Painting equipment

Abstract

This invention provides a painting apparatus and painting booth that can narrow the range of motion of a robot arm equipped with a spray gun, even when painting workpieces with complex irregularities formed on their surface, thereby enabling the miniaturization of the painting booth. [Solution] The system comprises a workpiece support member that is rotatable around a first axis and swingable around a second axis perpendicular to the first axis, and a robot arm equipped with a spray gun.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a coating apparatus.

Background Art

[0002] A coating apparatus characterized by including a work support member rotatable around a main shaft and a robot arm equipped with a spray gun, and a coating booth including the coating apparatus are disclosed in Patent Document 1. The coating apparatus of Patent Document 1 has the advantage that since the work is rotated during coating, the operating range of the robot arm equipped with the spray gun can be narrowed to improve the coating efficiency. Further, the coating booth including the apparatus has the advantage of being miniaturized because the operating range of the robot arm is narrow.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] Although the coating apparatus of Patent Document 1 improves the coating efficiency of bumpers, when coating a work having complex irregularities formed on its surface, such as a recent tire wheel, simply rotating the work around the main shaft causes a problem that the operating range of the robot arm becomes wide and improvement of the coating efficiency and miniaturization of the coating booth cannot be achieved. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide a coating apparatus and a coating booth capable of narrowing the operating range of a robot arm equipped with a spray gun even when coating a work having complex irregularities formed on its surface, and thus achieving miniaturization of the coating booth. <00,00028>

Means for Solving the Problems

[0005] To solve the above problems, the present invention provides a painting apparatus characterized by comprising a workpiece support member that is rotatable around a first axis and swingable around a second axis perpendicular to the first axis, and a robot arm equipped with a spray gun. By rotating the workpiece around the first axis and simultaneously oscillating it around the second axis, the range of motion of the robot arm equipped with the spray gun can be narrowed even when painting a workpiece with complex irregularities formed on its surface. The present invention provides a paint booth equipped with the above-described painting apparatus. Because the range of motion of the robotic arm equipped with the spray gun is limited, the paint booth can be made smaller. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the spray gun is directed towards the exhaust port of the paint booth. By directing the spray gun towards the exhaust vent of the paint booth, it is possible to prevent paint mist from scattering inside the paint booth. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0006] [Figure 1] This is a diagram showing the configuration of a paint booth equipped with a paint apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. (a) is a top view, and (b) is a view of (a) as indicated by arrow bb. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0007] A painting apparatus and a painting booth equipped with the painting apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described. As shown in Figure 1, multiple paint booths 1 are discretely arranged along the transport path A of the workpiece W. The paint booths 1 are open to the transport path A. An exhaust port 2 is formed at the innermost part of each paint booth 1, and an exhaust fan 4 is attached to an exhaust duct 3 that extends upward from the exhaust port 2. Inside the paint booth 1, a rod-shaped workpiece support member 5a, a drive device 5b that rotates the workpiece support member 5a around its longitudinal axis, and a drive device 5c that swings the workpiece support member 5a around a horizontal axis passing through the lower end of the workpiece support member 5a are arranged. A robot arm 5d equipped with a spray gun is positioned at the part of the transport path A facing the paint booth 1. The spray gun of the robot arm 5d is directed towards the exhaust port 2 of the paint booth 1. The paint apparatus 5 is formed by the workpiece support member 5a, the drive device 5b, the drive device 5c, and the robot arm 5d equipped with the spray gun. A conveyor (not shown) for transporting workpieces W is installed in transport path A, and a robotic arm 6 for workpiece handling is installed in a location close to the paint booth 1.

[0008] The operation of the painting apparatus 5 and the painting booth 1 will be explained. A workpiece W, which is a tire wheel with complex irregularities formed on its surface, is transported by a conveyor, and a robot arm 6 grasps the workpiece W and attaches it to a workpiece support member 5a inside the paint booth 1. The drive unit 5b operates to rotate the workpiece W, and the drive unit 5c operates to swing the workpiece W toward and toward the spray gun of the robot arm 5d. The rotation and swing of the workpiece W are performed continuously or intermittently by predetermined angles. As a result, the relative angle between the complex uneven surface of the workpiece W and the spray gun changes in a complex manner, and the complex surface is evenly coated by the paint sprayed from the spray gun without increasing the range of motion of the robot arm 5d. The painting device 5 can paint workpieces W with complex irregularities without increasing the range of motion of the robot arm 5d, thus allowing the painting booth 1 to be made smaller. Since the paint is sprayed from the spray gun towards the exhaust port 2 of the paint booth 1, the paint mist does not scatter inside the paint booth 1, but is immediately discharged from the paint booth 1 through the exhaust port 2, exhaust duct 3, and exhaust fan 4. [Industrial applicability]

[0009] This invention is widely applicable to painting equipment and paint booths. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0010] 1. Paint booth 2 Exhaust vents 3. Exhaust duct 4 Exhaust Fans 5. Painting equipment 5a Work support member 5b Drive unit 5c drive unit Robot arm equipped with a 5D spray gun 6. Robot Arm A Conveyor path Double job

Claims

1. A painting apparatus characterized by comprising a workpiece support member that is rotatable about a first axis and swingable about a second axis perpendicular to the first axis, and a robot arm equipped with a spray gun.

2. A paint booth characterized by comprising the painting apparatus described in claim 1.

3. The paint booth according to claim 2, characterized in that the spray gun is directed towards the exhaust port of the paint booth.

Images