Multi-head lapping intelligent tool changing system

Abstract

The application provides a multi-head rotary polishing type intelligent tool changing system and belongs to the technical field of crushing equipment.The traditional single-blade fixed straight cutting knife is improved into a disc-shaped knife which is integrally fixed and rotatable in the circumferential direction by a plurality of blades, and a screw rod driving transmission conversion member is sleeved on the main shaft to convert the rotary motion of the screw rod into the stepping rotation of the ratchet wheel, so that the automatic switching of the blades is realized.Through the sequential switching and use of the blades, a single disc-shaped knife can work continuously for the life cycle of multiple blades, and the overall replacement is required only after the life cycle of multiple blades, so that the cumulative tool changing time is greatly reduced.Meanwhile, the sensor is used for monitoring the tool state in real time, the control system differentiates the signal processing according to the signal (such as starting the cooling air pump to reduce the temperature when the temperature is abnormal, and automatically executing tool changing when the vibration is abnormal), the online monitoring of the tool wear state and the integration of the automatic tool changing are realized, the continuous operation cycle of the tool group is significantly prolonged, the maintenance cost is reduced, and the intelligent level of the equipment is improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of crushing equipment technology, and in particular to a multi-head rotary polishing intelligent blade changing system, especially a multi-head rotary polishing intelligent blade changing system for cutting crushing equipment. Background Technology

[0002] Crushing equipment, as the core equipment for material refinement, is widely used in sludge-coal slurry preparation, rare mineral mining and beneficiation, pharmaceuticals, and chemical raw material processing. With the increasing demands for product refinement across industries, research on ultrafine crushing technology and equipment is receiving growing attention. Existing crushing equipment is diverse, and can be categorized by working principle into extrusion, impact, shearing, and grinding types. While traditional crushing equipment, such as jaw crushers, roller mills, ball mills, and vortex mills, is widely used, it generally suffers from prominent problems such as large size, high energy consumption, and low efficiency. According to actual measurement data from the powder engineering industry, only 1% to 2% of the input electrical energy of conventional dry industrial ball mills is actually used for effective work in material fracture and the creation of new crushed surfaces. More than 98% of the electrical energy is dissipated in the form of frictional heat, mechanical vibration, noise, and ineffective impact of grinding media. Even with optimized lining and steel ball gradation in wet ball mills, the effective crushing energy utilization rate can only reach 2% to 3% at most. The vast majority of energy consumption is converted into waste heat from the equipment, which can easily lead to problems such as material gelatinization and accelerated wear of tools / grinding media at high temperatures when processing pharmaceutical residues and brittle ores. In addition, various traditional equipment still have multiple industry pain points: jaw crushers and roller presses can only complete coarse crushing and cannot achieve integrated circulating fine crushing; eddy current pulverizers are expensive and cannot process large hard raw materials; ball mills occupy a large area and are difficult to modify for sealed dust prevention. All traditional models are not equipped with online monitoring of tool temperature and vibration, as well as intelligent cooling and automatic tool changing mechanisms, resulting in high maintenance costs and a lack of safety early warning capabilities under continuous sealed operating conditions.

[0003] In recent years, pulverizing equipment based on the shearing / cutting principle has developed rapidly. High-efficiency precision cutters, pulverizers, and pulverizing / mixing machines, composed of novel rotary multi-head single-blade fixed straight cutting blade assemblies, use high-speed rotating cutting blade assemblies to shear and pulverize materials. These devices offer advantages such as small size, low cost, high efficiency, and easy precise control of particle size. They are widely used in high-efficiency, fine, small-scale cutting and pulverizing operations in the fields of sludge-coal slurry, rare minerals, pharmaceuticals, and chemical raw materials, offering advantages over traditional jaw crushers, roller mills, and ball mills.

[0004] However, cutting and crushing equipment faces a significant technical bottleneck in practical applications—blade wear. During the cutting and crushing process, the blades directly engage in high-speed shearing with the material, resulting in rapid blade wear and a short service life. Severe blade wear not only reduces crushing efficiency and product particle size uniformity but can also damage the equipment due to abnormal blade vibration. Currently, blade replacement in this type of equipment relies primarily on manual operation, requiring the machine to be stopped and old blades removed one by one to install new ones. This process is time-consuming and inefficient, severely restricting the equipment's continuous operation and production efficiency. Existing research indicates that current technologies for blade wear monitoring and automatic blade changing mainly focus on CNC machining, while research on intelligent blade changing devices for crushing equipment is insufficient. Although some crushing equipment has proposed automatic blade changing schemes, these often employ complex structures such as clamping components and telescopic claws, resulting in complex mechanisms and insufficient reliability. Regarding online monitoring of blade wear, while research has been conducted using multi-sensor fusion technology, integrating this with automatic blade changing into a unified intelligent control scheme remains a gap in the field of cutting and crushing equipment.

