METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING BRUSHS AND BRUSH MANUFACTURING MACHINE

Description

[0001] The invention relates to a method for producing brushes and a brush manufacturing machine.

[0002] In the production of brushes, for example toothbrushes, household brushes or even paint brushes, it is common for a brush base to be successively transported to various processing stations, where a specific processing step is carried out at each. For example, several holes may be drilled into the brush base at one processing station, and bundles of bristles are stuffed into the holes at a subsequent work station. To adjust the brush bases, carriages are usually used which rotate along a predetermined path so that the bristle bases arranged on them are presented one after the other to the various stations for processing. In a simple example, the brush manufacturing machine has a loading station, a drilling station, a stuffing station and an unloading station.Four carriages can then be used, each of which is moved one station further with each cycle of the brush production machine. The carriages are usually attached to a drive element such as a common carrier or chain, which moves all carriages forward together.

[0003] DE 17 57 612 A1 discloses a brush drilling and tucking machine comprising at least one drilling and tucking tool and a carriage on which several workpiece holders are arranged, which can be pivoted in one direction. The number of drilling tools is equal to the number of tucking tools, and the number of workpiece holders is one less than the total number of these tools. During the first cycle of each machine cycle, a tucking tool, located in an edge position in the common axial plane, is located over an empty space. This tucking tool, which is not operating over the empty space, can be switched off so that it does not discharge any tufts of bristles.

[0004] In addition, DE 27 31 762 A1 discloses a method for manufacturing brushes that are produced in several sub-processing steps of varying processing times, whereby the individual workpieces are fed simultaneously to the successive processing stations at a predetermined rate. At the processing stations with comparatively long processing times, at least two identical sub-processing steps are performed simultaneously.

[0005] A disadvantage of the known machines is that a certain amount of time passes when moving the carriages from one processing station to the next, which has a negative impact on the productivity of the brush manufacturing machine.

[0006] To solve this problem, a brush manufacturing machine is known from DE 10 2014 103 599 A1, which is characterized by very short cycle times and thus high productivity. This known machine is described below using the Figures 1 to 3 described.

[0007] The brush manufacturing machine has a guide block 10 along which several carriages 12 can be adjusted in a rotating manner.

[0008] Several machining stations 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24 are arranged around the guide block 10. When the carriages 12 are adjusted around the guide block 10, they move past the machining stations.

[0009] The guide block 10 is provided with a guide 26, the function of which is to mount the slides 12 movably on the guide block 10. The guide 26 is intended, in particular, to ensure that the slides 12 are guided precisely and with as little tolerance as possible.

[0010] The guide 26 can, for example, be designed as a guide rail on which the carriages 12 are guided with rollers, rolling bearings or similar elements.

[0011] A drive device 28 is provided for adjusting the carriages 12, allowing each carriage to be moved individually around the guide block 10. The only limitation to the individual movement of the carriages is that no carriage can overtake another. Otherwise, each carriage can be moved individually and independently of the other carriages in terms of travel distance and speed.

[0012] The drive device 28 can, for example, be formed by a drive motor on each carriage 12, which is coupled to a drive element, for example, a drive wheel or a gear, which in turn interacts with a corresponding counter-element of the central guide block 10, for example, a track or a rack. The drive device 28 can also be designed as a linear motor assigned to the carriage and adjusting it contactlessly relative to the guide block 10. The drive device 28 can also be formed by several belt drives with which the carriages can be adjusted individually.By appropriately allocating the belt drives to the processing stations, it is possible to manage with fewer belt drives than there are slides, since in order to minimize the cycle time it is sufficient to adjust the slides individually and independently of each other in the area of ​​some processing stations, for example in the area of ​​the drilling and tamping station, while the slides can be adjusted synchronously (and thus by means of the same belt drive) from a removal station to a loading station without this having a negative impact on the cycle time.

[0013] The drive devices mentioned are merely examples and not an exhaustive list.

[0014] At least one clamping device 30 for a brush base body 32 is attached to each carriage 12. In the illustrated embodiment, two clamping devices 30 are used per carriage. If necessary, more clamping devices can be provided.

[0015] Each clamping device 30 can be pivoted or tilted about two axes. First, a pivoting device 36 is provided, with which each clamping device 30 can be pivoted about a pivot axis S. The pivot axis S is aligned parallel to the adjustment direction of the slides.

[0016] Furthermore, a tilting device 38 is provided, with which the clamping device 30 can be tilted about a tilting axis K. The tilting axis K is perpendicular to the adjustment direction V of the slides 12.

[0017] Furthermore, a height adjustment 40 is provided, with which the carrier 34 can be adjusted in the vertical direction relative to the carriage 12, i.e. in the direction of the double arrow H.

