Injection molding control device

Abstract

This injection molding control device controls an injection molding machine having a plurality of drive units, and comprises: an automatic operation setting unit that creates an automatic operation procedure by setting an execution order of a plurality of unit operations set in advance for the plurality of driving units; an automatic operation execution unit that executes the automatic operation procedure; a manual operation instruction unit that allows a user to instruct the execution of a selection operation selected from the plurality of unit operations; and a permission determination unit that determines whether to permit execution of the instructed selection operation on the basis of the automatic operation procedure when the selection operation is instructed by the manual operation instruction unit.

Description

Injection molding control device

[0001] The present invention relates to an injection molding control device.

[0002] An injection molding machine has multiple drive units that respectively drive movable members such as a mold, a core, and an ejector. An injection molding control device that controls the injection molding machine produces molded products by sequentially executing the operations of these drive units. To prevent interference between movable members, the injection molding control device can be configured to check the operating status of one drive unit when operating other drive units and determine whether the drive unit is operable (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

[0003] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2022-23586

[0004] Setting conditions (operating states of other drive units) for determining whether or not each of the multiple drive units in an injection molding machine can operate is extremely cumbersome. Therefore, an injection molding control device that can easily prevent interference between movable parts is desired.

[0005] An injection molding control device according to one aspect of the present disclosure is an injection molding control device that controls an injection molding machine having a plurality of drive units, and includes an automatic operation setting unit that creates an automatic operation procedure by setting the execution order of a plurality of unit operations that are set in advance for the plurality of drive units, an automatic operation execution unit that executes the automatic operation procedure, a manual operation instruction unit that allows a user to instruct the execution of a selection operation selected from the plurality of unit operations, and an permission determination unit that, when the selection operation is instructed by the manual operation instruction unit, determines whether to allow the execution of the instructed selection operation based on the automatic operation procedure.

[0006] 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of an injection molding machine equipped with an injection molding control device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. 2 is a list of unit operations set in the injection molding control device of FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an automatic operation procedure in the injection molding control device of FIG. 1; FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an automatic operation procedure different from that of FIG. 3 and FIG. 4.

[0007] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of an injection molding machine 1.

[0008] The injection molding machine 1 includes a clamping device 10 that separably holds the fixed mold M1 and the movable mold M2, an injection device 20 that injects molten resin into a cavity formed between the fixed mold M1 and the movable mold M2, and an injection molding control device 30 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure that controls the operation of the clamping device 10 and the injection device 20.

[0009] The mold clamping device 10 defines a cavity between the fixed mold M1 and the movable mold M2 by clamping the fixed mold M1 and the movable mold M2 in close contact with each other, and opens the cavity by separating the fixed mold M1 and the movable mold M2, allowing the manufactured resin molded product to be removed. The mold clamping device 10 includes a mold drive unit 11 that moves the movable mold M2, a first core drive unit 12 and a second core drive unit 13 that drive the first core C1 and the second core C2, respectively, inserted into the movable mold M2, and an ejector drive unit 14 that drives an ejector E that pushes the resin molded product out of the movable mold M2. Such a mold clamping device 10 is well known, so a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

[0010] The injection device 20 melts the resin by heating and pressurizing it, and then ejects the molten resin. The injection device 20 has a cylinder 21, a screw 22 housed in the cylinder 21, and an injection motor 23 that rotates the screw 22. Such an injection device 20 is well known, so a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

[0011] The injection molding control device 30 may be realized by one or more computers having, for example, a memory, a processor, an input / output interface, etc., and executing an appropriate control program. The injection molding control device 30 includes an automatic operation setting unit 31, an automatic operation execution unit 32, a manual operation instruction unit 33, and an permission determination unit 34. Note that these components of the injection molding control device 30 categorize the functions of the injection molding control device 30, and do not necessarily have to be clearly distinguishable in terms of physical configuration and program configuration.

