Adjustment device for a surface scraper unit

Abstract

Adjusting device (100) which is designed for the fine adjustment of a scraper (10), in particular a surface scraper (10), of a scraper unit (1, 2), wherein the adjusting device (100) comprises: a motorized adjustment unit (110); at least one slider (120) movable in the vertical direction by the motorized adjustment unit (110); and an adjusting element (130) coupled to the at least one vertical slider (120) and designed to convert the vertical movement of the slider (120) into an adjusting movement for automatic fine adjustment of the scraper blade (10).

Description

[0001] The invention relates to an adjusting device for fine adjustment of a scraper, in particular a surface scraper, a scraper unit and a scraper device.

[0002] Surface scrapers are primarily used to remove very small edge protrusions on a workpiece that could not be removed by previous processing steps. The units preceding a surface scraper unit for processing a workpiece, such as pre-milling units, radius milling units, and radius scraper units, are generally set up so that workpiece surfaces (e.g., panel surfaces) are not damaged during processing. Particularly with very sensitive surfaces and tolerances in edge thickness, a tiny protrusion is necessary, which is removed by a surface scraper to ensure a perfect finish. This can also remove small adhesive residues on the top of the workpiece.

[0003] Removing tiny protrusions requires very precise and delicate adjustment of a surface scraper relative to the workpiece to be machined. This fine adjustment has previously been performed primarily manually. Automated adjustment of scrapers is desirable, but has often been hampered due to the limited space available in a scraper unit.

[0004] Another problem is that different surface materials are increasingly being used in industry, which in turn require different height settings of the surface scrapers in order to achieve a perfect end result.

[0005] It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an adjustment device for a scraping unit that enables precise fine adjustment of a scraper or a flat scraper while simultaneously providing a high level of operating comfort and reliability. Furthermore, the adjustment device should be compact, require minimal installation space, and be suitable for retrofitting existing scraping units with manual adjustment.

[0006] According to a first aspect of the invention, this object is achieved by an (automated) adjusting device which is designed for the fine adjustment of a scraper, in particular a surface scraper, of a scraper unit, and comprises the following components: a motorized adjusting unit; at least one (vertical) slider which can be moved in the vertical direction by the motorized adjusting unit; and an adjusting element which is coupled to the at least one vertical slider and is designed to convert the movement of the slider into an adjusting movement (and to transmit it to the scraper) in order to achieve a fine adjustment of the scraper (surface scraper).

[0007] The adjustment device can, in particular, be designed to move the scraper in the vertical direction (i.e., in the height or depth direction) without play. This enables precise adjustment of the height / depth of the scraper relative to a tool to be machined. In the present disclosure, the terms "height" and "depth" are used interchangeably, referring to the adjustment of the scraper in the vertical direction relative to a workpiece to be machined.

[0008] In particular, the adjustment device can be designed to achieve a fine height adjustment of the scraper with a precision of 0.0005 mm. To achieve such precise adjustment, the motorized adjustment unit of the adjustment device can have a motor with a reduction gear designed to achieve a large reduction ratio; for example, the use of a reduction gear with a reduction ratio (i.e., ratio of gear input to gear output) of 188:1 is conceivable. Furthermore, the motorized adjustment unit with reduction gear can interact on the output side with an upper end of the slider in such a way that each motor revolution is converted into a vertical translational movement of 0.001 mm of the slider. Thus, the slider can be moved up or down by 0.001 mm with each motor revolution (depending on the direction of rotation of the motor).Furthermore, the slider can interact with the adjusting element at its lower end in such a way that the adjusting movement of the adjusting element in the vertical direction (height direction) is only 0.0005 mm (as described above) when the vertical slider is moved by 0.001 mm in the vertical direction.

[0009] The adjustment device described here is suitable for the high-precision, fully automatic adjustment of a scraper blade of a scraper unit; furthermore, the use of a reduction gear allows the motorized adjustment unit to be designed compactly, thus taking into account the limited installation space.Furthermore, by using the vertical slider described here, which transmits the rotary movement of the motorized adjustment unit to the adjustment element in the form of a translational movement proportional to the rotary movement, the motorized adjustment unit can be arranged spatially separate from the adjustment element; thus, the adjustment device described here is suitable for retrofitting to existing scraper units, since only the adjustment element has to be arranged on or near the scraper carrier and coupled to the scraper, while the vertical slider can be guided on a vertical outer side of the scraper unit, and the motorized adjustment unit can be mounted on the side opposite the scraper.