[0005] In summary, while existing rotary single-blade fixed straight cutting blade assemblies offer significant advantages in fine cutting and pulverizing, their rapid blade wear and low efficiency of manual blade replacement severely hinder their further development. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a new type of blade assembly and blade changing device capable of automatically sensing blade wear and performing automatic blade replacement, in order to improve the equipment's intelligence level and continuous operation capability, and reduce labor and material costs. Summary of the Invention

[0006] In view of this, to address the problems of rapid blade wear, low efficiency of manual tool changing, and complex structure and insufficient reliability of existing automatic tool changing solutions in existing rotary multi-head single-edged fixed straight cutting knife sets, this invention provides a multi-head rotary polishing intelligent tool changing system. It improves the traditional single-edged fixed straight cutting knife into a rotatable disc knife consisting of multiple blades fixed together circumferentially. A screw-driven transmission conversion component mounted on the main shaft converts the screw's rotational motion into the stepping rotation of a ratchet, achieving automatic blade switching. Through sequential blade switching, a single disc knife can work continuously for multiple blade life cycles before requiring overall replacement, significantly reducing cumulative tool changing time. Simultaneously, sensors monitor the tool status in real time, and the control system processes signals differently (e.g., activating a cooling pump to lower the temperature when abnormal, automatically changing the tool when abnormal vibration occurs), achieving integrated online monitoring of tool wear and automatic tool changing. This significantly extends the continuous operation cycle of the knife set, reduces maintenance costs, and improves the equipment's intelligence level.

[0007] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention provides the following technical solution: This invention provides a multi-head rotary polishing intelligent tool changer system, comprising: Several tool holders are mounted on the spindle, and each tool holder has a through hole; Several disc cutters are rotatably mounted on several cutter holders in a corresponding manner, and each disc cutter consists of several blades fixed together in the circumferential direction; Several ratchet wheels are fixedly connected to one side of several of the disc cutters in a corresponding manner, and are used to drive the disc cutters to rotate synchronously when driven. Several anti-return pawls are installed one-to-one on several of the tool holders to lock the corresponding ratchet. A screw is sleeved on the main shaft, one end of which is connected to the tool change drive source, and the other end passes through the through holes on all the tool holders; Several transmission conversion components are provided, each of which is connected between the screw and the corresponding ratchet, converting the rotational motion of the screw into the stepping rotation of the ratchet, which is used to drive the disc cutter to switch the currently working blade; Sensors are used to collect the status signals of the disc cutter; The control system is electrically connected to the sensor and the tool changer drive source. The control system is configured to: control the tool change drive source to drive the screw to rotate according to the status signal; the screw drives the corresponding ratchet to rotate through the transmission conversion component; the ratchet drives the disc cutter to rotate synchronously to switch the currently working blade; after the tool change is completed, the corresponding anti-return pawl locks the ratchet.

[0008] Preferably, the transmission conversion component includes: A grooved nut is fitted onto the screw and threaded into the screw. A swing rod, one end of which is movably connected to the grooved nut; A drive pawl, mounted on the other end of the swing lever, is used to drive the corresponding ratchet to rotate; An elastic reset element is connected between the swing rod and the corresponding tool holder.

[0009] Preferably, the screw is a hollow screw, one end of which is a ring structure and is connected to the tool changer drive source. The other end of the hollow screw is a plurality of evenly spaced open screw plates. After passing through the through hole, the open screw plates are connected to the grooved nut. The grooved nut is fitted onto the open screw plates and is limited by the tool holder to rotate but not move axially. When the hollow screw rotates, it drives the grooved nut to deflect circumferentially. The elastic reset member is installed in the groove of the grooved nut. One end of the swing rod extends into the groove of the nut and presses against the elastic reset member. At the same time, it is limited to slide along the groove. The other end of the swing rod is connected to the drive pawl. The elastic reset member, the groove of the grooved nut, and the swing rod form a telescopic ratchet swing rod, which swings around the axis of the main shaft in the through hole. The adaptive telescopic swing rod drives the drive pawl to move, thereby driving the ratchet to move.

[0010] Preferably, the sensor is mounted on the transmission conversion component.

[0011] Preferably, the sensor includes a temperature sensor and a vibration sensor, used to collect the temperature signal and vibration signal of the disc cutter, respectively; preferably, the temperature sensor is a K-type thermocouple and the vibration sensor is a PVDF piezoelectric thin film dynamic sensing line.

[0012] Preferably, the control system is further configured to: when the temperature exceeds a set threshold, start the cooling pump to cool down, and then turn off the cooling pump after the temperature drops back to the normal range.

[0013] Preferably, it also includes a vent pipe, the outlet of which faces the currently working blade, and the inlet of which is connected to a cold air pump, which is controlled by the control system; the sensor is connected to the control system via a sensing wire, which is spirally wound around the vent pipe.

[0014] Preferably, a plurality of the tool holders are arranged sequentially along the axis of the main shaft, and adjacent tool holders are radially offset at a certain angle, so that the plurality of disc cutters are arranged in a spiral array; Preferably, the tool holder is a star-shaped tool holder; Preferably, the disc cutter is a rotary polishing disc cutter; Preferably, the through hole is a screw plate hole; Preferably, the disc cutter is mounted on the cutter holder via a rotary shaft.

[0015] Preferably, the control system is further configured to: record the number of blades that have been switched to use by the disc cutter, and issue a stop alarm signal when all blades have been used and it is determined that a blade change is needed again.

[0016] Preferably, the tool changing drive source is a stepper motor; Preferably, the elastic reset element is a reset spring; Preferably, the anti-return pawl is pressed against the corresponding ratchet by a torsion spring; Preferably, the number of teeth on the ratchet is an integer multiple of the number of blades.

[0017] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects: First, it significantly extends the continuous operation cycle and substantially improves production efficiency. This invention improves the traditional single-blade fixed straight cutting knife into a multi-head rotary polishing disc knife with multiple blades. By switching the blades sequentially, a single disc knife can work continuously for the equivalent of the lifespan of multiple single blades before being completely disassembled and replaced. This extends the continuous operation time, reduces the frequency of downtime for tool changes, and significantly saves accumulated tool change time. It effectively solves the problem of long downtime caused by frequent manual tool changes in existing equipment, and significantly improves the overall utilization rate and production capacity of the equipment.

