Automatic lubricating grease coating device for angular contact ball bearing and spraying process method

Abstract

The invention provides an angular contact ball bearing automatic lubricating grease coating device and a spraying process method. The angular contact ball bearing automatic lubricating grease coating device comprises a single-shaft rotary table, a jacking air cylinder, a clamping mechanism, an automatic running device, a first image processing unit, an automatic coating device and a second image processing unit. A plurality of bearing positions are evenly distributed on the single-shaft rotary table, and each bearing position is provided with a jacking air cylinder. The clamping mechanism is fixedly installed on the ground and used for moving the angular contact ball bearing to be treated to a designated position. The automatic running-in device is installed on the ground, the angular contact ball bearing is lifted to a preset running-in station through the action of a jacking air cylinder, and the upper computer controls the automatic running-in device to drive an outer ring of the angular contact ball bearing to rotate; the first image processing unit generates a coating path according to the acquired image, and coating is performed through the automatic coating device; and the second image processing unit judges whether the coating is qualified or not according to the coating result.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The application relates to an automatic lubricating grease coating device for angular contact ball bearings and a spraying process method, and belongs to the field of automatic assembly processes. BACKGROUND

[0002] Angular contact ball bearings are key moving pairs of electromechanical actuators, and their reliability is crucial. Because they are subjected to complex alternating heavy load movements for a long time, the rolling surfaces or balls are prone to wear, fatigue, fracture and the like, leading to degradation of the performance of the transmission system and even failure, which seriously affects the product precision and operation safety of the electromechanical actuator. Therefore, how to ensure the quantitative coating of lubricating grease for angular contact ball bearings is of great significance to the long-time, high-precision and high-reliability operation of angular contact ball bearings.

[0003] At present, in the assembly process of precision components such as servo electromechanical actuators, the lubricating grease coating of angular contact ball bearings mainly relies on manual operation, and the existing technology has the following disadvantages:

[0004] (1) The bearing cannot be quantitatively coated: the existing bearing lubricating device has a simple structure, and can achieve bearing filling, even leading to excessive coating and pollution of other components.

[0005] (2) The entire device cannot be highly automated and intelligent; the main purpose of the current bearing coating device is to ensure the filling of the entire bearing, but online detection of the entire device and determination of the effect cannot be achieved, making it difficult to meet the production needs of large quantities and automation.

[0006] Therefore, it is urgent to improve a device capable of automatically, accurately, quantitatively and efficiently coating lubricating grease for angular contact ball bearings, and ensuring that the lubricating grease is evenly distributed to the key parts. SUMMARY

[0007] The technical problem solved by the application is to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art and provide an automatic lubricating grease coating device for angular contact ball bearings and a spraying process method, which can significantly improve the production efficiency of the lubricating grease coating of angular contact ball bearings, eliminate manual interference and ensure the quality stability of the lubricating grease coating.

[0008] The technical scheme of the application is: an automatic lubricating grease coating device for angular contact ball bearings, comprising a single-shaft turntable, a jacking cylinder, a clamping mechanism, an automatic running and device, a first image processing unit, an automatic coating device and a second image processing unit; a plurality of bearing positions are uniformly distributed on the single-shaft turntable, and each bearing position is provided with a jacking cylinder; the clamping mechanism is fixedly installed on the ground and used for moving the angular contact ball bearing to be processed to a specified position; the automatic running device is installed on the ground, the angular contact ball bearing is lifted to a predetermined running position by the action of the jacking cylinder, and the outer ring of the angular contact ball bearing is rotated by the automatic running device under the control of an upper computer.

[0009] The first image processing unit processes the photographed angular contact ball bearing image by using a bearing inner and outer circle detection method based on deep learning, identifies the spatial coordinates of the bearing ball gap, and calculates the optimal coating position of the bearing, and further determines the optimal coating track of a single bearing; the automatic coating device is installed on the ground, and according to the optimal coating track designed by the first image processing unit, the angular contact ball bearing is coated with lubricating grease; after the angular contact ball bearing is coated with grease, the second image processing unit processes the photographed image by using an internally trained lubricating grease semantic segmentation model, and identifies and segments the lubricating grease area; based on the segmentation result, it is automatically determined whether the coating effect including the coverage rate and the uniformity of distribution is qualified.

[0010] The first image processing unit is composed of an industrial camera, a light source and a support structure; the support structure is fixedly installed on the ground, the industrial camera is installed at the top of the support structure, and the lens is installed directly below the industrial camera; the light source is fixed on the support structure below the lens; when the angular contact ball bearing moves to the predetermined running-in station, the light source provides sufficient light for the angular contact ball bearing, and the lens photographs the image of the angular contact ball bearing.

[0011] The axes of the light source, the industrial camera and the lens are on the same straight line.

[0012] The spraying mode of the automatic coating device is linear grease coating.

