Since the 21st century, in the field of sheet metal processing, CO2 laser cutting machines have been gradually replaced by fiber laser cutting machines. High-quality, high-precision, high-efficiency, large-format, and low-cost have become the development trend of fiber laser cutting machines. At the same time, as the shortcomings of enterprise labor costs and low labor efficiency continue to be highlighted, the automation of mechanical processing has emerged.
This article introduces the automatic loading and unloading equipment of fiber laser cutting machine. The equipment mainly includes movable raw material (finished product) trolley, frame parts, suction device, fork material device, etc., with automatic loading and unloading, angle layering, automatic The functions of feeding and discharging materials effectively reduce the dependence of the production process on people.
For the dual-working desktop fiber laser cutting machine, the structure of the supporting automatic loading and unloading equipment is shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2. It is controlled by a control system, which can realize the entire process of manual or automatic loading and unloading, and can achieve different lengths and widths. , Precise positioning of thickness plates.
The automatic loading and unloading equipment has an intelligent control system. The laser host works with the loading and unloading system. It can manually realize the advance and retreat of the raw material trolley, the advance and retreat of the finished trolley, the fork material retraction, the suction cup partition switch, the X-axis jog movement, and the Z-axis. Jog movement and other operations.
During automatic operation, the raw material trolley is pre-loaded—the raw material trolley is driven in, the finished product trolley is driven out—Z-axis down, suction cup suction—suction cup loading—exchange table—edge seeking, cutting—exchange table—finished product table Car driving-unloading to the table of the finished product trolley can realize a full-automatic cycle operation of a complete set of actions. The premise is that the cutting machine needs to send a loading or unloading signal to cooperate with the host.
The transmission of the beam on the frame can adopt two methods. One is to use imported high-precision linear guide rail as the guide, and the precision gear rack as the transmission device (Figure 3), which ensures the positioning accuracy and repeat positioning accuracy of the machine tool. The material direction (X-axis direction) can be parallel or perpendicular to the direction of the laser cutting machine body. It is controlled by a servo motor, which can accurately ensure that the fork material fork tooth pitch matches the laser table tooth pitch.
The other is to use chain sprocket transmission, with rollers or linear guides as guides, and sprocket to drive short-pitch precision roller chains to achieve transmission. The loading and unloading direction (X-axis direction) can only be the same as the laser cutting machine body. The direction is vertical, used for occasions where the transmission accuracy is not high, and it is also divided into two situations: ⑴The chain is fixed with the beam, and the sprocket and the motor are placed on the frame to drive the beam to move along the X axis, as shown in Figure 4. ⑵The chain is fixed to the frame, and the sprocket and the motor are placed on the beam to drive the beam to move along the X axis, as shown in Figure 5.
The structure of the suction device is shown in Figure 6. The plate is located on the raw material trolley, and the strong magnet on the raw material trolley separates the plates; the suction device is driven by the motor and moves horizontally to directly above the raw material trolley; the Z axis is driven by the motor , Move vertically downwards, the lower cavity of the balance cylinder is pressurized and exhausted, and the suction cup frame falls on the plate to be processed on the raw material trolley while the fork teeth are opened; the suction cup is vacuumed by the vacuum generator (holding the plate); The cylinder moves to turn the plate over to facilitate layering; the suction device moves up to a certain height while the fork teeth contract, and is driven by the X-axis motor and moves to the laser cutting machine exchange table directly above; the Z axis goes down, and the fork teeth are opened. The suction is lifted and the feeding work is completed.
The fork material device is mainly composed of the material fork extension drive mechanism, the material stopper, and the material fork. As shown in Figure 7, after the laser cutting machine completes the plate cutting process, the X-axis motor drives the fork material device to move to the exchange (lift) table Above, the Z axis goes down, the material fork expands and then contracts in the worktable pitch gap, and lifts the plate; the fork device goes up and is driven by the X-axis motor to the top of the finished product trolley; Z axis goes down, and the material fork opens , Put the processed plates on the finished product trolley; tighten the fork, and the fork device moves upward to complete the blanking operation.
The mobile trolley consists of a raw material trolley and a finished product trolley. As shown in Figure 8, the raw material trolley is responsible for placing unprocessed plates, and the finished product trolley is used to place processed plates, and the two vehicles are placed in categories. When placing large-format plates, considering the heavier weight of multiple plates placed on the trolley, the two mobile trolleys use sprocket and chain transmission to avoid friction transmission that is prone to slipping. If the sheet size is small, such as 3000mm×1500mm, and the weight is lighter, you can use the geared motor to drive the sprocket to rotate through the chain drive, so that the mobile trolley can realize the rolling operation of the roller.
The fiber laser cutting machine used in this design adopts a gantry structure, cast aluminum beams, Japanese high-precision linear guides, imported precision helical gear racks and lead screws to ensure positioning accuracy and repeat positioning accuracy. The control system can be freely selected, adopts the IPG fiber laser generator, and the follow-up system adopts a non-contact capacitive sensor. The cutting machine has the characteristics of fast response and high precision.
When the automatic loading and unloading equipment puts the plate to be processed on the exchange table of the laser cutting machine, the CNC system receives the material signal and moves the table with the plate under the laser cutting head to process the plate. After the processing is completed, the drive motor cooperates with the fork material device to complete the cutting operation.
⑴The suction cup is automatically loaded. In traditional manual feeding, for example, a 3m×1.5m sheet requires at least three workers to lift the sheet, and an electric hoist is needed to assist the feeding of heavy sheets. The time required for a sheet is at least three minutes, and the safety risk is very high. Big. After using the suction cup to automatically load the material, it only needs manual button operation, which takes 10 seconds to complete the material. Because the equipment's ergonomics and safety protection measures are in place, personal injury and safety accidents are zero, and the open type is very well avoided. Production is easy to cause harm to people, while improving work efficiency and reducing labor costs.
⑵It can meet the diverse needs of users. When the production site is narrow and long, the equipment can be loaded from the back of the fuselage workbench; when the site is relatively spacious, it can be loaded from the side of the fuselage; according to the different needs of users, it can meet diversified production conditions and achieve flexibility. It can also ensure compact structure and small floor space.
⑶ The overall system has a high degree of automation. The automatic loading and unloading equipment of the laser cutting machine can realize the cyclic operation of the whole process of plate loading-cutting-unloading through one-key operation. It can also be operated manually in a step-by-step manner. It can be matched with a three-dimensional material library to intelligently divide materials of different thicknesses. Layer management and easy control.
⑷The function can be expanded at any time to realize the production of multiple machines on the same line. One automatic loading and unloading equipment can load and unload multiple laser cutting machines. In the later stage, if the production is expanded, multiple units can be connected in parallel. Without changing the inherent structure, the number of cutting machines can be increased and the production capacity can be improved.
⑸The high degree of equipment automation can enhance the company's brand image and help strengthen the company's market competitive advantage.
The automatic loading and unloading equipment of the laser cutting machine occupies an important position in the automated production line. This design only provides a simple loading and unloading plan. With this as a reference, it can be derived from multiple laser cutting machines in parallel and equipped with a three-dimensional material library. Automatic loading and unloading program, I believe that laser automatic loading and unloading equipment will get better and better in the development of automation.