[0018] Secondly, it enables real-time online monitoring and differentiated intelligent control of the cutting tool's operating status. This invention installs temperature and vibration sensors on the transmission conversion component, simultaneously collecting two key characteristic signals—temperature and vibration—during the cutting tool's operation, achieving comprehensive real-time monitoring of the tool's running status. The control system can adopt differentiated processing strategies based on different signal characteristics: when the temperature is abnormal, a cooling pump is activated to lower the temperature and prevent thermal damage to the cutting tool; when the vibration is abnormal, an automatic tool replacement is executed to prevent severe tool wear from causing deterioration in crushing quality and equipment safety accidents. This integrated sensing-judgment-execution intelligent control mechanism, compared to existing solutions relying solely on manual experience or single-parameter monitoring, offers greater reliability and adaptability, providing technical assurance for the long-term safe operation of the equipment.

[0019] Third, the tool changing mechanism features a compact structure, precise transmission, and simple control. This invention uses a screw-driven transmission converter mounted on the spindle as the core of the tool changing mechanism. The screw's rotational motion is converted into the stepping rotation of a ratchet, which then drives the disc cutter to rotate one tool position. This compact design fully utilizes the space around the spindle, eliminating the need for complex multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arms or clamping components. Furthermore, precise control of the screw's rotation angle enables step-by-step tool changing with accurate rotation of one tool position at a time, ensuring reliable and accurate tool changing positions. Combined with the locking function of the check pawl, it effectively prevents the disc cutter from rotating unexpectedly due to vibration or impact during operation. More importantly, a single screw can simultaneously drive all disc cutters in the entire system to complete tool changing synchronously, resulting in a simple structure, low cost, and ease of engineering implementation.

[0020] Fourth, it effectively reduces labor costs and material consumption, extending the overall service life of the equipment. This invention achieves full automation of the tool changing process, freeing operators from high-frequency, repetitive manual tool changing labor, significantly reducing the frequency of manual intervention and labor intensity, while avoiding problems such as improper blade installation and torque deviation caused by human error. In terms of material consumption, since each blade can be fully utilized until the end of its lifespan before replacement, it avoids the waste of some incompletely worn blades prematurely being scrapped due to uniform replacement of single-edge fixed straight cutting tools. Furthermore, this invention can complete tool changing in the early stages of tool wear through vibration monitoring, preventing secondary failures such as tool holder deformation, spindle eccentricity, and bearing damage caused by excessive wear, extending the service life of key components such as the spindle and bearings, and reducing the overall life-cycle maintenance cost of the equipment.

[0021] Fifth, this invention promotes the upgrading of crushing equipment towards intelligence and unmanned operation. It integrates functions such as online monitoring of tool wear, automatic overheating cooling, automatic tool replacement, and blade lifecycle management, constructing a complete intelligent management system for the entire tool lifecycle. The equipment can automatically complete a closed-loop control process from status perception and fault diagnosis to execution feedback under unattended conditions, providing key technical support for the intelligent upgrading of crushing equipment. This technical solution is not dependent on specific material types or processing conditions, possessing good universality and scalability. It can be widely applied in fields such as sludge-coal slurry preparation, ultrafine grinding of rare minerals, pharmaceutical grinding, and fine grinding of chemical raw materials. It is particularly suitable for conditions requiring high uniformity of particle size, long continuous operation time, and difficult manual maintenance, and has broad market application prospects and economic and social benefits.

[0022] Sixth, it extends continuous working time and saves tool change time. Compared with existing single-blade fixed straight cutting tool sets, which require disassembly and replacement every week of operation, this invention, using a disc cutter with N blades, allows each disc cutter to work continuously for N weeks before requiring complete disassembly and replacement. With the same tool set size, the tool change time of this invention is comparable to that of a single-blade fixed straight cutting tool set, but because the tool change frequency is reduced to 1 / N of the original, the cumulative tool change time is reduced by N times. Preferably, when N is 10, the normal continuous working time is extended to 10 times the original, and the cumulative tool change time is reduced by 90%.

[0023] In summary, this invention fundamentally solves the industry pain points of frequent blade changes, low manual efficiency, and lack of intelligent monitoring in existing single-blade fixed straight cutting blade sets. Through the organic combination of structural innovation and intelligent control, it achieves a comprehensive improvement in the crushing equipment in terms of cutting and crushing accuracy, continuous operation capability, intelligent level, and operation and maintenance economy, which has positive significance for promoting the technological progress of fine crushing equipment in the field of advanced manufacturing. Attached Figure Description

[0024] Figure 1 This is a schematic diagram of the overall structure of the present invention.

[0025] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of the external structure of a multi-head rotary polishing disc cutter with three heads.

[0026] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the internal structure of a multi-head rotary polishing disc cutter with three heads.

[0027] Figure 4 This is a schematic diagram of a hollow screw.

[0028] Figure 5 The diagram shows the knife assembly structure of the prior art and the present invention. (a) is the existing mature 3-head single-blade fixed straight cutting knife assembly, and (b) is the 3-head 6-rotary blade rotary-throwing movable disc knife assembly of the present invention.

