Construction machine
10662618 ยท 2020-05-26
Assignee
Inventors
Cpc classification
E02F3/437
FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
E02F9/2041
FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
E02F3/32
FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
E02F9/2221
FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
E02F9/2271
FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
International classification
Abstract
To prevent increase/decrease in pump flow rate due to load variation with change in the posture of a work attachment and improve the operability in arm pushing operation. A hydraulic excavator 1 with a front mechanism including an arm 33 driven by a hydraulic actuator 43 through operation of an operating lever 50 includes: first and second angle sensors 37 and 38 which detect the posture of the arm 33; and a controller 49 which, when the posture of the arm 33 is at a remoter side from an upperstructure 20 than a preset position and the position of a bucket 35 is adjusted from a maximum or nearly maximum preset operation amount of the operating lever 50 in arm pushing operation by the operating lever 50, changes the flow rate characteristic of pressure oil in relation to discharge pressure of a hydraulic pump 41 for supplying pressure oil to the hydraulic actuator 43, to characteristic PTS with a higher flow rate than flow rate characteristic PT at the time of operation with an operation amount other than the above operation amount, to drive the hydraulic pump 41.
Claims
1. A construction machine comprising: an engine; a hydraulic pump driven by the engine; an arm cylinder driven by pressure oil discharged from the hydraulic pump; an arm operated by extension and shrinkage of the arm cylinder; a front mechanism including the arm and a work attachment attached to a tip of the arm; an operating device for operating the arm; and a control device for controlling a flow rate of the hydraulic pump based on an operation amount of operation by the operating device, wherein the construction machine includes: a posture sensor for detecting a posture of the arm; and a operation amount sensor for detecting the operation amount of the operating device, in case that the control device decides that the posture of the arm detected by the posture sensor has changed to a posture in a remoter position from a main body of the construction machine than a vertical position with respect to a ground, and that the operation amount detected by the operation amount sensor has changed from a maximum or nearly maximum preset operation amount to an operation amount toward a fine manipulation direction for positioning of the work attachment, the control device changes a flow rate characteristic of pressure oil in relation to discharge pressure of the hydraulic pump to a characteristic with a higher flow rate than a flow rate characteristic at time of operation with an operation amount other than the operation amount detected by the operation amount sensor, to drive the hydraulic pump.
2. The construction machine according to claim 1, wherein the posture sensor includes an angle sensor for detecting an angle of the front mechanism including the arm, and the control device detects the posture of the arm based on detection output of the angle sensor.
3. The construction machine according to claim 1, wherein the posture sensor includes a stroke sensor for detecting a stroke when the front mechanism is driven, and the control device detects the posture of the arm based on detection output of the stroke sensor.
4. The construction machine according to claim 1, wherein the front mechanism includes a boom which has the arm at a tip, and the control device includes: a bottom pressure sensor for detecting a bottom pressure of a hydraulic actuator for driving the boom; and a flow rate characteristic correction device for correcting the flow rate characteristic based on the pressure detected by the bottom pressure sensor.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
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DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
(12) Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described by taking examples, referring to drawings.
Example 1
(13)
(14) In
(15) The excavator mechanism 30 includes a boom 31, boom cylinder 32, arm 33, arm cylinder 34, bucket 35, and bucket cylinder 36. The boom cylinder 32 is a hydraulic actuator 43 for driving the boom 31. The arm 33 is pivotally supported in the vicinity of the tip part of the boom 31 in a rotatable manner and driven by the arm cylinder 34. The bucket 35 is pivotally supported on the tip of the arm in a rotatable manner and driven by the bucket cylinder 36. A first angle sensor 37 which detects the angle of the boom 31 with respect to the upperstructure 20 is provided at the connection between the boom 31 and upperstructure 20 and a second angle sensor 38 which detects the angle of the arm 33 with respect to the boom 31 is mounted on the connection between the boom 31 and arm 33.
(16) A hydraulic system 40 for driving the hydraulic actuators 43 such as the boom cylinder 32, arm cylinder 34, and bucket cylinder 36 is mounted over a swing frame 21 of the upperstructure 20. The hydraulic system 40 includes a hydraulic pump 41 as an oil pressure source which generates oil pressure (
(17) In
(18) The operating lever 50 generates an oil pressure pilot signal depending on operation input of the operating lever 50. This oil pressure pilot signal is sent to the control valve 42 to switch the flow rate/directional control valve inside the control valve 42 and supply discharged oil from the hydraulic pump 41 to the hydraulic actuator 43 to drive the hydraulic actuator 43. In addition, the lever operation amount of the operating lever 50 is detected according to pressures of the first and second pressure sensors 53a and 53b (operation amount sensors) which send an oil pressure pilot signal. Also, the pump discharge pressure sensor 48 is installed in the hydraulic conduit on the discharge side of the hydraulic pump 41 and the pump discharge pressure detected by the pump discharge pressure sensor 48 is sent to the controller 49. The controller 49 drives the pump torque control solenoid valve 45 according to the lever operation amount detected by the first and second pressure sensors 53a and 53b and the pump discharge pressure detected by the pump discharge pressure sensor 48, and controls the pilot pressure from the pilot pump 44 to control the discharge flow rate of the hydraulic pump 41 through the pump regulator 46.