[0013] The linear grease coating is specifically: taking the bearing center as the center, the motion execution mechanism controls the piezoelectric spray valve to move in a circle, and at the same time, continuously or as needed, the lubricating grease is sprayed to form a ring-shaped lubricating grease line; the coating diameter is determined according to the inner diameter and the outer diameter of the angular contact ball bearing.

[0014] A method for spraying by using the automatic lubricating grease coating device for angular contact ball bearings, comprising:

[0015] The clamping mechanism installs the angular contact ball bearing on the positioning module;

[0016] The host computer is started, the single-shaft turntable starts to rotate, the positioning module is moved to the first image processing unit station, the light source provides sufficient light for the angular contact ball bearing, and the lens of the industrial camera is responsible for photographing the image of the angular contact ball bearing; the optimal coating position of the bearing is calculated by the analysis model based on the first image processing unit, and the optimal coating track of a single bearing is designed;

[0017] The single-shaft turntable continues to rotate, and the positioning module is moved to the automatic coating station;

[0018] The automatic coating device quantitatively coats the angular contact ball bearing with lubricating grease according to the optimal coating position determined by the first image recognition unit;

[0019] The single-axis turntable continues to rotate, and the positioning module is moved to the automatic running and device station, the upper computer controls the automatic running and device to drive the outer ring of the angular contact ball bearing to rotate, so that the lubricating grease is uniformly filled between the balls in the angular contact ball bearing;

[0020] The single-axis turntable continues to rotate, and the positioning module is moved to the second image recognition unit station, and the second image recognition unit is responsible for identifying whether the lubricating grease inside the angular contact ball bearing can fully cover the balls and is uniformly distributed.

[0021] Compared with the prior art, the present application has the following advantages:

[0022] 1. The present application adopts a visual scheme based on self-learning technology to realize automatic identification of the lubricating grease coating amount, accumulates self-learning of eligibility discrimination, and improves the accuracy of the lubricating grease coating eligibility criterion;

[0023] 2. The present application adopts piezoelectric spraying as a non-contact spraying method, which avoids the pollution or damage risk that may be caused by traditional contact type coating; the lubricating grease coated in the ball gap is uniformly and fully brought into the internal space of the ball and the retainer, solving the problem that the lubricating grease is difficult to effectively penetrate, and significantly improving the long-term lubrication reliability and avoiding the lubricating grease only on the surface or overflowing;

[0024] 3. The present application integrates visual positioning, precise motion control, quantitative spraying, and automatic running and closing loop process, completely replacing manual coating and manual running and closing operation. The optional online quality detection system (based on deep learning semantic segmentation) realizes automatic and objective determination of the coating effect. The best spraying position and coating amount parameters of different bearing models and working conditions can be stored, the process parameters can be automatically called and adjusted, the operation difficulty is reduced, and the process stability and intelligent level are improved;

[0025] 4. The present application designs the positioning tool and coating process of the angular contact ball bearing, realizes the automatic positioning and spraying of the angular contact ball bearing, and combines the high precision and quantifiable control (achieved by adjusting the controller parameters) of the piezoelectric spraying valve, ensures that the lubricating grease is accurately and quantitatively sprayed to the target position (ball gap), and fundamentally solves the problems of difficult coating amount control and poor consistency compared with the existing manual coating, and the positioning accuracy of the ball gap reaches more than 99%; BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0026] Figure 1 is an image recognition unit schematic diagram;

[0027] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the angular coating lubricating grease device of the present application;

[0028] Figure 3 is a coating process flowchart of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] As Figure 2 shown, the automatic lubricating grease coating device for angular contact ball bearings of the present application comprises a single-axis turntable 7, a jacking cylinder 8, a clamping mechanism 9, an automatic running and device 10, a first image processing unit 11, an automatic coating device 12 and a second image processing unit 13; a plurality of bearing positions are uniformly distributed on the single-axis turntable 7, and a jacking cylinder 8 is arranged at each bearing position; the clamping mechanism 9 is fixedly installed on the ground and used to move the angular contact ball bearing 1 to be processed to a designated position; the automatic running and device 10 is installed on the ground and uses the jacking cylinder 8 to act to lift the angular contact ball bearing 1 to a predetermined running and device, and the upper computer controls the automatic running and device 10 to drive the outer ring of the angular contact ball bearing to rotate;

[0030] The first image processing unit 11 processes the photographed image of the angular contact ball bearing 1 by using a bearing inner and outer circle detection method based on deep learning, identifies the spatial coordinates of the bearing ball gap, calculates the optimal coating position of the bearing, and further determines the optimal coating track of the single bearing; the automatic coating device 12 is installed on the ground and coats the angular contact ball bearing with lubricating grease according to the optimal coating track designed by the first image processing unit 11; after the angular contact ball bearing 1 is coated with grease, the second image processing unit 13 processes the photographed image by using a lubricating grease semantic segmentation model such as SegNet which is trained internally, and identifies and segments the lubricating grease area; based on the segmentation result, it is automatically determined whether the coating effect including the coverage rate and the distribution uniformity is qualified or not.

