Diffusion welding cooling device

Abstract

The embodiment of the present application provides a diffusion welding cooling device, and relates to the technical field of welding equipment, which comprises a cooling box, wherein the cooling box is internally provided with cooling liquid arranged in a circulating mode; the cooling box is in a concave shape; a workbench for welding is arranged in a groove of the concave shape on the outer side of the cooling box; a sliding box is slidably arranged in the cooling box; the bottom of the sliding box is provided with a mesh; the sliding box is provided with a vertical guide rail; a horizontal guide rail is arranged on the vertical guide rail; a clamping jaw is slidably arranged on the horizontal guide rail; the clamping jaw is used for clamping a workpiece to be welded; a driving mechanism is arranged on the vertical guide rail and the horizontal guide rail; the driving mechanism is used for driving the vertical guide rail to move up and down and the horizontal movement of the clamping jaw; and the sliding box is arranged in an open mode opposite to the side wall of the workbench. The present application has the effect of facilitating the heat preservation and cooling of parts.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This application relates to the field of welding equipment technology, and in particular to a diffusion welding cooling device. Background Technology

[0002] Diffusion welding is a welding method that achieves atomic diffusion bonding of materials under vacuum or protective atmosphere by applying pressure and heat. It is widely used in aerospace, electronics, precision instruments and other fields.

[0003] Existing diffusion welding cooling technologies mainly have the following characteristics and drawbacks: Natural cooling or an independent cooling box placed next to the workbench: The cooling box is set up separately on one side of the welding workbench, forming a large cooling space. After welding, the high-temperature workpiece needs to be transferred to the cooling box for cooling by a robot or manually. Because the transfer process takes time, the workpiece dissipates heat rapidly in the air. If the cooling is not timely and is extremely uneven, it can easily lead to large deformation of the parts, residual stress concentration, cracks, or even scrapping, seriously affecting the product qualification rate.

[0004] Existing patent CN223520238U discloses a cooling and material handling device for a polymer diffusion welding machine. This device is installed on the upper mold and uses cooling water channels inside the grippers to cool the workpiece in contact. While this solution shortens the vacuum period, cooling relies solely on the contact surface of the gripper's water channels, resulting in a small cooling range and insufficient depth. It fails to achieve uniform cooling of the entire workpiece and lacks an insulation structure, leading to poor insulation performance.

[0005] The aforementioned existing technologies all suffer from problems such as untimely cooling, uneven cooling, and poor heat preservation, resulting in unstable quality of precision parts and low production efficiency. Summary of the Invention

[0006] To address the problems of untimely cooling, poor workpiece deformation and quality caused by placing the cooling box on the side in the prior art, as well as uneven contact cooling and insufficient heat preservation, this application provides a diffusion welding cooling device to achieve integrated welding, heat preservation and cooling operations.

[0007] The diffusion welding cooling device provided in this application adopts the following technical solution: A diffusion welding cooling device includes a cooling tank containing a circulating coolant. The cooling tank is U-shaped, and a welding worktable is located in a U-shaped groove on the outside of the cooling tank. A sliding box is slidably disposed inside the cooling tank, and the bottom of the sliding box has a mesh. The sliding box is provided with a vertical guide rail, and a horizontal guide rail is provided on the vertical guide rail. A gripper is slidably disposed on the horizontal guide rail for gripping the workpiece to be welded. Both the vertical and horizontal guide rails are provided with a driving mechanism for driving the vertical guide rail to move up and down and the gripper to move horizontally. The sliding box is open to the side wall of the worktable.

[0008] Furthermore, the sliding box moves upward relative to the cooling box, so that the opening of the sliding box faces the worktable. The gripper moves the part toward the worktable and places the part to be welded onto the worktable for welding. The sliding box wraps around the worktable to keep it warm. After welding, the part returns to the sliding box and, as the sliding box moves downward, enters the cooling box for cooling.

[0009] Furthermore, a sliding seat is slidably disposed on the horizontal guide rail, and a turntable is rotatably connected to the sliding seat. A drive motor for driving the turntable to rotate is fixed on the sliding seat, and the gripper is mounted on the turntable. The welded workpiece moves into the sliding box, the sliding box rises, the drive motor drives the turntable to rotate, the gripper releases the part, and the part falls into the coolant under the action of gravity.

[0010] Furthermore, the cooling tank is equipped with a coolant circulation pump to achieve coolant circulation.

