Gantry loader with gripper and energy store

Abstract

A gantry loader having at least one carriage travelable at a horizontal guide rail, in particular for the transport of workpieces between stations of a production system, wherein the carriage has at least one drive. The present energy is characterized in that the carriage has an energy store for the at least partial energy supply of the drive.

Claims

1. A gantry loader configured for transport of a workpiece between stations of a production system, comprising: a horizontal guide rail; and a carriage being travelable at the horizontal guide rail and having at least one drive; wherein the carriage has: an energy store configured to supply energy to the at least one drive; a gripper for gripping the workpiece; and a component that is at least also movable in a vertical direction, the gripper being mechanically supported by the component such that the gripper and the workpiece gripped by the gripper are moved in the vertical direction by a corresponding movement of the component; and wherein the gantry loader has an energy supply device contactlessly supplying the energy store in the carriage with electrical energy through one or more induction coils contactlessly transmitting electrical power to the energy store.

2. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 1, wherein the gantry loader is a linear gantry or an area gantry and wherein the horizontal guide rail is supported via one or more supports.

3. The gantry loader of claim 1, wherein the energy store is replaceable, and a change station is provided for replacement of the energy store.

4. The gantry loader of claim 1, wherein a control of the carriage transmits status data to a control of the gantry loader.

5. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 1, wherein the energy supply device supplies the carriage with energy permanently or in every travel position, an energy supply section of the energy supply device extending over a total length of the horizontal guide rail.

6. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 1, wherein the energy supply device supplies the carriage with energy intermittently or in travel sections, using energy supply sections arranged in a plurality of travel positions or travel sections.

7. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 6, wherein the energy supply device supplies the carriage with energy in at least one work position above a station of a manufacturing system, the at least one work position being used by the carriage to place down or pick up the workpiece and for charging; or wherein the energy supply device supplies the carriage with energy in at least one parking position, the carriage being traveled into the at least one parking position for charging by a control depending on a charge status or at predefined points in time in a charge cycle.

8. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 1, wherein the energy supply device is dimensioned such that a peak power provided by the energy supply device is lower than a maximum power consumption of the carriage.

9. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 1, wherein the carriage is operable at least at times only via the energy of the energy store.

10. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 1, having a cableless data transmission system for communication with the carriage, wherein the data transmission system has a slit hollow conductor that extends along the horizontal guide rail and cooperates with an antenna arranged at the carriage.

11. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 1, wherein the carriage has a control for the at least one drive receiving commands or synchronization data from a control of the gantry loader, the at least one drive being controlled by the control of the carriage by feedback control.

12. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 1, wherein the carriage has an autonomous lubrication system having a lubricant container for a supply of at least one mechanical axle or at the least one drive with a lubricant.

13. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 1, wherein the at least one drive is configured for traveling the component that is at least also movable in the vertical direction.

14. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 13, wherein the component that is at least also movable in the vertical direction comprises a vertically movable toothed rack driven via the at least one drive or a robot arm having at least one rotational axis driven by the at least one drive.

15. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 1, further comprising two or more carriages that are movable along the horizontal guide rail, wherein the carriage is included in the two or more carriages.

16. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 1, wherein the at least one drive is configured for traveling the carriage along the horizontal guide rail.

17. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 1, wherein the carriage comprises a first drive configured for traveling the carriage along the horizontal guide rail and a second drive for traveling the component that is at least also movable in the vertical direction and wherein the energy store is configured to supply energy to the first and second drives.

18. The gantry loader in accordance with claim 16, wherein the at least one drive is configured to drive a drive element of the carriage that meshes with a toothed rack of the horizontal guide rail.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

(1) FIG. 1 shows the basic design of the embodiments of a gantry loader in accordance with the present disclosure in a perspective view.

(2) FIG. 2 shows a first specific embodiment of a gantry loader in accordance with the present disclosure in a side view.

(3) FIG. 3 shows a second specific embodiment of a gantry loader in accordance with the present disclosure in a side view.

(4) FIG. 4 shows the second embodiment shown in FIG. 3 in a frontal view along the extent of the guide rail.

(5) FIG. 5 shows a third specific embodiment of a gantry loader in accordance with the present disclosure in a side view.