[0010] To convert the rotational movement of the motorized adjustment unit into a vertical translational movement of the slide, the vertical slide can be coupled at its upper end to a rotatable eccentric disc or to a translational adjustment cone of the motorized adjustment unit. For this purpose, the adjustment cone or the eccentric disc can be coupled to the reduction gear on the output side and have a first sliding surface that interacts with a second sliding surface of a sliding shoe attached to the upper end of the slide.

[0011] If the motorized adjustment unit has an eccentric disc, the second sliding surface of the slider's sliding shoe can slide along the first sliding surface of the eccentric disc, whereby the slider is moved vertically downwards or upwards by a predetermined amount (depending on the direction of rotation) depending on the rotation angle of the rotating eccentric disc. If, on the other hand, the motorized adjustment unit has a translational adjustment cone with a wedge-shaped first sliding surface, the second sliding surface of the sliding shoe can move along the wedge-shaped sliding surface of the translationally moving adjustment cone, whereby the slider is moved vertically downwards or upwards by a predetermined amount (depending on the translational movement of the adjustment cone). When using an adjustment cone with a wedge-shaped first sliding surface, the motor with reduction gear can be arranged at an incline of 10° with respect to a horizontal plane.

[0012] The adjustment element can be arranged substantially horizontally to the vertical slide. To convert the vertical movement of the slide into an adjustment movement for the scraper, the vertical slide can be coupled to the adjustment element at its lower end. According to one implementation, the adjustment element can be designed as a lever element that is coupled to the at least one vertical slide at a first (horizontal) end and is pivotally mounted at its second (horizontal) end, which is opposite the first end. Thus, the vertical translational movement of the slide is converted into a pivoting movement of the adjustment element; the adjustment movement is thus a pivoting movement that can be used to selectively raise or lower a scraper (with the accuracy of 0.0005 mm described above).

[0013] Alternatively, it is also conceivable for the substantially horizontal adjustment element to be vertically displaceable at its opposite horizontal ends. The at least one vertical slider can be coupled to the adjustment element to selectively raise or lower the adjustment element (with the accuracy of 0.0005 mm described above).

[0014] To transmit the adjustment movement to the scraper, a coupling element can be provided, which couples the adjustment element to the scraper or to a support element for the scraper. A (preloaded) threaded bolt, for example, can be used as the coupling element, which can be provided, for example, for manual coarse adjustment. Thus, the automatic adjustment device according to the invention can be combined with a manual coarse adjustment device for fine adjustment. Alternatively, it is also conceivable for the adjustment element of the adjustment device to be coupled directly to the scraper or to the support element of the scraper.

[0015] The adjustment device described here, with a vertical slider arranged between a motorized adjustment unit and an adjustment element for converting a rotary motion into a translational or pivoting motion, enables a compact adjustment device to be realized. The adjustment element can be easily integrated into the installation space of existing scraper units. Furthermore, the motor with gearbox can be arranged on the top side of the scraper unit, and the slider can be guided along the side of the unit to save space.

[0016] According to a second aspect of the invention, a scraper unit for machining a workpiece is provided, comprising: a tool carrier for releasably receiving a scraper, in particular a surface scraper; and the adjusting device according to one of the preceding paragraphs for finely adjusting the height (or depth) of the scraper with respect to a workpiece surface or workpiece edge to be machined.

[0017] The scraper unit can further comprise a sensing roller, which is provided for guiding the scraper mounted on the tool carrier over a workpiece surface or workpiece edge to be machined. The sensing roller and tool carrier can be mounted in a floating manner in the scraper unit. Furthermore, the scraper unit can comprise a coarse adjustment device, which is provided for manually presetting the height (depth) of the scraper relative to the fixed sensing roller.For example, a spring-threaded bolt device can be used as a coarse adjustment device, wherein the threaded bolt is coupled to the scraper or the scraper support element at a first end and has an adjusting nut at an end opposite the first end, and the spring (for example a helical spring) is arranged for pretensioning (pressurization) between the adjusting nut and the scraper support element; by manually actuating the adjusting nut, the threaded bolt can be tightened or lowered and thus a coarse adjustment of the scraper can be carried out.

[0018] In a particularly advantageous implementation, the threaded bolt can be coupled at its second end to the (horizontal) adjustment element of the adjustment device. This allows the fine adjustment via the motorized adjustment device described above to be combined with the manual coarse adjustment in a space-saving manner.