[0011] Furthermore, the drive mechanism includes a servo motor and a lead screw transmission system.

[0012] Furthermore, the cooling box and the sliding box are made of high-temperature resistant stainless steel.

[0013] Furthermore, a drain valve is provided at the bottom of the cooling box.

[0014] In summary, this application includes at least one of the following beneficial technical effects: By designing the cooling box in a U-shape and placing the welding workbench inside the groove, a compact and integrated spatial layout is formed between the welding area and the cooling area. This reduces the handling distance and exposure time of the workpiece at high temperatures, enabling it to be quickly moved into the cooling area after welding. This significantly reduces the risk of deformation and cracking caused by uneven heat dissipation of the workpiece in the air, and improves the quality stability of the diffusion weld joint.

[0015] The cooling box is equipped with a sliding box that can slide up and down. When the sliding box rises, its opening aligns with and covers the side wall of the welding workbench. Together with the insulation layer on the outer wall of the sliding box, it forms a local insulation cavity. This effectively reduces heat loss during the diffusion welding heating and insulation stages, improves the temperature uniformity and stability of the welding area, facilitates the full progress of the atomic diffusion process, and improves the strength and density of the weld joint.

[0016] After welding, the workpiece returns to the sliding box under the action of the grippers. The sliding box moves downward as a whole, and the workpiece enters the coolant in the cooling box for immersion cooling. With the circulation of the coolant by the circulating pump, uniform cooling can be achieved throughout the entire workpiece. This avoids problems such as limited cooling range and insufficient cooling depth caused by relying solely on local water cooling by the grippers, and significantly reduces dimensional errors caused by residual stress and uneven cooling.

[0017] The bottom of the sliding box is equipped with a mesh structure, which allows the coolant to flow smoothly into the sliding box and make full contact with the workpiece. Under the action of the coolant circulation pump, good flow heat exchange conditions are formed. Compared with natural cooling or static liquid cooling, it can accelerate the heat dissipation rate and improve the cooling uniformity, thereby shortening the cooling cycle, increasing the production cycle, and meeting the needs of high-efficiency diffusion welding production.

[0018] The sliding box is equipped with vertical and horizontal guide rails. The horizontal movement of the vertical guide rail and the gripper is driven by a servo motor and a lead screw transmission system, respectively. This not only enables precise and controllable transport of the workpiece to be welded from the sliding box to the worktable, but also ensures that the welded workpiece can reliably return to the sliding box within a defined trajectory. This automatically completes the transfer from the welding station to the cooling station, reduces manual intervention, improves the automation level and positioning accuracy of the equipment, and reduces human error.

[0019] In a further design, a sliding seat and a turntable are mounted on a horizontal guide rail. The turntable is driven by a motor to rotate, and grippers are mounted on the turntable. When the welded workpiece enters the sliding box and rises to a predetermined height, the turntable rotates and the grippers release the workpiece. The workpiece falls directly into the coolant under gravity, achieving rapid unloading and overall immersion cooling after welding. This simplifies the material handling mechanism, reduces the use of complex robotic arms or additional conveying mechanisms, and helps to reduce the complexity of the equipment structure and maintenance costs.

[0020] The cooling tank and sliding tank are made of high-temperature resistant stainless steel. With the drain valve structure at the bottom of the cooling tank, they can not only work stably for a long time in high-temperature welding and cooling environments, but also facilitate regular replacement of coolant and internal cleaning, improving the durability and ease of maintenance of the equipment, and ensuring the cleanliness of the coolant and the long-term stability of the cooling effect.

[0021] The workbench is equipped with heating elements and pressure application devices, enabling the device to simultaneously complete the heating and pressurization processes required for diffusion welding on the same structural platform. It also works in conjunction with the sliding box insulation structure and subsequent cooling process to form an integrated "heating-insulation-cooling" process chain, which helps to improve the overall consistency and repeatability of the diffusion welding process, and increase product qualification rate and production efficiency.

[0022] The gripper surface is equipped with a flexible pad, which can effectively buffer the contact pressure during the gripping and releasing of the workpiece, avoiding mechanical damage such as scratches and indentations. It is especially suitable for thin-walled parts, precision parts or workpieces with functional coatings on the surface, further improving the appearance quality and dimensional accuracy of the product after diffusion welding and reducing the scrap rate. Attached Figure Description

[0023] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of an embodiment of this application.

