Laser pipe cutting machine

Abstract

The application relates to a laser pipe cutting machine and belongs to the technical field of laser processing equipment. The laser pipe cutting machine comprises a bed body, a pneumatic front chuck and a supporting assembly. A clamping assembly is connected to a pneumatic front chuck sliding block, the clamping assembly is connected with a first swing frame and a second swing frame in Y shape through a connecting frame in sequence, a guide roller is arranged at the end of the second swing frame, and the structure interference is prevented through a staggered hinge method, an elastic positioning mechanism is arranged between the swing frames, and self-adaptive clamping of special-shaped pipes without changing the clamping jaw is realized. The supporting assembly comprises a connecting seat connected to the side of the pneumatic front chuck, a spline shaft is connected through an intermediate gear transmission in the connecting seat, and a sliding sleeve slidingly matched with the spline shaft is arranged in the pneumatic supporting disc on the discharging end moving seat. The application can realize the quick clamping of various special-shaped pipes without changing the clamping jaw, and through the spline shaft, the absolute synchronization of the head clamping and rotation is ensured, and the distortion of long pipe cutting is effectively prevented.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to a laser tube cutting machine, belonging to the field of laser processing equipment technology. Background Technology

[0002] In the prior art, for example, Chinese patent CN114654106A discloses a two-chuck side-mounted laser tube cutting machine, which is widely used in the industry. However, with the diversification of processing needs, existing tube cutting machines have exposed two insurmountable technical biases and pain points: First, most existing pneumatic chucks use rigid dead jaws, which cannot effectively wrap and clamp irregularly shaped tubes (such as channel steel, polygonal tubes, etc.). The machine must be stopped and the jaws must be manually disassembled and replaced, resulting in extremely low production efficiency and a significant increase in fixture costs.

[0003] Secondly, when cutting long pipes with large-area "long openings," the cross-sectional stiffness (torsional moment of inertia) of the pipes drops precipitously due to the removal of some material. Existing support equipment mostly uses electric servo dual-drive synchronization or simple bottom support. Electric servos have response lag and electric shaft synchronization errors when faced with sudden cutting resistance, causing long pipes to easily produce "twisted" twisting deformation during rotary cutting. Ordinary bottom supports cannot provide clamping and torque sharing at the discharge end that is completely synchronized with the front chuck, directly resulting in a high scrap rate. Summary of the Invention

[0004] The technical problem to be solved by this invention is to overcome the shortcomings of the existing technology and provide a laser tube cutting machine that breaks through the technical bottleneck of chuck interference through a clever two-stage swing misalignment structure, and completely solves the industry problem of easy twisting of long workpieces with openings through an innovative mechanical rigid synchronous transmission chain.

[0005] The laser tube cutting machine of the present invention includes a bed and a laser cutting head and a pneumatic front chuck mounted on the bed. The pneumatic front chuck is provided with a clamping assembly for adaptive irregular tube fittings, and a support assembly for supporting long workpieces is provided on one side of the bed. The clamping assembly includes connecting frames mounted on four sliders of the pneumatic front chuck. A first swing frame is hinged to one end of the connecting frame near the clamping hole. A second swing frame is hinged to both ends of the first swing frame. A guide mechanism for longitudinally guiding the pipe is fixedly connected to the clamping end of the second swing frame. The support assembly includes a connecting seat mounted on a mounting base of the pneumatic front chuck, a support sleeve rotatably connected inside the connecting seat, a spline shaft splined inside the support sleeve, and the support sleeve being drivenly connected to the pneumatic front chuck via a transmission mechanism; the discharge end of the bed is provided with a pneumatic support plate, which is drivenly connected to the spline shaft to achieve mechanically rigid synchronous rotation with the pneumatic front chuck.

[0006] Furthermore, both the first and second swing frames are Y-shaped structures, and the second swing frame is hinged to the two extended ends of the first swing frame located at the end, forming a two-stage biomimetic adaptive clamping structure.

[0007] Furthermore, the guiding mechanism includes a fixed disk fixedly installed on the clamping end of the second swing frame, and a plurality of guide rollers are arranged in a ring on the outer circumferential surface of the fixed disk.

