Heating system, loading / unloading loader, and heating method

Abstract

To provide a heating system, a loading / unloading loader, and a heating method which can reduce a heating time in workpiece heating by a stack-type heating apparatus.SOLUTION: A heating system 1 of the present invention comprises a heating furnace 10 and a loading / unloading loader 20. The heating furnace 10 includes a furnace chamber 11 for heating the inside, and a lid 14 that can open and close the furnace chamber 11. The loading / unloading loader 20 includes an arm 21 and a chuck 24 that can grasp a workpiece W and load and unload the same into and from the furnace chamber 11. The arm 21 and the chuck 24 are disposed so as to face the furnace chamber 11, and the lid 14 is opened and closed by the arm 21. With this configuration, in the heating system 1, the loading / unloading loader 20 opens the lid 14 when the workpiece W is loaded into or unloaded from the furnace chamber 11.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a heating system, a loading and unloading loader, and a heating method.

Background Art

[0002] Conventionally, a hot air conveyor type heating furnace (FIG. 13) has been used as a heating furnace for heating a workpiece for adhesive curing and holding it at a constant temperature in a temperature rising state. However, since the conveyor type takes up space, recently, the line area has been reduced by switching to a stack type heating device (registered trademark) or the like.

[0003] For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a heating device including a heating furnace in which a plurality of accommodation spaces for accommodating workpieces, which are box-shaped spaces opened at one end by a wall body, are arranged, and a conveying means for loading and unloading the workpieces through the openings of the accommodation spaces.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0004]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] In an apartment type heating device such as that of Patent Document 1, due to ease of loading and unloading workpieces, etc., it is used with the opening open. For this reason, heated air always flows out from the opening and normal temperature air flows in, which inhibits heating and increases the workpiece temperature rising time.

[0006] The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a heating system, a loading and unloading loader, and a heating method capable of shortening the heating time in workpiece heating by an apartment type heating device.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0007] The first aspect of the present invention is a heating system (1) including a heating furnace (10) and a loading and unloading loader (20).

[0008] The heating furnace has a furnace chamber (11) for heating the interior and a lid (14) capable of opening and closing the furnace chamber.

[0009] The loading and unloading loader has an arm (21) and a chuck (24) capable of gripping a workpiece (W) and loading and unloading it into and from the furnace chamber. The arm and the chuck are opposed to the furnace chamber, and the lid is opened and closed by the arm.

[0010] Under the above configuration, in the heating system, when loading and unloading the workpiece into and from the furnace chamber, the loading and unloading loader opens the lid.

[0011] The second aspect of the present invention is a loading and unloading loader (20) used in addition to a heating furnace (10) having a furnace chamber (11) for heating the interior and a lid (14) capable of opening and closing the furnace chamber.

[0012] The loading and unloading loader has an arm (21) and a chuck (24) capable of gripping a workpiece (W) and loading and unloading it into and from the furnace chamber. The arm and the chuck are opposed to the furnace chamber, and the lid is opened and closed by the arm.

[0013] Under the above configuration, the loading and unloading loader opens the lid when loading and unloading the workpiece into and from the furnace chamber.

[0014] The third aspect of the present invention is a heating method (S) using a heating furnace (10) having a furnace chamber (11) for heating the interior and a lid (14) capable of opening and closing the furnace chamber, and the following steps are performed by a loading and unloading loader (20).

[0015] The loading and unloading loader has an arm (21) and a chuck (24) capable of gripping a workpiece (W) and loading and unloading it into and from the furnace chamber. The arm and the chuck are opposed to the furnace chamber, and the lid is opened and closed by the arm.

[0016] In the loading stage (S1), the lid of the furnace chamber is opened, the workpiece is loaded, and then it is closed again. In the heating stage (S2), wait until the workpiece is heated by the heating furnace. In step (S3), the lid of the furnace chamber is opened, the heated workpiece is discharged, and then it is closed again.

[0017] With the heating system, the loading and unloading loader, and the heating method of the present invention, the heating time in workpiece heating by an apartment-type heating device can be shortened.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0018]

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Embodiments for Carrying Out the Invention

[0019] Embodiments of the heating system, the loading and unloading loader, and the heating method according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The following embodiments are applied to the process of bonding a cylindrical motor case and an MCU cover during the manufacture of an electric power steering motor, and heat-curing an adhesive by heating a workpiece W composed of the motor case and the MCU cover.

[0020] Fig. 1 shows an overall view of the heating device 1. The heating system 1 according to one embodiment includes a heating furnace 10, a loading and unloading loader 20, and a pedestal 30. The heating furnace 10 and the loading and unloading loader 20 are installed on the pedestal 30. In addition, a workpiece temporary placement 40 is provided near the heating furnace 10.