(19) The controller 49 is a microcomputer system which includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), ROM (Read Only Memory), and RAM (Random Access Memory). The CPU includes a control section and a calculating section, in which the control section interprets commands and controls the control sequence of the program and the calculating section performs calculations. In addition, the program is stored in the ROM and a command which should be executed (a numerical value or a series of numerical values) is taken out of the ROM where the program is placed and expanded on the RAM to execute the program. The controller 49 electrically controls the entire hydraulic excavator 1 and various sections.
(20) Although one hydraulic actuator 43 is shown in
(21)
(22) The excavator mechanism posture calculating section 49a receives the angle signal for the boom 31 and the angle signal for the arm 33 from the first and second angle sensors 37 and 38. The excavator mechanism posture calculating section 49a calculates the posture of the excavator mechanism 30 from the angle signals received from the first and second angle sensors 37 and 38. During arm pushing operation to move the arm 33 toward the remote side (forward) by aerial movement, the posture of the excavator mechanism 30 as calculated by the excavator mechanism posture calculating section 49a, here the vertical position of the arm 33 with respect to the ground 65, is detected and when the arm 33 is at a remoter (forward) side from the vehicle body than this position, flow rate increase control in this example is performed. The vertical position with respect to the ground 65 will be described later and shown by sign A in
(23) Specifically, the pump torque increase amount calculating section 49b of the controller 49 receives a lever operation amount signal as an arm pushing operation amount 50a detected according to the first and second pressure sensors 53a and 53b. The pump torque increase amount calculating section 49b determines the amount of pump torque increase in relation to the lever operation amount from the calculated posture of the excavator mechanism 30 and the arm pushing operation amount 50a and sends a calculated pump torque increase amount signal to the pump torque output command value calculating section 49c. The pump torque output command value calculating section 49c sends a control signal appropriate to the increase in flow rate as determined according to the P-Q equivalent horsepower curve shown in
(24) The reason that the arm pushing operation speed in relation to lever manipulation is increased when stopping the arm 33 or work attachment at the desired position is as follows: for example, when trying to move the arm 33 from the position indicated by sign A in
(25)
(26) For this reason, in this example, at the time when the operating lever 50 is slightly retracted from full lever manipulation and the pilot pressure goes down, for example, to PB as shown in
(27) The second characteristic 62 which shows the relation between the arm pushing operation amount 50a and pump torque increase factor in
(28)
(29) On the other hand, if it is decided at Step S2 that the position of the arm 33 is at a remoter side from the vehicle body than the A position (Step S2: Yes), the arm pushing operation amount 50a is detected (Step S4). Then, comparison is made between the maximum arm pushing operation amount in a series of operations and the operation amount B corresponding to the pilot pressure PB (Step S5). The operation amount B is a preset threshold to start pump torque increase control. In this comparison, if the maximum arm pushing operation amount is not less than the preset operation amount B (Step S5: No), pump torque increase is made invalid (Step S3), as can be understood from the second characteristic 62, to quit this processing sequence.
(30) On the other hand, if the maximum arm pushing operation amount is less than the preset operation amount B (Step S5: Yes), comparison is made between the current arm pushing operation amount and the preset operation amount B (Step S6). Then, at the time when the current arm pushing operation amount becomes less than the preset operation amount B, namely when it is decided that the arm pushing operation amount 50a detected at Step S4 has changed from the maximum or nearly maximum preset operation amount B to the operation amount toward the fine manipulation direction for positioning of the bucket 35 (Step S6: Yes), the pump torque increase amount is calculated (Step S7) and according to the calculation result, a command is sent to the pump torque control solenoid valve 45 to increase the pump torque (Step S8) and then quit this control sequence.
(31) By performing control in this way, in the case of arm pushing operation with the posture of the arm 33 moving from the vertical position toward the remote side from the vehicle body as shown in
(32) In the case of arm pushing operation with the posture of the arm 33 moving from the vertical position toward the remote side from the vehicle body, the pump torque output command value calculating section 49c shifts the P-Q equivalent horsepower curve shown in
Example 2
(33)
(34) In
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(36) According to Example 2, since the position of the arm 33 can be detected from the calculated posture of the excavator, the pump torque increase amount can be calculated by the same procedure as in
Example 3
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(38) This example is different from Example 1 in that a third pressure sensor 53c is provided to detect the pressure of the bottom chamber of a hydraulic actuator 43bm corresponding to the boom cylinder 32 and the position of the boom 31 is detected from the pressure of the bottom chamber of the hydraulic actuator 43bm to calculate the pump torque increase amount and perform flow rate increase control. The other elements are the same as in Example 1 and the same elements or elements which can be considered as identical are designated by the same reference signs and repeated description thereof is omitted.