[0012] The automatic operation setting unit 31 creates an automatic operation procedure by setting the execution sequence of multiple unit operations that are preset for the multiple drive units 11, 12, 13, and 14. Figure 2 shows a list of the unit operations that are set. In this embodiment, with respect to the mold clamping unit 10, four unit operations are set for the mold drive unit 11: mold opening midway stop, mold opening completion, mold closing midway stop, and mold closing completion. Two unit operations: first core pull and first core set are set for the first core drive unit 12. Two unit operations: second core pull and second core set are set for the second core drive unit 13. Three unit operations: ejector intermediate advance, ejector advance, and ejector retract are set for the ejector drive unit 14. The automatic operation setting unit 31 can set unit operations not only for the mold clamping unit 10 but also for the injection unit 20. Furthermore, if the injection molding machine 1 further includes an auxiliary device that, for example, supplies insert parts or removes resin molded products, the automatic operation setting unit 31 may set unit operations related to such auxiliary device.

[0013] The automatic operation setting unit 31 provides a graphical user interface for creating an automatic operation procedure by arranging icons representing unit operations on the screen in the order in which they should be performed, as shown in Fig. 3. The automatic operation setting unit 31 can also set parallel operations by arranging icons in parallel, as shown in Fig. 4.

[0014] The automatic operation execution unit 32 executes the automatic operation procedure created by the automatic operation setting unit 31. That is, the automatic operation execution unit 32 instructs the mold clamping unit 10 and the injection unit 20 to operate in accordance with the automatic operation sequence.

[0015] The manual operation instruction unit 33 is configured to allow a user to instruct the execution of a selected operation selected from a plurality of unit operations. The manual operation instruction unit 33 may be configured to display a plurality of icons each representing a unit operation on a touch panel, for example, in a selectable manner on a display device, and determine that when a user selects one of the icons, an instruction to execute the selected operation indicated by the icon has been given. Alternatively, the manual operation instruction unit 33 may be configured to accept an instruction for the selected operation via an operation panel having a physical switch on which an icon is displayed.

[0016] When a selection operation is instructed by the manual operation instruction unit 33, the permission determination unit 34 determines whether or not to permit the execution of the instructed selection operation based on the automatic operation procedure. Therefore, it is not necessary to set a condition for permitting or prohibiting execution for each unit operation, and therefore interference between movable members such as the movable mold M2, cores C1 and C2, and ejector E can be easily prevented.

[0017] The permission determination unit 34 may be configured to permit the execution of a selection operation for the drive units 11, 12, 13, 14, in which one or more unit operations other than the drive units 11, 12, 13, 14 related to the selection operation are set to be executed before the selection operation in the automatic operation procedure, when the unit operation set to be executed before the selection operation and closest in order to the selection operation has been completed. In an appropriately set automatic operation procedure, when the unit operation to be executed last before the selection operation selected for each drive unit 11, 12, 13, 14 has been completed, the execution of the selected selection operation does not result in interference between the movable members M1, C1, C2, E. Therefore, by permitting the execution of the selection operation when the unit operation set to be closest in order to the selection operation has been completed, interference between the movable members M1, C1, C2, E can be avoided. If the execution of the selection operation is not permitted, the permission determination unit 34 first executes the unit operation for which completion is the execution permission condition as the selection operation, thereby enabling the selection operation that was not initially permitted to be executed. The permission determination unit 34 may exclude, for example, unit operations of the drive unit that cannot cause interference with the injection device 20, etc., from the execution permission conditions for the selected operation.

[0018] 3, for example, "mold opening completion" is set as the first operation, "ejector advance" as the second operation, "first core pull" as the third operation, "first core set" as the fourth operation, and "ejector retreat" as the fifth operation. Here, when "ejector retreat" is specified as a selected operation, for the mold drive unit 11 and the first core drive unit 12, which are set to execute one or more unit operations prior to the selected operation other than the ejector drive unit 14 related to "ejector retreat," the completion of "mold opening completion" and "first core set," which are set prior to the selected operation and closest to the selected operation, is set as a condition for permitting the execution of the selected operation "ejector retreat."

[0019] The permission determination unit 34 may be configured to permit the execution of a selection operation when, in the automatic driving procedure, no unit operation is set to be executed before the selection operation for any of the drive units in the automatic driving procedure, the unit operation set to be executed after the selection operation for the drive unit that is not set to execute before the selection operation in the automatic driving procedure has been completed. The drive units 11, 12, 13, and 14 that do not operate before the selection operation in the automatic driving procedure do not prevent the execution of the selection operation in the state before the automatic driving procedure is started. In a repeatedly executed automatic driving procedure, the state in which the execution of the last unit operation set for each of the drive units 11, 12, 13, and 14 has been completed becomes the initial state when the automatic driving procedure is started. Therefore, the safety of the selection operation can be ensured by checking the completion state of the unit operation set to be executed after the selection operation. Note that drive units that are not set in the automatic driving procedure at all are maintained in a state where they do not interfere with other drive units, at least at the time the user first selects the selection operation, and therefore may not be a condition for permitting the execution of the selection operation.