[0029] Figure 6 for Figure 5 Comparison of continuous operation time in (a) and (b)

[0030] In the diagram: 1. Spindle; 2. Key; 3. Star-shaped tool holder; 31. Upper plate of tool holder; 32. Lower plate of tool holder; 4. Hollow screw; 41. Ring structure; 42. Open screw plate; 5. Screw plate hole; 6. Rotary disc cutter; 61. Rotary blade cutter; 7. Rotary shaft; 8. Ratchet; 9. Connection hole between star-shaped tool holder and spindle; 10. Nut with groove; 101. Groove; 11. Return spring; 12. Swing slider ratchet rocker arm; 13. Drive pawl; 14. Check pawl; 15. Sensor wire; 16. Vent pipe; 161. Air outlet; 17. Control system; 18. Air pump; 19. Fixing plate. Detailed Implementation

[0031] The technical solution of the present invention will now be clearly and completely described with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. Obviously, the described embodiments are merely some, not all, of the embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present invention without creative effort are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0032] Example 1 In this embodiment, the rotary polishing rotary blade 6 is selected as the rotary blade, the star-shaped blade holder 3 is selected as the blade holder, the through hole is selected as the screw plate hole 5, the blade is a rotary blade 61, the elastic reset element is a reset spring 11, the swing element is a swing slider ratchet rocker arm 12, the tool changing drive source is a tool changing motor (e.g., a stepper motor), and the sensing line 15 is a PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) dynamic sensing line.

[0033] This embodiment consists of six identical multi-head rotary polishing disc cutters 6 arranged in a helical array. Each multi-head rotary polishing disc cutter 6 has three mounting positions for the rotary polishing disc cutter 6 on its star-shaped cutter holder 3. Each rotary polishing disc cutter 6 has six rotary blades 61, meaning each star-shaped cutter holder 3 is equipped with a total of 18 rotary blades 61 (3 heads × 6 blades). See [link / reference] Figure 1-2 The intelligent sensing tool changer uses a combination of PVDF dynamic sensing wire and a temperature sensor thermocouple to collect vibration and temperature signals in real time, respectively.

[0034] I. The specific structural configuration and parameter configuration of this embodiment are as follows: In this embodiment, six star-shaped cutter holders 3 (connected by keys 2) are mounted on the main shaft 1. The six star-shaped cutter holders 3 are arranged in close contact with each other at equal intervals along the axial direction of the main shaft 1, and the radial distances between adjacent star-shaped cutter holders 3 are staggered by a certain angle, forming a spiral array. This spiral array arrangement causes the disc cutters to be staggered in the axial and circumferential directions, so that the material is sheared and pushed along the axial direction in sequence during the crushing process, which facilitates the crushed material to be swirled into the material bin. A star-shaped cutter holder 3 has a connecting hole 9 at its center, through which the main shaft 1 passes and is circumferentially fixed to the star-shaped cutter holder 3 by keys 2, realizing circumferential positioning and torque transmission.

[0035] Each star-shaped tool holder 3 has a three-pronged star structure, with a circular mounting hole at each of its three branches for mounting a rotary polishing disc cutter 6. The three circular mounting holes are evenly distributed around the circumference of the star-shaped tool holder 3, with an included angle of 120° between the centers of adjacent mounting holes. A rotary polishing disc cutter 6 is rotatably mounted in each circular mounting hole via a rotating shaft 7. This rotary polishing disc cutter 6 consists of six rotary blades 61 fixed together circumferentially at equal intervals, with an included angle of 15° between adjacent rotary blades 61, forming a rotatable disc-shaped tool structure. The rotary blades 61 are made of 42GrMo material, and their cutting edge angle is 15°~45°; in this embodiment, 30° is selected. By fixing multiple blades to the same rotary polishing disc cutter 6, a single rotary polishing disc cutter 6 can work continuously for multiple blade life cycles before requiring complete disassembly and replacement. This fundamentally solves the problem of frequent blade replacement and constant need for traditional single-blade fixed straight cutting tools.

[0036] Each rotary polishing disc cutter 6 has a ratchet 8 fixedly connected to one side. The number of teeth on the ratchet 8 is an integer multiple of the number of rotary polishing disc cutters 61, in this case, it is 12 teeth. That is, every two tooth pitches (60°) of rotation of the ratchet 8 corresponds to switching one rotary polishing disc cutter 61 into the working position. A check pawl 14 is installed on the star-shaped tool holder 3 corresponding to the position of each rotary polishing disc cutter 6. The check pawl 14 is pressed against the tooth surface of the ratchet 8 by a torsion spring. It is used to fix the circumferential position of the ratchet 8 and the rotary polishing disc cutter 6 after the tool changing action is completed, preventing them from reversing during high-speed rotation. The cooperation between the check pawl 14 and the ratchet 8 ensures the stability and reliability of the working position after tool changing, avoiding unexpected rotation of the disc cutter due to vibration or impact.

[0037] Each rotary disc cutter 6 is equipped with a transmission conversion mechanism, including a drive pawl 13, a swing slider ratchet lever 12, a return spring 11, and a grooved nut 10. The drive pawl 13 is mounted on one end of the swing slider ratchet lever 12, with its pawl head in contact with the tooth surface of the ratchet 8. The other end of the swing slider ratchet lever 12 is movably connected to the grooved nut 10 via a slider. The return spring 11 is connected between the swing slider ratchet lever 12 and the star-shaped tool holder 3, providing a restoring force after the tool change operation, allowing the swing slider ratchet lever 12 and the drive pawl 13 to return to their initial positions. This transmission conversion mechanism converts the rotational motion of the hollow screw 4 into the stepping motion of the drive pawl 13 on the ratchet 8, with each push rotating exactly one tool position angle. The transmission path is simple and has few parts, solving the problems of complex mechanisms and insufficient reliability caused by the use of complex structures such as clamping components and telescopic claws in existing automatic tool changers.

