Abstract
A processing machine for flat material parts includes a machine frame, a lower beam, an upper beam, at least one processing tool, and a control unit and an infeed table on which the flat material part to be processed can be placed for positioning in the processing machine. A support loading unit with a plurality of suction cups is provided for the positioning of the flat material part on the infeed table. The infeed table can be moved from a parking position in an extension direction to a loading and unloading position and back again. The support unit is mounted on the movement axis assigned to the processing tool or tools for a pivoting movement into the same direction.
Claims
1. A processing machine for flat material parts comprising an upper machine frame part and a lower machine frame part, a lower beam, an upper beam, at least one processing tool associated with the lower beam and held in the lower machine part or at least one processing tool associated with the upper beam and held in the upper machine part, an infeed table on which the flat material part to be processed can be placed for positioning in the processing machine, a placement unit for predetermined positioning of the flat material part on the infeed table, and a controller for controlling a processing sequence with the at least one processing tool and a movement of the placement unit and a movement of the infeed table, wherein the infeed table can be moved in an extension direction from a parked position to a second position and back again, and wherein a side insertion unit is provided which has a side insertion rail which is fixedly connected to the upper machine frame part and under which a frame component is arranged to be movable in the direction of a processing edge of the flat material part, wherein a plurality of first suction cups are mounted on the frame component with which the flat material part can be received and positioned, wherein a transfer table is arranged at the side of the processing machine in a parallel plane and higher than a plane predetermined by the infeed table, so that the plurality of first suction cups mounted on the frame component can be moved transversely to the at least one processing tool associated to the upper or lower beam for a feed movement of the flat material part in the direction of the processing edge of the flat material part.
2. The processing machine according to claim 1, wherein the placement unit is arranged in a space between the transfer table and the infeed table as a parking space.
3. The processing machine according to claim 1, further comprising an upper turning unit and/or a lower turning unit for predetermined positioning of the flat material part on the infeed table, wherein the upper turning unit and/or the lower turning unit has a plurality of second suction cups with which the flat material part can be received and positioned, wherein the upper turning unit and/or the lower turning unit is mounted on the axis of movement associated with the at least one processing tool for a pivoting movement in the same direction.
4. The processing machine according to claim 3, wherein the plurality of second suction cups form an acute angle with the infeed table.
5. The processing machine according to claim 4, wherein the infeed table can be moved out between the lower beam and the upper beam in order to receive a turned flat material part after the second suction cups have been released.
6. The processing machine according to claim 1, wherein an upper turning unit and a lower turning unit are provided, wherein the upper turning unit is associated as a loading and turning unit with the upper processing tool and wherein the lower turning unit is associated as a loading and turning unit with the lower processing tool.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
(1) Preferred embodiments of the invention are described in the following on the basis of the drawings, which are for explanatory purposes only and are not to be interpreted restrictively. The drawings show:
(2) FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a processing machine according to examples of the invention;
(3) FIG. 2 shows a schematic side view of the essential parts of a processing machine according to FIG. 1 with an infeed table and the feeding unit in a rest position;
(4) FIG. 3 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 1 with a pushed out infeed table and the feeding unit in a rest position;
(5) FIG. 4 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 1 with a pushed out infeed table and the feeding unit on the flat material part in a receiving position;
(6) FIG. 5 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 1 with a pushed out infeed table and the feeding unit with the picked up flat material part back in a rest position;
(7) FIG. 6 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 1 with a pushed out infeed table and the feeding unit with the flat material part lowered onto the infeed table;
(8) FIG. 7 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 1 with a pushed out infeed table and the feeding unit with a released flat material part sliding on the infeed table;
(9) FIG. 8 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 1 with a partially retracted infeed table and the flat material part now turned over in comparison to its position in FIG. 2;
(10) FIG. 9 shows a schematic side view of here essential parts of a processing machine with an infeed table and an upper and a lower support unit, each in a rest position;
(11) FIG. 10 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 9 with a pushed out infeed table and the lower loading unit on the flat material part in a receiving position;
(12) FIG. 11 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 9 with a retracted infeed table and the support unit 60 with the flat material part picked up and supported by it;