[0008] Furthermore, a first elastic positioning mechanism is hinged to each of the two extended ends of the first swing frame, and the other end of each of the first elastic positioning mechanisms is hinged to one end of the corresponding connecting frame.

[0009] Furthermore, a second elastic positioning mechanism is hinged between the first swing frame and the second swing frame to stabilize the position of the second swing frame.

[0010] Furthermore, the second swing frame is hinged to the two extended ends of the first swing frame using a staggered hinge method, with one second swing frame hinged to the front end face of the first swing frame and the other second swing frame hinged to the rear end face of the first swing frame; the four sets of clamping components on the pneumatic front chuck are arranged in a ring staggered manner along the clamping holes so as to form a three-dimensional interpenetrating avoidance and non-interference when retracted to the minimum clamping hole diameter.

[0011] Furthermore, a support seat is connected to the connecting seat, and an intermediate gear is rotatably connected inside the connecting seat. The intermediate gear is drivingly connected to the support sleeve, and the intermediate gear meshes with the rotating gear of the pneumatic front chuck.

[0012] Furthermore, the discharge end of the bed is provided with a discharge rack, and a movable seat is slidably connected to the discharge rack. The pneumatic support plate is installed on the movable seat. The pneumatic support plate is equipped with a clamping assembly with the same structure as the pneumatic front chuck. A sliding sleeve is rotatably connected inside the pneumatic support plate. The sliding sleeve is slidably connected to the spline shaft along the axial direction of the spline shaft and is driven to rotate by the spline shaft.

[0013] Furthermore, the discharge rack is equipped with a screw drive mechanism or a rack and pinion drive mechanism that drives the moving seat to move longitudinally.

[0014] Furthermore, a material plate that can slide longitudinally and overlap is slidably connected to the discharge rack, and the material plate is connected to the movable seat and moved by the movable seat.

[0015] Compared with the prior art, the beneficial effects of the present invention are: This invention utilizes a connecting frame to sequentially hinge a Y-shaped first and second swing frame, forming a multi-degree-of-freedom "double-stage biomimetic wrapping" structure that can adaptively fit irregularly shaped tubes with arbitrary cross-sections. More ingeniously, this invention breaks away from the conventional mindset of symmetrical hinges, creatively employing a "staggered hinge method" (one hinged at the front end, and one at the rear end). When clamping small-diameter tubes, the four complex double-stage swing frames can form a "three-dimensional interpenetrating avoidance" within a very small clamping hole space, fundamentally solving the technical bottleneck of traditional multi-link clamps' tendency to interfere with each other. This truly achieves a single set of jaws that can handle all tube types, eliminating the tedious process of replacing fixed jaws.

[0016] Elastic positioning mechanisms are designed at both ends of the first swing frame and on the second swing frame. This elastic network with force applied at both ends effectively eliminates the "free state" of the multi-degree-of-freedom swing frame when it is not in contact with the pipe fitting, ensuring that it can quickly reset each time it is released and clamped, thus guaranteeing the stability and uniformity of the clamping action.

[0017] Addressing the industry pain point of stiffness loss and easy torsion deformation caused by drilling holes in long workpieces, this invention abandons the costly and error-prone electrical synchronization control scheme and innovatively introduces a "spline shaft physical synchronization transmission mechanism" that runs throughout the entire equipment. The rotational power of the pneumatic front chuck is directly and rigidly transmitted to the spline shaft through the intermediate gear. Regardless of the longitudinal movement of the sliding sleeve in the pneumatic support plate at the discharge end, the power extraction is achieved by the spline shaft. This ensures that the front and rear ends of the long tube are absolutely locked at the physical level, achieving zero-delay and zero-error mechanical rigid synchronous rotation, completely distributing the cutting torque at the drilling point, and perfectly eliminating cutting deformation. Attached Figure Description