(39)
(40) In Example 3, a command value is calculated in consideration of the boom bottom pressure in addition to the command value calculated by the calculation method in Example 1 as shown in
(41) Therefore, in this example, when the boom bottom pressure is higher than a preset threshold, the pump torque increase amount is corrected. In
(42) The other control processes which are not described here are performed in the same way as in Example 1 and description thereof is omitted.
(43) As described so far, this embodiment brings about the following advantageous effects.
(44) (1) In this embodiment, a construction machine such as a hydraulic excavator 1 with a front mechanism (boom 31, arm 33, bucket 35, work attachment) including an arm 33 driven by a hydraulic actuator 43 through manipulation of an operating lever 50 as an operating device includes: a posture sensor which detects the posture of the arm 33; and a control valve 42, pump torque control solenoid valve 45, pump regulator 46, and controller 49 as control devices which, when the posture of the arm 33 is at a remoter side from an upperstructure 20 as a construction machine main body than a preset position and the position of the work attachment at the arm tip, for example, the bucket 35, is adjusted from a maximum (full lever) or nearly maximum preset operation amount (pilot pressure PB) of the operating lever 50 in arm pushing operation by the operating lever 50, change the flow rate characteristic of pressure oil in relation to discharge pressure of a hydraulic pump 41 for supplying pressure oil to the hydraulic actuator 43, to characteristic PTS with a higher flow rate than the flow rate characteristic PT at the time of operation with a operation amount other than the above operation amount, to drive the hydraulic pump 41.
(45) According to this structure, in the case that the arm 33 is operated toward the remoter side than the upperstructure 20 and the posture of the arm 33 is remoter than a preset position, when making the above position adjustment or performing stopping operation from the maximum or nearly maximum preset operation amount as the operation amount of the operating lever 50 in arm pushing operation by the operating lever 50, the flow rate characteristic of pressure oil in relation to the discharge pressure of the hydraulic pump 41 for supplying pressure oil to the hydraulic actuator 43 is changed to the characteristic PTS with a higher flow rate than the flow rate characteristic PT at the time of operation with a operation amount other than the above operation amount to drive the hydraulic pump 41, so the speed decrease amount of the arm 33 in relation to the decrease amount of the operating lever 50 can be made constant and behavior as imagined by the operator can be ensured, resulting in improvement in the operability in arm pushing operation.
(46) (2) In this embodiment, the posture sensor includes first and second angle sensors 37 and 38 as angle sensors which detect the angle of the front mechanism including the arm 33, and the controller 49 as a control device detects the posture of the arm 33 according to detection outputs of the first and second angle sensors 37 and 38.
(47) According to this structure, the posture of the front mechanism can be easily detected from the detection outputs of the first and second angle sensors 37 and 38.
(48) (3) In this embodiment, the posture sensor includes a boom stroke sensor 32a and an arm stroke sensor 34a as stroke sensors which detect the stroke when the hydraulic actuator 43 drives the front mechanism, and the controller 49 as a control device detects the posture of the arm according to detection outputs of the boom stroke sensor 32a and arm stroke sensor 34a.
(49) According to this structure, the posture of the front mechanism can be easily detected from the detection outputs of the boom stroke sensor 32a and arm stroke sensor 34a.
(50) (4) In this embodiment, the front mechanism includes a boom 31 with the arm 33 at a tip, and the control device includes: a third pressure sensor 53c as a bottom pressure sensor which detects the bottom pressure of the hydraulic actuator 43 (boom cylinder 32) for driving the boom 31; a third characteristic (table) 63 as a flow rate characteristic correction device which corrects the above flow rate characteristic according to the bottom pressure detected by the third pressure sensor 53c; and a controller 49.
(51) According to this structure, flow rate increase control in arm pushing operation can be performed in consideration of the position of the boom 31, so the operability in arm pushing operation can be further improved depending on the position of the boom 31.
(52) (5) In this embodiment, the preset position is set at the A position where the arm 33 is vertical to the ground 65.
(53) According to this structure, control is performed on the basis of the A position which is easily detected, so the operability in arm pushing operation can be improved by a simple control structure.
(54) The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the invention, and all technical matters included in the technical idea described in the claims are covered by the present invention. The above embodiment is a preferred example but those skilled in the art can make various alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements in the light of what is disclosed in this specification and these fall within the technical scope described in the appended claims.
REFERENCE SIGNS LIST
(55) 1 . . . hydraulic excavator (construction machine), 20 . . . upperstructure (construction machine main body), 31 . . . boom (front mechanism), 32 . . . boom cylinder, 32a . . . boom stroke sensor (stroke sensor), 33 . . . arm (front mechanism), 34a . . . arm stroke sensor (stroke sensor), 35 . . . bucket (front mechanism), 37 . . . first angle sensor (angle sensor), 38 . . . second angle sensor (angle sensor), 41 . . . hydraulic pump, 42 . . . control valve (control device), 43 . . . hydraulic actuator, 45 . . . pump torque control solenoid valve (control device), 46 . . . pump regulator (control device), 49 . . . controller (control device), 50 . . . operating lever (operating device), 53a, 53b . . . first and second pressure sensors (operation amount sensors), 53c . . . third pressure sensor, 63 . . . third characteristic