[0018] With reference to the orientation of the brush manufacturing machine as shown in the Figures 1 and 2 As shown, the height adjustment 40 adjusts the support 34 in the vertical direction, i.e. up and down. The tilting device 38 can adjust the clamping device 30 associated with it, with respect to Figure 1 , tilt clockwise and counterclockwise around the tilt axis K (see also the double arrow K in Figure 1 ). The pivoting device 36 can pivot the clamping device 30 associated with it, relative to Figure 1 , swivel clockwise and counterclockwise around the swivel axis S (see also the double arrow S in Figure 2 ).

[0019] References such as "above" or similar are intended solely as a reference to the figures. The brush manufacturing machine may later be arranged differently, since the guide 26 does not have to be located in a horizontally extending plane, as shown in the drawings.

[0020] For adjusting the carriages 12 along the guide 26, a control system 48, shown schematically here, is provided, which can be freely programmed as desired. Depending on the desired processing steps, the control system 48 controls the speed and the increments at which the carriages 12 adjust along the guide 26.

[0021] The processing stations can perform different processing steps. In one example, the processing station 14 can be a loading station where empty clamping devices 30 are loaded with brush base bodies 32 to be processed.

[0022] The processing station 16 here is a drilling station in which a drill 50 is used to drill holes into the brush base body 32 with a reciprocating movement along the direction of the double arrow B. The longitudinal adjustment of the brush base body 32 required for this purpose, i.e. along the adjustment direction V of the carriage 12 on the guide 26, is achieved by adjusting the carriage 12 in small steps relative to the processing station 16 by means of the drive device 28, specifically by the hole spacing for each column of holes to be drilled. In the vertical direction, the brush base bodies 32 are adjusted by means of the height adjustment 40, specifically by the hole spacing for each row of holes to be drilled.If the holes in the brush base body 32 are to be drilled in directions that are not parallel to each other, the brush base body 32 is pivoted and / or tilted in a suitable manner by means of the pivoting device 36 and the tilting device 38.

[0023] The processing station 18 here is a stuffing station in which a stuffing tool 52, in a reciprocating movement along the double arrow P, stuffs bundles of bristles 60, which are held ready in a storage box 54, into the holes of the brush base body 32. Here, too, the brush base body 32 is positioned relative to the stuffing tool 52 by appropriately controlling the drive device 28, the height adjustment device 40, the pivoting device 36, and the tilting device 38.

[0024] The processing station 20 can be a removal station in which the brush base body 32 provided with bristle bundles is removed from the clamping device 30 or simply ejected.

[0025] Depending on the processing steps to be performed by the brush manufacturing machine, additional processing stations may be used. For example, a trimming station may be provided in which the bristles 60 attached to the brush base body 32 are cut and / or ground to achieve a desired length and / or profile. In this case, the removal station 20 will, of course, be located behind the trimming station, viewed in the adjustment direction V.

[0026] The brush manufacturing machine can be coupled to an injection molding station, so that in an adjacent injection molding station the brush bodies are first injection molded or additional parts are molded onto previously manufactured brush bodies. From the injection molding station, these brush bodies are then transported manually or, preferably fully automatically, to the brush manufacturing machine and coupled into the loading station of the brush manufacturing machine. This can be done in various ways. If the carriers do not leave the brush manufacturing machine, the brush bodies are inserted into the carriers in the brush manufacturing machine. Furthermore, the carriers could also be inserted into the loading station of the manufacturing machine already loaded. In the embodiment shown, however, the carriers circulate in the brush manufacturing machine and therefore do not leave it.

[0027] It is also possible to equip the brush production machine "doubly," i.e., one half has a loading station, various processing stations, and an unloading station, and then the other half has another loading station, several processing stations, and an unloading station. This allows the number of brushes produced per cycle to be doubled.

[0028] A key feature of the described brush manufacturing machine is that a brush base body is pre-positioned before it is offered to the next processing station. This is done by Figure 3 explained. In Figure 3 The filling tool 52 can be seen filling the last holes of the brush body 32A with bundles of bristles. Since the bristles 60, viewed in plan view from Figure 3, are arranged in a fan shape, the bristle base body 32 must be tilted clockwise about the tilting axis K when it is guided past the stuffing tool 52 from left to right.

[0029] The next bristle base body 32B to be processed is pre-positioned accordingly by tilting it counterclockwise from a neutral position into the position shown before the carriage 12B carrying it reaches the processing station 18. In this position, the longitudinal axis L of the first hole to be filled in the brush base body B is aligned parallel to the filling direction P of the filling tool 52.

[0030] This pre-positioning can be done either during the feed movement from one processing station to the next or by briefly stopping immediately before the next processing station. This depends primarily on the distance between the processing stations and the time-consuming nature of the pre-positioning, which in turn also depends on the geometry of the brush to be produced.