[0038] The star-shaped tool holder 3 has screw plate holes 5 for the hollow screw 4 to pass through. The hollow screw 4 is sleeved on the spindle 1, with one end being a ring structure 41 and the other end being evenly spaced open screw plates 42. The number of screw plates is the same as the number of heads of the multi-head rotary polishing disc cutter 6, which is 3. Figure 4As shown. The hollow screw 4 passes sequentially through the screw plate holes 5 on the six star-shaped tool holders 3. Its annular end is connected to the output end of the tool changer motor of the control system 17 via a transmission gear. The tool changer motor rotates around the main shaft 1 under the control of the control system 17. The hollow screw 4 is sleeved outside the main shaft 1, does not occupy the internal space of the main shaft 1, and does not affect the normal rotational transmission of the main shaft 1, thus realizing the spatial decoupling of the power transmission path and the tool changer drive path. At the same time, a set of hollow screws 4 passes through the screw plate holes 5 on all the star-shaped tool holders 3 and is connected to the grooved nut 10. The grooved nut 10 is sleeved on the open screw plate 42 and is limited by the tool holder to rotate only and not move axially. When the hollow screw 4 rotates, it drives the grooved nut 10 to deflect circumferentially. The return spring 11 is installed in the groove 101 of the grooved nut 10. One end of the swing slider ratchet rocker 12 extends into the groove 10 of the nut and presses against the return spring 11. At the same time, it is limited to rotate only axially. The slide groove 101 slides, and the other end of the swing slider ratchet lever 12 is connected to the drive pawl 13. Therefore, through the return spring 11, the slide groove 101 of the nut 10 with the slide groove and the swing slider ratchet lever 12 form a telescopic ratchet swing lever, which swings around the axis of the main shaft 1 in the screw plate hole 5. The adaptive telescopic swing slider ratchet lever 12 drives the drive pawl 13 to move, thereby pushing the ratchet 8 to move, realizing the synchronous and same angle tool changing of all the rotary polishing disc cutters 6. There is no need to configure a separate drive device for each tool group, and the structure is greatly simplified.

[0039] In this embodiment, a stepper motor with a step angle of 1.8° is used as the tool changer motor. The control system 17 precisely controls the rotation angle of the hollow screw 4 by controlling the number of pulses of the stepper motor. In this embodiment, the thread lead of the hollow screw 4 is 10mm. When the tool changer motor drives the hollow screw 4 to rotate 30°, the corresponding axial movement is 10mm × 30° / 360° ≈ 0.83mm. The tool changer motor precisely controls the rotation angle by the number of pulses, ensuring that only one tool position is rotated each time the tool is changed without the need for additional position feedback components, thus reducing system complexity and manufacturing costs.

[0040] II. Sensor and Cooling System Configuration and Signal Acquisition In this embodiment, each drive pawl 13 is equipped with a PVDF dynamic sensing line and a temperature sensor thermocouple, which together constitute the sensing line 15. The PVDF dynamic sensing line is made of PVDF piezoelectric film material and is used to collect vibration signals. The temperature sensor thermocouple is a type K thermocouple with a measurement range of 0~800℃, used to collect temperature signals. By installing both sensors on the drive pawl 13, since the drive pawl 13 always maintains contact with the ratchet 8, the sensors are always close to the position of the currently working blade, ensuring that the collected signals can accurately reflect the temperature and vibration state of the currently working blade, thus solving the problem that existing equipment cannot sense the working status of the tool in real time.

[0041] Starting from the signal line of the signal acquisition module of the control system 17, the sensor line 15 is spirally wound around the outer wall of the vent pipe 16 with a spiral spacing of 10mm and a winding direction at a 45° angle to the axis of the vent pipe 16. This spiral winding method allows the sensor line 15 to have elastic expansion and contraction margin when the vent pipe 16 rotates with the star-shaped tool holder 3, preventing it from being pulled and broken, thus ensuring the reliability of signal transmission.

[0042] The sensor wire 15 passes through the screw plate hole 5 and the grooved nut 10, and is fixed in a tree-like branching manner to the lower plate 32 of the tool holder of the 18 star-shaped tool holders 3 of the six multi-head rotary polishing disc cutters 6 by riveting or gluing with fixing pieces 19. Figure 3 As shown. The sensor wire 15 of the multiple vent tube 16 is stretched through the fixed shaft of the drive pawl 13 in a spiral elastic manner, and then fixed to the side near the rotary polishing disc cutter 6 by thermally conductive adhesive. It is used to collect the vibration signal and temperature signal of the rotary polishing disc cutter 6 in real time during operation.

[0043] The air outlet 161 of the vent pipe 16 faces the cutting area of ​​the rotary blade 61, which is currently in the working position. The air inlet of the vent pipe 16 is connected to the air outlet of the cooling pump 18 via a flexible air tube. The cooling pump 18 is controlled by the control system 17 to start and stop. In this embodiment, the cooling pump 18 is a miniature scroll cooling pump with an outlet air pressure of 0.4~0.6MPa and an outlet temperature of -5~5℃. The air outlet 161 of the vent pipe 16 faces the cutting area of ​​the working blade, ensuring that the cooling air acts directly on the part that needs cooling, resulting in high cooling efficiency and preventing the tool from being damaged due to overheating.