[0024] Explanation of reference numerals in the attached diagram: 1. Cooling box; 2. Sliding box; 3. Mesh; 4. Vertical guide rail; 5. Horizontal guide rail; 6. Gripper; 7. Sliding seat; 8. Turntable; 9. Drive motor. Detailed Implementation

[0025] The terminology used in the following embodiments is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of this application. As used in the specification and appended claims of this application, the singular expressions “a,” “an,” “the,” “the,” “the,” and “this” are intended to also include expressions such as “one or more,” unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that in the following embodiments of this application, “at least one” and “one or more” refer to one, two, or more than two. The term “and / or” is used to describe the relationship between related objects, indicating that three relationships may exist; for example, A and / or B can indicate: A alone, A and B simultaneously, or B alone, where A and B can be singular or plural. The character “ / ” generally indicates that the preceding and following related objects are in an “or” relationship.

[0026] References to "one embodiment" or "some embodiments" as described in this specification mean that one or more embodiments of this application include a specific feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with that embodiment. Therefore, the phrases "in one embodiment," "in some embodiments," "in other embodiments," "in still other embodiments," etc., appearing in different parts of this specification do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment, but rather mean "one or more, but not all, embodiments," unless otherwise specifically emphasized. The terms "comprising," "including," "having," and variations thereof mean "including but not limited to," unless otherwise specifically emphasized.

[0027] The following is in conjunction with the appendix Figure 1 This application will be described in further detail.

[0028] This application discloses a diffusion welding cooling device, referring to... Figure 1 The diffusion welding cooling device includes a cooling box 1 and a sliding box 2 set outside the welding workbench. The cooling box 1 and the sliding box 2 can be selected from welded metal plates or integrally formed, preferably made of high-temperature resistant stainless steel. The sliding box 2 is slidably set inside the cooling box 1. The cooling box 1 is filled with circulating coolant. The coolant is circulated in the cooling box 1 by a coolant circulation pump to ensure that the temperature and flow rate of the coolant are basically uniform.

[0029] The cooling box 1 has an overall U-shaped structure with an open groove in the middle. The welding work is carried out in the U-shaped groove on the outside of the cooling box 1, so that the side wall of the workbench is arranged opposite to the side wall of the cooling box 1, thereby forming a compact cooling and heat preservation space around the workbench. The cooling box 1 and the sliding box 2 are preferably made of high-temperature resistant stainless steel to adapt to the high-temperature environment of diffusion welding and improve corrosion resistance and service life.

[0030] The bottom of the cooling tank 1 is equipped with a drain valve, which is used to drain the coolant inside the tank when the equipment is maintained or the coolant is replaced, so as to facilitate cleaning the inside of the cooling tank 1 and keep the coolant clean. The sliding box 2 can slide up and down along the height direction of the cooling box 1. The bottom of the sliding box 2 has a mesh structure 3, the size of which is determined according to the size of the workpiece. While ensuring that the workpiece will not fall through the mesh 3, coolant is allowed to freely flow through the mesh 3 into the interior of the sliding box 2, so as to fully immerse and cool the workpiece inside. The side wall of the sliding box 2 forms an opening that extends along the height direction of the sliding box 2. When the sliding box 2 rises to its upper position, the opening faces the side wall of the welding workbench, thus covering the outer perimeter of the workbench and forming a relatively closed, insulated cavity. To further improve the insulation effect, an insulation layer is set on the outer wall of the sliding box 2. The insulation layer can be made of high-temperature resistant insulation cotton, ceramic fiber board or other high-temperature resistant insulation materials, and is fixed to the metal outer wall of the sliding box 2 by welding or bolting. This can effectively reduce heat loss when the sliding box 2 is around the workbench and maintain temperature stability during the diffusion welding heating and insulation stages.

[0031] In other embodiments, the insulation layer adopts a multi-layer composite structure, including an inner vacuum insulation board and an outer phase change material coating. When the sliding box 2 wraps around the worktable, the phase change material absorbs excess heat and slowly releases it during the cooling stage. This design not only enhances the insulation stability, but also unexpectedly achieves passive preheating of the coolant, reduces micro-cracks in the workpiece caused by the initial cooling impact, and improves the dimensional accuracy and surface integrity of precision parts.

[0032] The preferred phase change material is paraffin-based or fatty acid composite PCM (prepared at medium temperature to 150–200℃), combined with expanded graphite or nanofillers. The phase change process maintains a near-constant temperature (plateau region), resulting in more uniform temperature within the sliding chamber 2; the coolant is slowly preheated during heat release, significantly reducing the initial cooling impact on the workpiece and minimizing cracking.