[0031] When all holes of the brush base body 32A are filled with bristles, the carriage 12A is further adjusted in the adjustment direction V, and at the same time, the carriage 12B is also further adjusted in the adjustment direction V. Since the brush base body 32B is already "correctly" aligned, the stuffing tool 52 can continue working without any time delay. In practice, the brush base body 32B, in its pre-positioned state, can be moved much closer to the currently processed brush base body 32A than is possible in Figure 3 is shown. Then, as processing progresses from the brush base body 32A to the brush base body 32B, the brush base body 32B only needs to be adjusted minimally in the longitudinal direction (i.e., in the adjustment direction V). In the optimal case, the necessary adjustment movement is so small that the stuffing tool can continue working uninterrupted and the adjustment does not differ, or at least does not differ noticeably, from the adjustment required when stuffing one and the same bristle base body from hole to hole.

[0032] It can be seen that the cycle rate at which brush bases can be drilled and then fitted with bristles depends on the "slowest" of the two stations, drilling and plugging. Since each brush base requires as many holes to be drilled as there are to be plugged, neither of these two stations can work faster than the other. If it does, it must then wait until the other station is finished.

[0033] It has become apparent that drilling the holes is currently the bottleneck. Given that the drill chips must be removed from the hole and the fact that the material cannot be machined at an unlimited speed (with plastic brush bodies, there is a risk of the material melting), the processing limits have currently been reached with conventional drills and drilling techniques.

[0034] The object of the invention is to provide a method for producing brushes and a brush manufacturing machine with which the processing speed can be further increased.

[0035] To achieve this object, the invention provides a method for producing brushes by means of a brush producing machine according to claim 1 and a brush producing machine according to claim 8.

[0036] The invention is based on the fundamental idea of ​​dividing the work of drilling holes in the brush body between two or more drilling stations and reducing the cycle speed of the drilling stations according to the ratio of drilling stations to tamping stations. This makes it possible to drill the holes at two-thirds the cycle speed (if there are three drilling stations and two tamping stations), half the cycle speed (if there are twice as many drilling stations as tamping stations), or one-third, one-quarter, etc. of the cycle speed (if there are three, four, etc. drilling stations) used for tamping. This leaves sufficient time to drill the holes with standard drills without having to resort to complex techniques that could further increase the drilling speed.

[0037] "Cycle speed" means the rate at which a cycle (e.g., plugging a hole or drilling a hole) can be performed. For example, if there are two drilling stations at one plugging station, a cycle speed of 50 holes / sec. can be used for drilling and a cycle speed of 100 holes / sec. can be used for plugging. Accordingly, "cycle ratio" means the ratio of the number of different stations to each other and the resulting reduction in the cycle speed of the drilling stations relative to the cycle speed of the plugging stations.

[0038] If two drilling stations are present, one embodiment can provide for the hole pattern drilled by one of the drilling stations to correspond to the hole pattern drilled by the other drilling station, shifted by one row of holes. This reduces the effort required to program the drilling pattern, as the drills for both drilling stations can be adjusted synchronously. At most, a minor adjustment of the angular alignment of the brush base body is necessary if the alignment of the simultaneously drilled holes differs.

[0039] It can also be configured for all drilling stations to drill exactly the same hole pattern, but the brush base bodies are then adjusted further once a drilling station has drilled its portion of the hole pattern. This reduces the programming and control effort for the drilling stations, as only a single hole pattern needs to be programmed.

[0040] To further reduce the control effort, the drilling stations can be operated synchronously with each other.

[0041] The carriages are preferably moved simultaneously within the two drilling stations and the tamping station, i.e., synchronously from the first drilling station to the next, from the second to either the next or the tamping station, and from the tamping station to another processing station. This reduces the cycle times for completing a brush.

[0042] The invention is described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 a brush manufacturing machine from the prior art in a schematic plan view; Figure 2 schematically a section along the line II-II of Figure 1 ; Figure 3in an enlarged view, a processing station with a currently processed bristle base body and a pre-positioned bristle base body to be subsequently processed; and Figure 4 in a schematic plan view of a brush manufacturing machine according to the invention.

[0043] In Figure 4 An embodiment of a brush manufacturing machine according to the invention is shown. For the Figures 1 to 3 The same reference symbols are used for known components and reference is made to the above explanations.

[0044] The difference between the Figure 4 brush manufacturing machine shown and the one shown in the Figures 1 to 3 shown brush manufacturing machine is that in the embodiment according to Figure 4 two drilling stations are present, namely a drilling station 16A and a drilling station 16B.

[0045] The two drilling stations 16A, 16B, as well as the tamping station 18, are controlled by a controller 48.

[0046] Another difference between the brush manufacturing machine known from the state of the art and the one in Figure 4 The advantage of the brush manufacturing machine shown is that the brush manufacturing machine according to the invention provides a cycle divider module 49. This is integrated into the control system 48.