(13) FIG. 12 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 9 with the support unit in rest position but activated suction cups with the flat material part still held above a support;
(14) FIG. 13 shows a perspective view with essential parts of a processing machine according to a design example of the invention;
(15) FIG. 14 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 13 with the support unit in the pick-up position with activated suction cups with the flat material part held above;
(16) FIG. 15 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 13 with the support unit in the insertion movement of the picked up flat material part in time after the representation of FIG. 14;
(17) FIG. 16 shows a perspective view of the situation of FIG. 15 with the support unit moving in;
(18) FIG. 17 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 13 with the support unit after releasing the suction cups with the flat material part lowered, whereby the latter protrudes from the front of the machine;
(19) FIG. 18 shows a perspective view of the situation of the processing machine according to FIG. 13 after the frame component has been moved back;
(20) FIG. 19 shows a perspective view of the situation of the processing machine according to FIG. 18 while the flat material part is being processed with the side shift unit in a parking position;
(21) FIG. 20 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 19;
(22) FIG. 21 shows a perspective view of the processing machine according to FIG. 1 during a folding operation of a first flat material part; and
(23) FIG. 22 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 21 with the support unit after releasing the suction cups with the flat material part lowered, which is bent over.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
(24) FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a processing machine 1 according to embodiments of the invention. More precisely, of two sections of a processing machine 1 with its upper machine frame parts 3 and lower machine frame parts 2, which are arranged on a transverse frame 4. Usually processing machines 1 are equipped with four, six or eight sections, in which an upper turning unit 50 is particularly advantageous due to the length and weight of the flat material part 5 to be turned. The frame 4 runs in one direction of the double arrow 7, which direction is also the direction of the bending edges that can be produced with processing machine 1. This direction is transverse to the feed direction 17.
(25) The section shown in FIG. 1 furthest to the left is the foremost section in front of a set-up area 20. Here a lay-on unit is shown in the form of a side insertion unit 70, which is explained in connection with FIG. 13 to FIG. 22. This side insertion unit 70 is used together with a transfer table 80 with stops 12.
(26) The upper part 3 is also referred to as the upper machine frame part and the lower part 2 as the lower machine frame part of such a sheet bending machine. These are arranged perpendicular to a feeding direction 17 of a work part 5 to be bent and are movable against each other. A lower holding beam 21 and a lower bending beam, also referred to as lower processing tool 22, are assigned to the lower machine part, and an upper holding beam 23 and an upper bending beam, also referred to as upper processing tool 24, are assigned to the upper machine part, the four beams being aligned transversely to said feed direction and the flat part 5 to be bent being insertable between said four beams between the machine parts, wherein the upper holding beam clamps the workpiece to be bent in a clamping position opposite the lower holding beam, the lower bending beam being arranged in said clamping position to bend the flat material part 5 to be bent upwards around the front edge of the upper holding beam, wherein in the case of a double bender a further clamping position is arranged in such a way that the upper bending beam 24 can bend the flat material part 5 to be bent downwards around the front edge of the lower holding beam 21.
(27) The upper parts 3 and lower parts 2 can be driven and hinged in a variety of ways, in particular according to the applicant's EP 3 403 738 A1. Nor does processing machine 1 need to be a double bending unit with a lower processing tool 22 and an upper processing tool 24, as shown here in FIG. 1. It may also be a single processing tool, in which case it is assigned to the upper turning unit 50 as a support unit. FIGS. 2 to 12 show here a double bender with two support units provided as an upper turning unit 50 and a lower turning unit 60, which are assigned to the two processing tools 22 and 24.
(28) The upper turning unit 50 comprises a series of suction cups 51 connected to a pneumatically operated vacuum source, whereby this connection is controlled, for example, by hydraulically activated valves. The upper turning unit 50 or the suction cups 51 of this unit are attached to a frame component 53, to which the processing tool 24 is directly or indirectly attached. The processing tool 24 is linked to the upper part 3 and the upper beam 23 via a movable parallelogram mechanism 52 shown in FIG. 4. In particular—as in the case of EP 3 403 738 A1—the machining tool 24 is already arranged opposite the upper part 3 and the upper beam 23 in such a way that the machining tip of the machining tool 24 is arranged in the direction of extension of the infeed table 10, which corresponds to the direction of the plane defined by the surface of the underside of the suction cups 51, which direction is defined by the sheet 5 in the side view of FIG. 6.
(29) FIG. 6 shows the upper turning unit 50 after the flat material part 5 has been placed on the machine, before it is placed on the feed table 10 as shown in FIG. 7 and is then fed into the machine 1 as a feeding step by retracting the feed table 10 in order to be advanced in the direction of 17 predetermined for machining after it has stopped at the depth stops between sections of the feed table.