[0044] III. Working Process and Control Logic (a) Normal working status During normal operation, the tool changing motor does not start, the hollow screw 4 remains stationary, and the grooved nut 10 is in its initial position (i.e., the starting position of the thread of the hollow screw 4). The swing slider ratchet lever 12 remains stable under the action of the return spring 11, and the drive pawl 13 disengages from the ratchet 8 or is in a non-pushing position. Each rotary polishing disc cutter 6 rotates at high speed around the main shaft 1 under the drive of the main shaft 1, and the rotary blade 61 performs cutting and crushing operations. The rotational speed of the main shaft 1 is 600~1000 r / min. At this time, the PVDF dynamic sensing line and the temperature sensor thermocouple continuously monitor the vibration and temperature signals of each rotary polishing disc cutter 6 and transmit the signals to the control system 17 in real time.

[0045] (II) Handling of abnormal temperatures When the temperature sensor thermocouple detects that the operating temperature of a certain rotary polishing disc cutter 6 exceeds the temperature threshold set by the control system 17 (in this embodiment, the temperature threshold is set to 80℃), the control system 17 determines that the currently working rotary blade 61 of the rotary polishing disc cutter 6 has overheated. At this time, the control system 17 starts the cooling air pump 18, and cool air is delivered to the air outlet 161 through the air pipe 16 to force-cool the cutting area of ​​the working rotary blade 61. The cooling air pump 18 continues to work until the temperature value fed back by the temperature sensor thermocouple falls back to the normal range (in this embodiment, the normal temperature range is 50~80℃), and the control system 17 shuts down the cooling air pump 18. Throughout the cooling process, the spindle 1 continues to rotate normally without stopping the machine. This temperature anomaly handling mechanism automatically controls the tool temperature within the normal range without stopping the machine, preventing thermal damage to the tool and avoiding a decrease in production efficiency due to machine shutdown for cooling.

[0046] (III) Automatic tool change operation When the PVDF dynamic sensing line detects that the vibration amplitude of a certain rotary polishing disc cutter 6 exceeds the vibration threshold set by the control system 17 or that the vibration frequency exhibits abnormal characteristic frequency, the control system 17 determines that the currently operating rotary cutter 61 has suffered severe wear and requires a cutter replacement operation. At this time, the control system 17 starts the cutter replacement motor, which drives the hollow screw 4 to rotate around the central axis by a limited angle. In this embodiment, the thread lead of the hollow screw 4 is 10mm, and the cutter replacement motor drives the hollow screw 4 to rotate 30° (corresponding to an axial movement of 10mm × 30° / 360° ≈ 0.83mm).

[0047] The rotation of the hollow screw 4 drives the open screw plate 42 on it to rotate, which in turn drives the grooved nut 10 sleeved on it to deflect circumferentially. Since the grooved nut 10 is installed between the upper plate 31 and the lower plate 32 of the star-shaped tool holder 3, and the axial height of the grooved nut 10 is the same as the distance between the upper plate 31 and the lower plate 32 of the star-shaped tool holder 3, it is limited and cannot move axially, but can only rotate. According to the principle of screw transmission, when the nut rotates, the screw has both axial movement and rotation, so the hollow screw 4 will have a small axial movement when it rotates. The grooved nut 10 drives the swing slider ratchet lever 12 to swing, which in turn drives the drive pawl 13 installed at one end of the swing slider ratchet lever 12 to move. The drive pawl 13 pushes the ratchet 8, which is fixed to the rotary polishing disc cutter 6, to rotate two tooth pitches (60°), corresponding to one cutter position angle. That is, the rotary polishing disc cutter 6 switches from the currently working rotary cutter 61 to the next adjacent rotary cutter 61. At the same time, the check pawl 14 automatically engages with the next tooth groove of the ratchet 8 under the action of the torsion spring, locking the ratchet 8 and the rotary polishing disc cutter 6 in the new working position, thus completing one automatic cutter change action.

[0048] After the tool change is completed, the control system 17 controls the tool change motor to reverse and reset. The hollow screw 4 reverses back to its initial angle. The grooved nut 10, the swing slider ratchet lever 12, and the drive pawl 13 return to their initial positions under the elastic force of the return spring 11 and the threaded guidance, awaiting the next tool change command. The entire tool change process takes about 0.5 seconds, during which the spindle 1 can be stopped or not. This automatic tool change operation realizes a complete closed-loop control from status perception and fault diagnosis to tool change execution, solving the problem of low efficiency in manual tool change and significantly improving the continuous operation capability of the equipment.

[0049] (iv) Blade life management and alarm Each time a blade is changed, the control system 17 records the number of times the current rotary blade 61 has been used or the cumulative working time. When the PVDF dynamic sensing line detects excessive vibration again, and the control system 17 determines that all six rotary blades 61 on the current rotary polishing disc blade 6 have been used (i.e., the number of blade changes has reached five), the control system 17 determines that there are no new blades available for the entire rotary polishing disc blade 6. At this time, the control system 17 issues a stop command and outputs a new blade alarm signal (notifying the operator via an audible and visual alarm or a remote monitoring terminal). The operator then manually replaces the entire rotary polishing disc blade 6. After replacement, the operator resets the blade usage count through the human-machine interface of the control system 17, and the equipment can be put back into operation. This blade life management mechanism ensures that each blade is fully utilized until the end of its life before being switched, avoiding the waste of some blades that are not yet fully worn out due to uniform replacement. At the same time, by monitoring vibration, blades are replaced in the early stages of wear, preventing secondary failures such as tool holder deformation, spindle eccentricity, and bearing damage caused by excessive wear.

