Numerical control device and computer-readable storage medium

Abstract

This numerical control device: generates an image of a slide bar indicating the movable range of a shaft of a machine tool when the machine tool is in a manual operation mode; acquires a position of a slider on the slide bar; calculates the speed of the slider; and converts the speed of the slider into a command for the machine tool.

Description

Numerical control device and computer-readable storage medium

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a numerical control device and a computer-readable storage medium.

[0002] Numerical control devices have a manual operation mode that accepts manual input from the user to drive the machine tool. The user operates the input device to select an axis and input the amount of movement of the axis. A handle, dial, etc. are used to input the amount of movement. The amount of movement of an axis can also be input using a screen operation such as a touch panel. Conventionally, there have been numerical control devices that display a slide bar and accept input of axis override values. For example, see Patent Document 1.

[0003] International Publication No. 2022 / 249305

[0004] In conventional manual operation, the movable range of an axis is not clearly indicated, and the position of the axis within the movable range is unknown. While it is desirable to move the axis slowly near the limit of the movable range, it is difficult to do so because the movable range is unknown.

[0005] In the field of numerical control devices, there is a demand for improved ease of manual operation.

[0006] A numerical control device according to one aspect of the present disclosure includes a window generating unit that generates an image of a slide bar indicating the movable range of an axis of the machine tool when the machine tool is in manual operation mode, a speed calculating unit that acquires the position of a slider on the slide bar and calculates the speed of the slider, and a command unit that converts the speed of the slider into a command for the machine tool.

[0007] It is a block diagram of a numerical control device. It is a diagram showing an example of a slide bar. It is a diagram showing an example of a slide bar. It is a diagram showing an example of a slide bar. It is a flowchart explaining the operation of the numerical control device. It is a hardware configuration diagram of the numerical control device.

[0008] The following describes the numerical control device 100. Fig. 1 is a block diagram of the numerical control device 100. The numerical control device 100 includes a receiving unit 1, a setting unit 2, a window generating unit 3, a window output unit 4, a speed calculating unit 5, and a command unit 6.

[0009] The reception unit 1 is an interface that receives operation input from the input device 20. The input device 20 includes a mouse, a keyboard, a touch panel, etc. The touch panel has the functions of both the input device 20 and the display device 30.

[0010] The setting unit 2 accepts user settings. The settings include settings related to the mechanical configuration, settings related to the display, and settings related to the range of motion. Settings related to the mechanical configuration include the orientation and axis attributes (linear axis, rotation axis). Settings related to the display include the number of slide bars and their display positions. The mechanical configuration and the range of motion of the axes may be automatically obtained from parameters, programs, etc. The setting unit 2 also accepts settings for the precision limit. The precision limit is the minimum value of the amount of movement that can be specified with the slide bar. If the precision limit is 0.0001, a slide bar with a scale of 0.001 is displayed. The precision limit can be set by the user. For example, the precision limit can be set to 10 times or 100 times.

[0011] When the numerical control device 100 is in the manual operation mode, the window generation unit 3 references the setting information and generates a window that displays a slide bar. The window output unit 4 outputs the window generated by the window generation unit 3 to the display device 30. The display device 30 is an operation panel of the numerical control device 100. The operation panel is also called an MDI (Manual Data Input).

[0012] FIG. 2 shows an example of a slide bar 40. The slide bar 40 is mainly composed of a bar 41, which is a coordinate axis, and an icon called a slider 42. The coordinate axis is marked with a scale. The length of the bar 41 indicates the movable range of the axis. The left end of the bar 41 corresponds to the minimum value of the movable range. The right end of the bar 41 corresponds to the maximum value of the movable range. The scale of the bar 41 is the precision limit. Coordinates finer than the scale cannot be selected.