(6) FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of a communication system in a side cut.

(7) FIG. 7 schematically shows elements of an embodiment of a gantry loader.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(8) FIG. 1 shows the basic design of the embodiments of the gantry loader in accordance with the present disclosure. The following explanations therefore also apply in the same manner to the specific embodiments shown in FIGS. 2 to 7.

(9) The embodiment of the gantry loader has a horizontally extending guide rail 2 at which a carriage 1 is travelable. The guide rail 2 is supported by a support 10 and extends beyond a plurality of stations 9 of a manufacturing system.

(10) The stations 9 of the manufacturing system can be machine tools and/or a feed device and/or removal device for workpieces.

(11) At least one vertically travelable component 25 that carries at least one gripper 3 is provided at the carriage 1. Workpieces can be removed from above from a station of the manufacturing system via these components, can be traveled to the next station by traveling the carriage 1 along the guide rail 2, and can there in turn be fed to the station from above. The gripper or grippers 3 can either directly grip one or more workpieces or can grip a workpiece holder such as a pallet.

(12) As shown schematically in FIG. 7, the carriage 1 has at least one drive 17 via which the carriage is travelable along the guide rail 2. In the embodiment, the guide rail 2 has a toothed rack 15 which meshes with a drive element 16 of the carriage 1. The drive element 16 can be a pinon and/or a worm, for example. The drive element 16 is driven by the at least one drive 17 of the carriage 1. The carriage 1 further has guide rollers 14 providing horizontal and vertical support of the carriage on the guide rail 2.

(13) The carriage furthermore has at least one drive via which the vertically travelable component 25 is travelable.

(14) The carriage 1 typically has still further drives, in particular for actuating the gripper 3 and/or for moving the gripper 3 relative to the carriage and/or relative to the vertically travelable component 25.

(15) In the embodiment, the vertically travelable component 25 is formed by a linear axle that has a drive 30 via which it can be vertically driven. A toothed rack 32 can, for example, be provided that meshes with a drive element 31 of the carriage, such that the component 25 is hereby vertically travelable at the carriage. Further, guide rollers 33 for the component 25 may be provided.

(16) In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the carriage 1 is designed as a so-called H configuration in which two vertical linear axles 25 are coupled to one another and are traveled in parallel. Such a design is in particular of advantage for the transport of long workpieces.

(17) Alternatively, a robot arm having a plurality of pivot axles and/or rotational axles can also be used as the vertically travelable component. A six-axis industrial robot can, for example, be arranged at the carriage, for example hanging or laterally at the carriage.

(18) In the embodiment, the gantry loader furthermore has a safety pan and/or oil pan 11 that is arranged beneath the carriage 1. The safety pan and/or oil pan 11 extends along the travel path of the workpieces and has openings in the region of the stations 9 of the manufacturing system via which the workpieces can be removed from the respective station or can be transferred to the respective stations. The other regions of the manufacturing system are hereby protected from falling workpieces and/or from dripping oil. Such a safety pan and/or oil pan is optional.

(19) The gantry loader and/or manufacturing system has a control cabinet 7 in which the control 6 for the gantry loader is arranged. The control of the gantry loader permits a synchronous control of the gantry loader and of the stations of the manufacturing system.

(20) In accordance with the present disclosure, the carriage 1 has an energy store 5 which serves the energy supply of at least one drive of the carriage. The energy store can either serve to support an energy supply of the carriage or can be configured so that the carriage is supplied at least intermittently with energy completely via the energy store.

(21) In the embodiment, the schematically shown control 4 of the carriage 1 is configured such that an energy recovery is possible from the movement of the carriage or from the movement of a component of the carriage. The recovered energy is then stored in the energy store 5 and is thus available again for operating the carriage.

(22) On the one hand, braking energy that is acquired on the deceleration of the carriage and/or from components of the carriage can be stored here. Alternatively or additionally, the potential energy that becomes free on the lowering of a component of the carriage in the vertical direction can also be recovered and stored. The energy that becomes free on the lowering of the vertically travelable component 25 can in particular be recovered and stored.