(30) FIG. 2 to FIG. 8 show in a sequence the sequence of movements when using this feeding or support unit with its further function as upper turning unit 50. FIG. 2 shows a schematic side view of the main parts of a processing machine 1 with an infeed table 10 and the upper turning unit 50 in a rest position. The upper part 3 is slightly opened opposite the lower part 2.
(31) FIG. 3 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine 1 according to FIG. 1 with a pushed out infeed table 10 on which the sheet metal 5 to be processed or already processed lies. The upper turning unit 50 is in a rest position.
(32) FIG. 4 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine 1 according to FIG. 1 with a pushed out infeed table 10 and the upper turning unit 50 on the flat material part 5 in a pick-up position. The upper processing tool 24 is swivelled as for a folding operation, except that the upper part 3 of processing machine 1 is slightly open in relation to the lower part. This opening only needs to be slightly open so that the processing tip of the upper processing tool 24 remains surely above the infeed table 10. In the embodiment shown, the machining tool 24 with the parallelogram mechanism 52 is swivelled on the holder 53 outside the upper part 3 so that the suction cup 51 shown (from a row of suction cups 51 arranged parallel to the machining tool 24 in direction 7) is lowered onto the flat material part 5 and supported on it so that the flat material part 5 adheres to the suction cups 51 by means of a downstream suction of air located inside the suction cup 51. Normally a vacuum is generated pneumatically and applied to the suction cups 51 via hydraulically operated valves, which vacuum is then constantly maintained.
(33) FIG. 5 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine 1 according to FIG. 1 with a pushed out feed table 10 and the upper turning unit 50 with picked up flat material part 5, whereby the upper turning unit 50 goes back into the rest position. This position of FIG. 5 is achieved by returning the processing tool 24 to its starting position while maintaining the vacuum from FIG. 4.
(34) FIG. 6 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 1 with a pushed out infeed table 10 and the feeding unit 50 with the flat material part 5 lowered onto the infeed table 10. After the flat material part 5 has been held on the suction cups 51 by vacuum application and returned to the position of FIG. 5, the application of a negative pressure/vacuum to represent FIG. 6 has been reduced via a valve control (lower negative pressure) in such a way that the dead weight of the flat material part 5 allowed it to be lowered onto the feed table 10. In the side view of FIG. 6, the flat material part 5 forms an acute angle in the range between 70 and 85 degrees with the inward facing part of the feed table 10.
(35) The reference mark 54 shows a reinforcing profile, which is arranged in direction 7 depending on the force required on the processing tool.
(36) FIG. 7 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine 1 according to FIG. 1 with a pushed out infeed table 10 and the upper turning unit 50 with released flat material part 5 sliding on the infeed table 10; just before the flat material part 5 comes to rest fully on the infeed table 10. This movement is ensured by the fact that when the flat material part 5 is picked up, it has the said slightly acute angle with the feed table towards the inside of the processing machine 1, which now changes to 0 degrees (=complete resting) in FIG. 7 when the angle is below 30 degrees.
(37) FIG. 8 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine 1 according to FIG. 1 with a partially retracted feed table 10 and the flat material part 5 now turned opposite as shown in FIG. 2. Thus a complete turn has been achieved via the sequence from FIG. 2 to FIG. 8. If in FIG. 6 the feed table is drawn in before the flat material part 5 is released by the suction cups, the flat material part 5 can alternatively also be lowered directly to the ground or to a carriage arranged in front of the processing machine 1.
(38) FIG. 9 to FIG. 12 show in sequence the sequence of movements when using the further support unit, which is designed here as the lower turning unit 60. FIG. 9 shows a schematic side view of the main parts of a processing machine 1 with an infeed table 10 and the upper and lower turning units 50 and 60 in a rest position. The upper part 3 is slightly opened opposite and in view of the lower part 2. The flat material part 5 is already machined at both side ends and has an “S” shape in the cross-section shown. An upper turning unit 50 and a lower turning unit 60 are shown, whereby only the lower turning unit 60 will come into action here in sequence. This lower turning unit 60 is also equipped with corresponding suction cups 51, which are mounted on a frame part 53, which is firmly connected to the lower machining tool 22.
