Pivot-Arm Tool Magazine Layout for Narrow Machine Installations
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing demand for tool magazines in machine tools for metal machining poses a critical challenge in efficiently utilizing available space without significantly expanding the transverse distance to adjacent machines or installations.
Innovation Solution
A tool magazine design featuring a horizontal tool storage device with a loader that includes a pivotable arm with two linear axes and two pivot axes, allowing tools to be oriented transversely and transported through a narrow passage, minimizing the required installation width and enabling high tool density without increasing the machine tool's lateral distance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If tools are stored horizontally in a traditional tool magazine, then tool storage capacity is improved, but the transverse distance to adjacent machines increases
Solution Approach 1:
The tool magazine reorients tool storage from a horizontal arrangement extending in the transverse direction to a vertical arrangement utilizing the vertical dimension. Tools are stored with their axes oriented vertically, allowing the magazine to extend upward rather than outward, thereby increasing storage capacity without increasing the transverse footprint.
Solution Approach 2:
The loader arm incorporates pivotable joints that enable dynamic repositioning of tools from vertical storage orientation to horizontal transfer orientation. The arm can pivot around a first pivot axis to move tools vertically and around a second pivot axis to orient tools horizontally during transfer, allowing flexible adaptation between storage and transfer configurations.
2Area of stationary object
If a narrow transport passage is used to minimize installation width, then space utilization is improved, but tool transfer complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The loader arm uses pivotable joints with two pivot axes to dynamically reorient tools during transfer. The first pivot axis enables vertical movement, while the second pivot axis enables horizontal orientation adjustment. This dynamic repositioning capability allows the system to navigate the narrow passage efficiently while maintaining tool accessibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The loader arm acts as an intermediary mechanism between the vertical tool storage and the horizontal tool transfer path. It mediates the orientation transformation by first positioning tools vertically from storage, then pivoting them to horizontal orientation for transfer to the machine tool, thereby bridging the spatial and orientational gap in a compact configuration.
Data Source
AI summary
A tool magazine including a rack type tool storage device in which all tools are horizontally arranged along a transport passage facing away from a machine tool. A loader links the tool magazine with the machine tool. For this purpose, the loader comprises a linear drive device for a horizontal movement along the transport passage as well as another linear drive device for a vertical movement inside the transport passage. In addition, the loader includes a pivot arm, which can be pivoted around the vertically orientated pivot axis by means of a pivot drive. On its free end the pivot arm supports a gripper, which is specifically pivotably supported around a vertical second pivot axis on the arm. A control device coordinates the two linear drives and the two pivot drives, so that tools can be transferred first out of the tool storage device into tool removal passages provided therein and then into the transport passage.