[0019] In addition, the scraper unit can comprise a first additional sensing roller, which is arranged upstream of the sensing roller in the feed direction of a workpiece, and / or a second additional sensing roller, which is arranged downstream of the sensing roller in the feed direction of the workpiece. The first additional sensing roller and / or the second additional sensing roller can have a smaller roller diameter than the sensing roller provided for guidance. In particular, the first additional sensing roller and / or the second additional sensing roller can be arranged (mounted) in the scraper unit offset (vertically) by a predetermined amount (for example by 0.1 mm or 0.2 mm) relative to the sensing roller. The additional, slightly offset sensing rollers can achieve gentle running up and down of the scraper unit at higher feed speeds, thus preventing damage to the workpieces to be machined during running up or down.Loading refers to the insertion of the workpiece into the scraper unit; unloading refers to the removal of the workpiece from the scraper unit.

[0020] According to a third aspect of the invention, a scraping device is provided, comprising an upper scraping unit and a lower scraping unit arranged opposite each other to simultaneously machine an upper surface and a lower surface of a workpiece; the upper scraping unit and the lower scraping unit may each be a scraping unit as described above.

[0021] Further advantages and aspects of the invention are further explained with reference to the following drawings. They show: Fig. 1 shows a scraper device according to the present invention; Fig. 2 an upper scraper unit of the scraper device according to Fig. 1; Fig. 3 an enlarged section of the upper scraper unit according to Fig. 2; and Fig. 4 an enlarged perspective view of the scraper unit according to Fig. 1.

[0022] Fig. 1 shows a scraping device 1000 according to the invention; this comprises an upper scraping unit 1 and a lower scraping unit 2, in each of which a scraper, such as a surface scraper 10, is accommodated. The two scraping units 1 and 2 are arranged opposite one another and interact in such a way that, with the aid of the opposing scrapers (surface scrapers) 10, a workpiece 3, which is inserted between the upper scraping unit 1 and the lower scraping unit 2 and is moved in the feed direction, can be machined simultaneously on its upper side (upper edge) 3a and underside (lower edge) 3b. The machining of an exemplary workpiece 3 is shown in FIG. Fig. 4 shown enlarged.

[0023] As further shown in the Fig. 1, the two units 1 and 2 can be constructed essentially identically; both units 1 and 2 can have the same components, such as, for example, an adjusting device 100 according to the invention for fine adjustment of the respective scraper blades 10 in the respective upper and lower units 1 and 2. In the following, only the upper unit 1 will be described further; it is understood that the lower unit 2 is constructed in a similar manner and functions in a similar manner.

[0024] In connection with the Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, the upper scraper unit 1 will now be described in more detail. This comprises a tool carrier 20 for detachably holding a scraper or surface scraper 10, a tracer roller 30 for guiding the scraper 10 held on the tool carrier 20 over a surface 3a of a workpiece 3 to be machined, a coarse adjustment device 40 and an automatic adjustment device 100. The tracer roller 30 and the tool carrier 20 can be mounted floating on a unit stand, so that the two units (see Fig. 1) can be adapted to the thickness of the workpiece 3 to be machined.

[0025] The coarse adjustment device 40 comprises a spring 42 and a threaded bolt 44; the threaded bolt 44 is coupled with its first end (axial lower end) to a block-shaped carrier element 22; the spring 42 can be a spiral spring through which the threaded bolt 42 is guided; the threaded bolt 44 and the spring 42 surrounding the threaded bolt 44 are guided in a recess (bore) 24 of the tool carrier 20; in particular, the spring 42 is arranged between a projection 25 projecting into the bore 24 (see Fig. 3) and the block-shaped support element 22. Furthermore, the threaded bolt 44 projects beyond the bore 24 of the tool carrier 20 with its second end opposite the first end and is coupled to an adjusting element 130 arranged above the tool carrier 20. The adjusting element 130 is part of the adjusting device 100 according to the invention and will be described in more detail below.

[0026] The threaded bolt 44 cooperates at its second (axially upper) end with an adjusting nut 46; the adjusting nut 46 is arranged above the adjusting element 130 on the threaded bolt 44, wherein the adjusting nut 46 rests on a bearing bushing 48 arranged on the upper side of the adjusting element 130. By manually actuating the adjusting nut 46, the threaded bolt 44 can be raised or lowered vertically without play. As a result, the block-shaped support element 22 and thus the scraper 10 mounted on the block-shaped support element 22 can be manually raised or lowered as required, whereby a rough adjustment of the height (depth) of the scraper 10 with respect to the feeler wheel 30 and thus with respect to the surface 3a of the workpiece 3 to be machined can be performed.