[0013] The speed calculation unit 5 acquires the position of the slider 42 at regular intervals while the user is operating the slider 42. The speed calculation unit 5 calculates the amount of movement of the slider 42 from the position of the slider 42. The speed calculation unit 5 divides the amount of movement of the slider 42 by the period to calculate the speed of the slider 42. The speed calculation unit 5 converts the speed of the slider 42 into an axial speed. The speed calculation unit 5 calculates the speed for one period or for multiple periods. When multiple sliders 42 are moved simultaneously, the speed calculation unit 5 calculates a combined speed. For example, when the X-axis and Z-axis slide bars are moved simultaneously, the combined speed of the speed in the X-axis direction and the speed in the Z-axis direction is calculated.

[0014] If the calculated speed exceeds the speed limit, the speed calculation unit 5 adjusts the axis speed to a value equal to or less than the speed limit. The window generation unit 3 adjusts the slider position to match the speed adjusted by the speed calculation unit 5.

[0015] The command unit 6 converts the speed into a command and outputs it to the drive unit 50. The drive unit 50 is a servo driver or the like, which drives the actuator of the machine tool to move the axis at the commanded speed.

[0016] The display of the slider 42 and the amount of movement of the axis of the machine tool are synchronized. By referring to the display of the slide bar 40, the user can grasp the position of the axis within the movable range.

[0017] The slide bar 40 visually represents multiple pieces of information. An example is shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 3 shows a three-axis machining center and a slide bar 40 for operating this machining center. In the example of FIG. 3, three slide bars 40 are arranged, one for the X-axis, one for the Y-axis, and one for the Z-axis. The direction of the bar 41 indicates the direction of the axis of the machining center. The minimum and maximum values ​​of the bar 41 indicate the movable range of the axis. The scale of the bar 41 indicates the precision limit of manual operation. The slider 42 indicates the current position (coordinate) of the axis within the movable range.

[0018] 3 has three bars 41 for the X axis, Y axis, and Z axis. The axis direction, axis orientation (plus or minus), and axis attribute (linear axis) are visually represented.

[0019] The bar 41 also includes a rotation axis. Figure 4 shows an example of a rotation axis. Figure 4 shows a five-axis machining center and a window for operating this machining center. In addition to the three axes of X, Y, and Z, the five-axis machining center in Figure 4 also has an A axis that rotates around the X axis and a C axis that rotates around the Z axis. In the example in Figure 4, a circular slide bar centered on the C axis and another circular slide bar centered on the A axis are displayed. The slider 42 indicates the current position (angle) of the axis.

[0020] As described above, the direction and orientation of the bar 41 resemble the axes of an actual machine tool. The window generating unit 3 acquires information about the mechanical configuration of the machine tool and generates an image of the slide bar. The information about the mechanical configuration may be set by the setting unit 2 or extracted from parameters.

[0021] FIG. 5 shows an example in which multiple slide bars 40 with different accuracy limits are displayed. On the X-axis in FIG. 4, two slide bars 40 with different accuracy limits (called auxiliary slide bars 40b) are displayed below a reference slide bar 40 (called main slide bar 40a). The accuracy limits of the two auxiliary slide bars 40b are 10 and 100 times that of the main slide bar 40a, respectively. The accuracy limit of the main slide bar 40a is 0.001, the accuracy limit of the first auxiliary slide bar 40b is 0.01, and the accuracy limit of the second auxiliary slide bar 40b is 0.1. The setting unit 2 accepts a magnification setting. It also accepts a setting for displaying / hiding the auxiliary slide bar 40b. If only a portion of the auxiliary slide bar 40b is displayed, it may be scrollable. The accuracy limit setting may be a numerical value rather than a magnification.

[0022] The operation of the numerical control device 100 will be described with reference to Fig. 6. When the manual operation mode is selected (step S1), the reception unit 1 acquires the position of the slider 42 from the display device 30 at regular intervals (step S2).

[0023] The speed calculation unit 5 calculates the speed of the slider 42. The speed of the slider is calculated by calculating the amount of movement of the slider 42 in one period from the previously acquired position of the slider 42 and the currently acquired position of the slider 42, and then dividing the amount of movement of the slider 42 by the period to calculate the speed of the slider 42 (step S3).