[0031] As Figure 1 shown, the first image processing unit 11 is composed of an industrial camera 3, a light source 5 and a support structure 6; the support structure 6 is fixedly installed on the ground, the industrial camera 3 is installed at the top of the support structure 6, and a lens 4 is installed directly below the industrial camera 3; the light source 5 is fixed on the support structure 6 and is located below the lens 4; when the angular contact ball bearing 1 moves to the predetermined running and device, the light source 5 provides sufficient light for the angular contact ball bearing 1, and the lens 4 photographs the image of the angular contact ball bearing.

[0032] The axes of the light source 5, the industrial camera 3 and the lens 4 are on the same straight line.

[0033] The spraying mode of the automatic coating device 12 is linear grease coating.

[0034] After many experiments, it is found that the rising time, falling time and plunger stroke are related to the hanging grease in the spraying process of the piezoelectric injection valve. The hanging grease is caused by the poor flowability of high viscosity substances, and the grease cannot enter the nozzle in a short time, resulting in the plunger hitting empty. Therefore, the three parameters must be matched to make the plunger cavity filled with lubricating grease. In addition, the delay and opening time are related to the degree of grease flow, so the parameters of the injection valve controller are determined by comprehensively considering the smoothness of the sprayed lubricating grease, the hanging grease and other factors.

[0035] The linear grease coating is specifically: taking the bearing center as the center, the motion execution mechanism controls the piezoelectric injection valve to perform circumferential motion, and the lubricating grease is continuously or on-demand sprayed to form a ring-shaped lubricating grease line; the coating diameter is determined according to the outer diameter of the inner ring and the inner diameter of the outer ring of the angular contact ball bearing.

[0036] As shown in Figure 3 The present application also relates to a method for spraying by using the automatic lubricating grease coating device of the angular contact ball bearing, comprising:

[0037] The clamping mechanism 9 installs the angular contact ball bearing 1 on the positioning module 2; if clamping problems occur, an alarm program will be started, and the whole process will be paused;

[0038] The upper computer is started, the single-shaft turntable 7 starts to rotate, the positioning module 2 is moved to the first image processing unit 11 station, the light source 5 provides sufficient light for the angular contact ball bearing, the lens 4 of the industrial camera 3 is responsible for shooting the image of the angular contact ball bearing, the best coating position of the bearing is calculated based on the analysis model inside the first image processing unit 11, and then the best coating track of the single bearing is designed;

[0039] The single-shaft turntable 7 continues to rotate, and the positioning module 2 is moved to the automatic coating station;

[0040] The automatic coating device 12 quantitatively coats the lubricating grease for the angular contact ball bearing 1 according to the best coating position determined by the first image recognition unit 11;

[0041] The single-shaft turntable 7 continues to rotate, and the positioning module 2 is moved to the automatic running and device 10 station; the upper computer controls the automatic running and device 10 to drive the outer ring of the angular contact ball bearing to rotate, so that the lubricating grease is uniformly filled between the balls in the angular contact ball bearing;

[0042] The single-shaft turntable 7 continues to rotate, and the positioning module 2 is moved to the second image recognition unit 13 station; the second image recognition unit 13 is responsible for identifying whether the lubricating grease inside the angular contact ball bearing 1 can sufficiently cover the balls and is uniformly distributed.

[0043] In order to make the lubricating grease can be brought in, the running-in speed should be set as low as possible, at the same time also avoid the bearing back grease overflow, so determine the running-in speed and running-in number, after running-in the ball surface of the support bearing has appropriate amount of lubricating grease, at the same time the lubricating grease can fully enter the ball and cage inside, and the distribution is uniform, the outer wall of the outer ring and the outer wall of the inner ring lubricating grease accumulation amount is least, the bearing back has no lubricating grease overflow.

[0044] In order to avoid the running-in process to scratch the angular contact ball bearing 1 bearing outer ring, the polyurethane sleeve is fixed on the outer ring of the automatic running-in device 10. The rotating motor mainly drives the automatic running-in device 10 to rotate, and the single-axis displacement table is used to drive the rotating motor and the automatic running-in device 10 to approach the bearing outer ring. When selecting the type, the maximum stroke is mainly considered, and it is also necessary to avoid structural interference.

[0045] Through experiments, it is determined that the best automatic running-in coating method is to bring in in a single direction at a speed of 8 turns and 30 rpm. The spray valve controller parameters, coating method, coating control time and coating track speed determined through experiments are combined to finally form the process parameter library of the automatic lubricating grease coating equipment of the support bearing.