[0027] In addition to the manual coarse adjustment, according to the present invention, a fine adjustment of the scraper 10 (with a fineness in the range of 0.0005 mm) can be achieved fully automatically via the adjustment device 100. The adjustment device 100 is used in conjunction with the Fig. 2 further described.

[0028] The adjustment device 100 comprises a motorized adjustment unit 110, a slide 120, and the adjustment element 130 mechanically coupled to the threaded bolt 44. The adjustment element 130 is arranged above the tool carrier 20. The adjustment element 30 is designed as a lever element that is arranged essentially horizontally. The adjustment element 130 is coupled to the slide 120 at its first end; with its second end opposite the first end, the adjustment element 130 is pivotally mounted on a pivot support 25 arranged on the upper side of the tool carrier 20.

[0029] A counterbearing 27 (implemented, for example, by a compression spring guided in a pin) on or near the pivot support 25 can additionally be provided to prevent the adjusting element 130 from detaching from the underlying pivot support 25 when actuated by the slide 120. Furthermore, the adjusting element 130 can be additionally guided near its first end along a guide pin with a compression spring 29; overall, the pivot element 130, which interacts with the threaded bolt 44, is mounted and guided on the upper side of the scraper carrier 20 in such a way that a play-free pivoting of the adjusting element 130, and thus a play-free raising or lowering of the scraper 10, is realized by the adjusting device 100.

[0030] The slider 120 is arranged vertically between the motorized adjustment unit 110 and the adjustment element 130. It can be rod-shaped or plate-shaped and arranged in a space-saving manner along the outer housing 5 of the unit 1. The slider 120 is coupled at its first (upper) end to the motorized adjustment unit 110 and at its opposite second (lower) end to the adjustment element 130. It serves to transmit a movement provided by the motorized adjustment unit 110 (either rotational movement or translational movement) to the adjustment element 130, which is arranged at a vertical distance from the motorized adjustment unit 110, and thus triggers a pivoting movement on the adjustment element 130.

[0031] In order to transmit the movement provided by the motorized adjustment unit 110 to the slide 120, the slide 120 can have at its upper end a sliding shoe 122 with a second sliding surface 124, which engages with a first sliding surface 118 of a wedge-shaped adjustment cone 116 arranged on the output side of the motorized adjustment unit 110 (see Fig. 2) or the first sliding surface of an eccentric disc arranged on the output side. This allows the motor movement to be transferred into a vertical translational movement of the slide 120.

[0032] The motorized adjustment unit 110 is mounted at the upper end of the unit and is coupled to the adjustment element 130 via the vertically arranged slide 120. If the motorized adjustment unit 110 has a wedge-shaped adjustment cone 116 on the output side for transmitting the motor movement to the slide 120, the adjustment unit 110 can be designed inclined to a horizontal plane (for example, 10° inclination to the horizontal). The motorized adjustment unit 110 has an electric motor 112 and a reduction gear 114.The reduction gear 114 can be configured to significantly reduce the motor movement (for example, with a reduction ratio of 188:1); furthermore, the reduction gear 114 and the adjustment cone 116 can be configured and interact with the vertical slide 120 such that the vertical slide 120 is moved in the vertical direction by an amount of 0.001 mm per motor revolution (either raised or lowered depending on the motor rotation direction). Furthermore, the vertical slide 120 can interact (be coupled) with the pivoting element 130 such that the scraper is raised or lowered by an amount of 0.0005 mm when the slide 120 is raised or lowered by 0.001 mm.

[0033] Overall, the adjustment device described here enables fully automatic and precise fine adjustment of a scraper in a scraper unit 1, 2. The use of a motorized adjustment unit 110 with a reduction gear and slide 120 for transmitting the motorized movement to the adjustment element 130 also takes into account the limited installation space available in or near the scraper 10.

[0034] In connection with the enlarged section in Fig. 3, a further (optional) aspect of the invention is described. Thus, the scraper unit 1 (and likewise the lower scraper unit 2 in Fig.1) in addition to the sensing roller 30, two additional sensing rollers 50a, 50b; a first additional sensing roller 50a can be arranged in front of the sensing roller 30 in the feed direction of a workpiece 3 to be machined; a second additional sensing roller 50b can be arranged behind the sensing roller 30 in the feed direction of the workpiece 3 to be machined. Furthermore, the two additional sensing rollers 50a, 50b can be arranged slightly offset relative to the (larger) sensing roller 30. It is conceivable that the two additional sensing rollers 50a, 50b are arranged offset by 0.1 mm, preferably by 0.2 mm, relative to the larger sensing roller 30, which is responsible for guiding the workpiece along the workpiece to be machined. These additional sensing rollers 50a, 50b enable a gentle (successive) running up or down of the scraper unit when inserting or removing a workpiece to be machined.Running off means inserting the workpiece into the unit or removing the workpiece from the unit.