[0033] A vertical guide rail 4 is installed inside the sliding box 2, extending along the height direction of the sliding box 2. A slider that can move vertically is mounted on the vertical guide rail 4, and a horizontal guide rail 5 is fixed on the slider. The horizontal guide rail 5 extends roughly in the direction towards the welding worktable, and a sliding seat 7 is slidably mounted on the horizontal guide rail 5. Through the cooperation of the vertical guide rail 4 and the horizontal guide rail 5, the sliding seat 7 can move up and down and horizontally inside the sliding box 2. A turntable 8 is rotatably connected to the sliding seat 7. The rotating shaft of the turntable 8 is connected to the sliding seat 7 through a bearing. A drive motor 9 for driving the turntable 8 to rotate is fixedly installed on the sliding seat 7. The output shaft of the drive motor 9 is coaxially connected to the turntable 8 or connected through a coupling to realize the forward and reverse rotation control of the turntable 8.

[0034] The gripper 6 is installed on the outer periphery of the turntable 8. The gripper 6 can be a two-jaw or three-jaw structure, and its opening and closing are controlled by a cylinder or electric drive mechanism to grip and release the workpiece to be welded. To prevent scratches, indentations or stress concentration on the workpiece surface, a flexible pad is provided on the gripping surface of the gripper 6. The flexible pad can be made of high-temperature resistant silicone, fluororubber or other high-temperature resistant elastic materials, and is bonded or embedded in the gripping surface. Drive mechanisms are respectively installed on the vertical guide rail 4 and the horizontal guide rail 5 to drive the vertical guide rail 4 to move up and down and to drive the sliding seat 7 to move along the horizontal guide rail 5. The drive mechanism includes a servo motor and a lead screw transmission system. The servo motor drives the lead screw to rotate through a coupling. The slider or sliding seat 7 engages with the lead screw through a nut to achieve high-precision position control. The vertical drive mechanism is installed on the side wall or top structure of the sliding box 2, and the horizontal drive mechanism is installed on the vertical guide rail 4, so that the vertical and horizontal movements are independent but can also be coordinated. In practical use, the working process of the diffusion welding cooling device is as follows: In the initial state, the sliding seat 7 is driven by the drive mechanism to move in the vertical and horizontal directions. The gripper 6 picks up the part to be welded and moves it into the sliding box 2, and moves it towards the worktable to place the part on the worktable for welding. When welding is required, the drive mechanism drives the sliding box 2 to move upward relative to the cooling box 1 until the opening of the sliding box 2 is aligned with the side wall of the welding workbench. The sliding box 2 covers the perimeter of the workbench, and at this time the insulation layer and the perimeter of the workbench form an insulation space.

[0035] After the sliding box 2 rises and completes the insulation positioning, the drive mechanism of the vertical guide rail 4 and the horizontal guide rail 5 is activated, driving the sliding seat 7, turntable 8, and gripper 6 to move towards the inside of the sliding box 2. The gripper 6 opens and clamps the workpiece to be welded, and then moves along the horizontal guide rail 5 towards the worktable. With the cooperation of the vertical guide rail 4, the height is adjusted to accurately place the workpiece on the welding position of the welding worktable. Then the gripper 6 releases the workpiece and returns to the initial position. During the welding stage, the heating elements of the worktable heat and maintain the workpiece according to the diffusion welding process curve, while the pressure application device applies the required welding pressure to the workpiece. Because the opening of the sliding box 2 covers the worktable and the outer wall is equipped with an insulation layer, the heat loss in the welding area is significantly reduced, resulting in a more uniform and stable temperature field, which is beneficial to improving the quality of the diffusion weld joint.

[0036] After the welding and heat preservation stages are completed, the pressure application device is depressurized, and the heating element stops heating or cools down according to process requirements. At this time, the vertical guide rail 4 and the horizontal guide rail 5 move again, driving the gripper 6 to move from inside the sliding box 2 to above the worktable, clamping the welded workpiece and bringing it back to the appropriate position inside the sliding box 2. After welding, the workpiece enters the sliding box 2. Under the action of the drive mechanism, the sliding box 2 moves downward as a whole until the mesh 3 at the bottom of the sliding box 2 is completely immersed in the coolant in the cooling box 1. The workpiece enters the coolant along with the sliding box 2 and is surrounded by the coolant, achieving overall immersion cooling. Due to the action of the coolant circulation pump, the coolant forms a continuous flow between the mesh 3 of the cooling box 1 and the sliding box 2, thereby improving heat exchange efficiency and cooling uniformity, and avoiding excessive temperature gradients between the surface and interior of the workpiece.