(23) The drive of the carriage or of the component can simultaneously be used as a generator and can therefore be used for the drive or for the recovery of energy depending on the operating phase. The control 4 of the carriage can in particular be correspondingly configured.

(24) The drive in the embodiment is an electric drive. The energy store is an electrical energy store. A supercap and/or a rechargeable battery can in particular be used as the electrical energy store. The electric drive can be an electric motor and/or an electrical linear axle. The drive of the carriage and of all of its components takes place electrically. Hydraulic units and/or pneumatic units can hereby be dispensed with.

(25) The carriage 1 in the embodiment is furthermore equipped with its own lubricant system that comprises a lubricant tank 18. No more external lubricant feed lines are hereby required. The drive elements 16 and 31 may be provided with lubricant from the lubricant tank 18 by lubricant lines 19.

(26) The gantry loader in the embodiment furthermore has a contactlessly working energy supply for the carriage. The energy supply can be used to charge the energy store 5 and/or for the energy supply of one or more drives of the carriage. The contactlessly working energy supply makes use of induction. The gantry loader can in particular have one or more induction coils that cooperate with one or more induction consumers at the carriage to supply the carriage with energy.

(27) The use of a contactless energy supply has the advantage that the previously required supply chain for supplying the carriage 1 can be dispensed with. A considerably higher flexibility in the design and in particular in the extension of the gantry loader is hereby achieved. The supply chain is furthermore a wear part which can now be dispensed with.

(28) The energy store 5 of the carriage has the advantage that the energy supply of the gantry loader no longer has to be configured to also be able to cover consumption peaks in the operation of the carriage since the energy store 5 at least accommodates such consumption peaks. It is this that makes the use of a contactless energy supply practical since the energy supply does not have to be configured for peak loads.

(29) The solution in accordance with the present disclosure furthermore in principle permits the use of as many carriages as desired at a gantry loader, i.e. at a guide rail, since a correspondingly high number of supply chains no longer has to be supplied. In addition, individual carriages can, for example, be removed and replaced without problem for servicing, for example. Only the mechanical connection to the guide rail 2 has to be released or reestablished for this purpose.

(30) The control 4 of the carriage 1 comprises at least the power electronics for one or more drives of the carriage 1.

(31) In a first variant, the power electronics arranged at the carriage are controlled via the control 6 of the gantry loader. In this case, a transmission of the positional data and/or speed data takes place from the carriage to the control 6 of the gantry loader so that the position regulation and/or speed regulation takes place in the control 6 of the gantry loader.

(32) In a second variant, the speed regulation and/or position regulation can take place by the control 4 of the carriage itself. The control 4 can here evaluate positional data and/or speed date and can compare them with a desired value to regulate the drive or drives to the desired value.

(33) The desired values can be transmitted from the control 6 of the gantry loader to the control of the carriage or can already be stored in the control of the carriage.

(34) The communication between the carriage and the control 6 of the gantry loader likewise takes place contactlessly in the embodiment.

(35) Different variants of the energy supply of the carriage and of the communication between the carriage and the control 6 of the gantry loader will be described in more detail in the following with reference to the specific embodiments in FIG. 2 to FIG. 4.

(36) In a first embodiment of the present disclosure that is shown in more detail in FIG. 2, the carriage 1 is supplied with energy in every travel position via the energy supply of the gantry loader. An induction rail 26 is provided for this purpose that extends over the total travel path of the carriage along the guide rail 2. The induction rail 27 can be arranged at the guide rail 2 or at a separate support rail. The induction rail comprises at least one induction loop that cooperates with an induction consumer of the carriage.

(37) In this embodiment, the energy store 5 of the carriage serves the cushioning of power peaks and therefore the supplementation of the constantly present energy supply by the gantry loader.

(38) The first embodiment shown in FIG. 2 furthermore comprises a cableless data transmission system that provides a data transmission link between the carriage and the control 6 of the gantry loader in every travel position of the carriage. A data transmission rail 26 can in particular be provided that extends over the total length of the guide rail 2 and cooperates with an antenna at the carriage 1. The data transmission rail 26 can be arranged at the guide rail 2 or can be supported via a separate support rail.