[0050] like Figure 5 (a) is an existing mature 3-head single-blade fixed straight cutting knife assembly, and (b) is the 3-head 6-rotary blade 61 rotary throwing movable disc knife assembly of the present invention; Figure 6 for Figure 5 Comparison of continuous operation times in (a) and (b) charts. From Figure 5 and 6 As can be seen from the above, the 3-head single-blade fixed straight cutting knife group (a) needs to be replaced once a week when processing chemical raw materials. It is replaced by the 3-head 6-rotary blade 61 rotary polishing movable disc knife group (b) of the present invention. Since the new knife is replaced only after the 6 rotary blades 61 are automatically replaced, the continuous working time is increased by 6 times.

[0051] In summary, the multi-head rotary polishing intelligent tool changer provided in this embodiment integrates innovative tool structure, intelligent sensing, and automatic tool changing. Specifically: (I) Innovative tool structure: changing from a single-edged fixed blade to a multi-head rotary polishing tool. This invention improves upon the single-blade fixed straight cutting blade widely used in traditional crushing equipment by replacing it with a multi-head rotary polishing movable disc blade structure. Specifically, multiple rotary blades 61 are equidistantly fixed to the same disc base along the circumference, forming a rotary polishing disc blade 6 that can rotate around the axis of the main shaft 1. The essential innovation of this structural design lies in changing the traditional mode of "fixed blades, overall blade replacement" to a new mode of "fixed blade disc, rotating blade position," allowing multiple cutting edges to be integrated onto the same blade body and sequentially put into use through rotational switching. This structure changes the long-standing replacement logic of one blade at a time in cutting-type crushing equipment, providing a structural foundation for the subsequent realization of automatic blade changing.

[0052] (II) Innovation in tool changing transmission mechanism: Hollow screw 4 drives swing slider ratchet 8 mechanism This invention designs a hollow screw 4 mounted on the main shaft 1 as the driving force source for the tool changing action. Through the cooperation between the hollow screw 4 and the grooved nut 10, and the transmission connection of the swing slider ratchet lever 12, the fixed-angle rotational motion of the hollow screw 4 is precisely converted into the unidirectional stepping motion of the driving pawl 13 pushing the ratchet 8. The innovation of this transmission scheme lies in: (1) The hollow screw 4 is sleeved outside the spindle 1, does not occupy the internal space of the spindle 1, and does not affect the normal rotational transmission of the spindle 1, thus realizing the spatial decoupling of the power transmission path and the tool changing drive path; (2) A set of hollow screws 4 passes through the screw plate holes 5 of all star-shaped tool holders 3 in the whole system at the same time, which can realize the synchronous and same angle tool changing of all rotary polishing disc tools 6. There is no need to configure a separate drive device for each tool group, which greatly simplifies the structure. (3) By matching the number of open screw blades 42 at the end of the hollow screw 4 with the number of blades, the rotation angle and the tool changing angle are accurately matched. No additional position feedback element is required to ensure that only one tool position is rotated each time the tool is changed, which reduces the system complexity and manufacturing cost.

[0053] (III) State Awareness Innovation: Tool Wear and Overheating Detection Mechanism Based on Dual Sensor Collaboration This invention integrates temperature and vibration sensors onto the drive pawl 13, enabling simultaneous acquisition of multiple physical quantities related to the tool's operating status within a limited space. Its innovation lies not only in the compact sensor placement but also in the innovative dual-parameter collaborative discrimination logic: the temperature signal is used to determine if the tool is at risk of overheating, while the vibration signal is used to determine if the cutting edge has experienced severe wear. These two signals complement and verify each other, avoiding misjudgments or omissions that might occur with single-parameter monitoring. Based on this, the control system 17 executes differentiated response strategies according to the discrimination results. When the temperature is too high, the cooling pump 18 is activated to lower the temperature; when the vibration exceeds the limit, automatic tool changing is performed, achieving a functional improvement from single-state monitoring to fault type identification and targeted handling.

[0054] (iv) Innovation in intelligent control logic: full lifecycle tool management This invention, building upon automatic tool changing, further introduces intelligent control logic for blade life management. The control system 17 not only performs a tool changing action when vibration exceeds limits, but also continuously records the number of blades currently being used on the disc cutter. When all blades have been rotated and excessive vibration is detected again, the control system 17 determines that the entire disc cutter has reached the end of its lifespan and proactively issues a shutdown alarm signal. This control logic represents a leap from automating a single tool changing action to intelligent management of the entire tool lifecycle, elevating equipment maintenance from manual judgment of when to change tools to a system-autonomous decision-making process that determines when to change tools, where to change them, and when the entire tool needs to be replaced.

[0055] (V) System Integration Innovation: Integrated Architecture of Sensing-Cooling-Tool Changing-Management This invention organically integrates four major functions—tool sensing and monitoring, active overheating cooling, automatic tool changing due to wear, and life cycle management—into a single mechanical structure and control system 17, forming a complete closed-loop system of sensing-discrimination-execution. Unlike existing technologies that simply superimpose sensor monitoring and tool changing execution as independent subsystems, this invention features a highly compact integrated design around the spindle 1 and tool set, incorporating core components such as the temperature sensor, vibration sensor, cooling pump 18, vent pipe 16, and hollow screw 4 drive mechanism. The vent pipe 16 is fixed to the star-shaped tool holder 3, moving with the tool holder but always maintaining alignment with the current working blade. The sensor is mounted on the drive pawl 13, constantly collecting the status information of the current working blade. The tool changing execution mechanism and the cooling execution mechanism share the same support and positioning structure. This integrated architecture effectively reduces the number of parts, improves space utilization, lowers the failure rate, and enhances the overall reliability of the system.