[0018] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the structure of Embodiment 1 of the present invention; Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the pneumatic support disk structure of Embodiment 1 of the present invention; Figure 3 This is one of the schematic diagrams of the pneumatic front chuck structure in Embodiment 1 of the present invention; Figure 4 This is a second schematic diagram of the pneumatic front chuck structure of Embodiment 1 of the present invention; Figure 5 This is a front view of the pneumatic front chuck of Embodiment 1 of the present invention; Figure 6 yes Figure 5 Enlarged view of a portion of point A in the middle; Figure 7 This is a left view of the pneumatic front chuck of Embodiment 1 of the present invention; Figure 8 yes Figure 7 Enlarged view of a section at point B in the middle; In the picture: 1. Bed; 2. Tailstock; 3. Pneumatic front chuck; 31. Slider; 32. Rotating gear; 33. Mounting seat; 4. Connecting frame; 5. First swing frame; 6. Second swing frame; 7. Fixed plate; 8. Guide roller; 9. First elastic positioning mechanism; 10. Second elastic positioning mechanism; 11. Connecting seat; 12. Support seat; 13. Intermediate gear; 14. Support sleeve; 15. Splined shaft; 16. Discharge rack; 17. Moving seat; 18. Pneumatic support plate; 19. Sliding sleeve; 20. Material plate. Detailed Implementation

[0019] Example 1 like Figures 1 to 8 As shown, the laser tube cutting machine of the present invention mainly includes a bed 1, on which a laser cutting head and a pneumatic front chuck 3 for feed rotation drive are installed. A tailstock 2 for sliding tube pushers is provided at one end of the bed 1. To address the pain point of frequent jaw changes for irregularly shaped tubes and the problem of poor rigidity and easy twisting of workpieces with long openings, the applicant has abandoned the traditional fixed jaws and innovatively developed a flexible clamping component on the pneumatic front chuck 3. Furthermore, purely mechanical rigid synchronous support components are designed on one side of the bed 1 and at the discharge end.

[0020] Flexible misaligned clamping assembly that does not require replacement of chuck jaws The pneumatic front chuck 3 has four sliders 31 arranged in a ring array on its end face. A connecting frame 4 is fixedly mounted on each slider 31. A first swing frame 5, which has a Y-shaped structure, is hinged to one end of the connecting frame 4 near the clamping center hole. A second swing frame 6, also Y-shaped, is hinged to the two extended ends of the first swing frame 5. A guide mechanism is fixedly connected to the two clamping ends of the second swing frame 6. The guide mechanism includes a fixed disk 7, on the outer circumference of which several guide rollers 8 are arranged in a ring array. With this structure, the guide rollers 8 can roll and adaptively conform to the outer wall of various irregularly shaped tubes (such as square, channel steel, etc.) like multiple fingers, not only clamping firmly but also without affecting the smooth longitudinal feed of the tube.

[0021] When actually clamping pipes with highly irregular cross-sections (such as elliptical angle steel or asymmetrical polygonal pipes), traditional rigid jaws often can only contact the local high points of the pipe, resulting in uneven clamping force. In this invention, when the slider 31 feeds radially, the first swing frame 5 first contacts the surface of the pipe and undergoes a biomimetic adaptive deflection; subsequently, the second swing frames 6 at both ends of the first swing frame 5 undergo a second independent deflection until the guide roller 8 completely adheres to each wall surface of the irregular pipe like "multiple fingers". This "multi-point adaptive wrapping" not only transforms local point contact into multi-point uniform surface support, but also, due to the presence of the guide roller 8, allows the pipe to still undergo low-friction, smooth longitudinal feeding while being tightly gripped.

[0022] To overcome the scattered movement of the multi-degree-of-freedom mechanism in the non-clamping state, a first elastic positioning mechanism 9 (such as a tension spring with a hinge seat or a pneumatic push rod) is hinged to each of the two extended ends of the first swing frame 5, and the other end is connected to the connecting frame 4; at the same time, a second elastic positioning mechanism 10 (such as a tension spring with a hinge seat or a pneumatic push rod) is hinged between the first swing frame 5 and the second swing frame 6. The double elastic network ensures that the clamping mechanism has a unique initial steady state when open and uniform force when retracted.