Claims

[1] Adjusting device (100) which is designed for the fine adjustment of a scraper (10), in particular a surface scraper (10), of a scraper unit (1, 2), wherein the adjusting device (100) comprises: a motorized adjustment unit (110); at least one slider (120) movable in the vertical direction by the motorized adjustment unit (110); and an adjusting element (130) coupled to the at least one vertical slider (120) and designed to convert the vertical movement of the slider (120) into an adjusting movement for automatic fine adjustment of the scraper blade (10). [2] Adjusting device (100) according to claim 1, wherein the adjusting device (100) is designed to move the scraper blade in the vertical direction without play. [3] Adjusting device (100) according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the adjusting device (100) is designed to realize a fine height adjustment of the scraper (10) with a precision of 0.0005 mm. [4] Adjusting device (100) according to one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the motorized adjusting unit (110) has a motor (112) with a reduction gear (114) which cooperates with the slide (120) at its upper end in such a way that with each motor revolution the slide (120) is moved by 0.001 mm in the vertical direction. [5] Adjusting device (100) according to claim 4, wherein the slider (130) cooperates at its lower end with the adjusting element (130) in such a way that the surface scraper is adjusted in height by 0.0005 mm by the adjusting element (130) when the vertical slider (120) is moved in the vertical direction by 0.001 mm. [6] Adjusting device (100) according to one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the vertical slide (120) is coupled at its upper end to an eccentric disc or to an adjusting cone (116) of the motorized adjusting unit (110) in order to convert a rotary movement of the motor of the adjusting unit (110) into a corresponding vertical translational movement of the slide (120). [7] Adjustment device (100) according to claim 6, wherein the motorized adjustment unit (110) is arranged inclined with respect to the vertical slide (120), in particular is arranged inclined by 10° with respect to a horizontal plane which is perpendicular to the vertical slide (120), when the motorized adjustment unit (110) is coupled on the output side to the adjustment cone (116). [8] Adjusting device (100) according to one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the vertical slider (120) is coupled at its lower end to the adjusting element (130) in order to transmit the vertical displacement to the adjusting element (130). [9] Adjusting device (100) according to one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the adjusting element (130) is coupled at its first end to the at least one vertical slider (120) and is pivotally mounted at its second end, which is opposite the first end. [10] Adjusting device (100) according to one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the adjusting element (130) is movably guided in the vertical direction at a first end and at its second end, which is opposite the first end. [11] Adjusting device (100) according to one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the adjusting element (130) is coupled to a coupling element (44) of a coarse adjustment device (40) for manual coarse adjustment of the scraper blade (10). [12] Scraper unit (1,2) for machining a workpiece (3), comprising: a tool carrier (29) for releasably receiving a scraper (10), in particular a surface scraper (10); and the adjusting device (100) according to one of claims 1 to 11 for fine adjustment of the height of the scraper (10) with respect to a workpiece surface to be machined. [13] Scraper unit (1, 2) according to claim 12, further comprising: a coarse adjustment device (40) for manually presetting the height / depth of the scraper (10) relative to a fixedly arranged sensing roller (30). [14] Scraper unit (1, 2) according to claim 12 or claim 13, further comprising: a feeler roller (30) for guiding the scraper (10) mounted on the tool carrier (20) over a workpiece surface or workpiece edge to be machined. [15] Scraper unit (1, 2) according to claim 14, further comprising: a first additional sensing roller (50a) arranged in front of the sensing roller (30) in the feed direction of a workpiece (3); and / or a second additional sensing roller (50b) which is arranged after the sensing roller (30) in the feed direction of the workpiece (3). [16] Scraper unit (1, 2) according to claim 15, wherein the first additional sensing roller (50a) and / or the second additional sensing roller (50b) is / are arranged vertically offset relative to the sensing roller (30) by a predetermined amount, preferably by 0.1 mm or 0.2 mm. [17] Scraper device (1000) comprising an upper scraper unit (1) and a lower scraper unit (2) which are arranged opposite one another in order to be able to machine an upper side and a lower side of a workpiece (3) simultaneously, wherein the upper scraper unit (1) and the lower scraper unit (2) are each a scraper unit according to the embodiment according to one of claims 12 to 16.

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