[0020] For example, in the automatic operation procedure shown in Figure 3, when "ejector advance" which is set as the second selected operation is instructed, in addition to "mold opening completion" of the mold driving unit 11 which is set before the selected operation, "first core pull" and "first core set" which are set for the first core driving unit 12 after "ejector advance", and which is set last, are set as conditions for allowing the execution of "ejector advance" as the selected operation.

[0021] The permission determination unit 34 may exclude whether or not the execution of a unit operation of the drive units 11, 12, 13, 14 associated with a unit operation set to be executed in parallel with the selection operation in the automatic operation procedure has been completed from the conditions for permitting the execution of the selection operation. It can be determined that the completion of the unit operation set to be executed in parallel with the selection operation in the automatic operation procedure or the completion of the selection operation does not matter which comes first. Therefore, by excluding whether or not the execution of a unit operation that can be executed in parallel with the selection operation has been completed from the conditions for permitting the execution of the selection operation, it is possible to prevent unnecessary prohibitions on the execution of the selection operation.

[0022] For example, in the automatic operation procedure of Figure 4, "first core set" is set as the first operation, "second core set" as the second operation, "mold opening completion" as the third operation, "first core pull" and "second core pull" in parallel as the fourth operation, "ejector advance" as the fifth operation, and "ejector retreat" as the sixth operation. When "first core pull" is specified as the selected operation, the unit operation of the second core drive unit 13 associated with "second core pull" that is set to be executed in parallel with "first core pull," i.e., "second core set" that is set as the second operation, is excluded from the conditions for permitting execution of the selected operation. Therefore, the conditions for permitting execution of "first core pull" as the selected operation based on this automatic operation procedure are the completion of "mold opening completion" and "ejector retreat."

[0023] When two or more selection actions are set in the automatic driving sequence, the permission determination unit 34 may be configured to permit the execution of the selection action when any of a plurality of conditions for permitting the execution of the selection action based on each selection action is satisfied. In such a case, since it can be determined that a plurality of conditions for safely executing the selection action have been clarified, the execution of the selection action can be permitted when any of the conditions is satisfied, thereby preventing the prohibition of unnecessary selection actions.

[0024] For example, in the automatic operation procedure of Fig. 5, "mold opening completion" is set as the first, "ejector advance" as the second, "first core pull" as the third, "first core set" as the fourth, "ejector retract" as the fifth, and "first core pull" again as the sixth. When the "first core pull" set as the third and sixth is selected as a selected operation, "mold opening completion" and "ejector advance" become execution permission conditions for the selected operation when the third "first core pull" is used as the reference, and "mold opening completion" and "ejector retract" become execution permission conditions for the selected operation when the sixth "first core pull" is used as the reference. Therefore, in this automatic operation procedure, the completion of "mold opening completion" and the completion of execution of "ejector advance" or "ejector retract" are set as execution permission conditions for the "first core pull" as a selected operation.

[0025] As described above, in an injection molding machine 1 using an injection molding control device 30 equipped with an permission determination unit 34 that determines whether or not to allow the execution of a specified selected operation based on an automatic operation procedure, there is no need to separately set conditions for determining whether or not each unit operation is possible, so interference between parts can be easily prevented.

[0026] The following supplementary notes are further disclosed regarding the above-described embodiments and modified examples. (Supplementary Note 1) The injection molding control device (30) controls an injection molding machine (1) equipped with a plurality of drive units (11, 12, 13, 14), and includes: an automatic operation setting unit (31) that creates an automatic operation procedure by setting an execution order of a plurality of unit operations that are set in advance for the plurality of drive units (11, 12, 13, 14), an automatic operation execution unit (32) that executes the automatic operation procedure, a manual operation instruction unit (33) that allows a user to instruct the execution of a selection operation selected from the plurality of unit operations, and a permission determination unit (34) that, when a selection operation is instructed by the manual operation instruction unit (33), determines whether to permit the execution of the instructed selection operation based on the automatic operation procedure.