[0023] In existing technologies, multi-joint flexible grippers are typically large in size. When gripping small tubes (i.e., when the slider 31 retracts to the center of the machine tool), adjacent gripping components are prone to physical collisions (i.e., spatial interference). This is a long-standing "technical bias" in the industry—the belief that flexible multi-joint structures cannot adapt to extremely small apertures. To address this, this embodiment creatively employs a "staggered hinge method": for the same first swing frame 5, one second swing frame 6 is hinged to the front end face, and another second swing frame 6 is hinged to the rear end face. Since the four gripping components are arranged in a circular array, when the four sliders 31 retract to their central limit, adjacent second swing frames 6 are distributed in different spatial layers along the Z-axis (thickness direction), forming a "three-dimensional interlocking and avoidance like gear meshing." Without increasing the radial dimension of the equipment, "full diameter, full tube type" gripper-free gripping is achieved, from thin tubes to giant tubes, resulting in unexpected technical effects.

[0024] Mechanically rigid synchronous support components When machining long pipes with elongated openings, the rigidity of the middle section of the pipe is extremely poor. To address this, a mounting base 33 is provided on one side of the pneumatic front chuck 3. A connecting base 11 is fixed on the mounting base 33, and a support base 12 is mounted on the connecting base 11. An intermediate gear 13 and a support sleeve 14 are rotatably connected inside the connecting base 11. The intermediate gear 13 meshes with the rotating gear 32 of the pneumatic front chuck 3, transmitting rotational power to the support sleeve 14. An extra-long splined shaft 15, penetrating the machine tool, is splined through the inner hole of the support sleeve 14.

[0025] A discharge rack 16 is provided at the discharge end of the bed 1, and a movable seat 17 driven by a lead screw or gear rack is slidably connected to the discharge rack 16. A pneumatic support plate 18 is mounted on the movable seat 17, and the pneumatic support plate 18 is also equipped with the aforementioned misaligned clamping assembly to achieve the function of eliminating the need to change jaws. A sliding sleeve 19 is provided inside the pneumatic support plate 18, and the sliding sleeve 19 is slidably fitted on the spline shaft 15 along the axial direction of the spline shaft 15, and transmits power to the pneumatic support plate 18. In addition, a material plate 20 that can slide longitudinally and overlap and fold is also slidably connected to the discharge rack 16, driven by the movable seat 17, for dynamically receiving materials.

[0026] Collaborative working principle: When performing extreme large-format "long opening" cutting, the moving seat 17 slides to the designated discharge end position according to the length of the pipe, and the sliding sleeve 19 slides linearly along the spline shaft 15 (without disengaging from the spline drive). The misaligned clamping components at both ends simultaneously and adaptively clamp the pipe. During cutting, the pneumatic front chuck 3 rotates as the main power source, and the rotating gear 32 transmits torque to the spline shaft 15 through the intermediate gear 13. Relying on the strong torsional rigidity of the spline shaft 15, the power is instantly transmitted to the sliding sleeve 19 and the pneumatic support plate 18 at the far end.

[0027] Existing high-end pipe cutting machines typically employ a dual-electric drive synchronous solution of a "front chuck main motor + rear chuck servo motor." However, when the cutting tool encounters local hard points or sudden changes in cutting resistance, the rear motor experiences a "hysteresis phase difference" of several milliseconds to tens of milliseconds due to calculation and communication delays in the electronic control algorithm. This is sufficient to cause permanent "twisted" deformation in the already hollowed-out, fragile long pipe. This invention, however, takes the opposite approach, abandoning the complex electronic and electrical synchronization scheme and utilizing a purely mechanical long-distance spline coupling mechanism to achieve "absolute physical locking (zero phase difference)" of the rotational speed and angle at both ends. Throughout the entire processing, regardless of the longitudinal position of the moving seat 17, power can be extracted through the spline shaft. The front and rear chucks act like a rigid whole, sharing the cutting torque and completely isolating the torsional stress from the pipe cutting area, significantly reducing the scrap rate.

[0028] In addition, a material plate 20 that can slide longitudinally and fold over each other is slidably connected to the discharge rack 16. The material plate 20 is connected to and pulled by the moving seat 17. When the moving seat 17 moves backward with the cutting progress, the material plate 20 unfolds like a folding telescopic ruler, dynamically supporting the heavy long waste material being cut, preventing the laser head from being broken by leverage when the waste material falls, and further ensuring the smoothness of the cutting process.

[0029] The descriptions of the orientation and relative positional relationships of the structures in this invention, such as front, back, left, right, up, and down, do not constitute a limitation of this invention, but are merely for the convenience of description.