[0024] If the speed of the slider 42 exceeds the speed limit value, the speed calculation unit 5 adjusts the speed to be equal to or less than the speed limit value (step S4).

[0025] The command unit 6 converts the speed into a command and outputs it to the driving device 50 (step S5). The driving device 50 drives the actuator to move the axis at the commanded speed.

[0026] The window generating unit 3 refers to the setting and updates the window (step S6). In updating the window, the display position of the slider 42 is adjusted to match the command value of the command unit 6. This synchronizes the slider 42 displayed on the display device 30 with the position of the real axis.

[0027] When the user ends the manual operation mode (step S7; Yes), the updating of the slide bar 40 ends. When the user continues the manual operation mode (step S7; No), the processes of steps S2 to S7 are repeated.

[0028] As described above, the numerical control device 100 of this embodiment displays the slide bar 40 in the manual operation mode. The slide bar 40 indicates the current position of an axis within the movable range of the axis. This allows the user to grasp the current position of the axis within the movable range and move the axis slowly when it is near the limit of the movable range, and conversely, move the axis quickly when it is far from the limit of the movable range.

[0029] The direction of the slide bar 40 is similar to the mechanical configuration, so that the user can visually distinguish the axes. The slide bar 40 visually displays not only linear axes but also rotation axes.

[0030] The accuracy limit of the input is visually represented by the scale of the slide bar 40. The user intuitively understands that the scale represents the accuracy limit.

[0031] The accuracy limit can be changed by setting. The window generating unit 3 generates a slide bar 40 with fine (or coarse) scales according to the user's setting. The user can adjust the accuracy limit for manual operation.

[0032] The hardware configuration of a numerical control device 100 to which the present disclosure is applied will be described below. Fig. 7 is a hardware configuration diagram of the numerical control device 100. As shown in Fig. 7, the numerical control device 100 includes a CPU 111 that controls the entire numerical control device 100, a ROM 112 that records programs and data, and a RAM 113 for temporarily expanding data, and the CPU 111 executes a system program recorded in the ROM 112 via a bus.

[0033] The nonvolatile memory 114 is backed up by, for example, a battery (not shown), and the stored state is maintained even when the power supply to the numerical control device 100 is turned off. The nonvolatile memory 114 stores various data such as programs read from the external device 120 via the interfaces 115, 118, and 119 and operation inputs input via the input device 20. The nonvolatile memory 114 may store programs and data for executing the numerical control device 100 of this embodiment.

[0034] The interface 115 is an interface for connecting the numerical control device 100 to an external device 120 such as an adapter. Programs, various parameters, etc. are loaded from the external device 120. The interface 118 is an interface for connecting the numerical control device 100 to a display device 30 such as a liquid crystal display. The display device 30 displays various data loaded into memory, data obtained as a result of executing programs, etc. The interface 119 is an interface for connecting the numerical control device 100 to an input device 20 such as a keyboard or pointing device. The input device 20 passes commands, data, etc. based on operations by an operator to the CPU 111 via the interface 119.

[0035] Although the present disclosure has been described in detail, the present disclosure is not limited to the individual embodiments described above. Various additions, substitutions, modifications, partial deletions, etc. are possible in these embodiments without departing from the gist of the present disclosure or the gist of the present disclosure derived from the claims and their equivalents. Furthermore, these embodiments can also be implemented in combination. For example, in the above-described embodiments, the order of each operation and the order of each process are shown as examples and are not limited to these.

