benefits. Through the design and application of this automatic workstation centering pick-and-place device, single-station operation efficiency is increased by 30%. It is suitable for the single-station assembly needs of various products, reduces the types of clamping tools required for on-site operations, saves on the design and manufacturing costs of various tooling fixtures, and lowers on-site management costs.

[0018] Of course, any product implementing this invention does not necessarily need to achieve all of the advantages described above at the same time. Attached Figure Description

[0019] To more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention or the prior art, the drawings used in the embodiments will be briefly described below. Obviously, the drawings described below are merely some embodiments of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without any creative effort.

[0020] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of a workstation centering pickup and placement device provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0021] Figure 2 This is an exploded view of a workstation centering pickup and placement device provided in an embodiment of the present invention.

[0022] In the diagram: support cylinder 1, first gear 11, second gear 12, positioning arm 2, telescopic rod 21, support leg 22, rack 23, pick-and-place rod 3, outer shell 4, support rod 5, vacuum generator 6, suction cup 7, workpiece to be picked up or placed 8, housing to be assembled 9. Detailed Implementation

[0023] The technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of them. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0024] See Figure 1 , Figure 2 This invention provides a workstation centering pick-and-place device, such as... Figure 1 , Figure 2 As shown, the device may include:

[0025] The positioning unit includes a support cylinder 1 and four positioning arms 2. A first gear 11 and a second gear 12, separated from each other, are fixedly mounted on the support cylinder 1. Each positioning arm 2 includes a horizontally arranged telescopic rod 21 and a vertically arranged support leg 22 connected to the front end of the telescopic rod 21. The telescopic rod 21 is provided with a rack 23 extending axially along the telescopic rod 21. The telescopic arms of two positioning arms 2 are arranged along the X-axis, and the racks 23 of each positioning arm 2 are meshed with the first gear 11. The telescopic arms of the other two positioning arms 2 are arranged along the Y-axis, and the racks 23 of each positioning arm 2 are meshed with the second gear 12.

[0026] The pickup and placement unit includes a pickup and placement rod 3; the pickup and placement rod 3 is connected to a pickup and placement execution component; the support cylinder 1 is fitted outside the pickup and placement rod 3 and is rotatably connected to the pickup and placement rod 3; the axis of the pickup and placement rod 3 coincides with the axis of the support cylinder 1, so that during the pickup process, after moving any of the positioning arms 2, the four positioning arms 2 extend and retract by equal distances until they all contact the edge of the workpiece 8 to be picked up, so that the center of the pickup and placement rod 3 coincides with the geometric center of the workpiece 8 to be picked up, achieving centered pickup; and during the assembly process, after moving any of the positioning arms 2, the four positioning arms 2 extend and retract by equal distances until they all contact the step of the housing 9 to be assembled, so that the center of the pickup and placement rod 3 and the geometric center of the workpiece 8 to be picked up coincide with the geometric center of the housing 9 to be assembled.

[0027] The workstation centering pick-and-place device provided in this embodiment uses racks 23 to form telescopic rods 21 on the X and Y axes, which are connected to corresponding gears. Both gears are fixedly connected to the same support cylinder 1. Manually stretching and compressing any one of the X-axis or Y-axis support legs 22 allows the four telescopic rods 21 to drive the corresponding support legs 22 to extend and retract synchronously by equal distances, thus achieving automatic centering. The center of the pick-and-place rod 3 is designed at the center of the Z-axis. Regardless of the size of the X and Y axes, after being positioned by the four support legs 22, the center of the pick-and-place rod 3 is always at the geometric center of the workpiece 8 to be picked up or placed, facilitating Z-axis picking and placing. The support leg 22 positioning mechanism is designed to hold the picked-up object during picking and to hold the loading step of the workpiece during placement, thus operating the Z-axis pick-and-place mechanism to achieve automatic centering of the product.

[0028] To facilitate the movement of the device provided in this application embodiment, this application embodiment can provide an outer shell 4 on the outside of the support cylinder 1, and a support rod 5 on the outer shell 4, the support rod 5 being used to connect to a transfer mechanism. Further, the transfer mechanism includes a robotic arm.

[0029] The release actuator provided in this application embodiment is used to grasp a workpiece. Specifically, this application embodiment can provide that the release actuator includes a vacuum generator 6 and a suction cup 7. The vacuum generator 6 is connected to the upper end of the pick-and-place rod 3, and the suction cup 7 is connected to the lower end of the pick-and-place rod 3. The pick-and-place device uses a negative pressure air generator, and can move by raising the baffle after picking up the workpiece.

[0030] Furthermore, the workpiece 8 to be picked up and placed may include an LCD screen. The workpiece 8 to be picked up and placed may also be any other product with a regular external contour shape.

[0031] The following describes in detail the usage of the device provided in this application, taking the assembly process of an LCD screen for a certain product as an example. During the assembly of the LCD screen and shielding components inside the product, alignment and placement are required.