(39) FIG. 10 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine 1 according to FIG. 9 with a pushed out infeed table 10, on which the sheet metal 5 already processed here lies. The upper loading and turning unit 50 is in a resting position and will remain so even after the sheet 5 has been turned and during the turning process. The turning process will be carried out here by a lower loading and turning unit 60, which is attached to the lower processing tool 22. The lower processing tool 22 is swivelled in the same way as for a folding operation, except that the upper part 3 of processing machine 1 is slightly open in relation to the lower part 2. This opening only needs to be slightly open so that the processed flat material part 5 can be pushed safely through between the beams 21 and 23 on the feed table 10. In the embodiment shown, the lower processing tool 22 with the parallelogram mechanism 52 on the holder 53 is swivelled outside the lower part 2 so that the suction cup 51 shown (from a series of suction cups 51 arranged parallel to the processing tool 22 in direction 7) is applied to the flat material part 5 from below so that the flat material part 5 adheres to the suction cups 51 by means of a downstream suction of air located inside the suction cup 51. In the side view of FIG. 10, the part of the suction cup 51 which is in contact with the flat material part 5 is covered by the feed table 10. At least here the feed table 10 is not a continuous surface but has slots at least at the locations of the suction cups 51 in the direction of the double arrow 17 through which it can be placed against the flat material part 5 from below and through which the feed table 10 can be retracted and extended in the direction of this double arrow 17.
(40) FIG. 11 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine 1 according to FIG. 9 with a retracted infeed table 10 and the loading and turning unit 60 with the flat material part 5 picked up and carried by it before the loading and turning unit 60 returns to its rest position. The end position of the parallelogram mechanism 52 shown in FIG. 11 goes beyond the folding position of the lower processing tool 22 and also leads beyond the horizontal as alignment of the front end face of the suction cups 51. For this reason, the free edge of flat material part 5 facing away from processing machine 1 (as far as the main alignment of flat material part 5 is concerned) is positioned higher than the base of processing machine 1 in relation to the end of flat material part 5 which is near the suction cups here.
(41) FIG. 12 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine 1 according to FIG. 9 with the lower turning unit 60 swivelled out beforehand in rest position but with activated suction cups 51 with the flat material part 5 still held with it above a support 11. Starting from FIG. 11, the lower turning unit 60 is swivelled back so that the lower retaining beam 21 forms the lower edge opposite the upper retaining beam 23 and the flat material part 5 held by the suction cups 51 is swivelled downwards.
(42) It is possible, but not shown in FIG. 12, that the plane defined by the main plane of the flat material part 5 is aligned similar to the flat material part 5 in FIG. 6. If the suction cups are then no longer held under negative pressure, the flat material part 5 falls onto its back and the two “S” folds projecting upwards remain at the top. The flat material part 5 then falls onto the tray 11 without having been turned over before. The advantage then, especially with very long sheets that extend over six or eight sections in transverse direction 7, is that the flat material part 5 only falls from a low height, making the risk of accidents and damage to the component less likely.
(43) When the suction cups 51 are released only in the position shown in FIG. 12, the lower turning unit 60 acts as a turning unit and turns the flat material part 5 in relation to its position in e.g. FIG. 9 and then places it on the tray 11.
(44) Analogous to the embodiment according to FIG. 6, the lower placement unit can also be designed as a feeding unit, if in the position of FIG. 12 the (then still unprocessed) flat material part 5 is pressed against the row of suction cups and then the suction cups 51 with their parallelogram mechanism are moved backwards, so to speak, to FIG. 11, in order to then, after pushing the infeed table 12 underneath, first correctly position the flat material part for the folding processes described above.
(45) The arrangement of the lower and upper turning units 50 and 60 fixed to the associated bending tools 24 or 22 or to an axis parallel to their pivot axis, which is also an axis parallel to the axis of movement of the upper part 3 (and provided that the lower part 2 can be pivoted) or parallel to the axis of movement of the lower part 3, allows the flat material part to be turned more quickly and safely or the flat material part to be conveyed more quickly out of the bending machine. As these units operate outside the upper part 3 and lower part 2, it does not need to be opened as far, which saves further time. By arranging the support beams and processing tools 21, 22 and 23, 24 one on top of the other, which is not necessary for the initial advantages of this support unit 50 or 60, the angular ratios for the turning units 50 and 60 with the easy achievement of an angle of more than 90 degrees for effective turning are easier and can be achieved by using the parallelogram mechanism 52, which is already available for bending anyway, which means one axis of movement less.