[0047] The cycle divider module serves to specify the cycle speed for the two drilling stations 16A, 16A, at a fixed reduction ratio relative to the cycle speed of the tamping station 18. This reduction ratio corresponds to the ratio of the number of drilling stations to the number of tamping stations. In the illustrated embodiment, one tamping station 18 and two drilling stations 16A, 16B are used. Accordingly, the cycle divider module 49 reduces the cycle speed of the tamping station 18 at a ratio of 2:1. In other words: The cycle speed of the drilling stations 16A, 16B is half the cycle speed of the tamping station.

[0048] The reduction ratio can be adjusted depending on the configuration of the machine, but is constant during machine operation.

[0049] In order to achieve a high overall cycle rate, each drilling station 16A, 16B drills half of the holes that must be drilled in a brush base body 32.

[0050] It can be provided that the brush base bodies 32 in the drilling stations 16A, 16B are moved synchronously with one another, so that the drilling station 16A drills the holes 1, 3, 5, 7, ... of a row of holes in one brush base body 32, while the drilling station 16B synchronously drills the holes 2, 4, 6, 8, ... of the same row of holes in another brush base body 32.

[0051] It may also be provided that the order in which one half of the holes is drilled by the drilling station 16A differs from the order in which the drilling station 16B drills "its" half of the holes.

[0052] It is particularly preferred that all drilling stations are operated synchronously, i.e., drill the same complete hole pattern simultaneously. This is demonstrated below using Figure 4 explained.

[0053] Considering a specific brush base moving along the guide, it first encounters drilling station 16B. This drills (in this example, at half the cycle speed of stuffing station 18) all the holes that need to be drilled on a bristle base. For example, it starts on the left side of brush base 32 and first drills all the holes on the left side.

[0054] After the drilling station 16B has drilled the last hole in the left half of the brush base body 32, the carriage is moved further so that a new brush base body 32 is fed to the drilling station 16B. Since the drilling station 16B always drills a complete hole pattern, the holes are now drilled on the right half of the brush base body 32, but on a "new" brush base body.

[0055] The "old" brush base body 32 has been transported to drilling station 16A, where the holes are now being drilled on the right half of the old brush base body.

[0056] When this is completed, the carriages are again advanced so that the drilling station 16A now drills the holes on the left side of the next brush base body, while the drilling station 16B drills the holes on the right side of a "new" brush base body.

[0057] What is crucial is that each drilling station has as much time available to drill "its" holes as the stuffing station needs to stuff all the holes of a brush base body 32 with bristles.

Claims

1. A method of brush manufacturing by means of a brush manufacturing machine having a guide (26) along which a plurality of slides (12) can be successively moved to a plurality of drilling stations (16A, 16B) and then to at least one tufting station (18), the drilling stations (16A, 16B) being operated simultaneously with the at least one tufting station (18), and the number of drilling cycles performed by each drilling station (16A, 16B) per unit of time being equal to the number of tufting cycles of the at least one tufting station (18) in the same unit of time, divided by the ratio of the number of drilling stations to the number of tufting stations, wherein the drilling of the holes in the brush base body is divided between two or more drilling stations and the cycle speed of the drilling stations is reduced in accordance with the ratio of the drilling stations to the tufting stations.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that exactly two drilling stations (16A, 16B) are provided, which are operated with half the cycle speed of the tufting station (18).

3. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that the hole pattern drilled by one of the drilling stations (16A, 16B) corresponds to the hole pattern drilled by the other drilling station (16B, 16A), shifted by one row of holes.

4. The method according to claim 3, characterized in that exactly three drilling stations (16) are provided, which are operated with one third of the cycle speed of the tufting station (18).

5. The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the drilling stations (16) are operated synchronously with each other.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterized in that all drilling stations (16A, 16B) drill exactly the same hole pattern, but the brush base bodies (32) are then shifted further when a drilling station has drilled a portion of the hole pattern corresponding to the cycle ratio.

7. The method according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that the slides (12) are simultaneously shifted further within the two drilling stations (16A, 16B) and the tufting station (18).

8. A brush manufacturing machine, in particular for carrying out the method according to any of the preceding claims, having a guide (26), a plurality of slides (12) which are adapted to receive one or more brush base bodies (32) and are adjustably received at the guide (26), a plurality of drilling stations (16A, 16B) and a tufting station (18), the guide (26) extending along the plurality of drilling stations (16A, 16B) and then along the tufting station (18), and having a control (48) including a cycle dividing module (49) which steps down a cycle speed of the tufting station (18) to a cycle speed of each drilling station (16A, 16B) which is an nth of the cycle speed of the drilling station (18), n being the number of drilling stations (16A, 16B) in relation to the number of tufting stations (18), wherein the drilling of the holes in the brush base body is divided between two or more drilling stations and the cycle speed of the drilling stations is reduced in accordance with the ratio of the drilling stations to the tufting stations.