[0032] The entire device is connected to the robotic arm via support rod 5. The robotic arm moves the entire device to the LCD screen pickup station. The robotic arm lowers the device so that all four legs 22 are positioned on the outside of the LCD screen and the suction cup 7 is not in contact with the LCD screen. The user manually holds any one of the legs 22 and pushes it towards the LCD screen. Under the action of the gear rack 23, all four legs 22 move synchronously towards the LCD screen until they all contact the edge of the LCD screen. At this time, the center of the pickup rod 3 and the suction cup 7 in the Z-axis direction coincides with the center of the LCD screen. The robotic arm continues to lower the device so that the suction cup 7 contacts the surface of the LCD screen, and the vacuum generator 6 is activated to adsorb the LCD screen.

[0033] The entire device and the LCD screen are transferred to the assembly station by a robotic arm and moved onto the housing. The user manually holds any one of the support legs 22 and pulls it away from the LCD screen. All four support legs 22 will move synchronously away from the LCD screen until they are stuck on the housing step. At this time, the center of the LCD screen coincides with the center of the housing in the Z-axis direction. The support rod 5 and the pick-and-place rod 3 are lowered, the vacuum generator 6 is turned off, and the automatic centering pick-and-place device at the station is removed to achieve the centering of the LCD screen.

[0034] In summary, the workstation centering pick-and-place device provided in this application can meet the assembly efficiency requirements of multi-variety, small-batch products and new product development processes, while greatly reducing the hassle of cleaning excess adhesive for operators, thus possessing significant socio-economic benefits. Through the design and application of this automatic workstation centering pick-and-place device, single-station operating efficiency is increased by 30%, and it is suitable for the single-station assembly needs of various products. It reduces the types of on-site operation clamping tools, saving on the design and manufacturing costs of various tooling fixtures and lowering on-site management costs.

[0035] It should be noted that, in this document, relational terms such as "first" and "second" are used only to distinguish one entity or operation from another, and do not necessarily require or imply any such actual relationship or order between these entities or operations. Furthermore, the terms "comprising," "including," or any other variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements includes not only those elements but also other elements not expressly listed, or elements inherent to such a process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitations, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one..." does not exclude the presence of other identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that includes said element.

[0036] As can be seen from the above description of the embodiments, those skilled in the art can clearly understand that this application can be implemented by means of software plus necessary general-purpose hardware platforms. Based on this understanding, the technical solution of this application, in essence, or the part that contributes to the prior art, can be embodied in the form of a software product. This computer software product can be stored in a storage medium, such as ROM / RAM, magnetic disk, optical disk, etc., and includes several instructions to cause a computer device (which may be a personal computer, server, or network device, etc.) to execute the methods described in various embodiments or some parts of the embodiments of this application.

[0037] The various embodiments in this specification are described in a progressive manner. Similar or identical parts between embodiments can be referred to mutually. Each embodiment focuses on describing the differences from other embodiments. In particular, for system or system embodiments, since they are basically similar to method embodiments, the description is relatively simple, and relevant parts can be referred to the descriptions in the method embodiments. The systems and system embodiments described above are merely illustrative. The units described as separate components may or may not be physically separate. The components shown as units may or may not be physical units; that is, they may be located in one place or distributed across multiple network units. Some or all of the modules can be selected to achieve the purpose of this embodiment according to actual needs. Those skilled in the art can understand and implement this without creative effort.

[0038] The above description is merely a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present invention. Any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc., made within the spirit and principles of the present invention are included within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A station centering pickup and placement device, characterized in that, include: A positioning unit includes a support cylinder and four positioning arms. A first gear and a second gear, separated from each other, are fixedly mounted on the support cylinder. Each positioning arm includes a horizontally arranged telescopic rod and a vertically arranged support leg connected to the front end of the telescopic rod. The telescopic rod is provided with a rack extending axially along the telescopic rod. The telescopic rods of two positioning arms are arranged along the X-axis, and the racks of two positioning arms are meshed with the first gear. The telescopic rods of the other two positioning arms are arranged along the Y-axis, and the racks of two positioning arms are meshed with the second gear. The pickup and placement unit includes a pickup and placement rod connected to a pickup and placement execution component. A support cylinder is fitted around the pickup and placement rod and is rotatably connected to it. The axis of the pickup and placement rod coincides with the axis of the support cylinder, so that during the pickup process, after moving any of the positioning arms, the four positioning arms extend and retract by equal distances until they all contact the edge of the workpiece to be picked up, making the center of the pickup and placement rod coincide with the geometric center of the workpiece to be picked up, thus achieving centered pickup. During the assembly process, after moving any of the positioning arms, the four positioning arms extend and retract by equal distances until they all contact the step of the housing to be assembled, making the center of the pickup and placement rod and the geometric center of the workpiece to be picked up coincide with the geometric center of the housing to be assembled.

2. The workstation centering pick-and-place device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The support cylinder is provided with an outer shell, and a support rod is provided on the outer shell. The support rod is used to connect to the transfer mechanism.

3. The workstation centering pick-and-place device according to claim 2, characterized in that, The transfer mechanism includes a robotic arm.

4. The workstation centering pick-and-place device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The release actuator includes a vacuum generator and a suction cup. The vacuum generator is connected to the upper end of the pickup and release rod, and the suction cup is connected to the lower end of the pickup and release rod.

5. The workstation centering pick-and-place device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The workpiece to be picked up and placed includes an LCD screen.

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