(39) A slit hollow conductor can be used as the data transmission rail 26, such as the embodiment shown in FIG. 6. The antenna 28 of the carriage reaching via the slit 29 into the hollow conductor. A secure data transmission is hereby ensured in every travel position. Such a data transmission line can furthermore also be designed as redundant in that different modes of the hollow conductor are used for the data transmission. A side cut of the data transmission rail 26 and the antenna 28 extending into a slit 29 of the data transmission rail 26 is shown in FIG. 6. The antenna 28 is connected to the control 4 of the carriage 1 and a sensor 13 of the carriage 1.

(40) In the second embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the same data transmission system is provided as in the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2.

(41) An energy supply of the carriage in the second embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 is in contrast provided in specific travel positions and/or travel sections and not provided in other specific travel positions and/or travel sections. Charge units 23 are provided for this purpose that permit an energy supply of the carriage 1 at specific travel positions and/or in specific travel sections. The charge units comprise one or more induction coils that cooperate with one or more induction consumers of the carriage. However, unlike in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, they no longer extend along the total travel path of the carriage, but are rather provided at points and/or section-wise there.

(42) As can be seen from FIGS. 3 and 4, the charge units 23 in the embodiment are each provided in a work position of the carriage 1 above a station 9 of the production system. The carriage stops in such work positions to pick up or place down workpieces 8. The charge unit 23 can be utilized during this dwell time to charge the energy store 5 of the carriage. It is dimensioned such that it permits a travel of the carriage from at least one station to the next station without an external energy supply.

(43) The arrangement of the charge units in the work positions has the further advantage that here energy is required for the raising of the workpiece and for the acceleration of the carriage from a standing start so that the charge unit can additionally be used to support the energy store.

(44) The charge units in a first variant, not shown, can be mechanically fastened to the guide rail 2 and/or can be supplied with current via a line extending along the guide rail 2.

(45) In the variant shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the charge units 23 are in contrast supplied with current electrically via the respective station 9. The mechanical arrangement of the charge units 23 furthermore also respectively takes place at a separate holder 12 that is fastened to the floor or to the respective station 9 and supports the charge unit 23. Alternatively, the mechanical arrangement can, however, also take place at the guide rail 2 here.

(46) In the third embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the data transmission also takes place only at points or section-wise. For this purpose, at least one data transmission unit 20 is provided that permits communication with the carriage in specific travel positions and/or in a specific travel section. It is a point-to-point signal exchange in this respect such as industrial Bluetooth.

(47) In the embodiment, the data transmission units are each arranged at a work position of the carriage 1 above a station 9 of the production system. The data transmission units 20 in the embodiment are furthermore held mechanically via a holder 12 and are electrically coupled to a station 9. The same configurations and alternatives can be used for the mechanical and electrical connection for the data transmission units 20 as for the above-described charge units 23 in accordance with the embodiment in FIGS. 3 and 4.

(48) If data transmission at points is used, a control 4 of the carriage 1 should be used that enables an autonomous travel of the carriage at least at times. The control 4 of the carriage has at least one position regulation and/or speed regulation of its own for the carriage and/or its components.

(49) In the embodiment, the gantry loader is configured as a linear gantry so that the guide rail 2 is arranged in a stationary manner at the floor via the support 10.

(50) The present disclosure can also be used in the same way at an area gantry in which the guide rail 2 can be traveled horizontally perpendicular to its extent. This can take place either via a travelable support 10 or in that the guide rail 2 is travelably arranged at the support 10.

REFERENCE NUMERAL LIST

(51) 1 carriage 2 guide rail 3 gripper 4 control of the carriage 5 energy store 6 control of the gantry loader 7 control cabinet 8 workpiece 9 machine tool 10 support 11 safety pan/oil pan 12 power supply of the charge unit at the guide path 13 sensor 14 guide roller 15 toothed rack 16 drive element 17 drive 18 lubricant tank 19 lubricant line 20 data transmission unit (point-to-point signal exchange) 23 charge unit 24 X axis (direction of movement of the carriage at the guide rail) 25 Z axis (direction of movement vertically) 26 data transmission rail (cableless signal transmission) 27 induction rail 28 antenna 29 slit 30 drive 31 drive element 32 toothed rack 33 guide roller