[0056] In summary, this invention uses a rotary polishing disc cutter 6 as its structural basis, a hollow screw 4 driving a swinging slider ratchet 8 mechanism as its core for tool changing transmission, temperature and vibration dual sensors for collaborative sensing as its state judgment basis, and a control system 17 as its decision-making and execution center, thus realizing a full-chain technological innovation from structural design to control methods to system integration.

[0057] The above description is merely a preferred embodiment of the present invention. However, the scope of protection of the present invention is not limited thereto. Any equivalent substitutions or modifications made by those skilled in the art within the scope of the technology disclosed in the present invention should be covered within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A multi-head rotary polishing intelligent tool changing system, characterized in that, include: Several tool holders are mounted on the spindle, and each tool holder has a through hole; Several disc cutters are rotatably mounted on several cutter holders in a corresponding manner, and each disc cutter consists of several blades fixed together in the circumferential direction; Several ratchet wheels are fixedly connected to one side of several of the disc cutters in a corresponding manner, and are used to drive the disc cutters to rotate synchronously when driven. Several anti-return pawls are installed one-to-one on several of the tool holders to lock the corresponding ratchet. A screw is sleeved on the main shaft, one end of which is connected to the tool change drive source, and the other end passes through the through holes on all the tool holders; Several transmission conversion components are provided, each of which is connected between the screw and the corresponding ratchet, converting the rotational motion of the screw into the stepping rotation of the ratchet, which is used to drive the disc cutter to switch the currently working blade; Sensors are used to collect the status signals of the disc cutter; The control system is electrically connected to the sensor and the tool changer drive source. The control system is configured to: control the tool change drive source to drive the screw to rotate according to the status signal; the screw drives the corresponding ratchet to rotate through the transmission conversion component; the ratchet drives the disc cutter to rotate synchronously to switch the currently working blade; after the tool change is completed, the corresponding anti-return pawl locks the ratchet.

2. The multi-head rotary polishing intelligent tool changing system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The transmission conversion component includes: A grooved nut is fitted onto the screw and threaded into the screw. A swing rod, one end of which is movably connected to the grooved nut; A drive pawl, mounted on the other end of the swing lever, is used to drive the corresponding ratchet to rotate; An elastic reset element is connected between the swing rod and the corresponding tool holder.

3. The multi-head rotary polishing intelligent tool changing system according to claim 2, characterized in that, The screw is a hollow screw. One end of the hollow screw is a ring structure, which is connected to the tool changer drive source. The other end of the hollow screw is a plurality of evenly spaced open screw plates. After passing through the through hole, the open screw plates are connected to the grooved nut. The grooved nut is sleeved on the open screw plates and is limited by the tool holder to rotate but not move axially. When the hollow screw rotates, it drives the grooved nut to deflect circumferentially. The elastic reset member is installed in the groove of the grooved nut. One end of the swing rod extends into the groove of the nut and presses against the elastic reset member. At the same time, it is limited to slide along the groove. The other end of the swing rod is connected to the drive pawl. The elastic reset member, the groove of the grooved nut, and the swing rod form a telescopic ratchet swing rod, which swings around the axis of the main shaft in the through hole. The adaptive telescopic swing rod drives the drive pawl to move, thereby driving the ratchet to move.

4. The multi-head rotary polishing intelligent tool changing system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The sensor is mounted on the transmission conversion component.

5. The multi-head rotary polishing intelligent tool changing system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The sensor includes a temperature sensor and a vibration sensor, which are used to collect the temperature signal and vibration signal of the disc cutter, respectively; preferably, the temperature sensor is a K-type thermocouple and the vibration sensor is a PVDF piezoelectric thin film dynamic sensing line.

6. The multi-head rotary polishing intelligent tool changing system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The control system is also configured to: when the temperature exceeds a set threshold, start the cooling pump to cool down the temperature until the temperature returns to the normal range, and then turn off the cooling pump.

7. The multi-head rotary polishing intelligent tool changing system according to claim 1, characterized in that, It also includes a vent pipe, the outlet of which faces the currently working blade, and the inlet of which is connected to a cold air pump, which is controlled by the control system; the sensor is connected to the control system via a sensing wire, which is spirally wound around the vent pipe.

8. The multi-head rotary polishing intelligent tool changing system according to claim 1, characterized in that, Several tool holders are arranged sequentially along the axis of the main shaft, and adjacent tool holders are radially offset at a certain angle, so that several disc cutters are arranged in a spiral array; Preferably, the tool holder is a star-shaped tool holder; Preferably, the disc cutter is a rotary polishing disc cutter; Preferably, the through hole is a screw plate hole; Preferably, the disc cutter is mounted on the cutter holder via a rotary shaft.

9. A multi-head rotary polishing intelligent tool changing system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The control system is also configured to: record the number of blades that have been switched to the disc cutter, and issue a stop alarm signal when all blades have been used and it is determined that a blade change is needed again.

10. A multi-head rotary polishing intelligent tool changing system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The tool changer drive source is a stepper motor; Preferably, the elastic reset element is a reset spring; Preferably, the anti-return pawl is pressed against the corresponding ratchet by a torsion spring; Preferably, the number of teeth on the ratchet is an integer multiple of the number of blades.

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