[0036] The following supplementary notes are further disclosed regarding the above-described embodiment and modified examples. (Supplementary Note 1) A numerical control device (100) includes, when the machine tool is in manual operation mode, a window generation unit (3) that generates an image of a slide bar (40) that indicates the movable range of an axis of the machine tool, a speed calculation unit (5) that acquires the position of a slider (42) on the slide bar (40) and calculates the speed of the slider (42), and a command unit (6) that converts the speed of the slider (42) into a command for the machine tool. (Supplementary Note 2) The speed calculation unit (5) calculates the amount of movement of the slider (42) per predetermined period from the position of the slider (42), and divides the amount of movement by the predetermined period to calculate the speed of the slider (42). (Supplementary Note 3) When the speed of the slider (42) exceeds the speed limit value of the axis, the speed calculation unit (5) adjusts the speed of the slider (42) to a value equal to or less than the speed limit value. (Supplementary Note 4) The window generation unit (3) adjusts the position of the slider (42) to match the speed adjusted to be equal to or less than the speed limit value. (Supplementary Note 5) The window generation unit (3) arranges the slide bar (40) so as to resemble the mechanical configuration of the machine tool. (Supplementary Note 6) The scale of the slide bar (40) indicates the accuracy limit of manual operation. (Supplementary Note 7) The numerical control device includes a setting unit (2) that accepts the setting of the accuracy limit, and the window generation unit (3) generates an image of the slide bar (40) marked with the scale of the set accuracy limit. (Supplementary Note 8) The window generation unit (3) generates images of multiple slide bars (40) with different accuracy limits. (Supplementary Note 9) The speed calculation unit (5) acquires the positions of multiple sliders (42) and calculates a composite speed. (Supplementary Note 10) The computer-readable storage medium (112, 113, 114) stores instructions for causing one or more processors (111) incorporated in the numerical control device (100) to execute processes for generating an image of a slide bar (40) indicating a movable range of an axis of the machine tool, acquiring a position of a slider (42) on the slide bar (40), calculating a velocity of the slider (42), and converting the velocity of the slider (42) into a command for the machine tool when the machine tool is in a manual operation mode.

[0037] REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 Numerical control device 1 Reception unit 2 Setting unit 3 Window generation unit 4 Window output unit 5 Speed ​​calculation unit 6 Command unit 40 Slide bar 41 Bar 42 Slider 111 CPU 112 ROM 113 RAM 114 Non-volatile memory

Claims

1. A numerical control device comprising: a window generating unit that generates an image of a slide bar indicating the movable range of an axis of a machine tool when the machine tool is in a manual operation mode; a speed calculating unit that obtains the position of a slider on the slide bar and calculates the speed of the slider; and a command unit that converts the speed of the slider into a command for the machine tool.

2. A numerical control device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said speed calculation unit calculates the amount of movement of the slider per predetermined period from the position of the slider, and calculates the speed of the slider by dividing said amount of movement by said predetermined period.

3. The numerical control device according to claim 1, wherein said speed calculation unit adjusts the speed of said slider to a value equal to or less than the speed limit value when the speed of said slider exceeds the speed limit value of the axis.

4. The numerical control device according to claim 3, wherein said window generating section adjusts the position of the slider in accordance with the speed adjusted to be equal to or less than said speed limit value.

5. The numerical control device according to claim 1, wherein said window generating section arranges a slide bar so as to resemble the mechanical configuration of said machine tool.

6. The numerical control device according to claim 1, wherein the scale of said slide bar indicates a precision limit of manual operation.

7. A numerical control device according to claim 1, further comprising a setting section for receiving a setting of a precision limit, wherein said window generating section generates an image of a slide bar marked with a scale representing the set precision limit.

8. The numerical control device according to claim 1, wherein the window generating section generates a plurality of slide bar images having different accuracy limits.

9. The numerical control device according to claim 1, wherein the speed calculation unit obtains the positions of a plurality of sliders and calculates a composite speed.

10. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions for causing one or more processors incorporated in a numerical control device to execute the following processes when a machine tool is in a manual operation mode: generate an image of a slide bar indicating the movable range of an axis of the machine tool; obtain the position of a slider on the slide bar; calculate the speed of the slider; and convert the speed of the slider into a command for the machine tool.

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