[0021] Regarding the three moving directions of the loading and unloading loader 20 shown in Fig. 1, when the X direction dX is defined as the front-rear direction, the Y direction dY is defined as the left-right direction, and the Z direction dZ is defined as the up-down direction, the heating furnace 10 is composed of a total of n×m furnace chambers 11 arranged in n stages vertically and m columns horizontally. In the heating furnace 10 of Fig. 1, 30 furnace chambers 11 arranged in 5 stages vertically and 6 columns horizontally are arranged in a mansion shape.

[0022] Fig. 2 shows the furnace chamber 11. The heating furnace 10 has a furnace chamber 11, a heater 12, a workpiece receiver 13, and a lid 14. The interior of the furnace chamber 11 is heated by the heater 12. The workpiece receiver 13 is provided inside the furnace chamber 11.

[0023] Three heaters 12 are embedded in the upper surface of the furnace chamber 11, three heaters 12 are embedded in the lower surface, and thin heaters 12 are also embedded between the walls separating the furnace chambers vertically. The three heaters 12 between the vertically adjacent furnace chambers 11 are shared between the adjacent furnace chambers 11, and the thin heaters 12 between the horizontally adjacent furnace chambers 11 are also shared between the adjacent furnace chambers 11.

[0024] In this embodiment, a commercially available stack-type heating device (registered trademark) is used for the heating furnace 10. Therefore, the configuration of the heater 12 is the same as that of the comparative example (prior art) shown in Fig. 12, and for example, Japanese Patent No. 7289161 can be referred to.

[0025] Figure 3 shows a lid 14 attached to the furnace chamber 11. In this embodiment, the lid 14 includes a lid lock 15 and a lid drive link 16. The lid lock 15 and the lid drive link 16 are configured to open and close the lid 14 by an arm 21, which will be described later.

[0026] The upper side portion of the lid 14 is pivotally hinged to a partition plate above the furnace chamber 11 and can be opened and closed from the lower side in a hinged door manner with the upper side portion as the rotation axis, so that the furnace chamber 11 can be opened and closed. The lid 14 is installed for each furnace chamber 11 and can be opened and closed for each furnace chamber 11.

[0027] A work receiver 13 is installed inside each furnace chamber 11. The work receiver 13 is shaped to stably place the work W according to the bottom surface shape of the work W. As will be described later, the work W is introduced into the furnace chamber 11 by an input / output loader and placed on the work receiver 13.

[0028] As shown in Figure 2, in the work W of this embodiment, a shaft (output shaft) protrudes from the lower surface of a cylindrical motor case, and on the corresponding work receiver 13 side, to avoid interference with the shaft, it has a recess capable of accommodating the shaft.

[0029] On the gantry 30, in front of the heating furnace 10, an input / output loader 20 that can move along the three directions (X direction dX, Y direction dY, Z direction dZ) shown in Figure 1 is installed, and a work temporary placement 40 is installed adjacent to the heating furnace 10. Note that a work receiver 13 is also installed on the work temporary placement 40.

[0030] In this embodiment, the input / output loader 20 inputs the work W placed on the work temporary placement 40 into an arbitrary empty furnace chamber 11 (work input). Then, the heated work W is taken out from another furnace chamber 11 and placed on the work temporary placement 40 (work output).

[0031] Note that in this embodiment, a control device (not shown) stores the time when each work W is introduced into each furnace chamber, etc., and manages the heating time of each work W.

[0032] The loading and unloading loader 20 has an arm 21 and a chuck 24. The arm 21 of the present embodiment has a configuration (lid lock release arrow 22 and engagement portion 23) corresponding to the configuration of the above-described lid 14 (lid lock 15 and lid drive link 16). That is, the lid lock 15 is released by the lid lock release arrow 22, and the engagement portion 23 engages with the lid drive link 16.

[0033] The chuck 24 can grip the workpiece W and load and unload it into and out of the furnace chamber 11. The loading and unloading loader 20 can move the arm 21 and the chuck 24 individually, and the arm 21 can also move the lid lock release arrow 22 and the engagement portion 23 individually.

[0034] That is, not only can the arm 21 and the chuck 24 move independently of each other in the front-rear direction and the vertical direction, but the lid lock release arrow 22 and the engagement portion 23 can also move independently of each other in the front-rear direction and the vertical direction.