[0037] In another embodiment, to achieve automatic material unloading and cooling, the rotation function of the turntable 8 can be utilized: during the process of the welded workpiece being held by the gripper 6 and carried into the sliding box 2, the sliding box 2 is driven to rise to a predetermined height at the same time, and the drive motor 9 drives the turntable 8 to rotate to a set angle. Then the gripper 6 releases the workpiece, and the workpiece falls directly into the coolant below through the internal space of the sliding box 2 under the action of gravity, realizing rapid liquid cooling and simplifying the repeated handling action of the gripper 6.

[0038] After cooling is complete, the clamping jaws 6 can be driven by the vertical guide rail 4 and the horizontal guide rail 5 to pick up the cooled workpiece again according to process requirements, and the workpiece can be sent to the unloading position, or the workpiece can be removed manually / by other conveying mechanisms. When it is necessary to replace the coolant or clean the cooling tank 1, turn off the circulation pump and open the drain valve to drain the coolant, and clean and maintain the inside of the cooling tank 1 and the sliding tank 2.

[0039] The above are merely preferred embodiments of this application. The scope of protection of this application is not limited to the above embodiments. Any equivalent modifications or changes made by those skilled in the art based on the content disclosed in this application should be included within the scope of protection recorded in the claims.

Claims

1. A diffusion welding cooling device, characterized in that, The system includes a cooling tank (1) containing a circulating coolant. The cooling tank (1) is U-shaped, and the welding workbench is located in the U-shaped groove on the outside of the cooling tank (1). A sliding box (2) is slidably arranged inside the cooling tank (1), and a mesh (3) is provided at the bottom of the sliding box (2). The sliding box (2) is provided with a vertical guide rail (4), and a horizontal guide rail (5) is provided on the vertical guide rail (4). A gripper (6) is slidably arranged on the horizontal guide rail (5) and is used to grip the workpiece to be welded. Both the vertical guide rail (4) and the horizontal guide rail (5) are provided with a driving mechanism to drive the vertical guide rail (4) to move up and down and the gripper (6) to move horizontally. The sliding box (2) is open to the side wall of the workbench.

2. The diffusion welding cooling device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The sliding box (2) moves upward relative to the cooling box (1), so that the opening of the sliding box (2) faces the worktable. The gripper (6) drives the part to move toward the worktable and places the part to be welded on the worktable for welding. The sliding box (2) wraps around the worktable to keep it warm. After welding, the part returns to the sliding box (2) and moves downward with the sliding box (2), and the part enters the cooling box (1) for cooling.

3. A diffusion welding cooling device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, A sliding seat (7) is slidably disposed on the horizontal guide rail (5), and a turntable (8) is rotatably connected to the sliding seat (7). A drive motor (9) for driving the turntable (8) to rotate is fixed on the sliding seat (7), and the gripper (6) is installed on the turntable (8). The welded workpiece moves into the sliding box (2), the sliding box (2) rises, the drive motor (9) drives the turntable (8) to rotate, the gripper (6) releases the part, and the part falls into the coolant under the action of gravity.

4. The diffusion welding cooling device according to claim 3, characterized in that, The cooling tank (1) is equipped with a coolant circulation pump to realize the circulation of coolant.

5. A diffusion welding cooling device according to claim 4, characterized in that, The drive mechanism includes a servo motor and a lead screw transmission system.

6. The diffusion welding cooling device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The cooling box (1) and the sliding box (2) are made of high-temperature resistant stainless steel.

7. The diffusion welding cooling device according to claim 1, characterized in that, A drain valve is provided at the bottom of the cooling box (1).

8. A diffusion welding cooling device according to claim 1, characterized in that, The outer wall of the sliding box (2) is provided with a heat insulation layer. The heat insulation layer adopts a multi-layer composite structure, including an inner vacuum heat insulation board and an outer phase change material coating. When the sliding box (2) wraps around the worktable, the phase change material absorbs excess heat and slowly releases it during the cooling stage.

9. A diffusion welding cooling device according to claim 8, characterized in that, The gripper (6) has a flexible pad on its surface to prevent damage to the workpiece during gripping.

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