Claims

1. A laser tube cutting machine, comprising a bed (1) and a laser cutting head and a pneumatic front chuck (3) mounted on the bed (1), characterized in that, The pneumatic front chuck (3) is provided with a clamping assembly for adaptive irregular tube fittings, and the bed (1) is provided with a support assembly for supporting long workpieces on one side. The clamping assembly includes a connecting frame (4) mounted on four sliders (31) of the pneumatic front chuck (3). A first swing frame (5) is hinged to one end of the connecting frame (4) near the clamping hole. A second swing frame (6) is hinged to both ends of the first swing frame (5). A guide mechanism for longitudinally guiding the pipe is fixedly connected to the clamping end of the second swing frame (6). The support assembly includes a connecting seat (11) mounted on a mounting base (33) of the pneumatic front chuck (3). A support sleeve (14) is rotatably connected inside the connecting seat (11). A spline shaft (15) is splined inside the support sleeve (14). The support sleeve (14) is connected to the pneumatic front chuck (3) via a transmission mechanism. A pneumatic support plate (18) is provided at the discharge end of the bed (1). The pneumatic support plate (18) is connected to the spline shaft (15) to achieve mechanically rigid synchronous rotation with the pneumatic front chuck (3).

2. The laser tube cutting machine according to claim 1, characterized in that, The first swing frame (5) and the second swing frame (6) are both Y-shaped structures. The second swing frame (6) is hinged to the two extended ends of the first swing frame (5) at the end, forming a two-stage bionic adaptive clamping structure.

3. A laser tube cutting machine according to claim 2, characterized in that, The guiding mechanism includes a fixed disk (7) fixedly installed on the clamping end of the second swing frame (6), and a plurality of guide rollers (8) are arranged in a ring on the outer circumferential surface of the fixed disk (7).

4. A laser tube cutting machine according to claim 2, characterized in that, The first elastic positioning mechanism (9) is hinged to both extended ends of the first swing frame (5), and the other end of the first elastic positioning mechanism (9) is hinged to one end of the corresponding connecting frame (4).

5. A laser tube cutting machine according to claim 2, characterized in that, A second elastic positioning mechanism (10) is hinged between the first swing frame (5) and the second swing frame (6) to stabilize the position of the second swing frame (6).

6. A laser tube cutting machine according to claim 2, characterized in that, The second swing frame (6) is hinged to the two extended ends of the first swing frame (5) using a staggered hinge method. One of the second swing frames (6) is hinged to the front end face of the first swing frame (5), and the other second swing frame (6) is hinged to the rear end face of the first swing frame (5). The four sets of clamping components on the pneumatic front chuck (3) are arranged in a ring staggered manner along the clamping holes so as to form a three-dimensional interpenetrating avoidance and non-interference when the clamping hole diameter is contracted to the minimum clamping hole diameter.

7. A laser tube cutting machine according to claim 1, characterized in that, A support seat (12) is connected to the connecting seat (11), and an intermediate gear (13) is rotatably connected inside the connecting seat (11). The intermediate gear (13) is connected to the support sleeve (14) in a transmission connection, and the intermediate gear (13) meshes with the rotating gear (32) of the pneumatic front chuck (3) in a transmission connection.

8. A laser tube cutting machine according to claim 1, characterized in that, The bed (1) has a discharge rack (16) at the discharge end, and a movable seat (17) is slidably connected to the discharge rack (16). The pneumatic support plate (18) is installed on the movable seat (17). The pneumatic support plate (18) is equipped with a clamping assembly with the same structure as the pneumatic front chuck (3). A sliding sleeve (19) is rotatably connected inside the pneumatic support plate (18). The sliding sleeve (19) is slidably connected to the spline shaft (15) along the axial direction of the spline shaft (15) and is driven to rotate by the spline shaft (15).

9. A laser tube cutting machine according to claim 8, characterized in that, The discharge rack (16) is equipped with a screw drive mechanism or a gear and rack drive mechanism that drives the moving seat (17) to move longitudinally.

10. A laser tube cutting machine according to claim 8, characterized in that, The discharge rack (16) is also slidably connected to a material plate (20) that can slide longitudinally and overlap. The material plate (20) is connected to the movable seat (17) and is moved by the movable seat (17).

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