[0046] Although the present application has been disclosed with the above preferred embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present application, and any person skilled in the art can make possible changes and modifications to the technical solutions of the present application by using the disclosed technical content without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. Therefore, any simple modification, equivalent change and modification made to the above embodiments according to the technical essence of the present application, which does not deviate from the technical solutions of the present application, belongs to the protection scope of the technical solutions of the present application.

Claims

1. An automatic grease-applying device for angular contact ball bearings, characterized in that, The system includes a single-axis turntable (7), a lifting cylinder (8), a clamping mechanism (9), an automatic running-in device (10), a first image processing unit (11), an automatic coating device (12), and a second image processing unit (13). Multiple bearing positions are evenly distributed on the single-axis turntable (7), and each bearing position is equipped with a lifting cylinder (8). The clamping mechanism (9) is fixedly installed on the ground to move the angular contact ball bearing (1) to be processed to a designated position. The automatic running-in device (10) is installed on the ground and, using the lifting cylinder (8), lifts the angular contact ball bearing (1) to a predetermined running-in position. The host computer controls the automatic running-in device (10) to drive the outer ring of the angular contact ball bearing to rotate. The first image processing unit (11)... Unit (11) uses a deep learning-based bearing inner and outer circle detection method to process the captured image of the angular contact ball bearing (1), identifies the spatial coordinates of the bearing ball clearance, and calculates the optimal coating position of the bearing, thereby determining the optimal coating trajectory for a single bearing; the automatic coating device (12) is installed on the ground and applies grease to the angular contact ball bearing according to the optimal coating trajectory designed by the first image processing unit (11); after the angular contact ball bearing (1) is grease-coated, the second image processing unit (13) uses an internally trained grease semantic segmentation model to process the captured image and segment and identify the grease area; based on the segmentation results, it automatically determines whether the coating effect, including coverage and distribution uniformity, is qualified.

2. The automatic grease-applying device for angular contact ball bearings according to claim 1, characterized in that, The first image processing unit (11) and the second image processing unit (13) are both composed of a positioning module (2), an industrial camera (3), a light source (5), a support structure (6), and an image processing module. The support structure (6) is fixedly installed on the ground, the industrial camera (3) is installed on the top of the support structure (6), and the lens (4) is installed directly below the industrial camera (3). The light source (5) is fixed on the support structure (6) and is located below the lens (4). During operation, the angular contact ball bearing (1) moves to the corresponding position and is fixed by the positioning module (2). The light source (5) provides sufficient light to the angular contact ball bearing (1), and the lens (4) captures an image of the angular contact ball bearing. The image processing module is used to process the captured image.

3. The automatic grease-applying device for angular contact ball bearings according to claim 2, characterized in that, The axes of the light source (5), industrial camera (3), and lens (4) are on the same straight line.

4. The automatic grease-applying device for angular contact ball bearings according to claim 2, characterized in that, The automatic coating device (12) sprays grease in a linear manner.

5. The automatic grease-applying device for angular contact ball bearings according to claim 4, characterized in that, The linear grease application specifically involves: with the bearing center as the center, the motion actuator controls the piezoelectric injection valve to perform circumferential motion, while continuously or as needed spraying grease to form an annular grease line; the coating diameter is determined according to the outer diameter of the inner ring and the inner diameter of the outer ring of the angular contact ball bearing.

6. The automatic grease-applying device for angular contact ball bearings according to claim 4, characterized in that, The outer ring of the automatic running-in device (10) is fixed with a polyurethane sleeve.

7. A method for spraying grease using the automatic grease-applying device for angular contact ball bearings as described in claim 2, characterized in that, include: The clamping mechanism (9) mounts the angular contact ball bearing (1) onto the positioning module (2); Start the host computer to make the single-axis turntable (7) start to rotate, move the positioning module (2) to the shooting position of the first image processing unit (11), the light source (5) provides sufficient light for the angular contact ball bearing, the lens (4) shoots the image of the angular contact ball bearing, the image processing module inside the first image processing unit (11) calculates the optimal coating position of the angular contact ball bearing, and designs the optimal coating trajectory for a single bearing. The single-axis turntable (7) continues to rotate, moving the positioning module (2) to the automatic coating station; The automatic coating device (12) applies grease to the angular contact ball bearing (1) based on the optimal coating position determined by the first image recognition unit (11). The single-axis turntable (7) continues to rotate, moving the positioning module (2) to the automatic running-in device (10) station. The host computer controls the automatic running-in device (10) to drive the outer ring of the angular contact ball bearing to rotate, so that the grease is evenly filled between the balls in the angular contact ball bearing. The single-axis turntable (7) continues to rotate, moving the positioning module (2) to the shooting position of the second image recognition unit (13). The image processing module inside the second image recognition unit (13) identifies and judges whether the grease inside the angular contact ball bearing (1) fully covers the balls and is evenly distributed.

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