[0027] (Supplementary Note 2) In the injection molding control device (30) of Supplementary Note 1, for the drive units (11, 12, 13, 14) other than the drive units (11, 12, 13, 14) related to the selection operation in the automatic operation procedure, the permission determination unit (34) may permit the execution of the selection operation when the unit operation set in the order closest to the selection operation in the automatic operation procedure among the one or more unit operations has been completed.

[0028] (Supplementary Note 3) In the injection molding control device (30) of Supplementary Note 1 or 2, when none of the unit operations for any of the drive units (11, 12, 13, 14) are set to be executed before the selection operation in the automatic operation procedure, the permission determination unit (34) may permit the execution of the selection operation when the unit operation that is set to be executed after the selection operation for the drive unit (11, 12, 13, 14) that is not set to be executed before the selection operation in the automatic operation procedure has been completed.

[0029] (Supplementary Note 4) In the injection molding control device (30) of any of Supplementary Notes 1 to 3, the permission determination unit (34) may exclude, from the conditions for permitting the execution of the selected operation, whether or not the execution of the unit operation for the drive units (11, 12, 13, 14) related to the unit operation that is set to be executed in parallel with the selected operation in the automatic operation procedure has been completed.

[0030] (Appendix 5) In the injection molding control device (30) of any of Appendices 1 to 4, when the selection action is set two or more times in the automatic driver sequence, the permission determination unit (34) may permit the execution of the selection action when any of a plurality of conditions for permitting the execution of the selection action based on each selection action is satisfied.

[0031] (Supplementary Note 6) In the injection molding control device (30) of any one of Supplementary Notes 1 to 5, the plurality of drive units (11, 12, 13, 14) may include a mold drive unit (11), a core drive unit (12, 13), and an ejector drive unit (14).

[0032] Although the present disclosure has been described in detail above, the present disclosure is not limited to the individual embodiments described above. Various additions, substitutions, modifications, partial deletions, etc. are possible to these embodiments without departing from the gist of the present disclosure or the gist of the present disclosure derived from the content of the claims and their equivalents.

[0033] REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 injection molding machine 10 mold clamping device 11 mold driving unit 12 first core driving unit 13 second core driving unit 14 ejector driving unit 20 injection device 30 injection molding control device 31 automatic operation setting unit 32 automatic operation execution unit 33 manual operation instruction unit 34 permission determination unit

Claims

1. An injection molding control device that controls an injection molding machine having multiple drive units, comprising: an automatic operation setting unit that creates an automatic operation procedure by setting the execution order of multiple unit operations that are set in advance for the multiple drive units; an automatic operation execution unit that executes the automatic operation procedure; a manual operation instruction unit that allows a user to instruct the execution of a selective operation selected from the multiple unit operations; and an permission determination unit that, when the selective operation is instructed by the manual operation instruction unit, determines whether to permit the execution of the instructed selective operation based on the automatic operation procedure.

2. The injection molding control device described in claim 1, wherein the permission determination unit permits the execution of the selected operation when, for a drive unit other than the drive unit related to the selected operation in the automatic operation procedure, the unit operation set in the order closest to the selected operation among the one or more unit operations has been completed, in which the one or more unit operations are set to be executed before the selected operation.

3. An injection molding control device as described in claim 1 or 2, wherein, when none of the unit operations are set to be executed before the selected operation for any of the drive units in the automatic operation procedure, the permission determination unit permits the execution of the selected operation when a unit operation that is set to be executed after the selected operation for a drive unit that is not set to be executed before the selected operation in the automatic operation procedure has been completed.

4. An injection molding control device as described in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the permission determination unit excludes whether or not the execution of a unit operation for the drive unit associated with the unit operation that is set to be executed in parallel with the selected operation in the automatic operation procedure has been completed from the conditions for permitting the execution of the selected operation.

5. An injection molding control device as described in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the permission determination unit permits the execution of the selection action when the selection action is set two or more times in the automatic driving sequence and any one of a number of conditions for permitting the execution of the selection action based on each of the selection actions is satisfied.

6. An injection molding control device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the plurality of drive units include a mold drive unit, a core drive unit and an ejector drive unit.

Images