[0035] The lid lock release arrow 22 interferes with the lid lock 15 to release the locked state. The engagement portion 23 engages with the lid drive link 16 to enable the lid drive link 16 to move, and further, it can move in the vertical direction while engaged with the lid drive link 16 to move the lid drive link 16 in the vertical direction.

[0036] Based on the above configuration, the loading and unloading operation of the workpiece W (heating method S) according to the present embodiment is performed in the following steps in detail. FIGS. 4 to 10 specifically show the operations of the lid 14 and the loading and unloading loader 20.

[0037] (Step 1) The loading and unloading loader 20 moves so that the arm 21 and the chuck 24 face the workpiece W on the workpiece temporary placement 40.

[0038] (Step 2) The chuck 24 advances, grips the workpiece W before heating on the workpiece temporary placement 40, and then retreats and waits until it is moved to the loading and unloading loader 20.

[0039] (Step 3) As shown in FIG. 4, the loading and unloading loader 20 moves so that the arm 21 and the chuck 24 face the target furnace chamber 11.

[0040] (Step 4) As shown in FIG. 5, the lid unlocking arrow 22 of the arm 21 advances and approaches the lid 14 attached to the target furnace chamber 11, interferes with the lid lock 15 of the lid 14 to release its locked state, and the engaging portion 23 of the arm 21 also advances and engages with the lid drive link 16. As a result, if the engaging portion 23 moves up and down, the lid drive link 16 will also move up and down in conjunction.

[0041] (Step 5) As shown in FIG. 6, when the engaging portion 23 rises to raise the lid drive link 16, the lid 14 is lifted from below and opens the furnace chamber 11 in a hinged manner.

[0042] (Step 6) As shown in FIG. 7, the chuck 24 that holds the workpiece W before heating advances and places the workpiece W on the workpiece receiver 13 in the opened furnace chamber 11. Then, as shown in FIG. 8, the chuck 24 retreats and waits.

[0043] (Step 7) As shown in FIG. 9, the engaging portion 23 that was raising the lid drive link 16 descends, closes the lid 14 that was lifted in a hinged manner, and closes the furnace chamber 11. Since the furnace chamber 11 is closed while the workpiece W introduced inside is being heated, the outflow of heated air and the inflow of normal-temperature air are blocked, preventing a decrease in heating efficiency. Then, as shown in FIG. 10, the arm 21 retreats and waits.

[0044] (Step 8) After the heating of the workpiece W is completed, the lid unlocking arrow 22 of the arm 21 advances again, approaches the lid 14 attached to the target furnace chamber 11, interferes with the lid lock 15 of the lid 14 to release its locked state, and the engaging portion 23 of the arm 21 also advances to engage with the lid driving link 16, and the engaging portion 23 and the lid driving link 16 are interlocked to be vertically movable (Fig. 9).

[0045] (Step 9) When the engaging portion 23 rises to raise the lid driving link 16, the lid 14 is lifted from below, and the furnace chamber 11 is opened in the form of a hinged door (Fig. 8).

[0046] (Step 10) The empty chuck 24 that is not gripping the workpiece W advances and grips the heated workpiece W on the workpiece receiver 13 in the opened furnace chamber 11 (Fig. 7). Then, the chuck 24 retreats, discharges the workpiece W while gripping it from the furnace chamber 11, and retreats to standby (Fig. 6).

[0047] (Step 11) The engaging portion 23 that has been raising the lid driving link 16 descends, closes the lid 14 that has been lifted in the form of a hinged door, and closes the furnace chamber 11. The furnace chamber 11 is closed until the target workpiece W is next loaded, preventing the outflow of heated air and the inflow of normal-temperature air to prevent a decrease in heating efficiency (Fig. 5).

[0048] (Step 12) The loading / unloading loader 20 moves so that the arm 21 and the chuck 24 face the workpiece W (the workpiece W before heating to be moved next) on the workpiece temporary placement 40 (Fig. 4).

[0049] (Step 13) The chuck 24 gripping the heated workpiece W advances and places the workpiece W on the empty workpiece temporary placement 40 on the workpiece temporary placement 40. Then, it retreats and waits until it is moved to the loading / unloading loader 20.

[0050] Note that step 8 corresponds to step 4, and step 9 corresponds to step 5. Similarly, step 10 corresponds to step 6, step 11 corresponds to step 7, and step 12 corresponds to step 1, respectively. Also, throughout these steps, a control device (not shown) manages the heating time of each workpiece W and controls the loading and unloading of the workpiece W.

[0051] Fig. 11 shows the heating method S. Among the three stages that make up the heating method S, the loading stage S1 corresponds to steps 4 to 7 described above, the heating stage S2 corresponds to the period between steps 7 and 8 described above, and the discharging stage S3 corresponds to steps 8 to 11 described above.

[0052] With the above configuration, the heating system, the loading / unloading loader, and the heating method of the present embodiment can shorten the heating time in workpiece heating by a condominium type heating device.

[0053] In a conventional condominium type heating furnace (Fig. 12) without the lid 14, the workpiece W placed on the workpiece receiver 13 in the furnace chamber 11 is considered to be heated by (a) heat conduction from the workpiece receiver 13, (b) heat radiation (thermal radiation) from the upper surface and side surfaces inside the furnace chamber 11, and (c) heat transfer by convection of the air inside the furnace chamber.

[0054] Here, in terms of process, there are restrictions in processing conditions such that the temperature of the workpiece W needs to be raised from room temperature to the curing temperature of 55°C of the present embodiment within 10 minutes and held for 25 minutes or more, and the set temperature of the heater 12 must be set below the heat-resistant temperature of the workpiece W.

[0055] Furthermore, in the present embodiment, since a commercially available stack type heating device (registered trademark) is used, there are also restrictions in the equipment structure such that the structure and dimensions of the furnace chamber 11 cannot be changed, and it is difficult to add a drive source to the furnace chamber 11.

[0056] Due to these constraints, it is difficult to improve the heating effect according to (a) and (b) above when shortening the heating time of the workpiece W. On the other hand, regarding (c), the heating effect can be improved by preventing the inflow of normal-temperature air and preventing the decrease in the ambient temperature.

[0057] Therefore, in the heating system, input / output loader, and heating method of this embodiment, an openable / closable lid 14 is retrofitted and added to each furnace chamber 11, and by making the furnace chamber 11 during workpiece heating a closed space, heat outflow is prevented and it is easier to maintain the ambient temperature.

[0058] Furthermore, when adding a lid 14 to each furnace chamber 11 of an apartment-type heating furnace, it is necessary to open and close the lid 14 for each furnace chamber 11 each time the workpiece W is loaded and unloaded, and it is also necessary to minimize the opening time. However, in this embodiment, since the operation of the input / output loader 20 is utilized to open and close the lid 14, it is possible to open and close the lid 14 of any furnace chamber 11 without complicated control.

[0059] (Other embodiments) In the above embodiment, the lid is fixed along the left-right direction and is configured to open and close from the lower side in a hinged-door manner. However, it is not necessary to be limited to this form. Even for the same hinged door, the opening and closing directions may be different, and it is not limited to the hinged-door type. A suitable opening and closing method according to the situation, such as a retractable type or a sliding door type (sliding type), can be applied.

[0060] As described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments at all, and can be implemented in various forms without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Explanation of reference numerals

[0061] 1 ··· Heating system 10 ··· Heating furnace, 11 ··· Furnace chamber, 14 ··· Lid 20 ··· Input / output loader, 21 ··· Arm, 24 ··· Chuck W ··· Workpiece

Claims

1. A heating furnace (10) having a furnace chamber (11) for heating the interior and a lid (14) capable of opening and closing the furnace chamber, An input / output loader (20) having an arm (21) and a chuck (24) capable of gripping a workpiece (W) and loading and unloading it into and from the furnace chamber, the arm and the chuck being opposed to the furnace chamber, and the lid being opened and closed by the arm, Comprising, A heating system (1) in which the input / output loader opens the lid when the workpiece is loaded into and unloaded from the furnace chamber.

2. An input / output loader (20) used in addition to a heating furnace (10) having a furnace chamber (11) for heating the interior and a lid (14) capable of opening and closing the furnace chamber, Having an arm (21) and a chuck (24) capable of gripping a workpiece (W) and loading and unloading it into and from the furnace chamber, the arm and the chuck being opposed to the furnace chamber, and the lid being opened and closed by the arm, An input / output loader that opens the lid when the workpiece is loaded into and unloaded from the furnace chamber.

3. A heating method (S) using a heating furnace (10) having a furnace chamber (11) for heating the interior and a lid (14) capable of opening and closing the furnace chamber, By an input / output loader (20) having an arm (21) and a chuck (24) capable of gripping a workpiece (W) and loading and unloading it into and from the furnace chamber, the arm and the chuck being opposed to the furnace chamber, and the lid being opened and closed by the arm, An input stage (S1) of opening the lid of the furnace chamber, loading the workpiece, and closing it again, A heating stage (S2) of waiting until the workpiece is heated by the heating furnace, An output stage (S3) of opening the lid of the furnace chamber, discharging the heated workpiece, and closing it again, A heating method to be performed.

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