(46) FIG. 13 shows a perspective view with essential parts of a processing machine 1 according to a design example of the invention. The infeed table 10 is in a retracted position between the upper part 3 and the lower part 2, of which only one section is shown here. This shown section is the foremost section in front of a set-up area 20, which has a transfer table 80 not shown here. Transverse between the upper part 3 and the lower part 2 runs a support unit as a side insertion unit 70, which has a side insertion rail 72, under which a frame component 73 is arranged so that it can be moved in the direction of 7. A large number of suction cups 51, here nine, are arranged on the frame component 73 in a 3×3 matrix, with which a flat material part 5 can be picked up laterally outside the processing machine 1 by the aforementioned set-up table 80. This has already been done here. The suction cups 51 correspond to the suction cups of the other design example with a corresponding, advantageously hydraulic control of valves and a permanently operated vacuum source.
(47) The frame component 73 and thus the side insertion rail 72 is firmly connected to the upper part 3. This leads in particular to a saving of an axis to be moved, since in this way a lifting of the flat material part 5 by the suction cups 51 of the side insertion unit 70 can be achieved simply by a slight opening (and thus tilting of the rail 72. To make it easy for the user to reach the correct position of the flat material part 5 for insertion into the processing machine 1, a fixed transfer table 80 with stops 12 is provided. These stops are shown in FIGS. 1, 19 and 21 arranged only to the front. Lateral stops are not necessary as the position of the flat material part 5 in the direction of the arrow 7 is not critical because the cutting length of the bending machine 1 always extends far beyond the length of the flat material part 5.
(48) FIG. 14 shows a schematic side view of processing machine 1 according to FIG. 13 with the side insertion unit 70 in the pick-up position with activated nine suction cups 51 with picked-up flat material part 5. FIG. 15 shows a schematic side view of processing machine 1 according to FIG. 13 with the support unit in the insertion movement of the picked-up flat material part 5, whereby the upper part 3 is slightly open so that the flat material part 5 is slightly inclined in relation to the support table 10. FIG. 15 shows the insertion movement, so that it shows a state after FIG. 14. This can also be seen in FIG. 16, which shows a perspective view of the situation of FIG. 15 with the retracting side insertion unit 70, whereby the suction cups 51 have moved the suctioned flat material part 5 in the direction of the double arrow 7 (here to the right) and continue to move it.
(49) When the flat material part 5 is picked up in FIG. 14, the upper part 3 of the processing machine 1 is slightly closed, i.e. towards the lower beam 21, but not for clamping, but for docking the suction cups 51 on the flat material part 5. It is thus clear, and this is shown later in FIG. 20, that the transfer table 80 is arranged parallel to the infeed table 10 but higher with respect to the horizontal. After the flat material part 5 has been sucked in as shown in FIG. 14, the upper part is slightly opened, whereby the insertion rail is raised and tilted about the same axis of rotation so that the flat material part 5 picked up is lifted off the transfer table 80 and then moved by the frame component 73 along the side insertion rail 72 in the direction of insertion of the double arrow 7 until, far as shown in FIG. 16, the entire flat material part 5 is inserted into the processing machine 1 until it is positioned between beams 21 and 22.
(50) FIG. 17 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine 1 as shown in FIG. 13 with the side insertion unit 70 after releasing the suction cups 51 with the flat material part 5 lowered, whereby the latter protrudes from the front of machine 1. For this purpose FIG. 18 shows a perspective view of the situation of the processing machine 1 chronologically according to FIG. 17, whereby the frame component 73 on the side insertion rail 72 of the side insertion unit 70 has been pulled back laterally again, while the sheet metal between the beams 22, 24 protrudes from the front of machine 1. FIG. 20 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine 1 according to FIG. 19.
(51) These FIGS. 17 to 20 show that after releasing the flat material part 5, the flat material part 5 is pushed forward in an accurately positioned manner without using the feed table 10 by depth stops not shown here, which are located between segments of the feed table 10 divided in the direction of the double arrow, in order to then allow folding of the flat material part 5. To do this, frame component 73 is moved out to the side as shown in FIG. 18. FIG. 19 shows the position of the frame component 73 laterally next to the front section of processing machine 1, but in the direction of the double arrow 7 behind the transfer table 80, i.e. in a free space between the latter and the section of processing machine 1, so that the frame component 73 can move freely when the upper part 3 is lowered to a clamping position without being hindered by the transfer table 80 or a next flat material part 5 already placed back on it. This simultaneously addresses the time-saving simultaneous reloading of machine 1 on the transfer table 80 while the processing steps of clamping and folding are still in progress.
(52) FIG. 21 shows a perspective view of machine 1 during a folding process of a first flat material part 5, whereby the side insertion unit 70 as a loading unit is in the parking position and a second flat material part has been placed on the transfer table 80 and pushed against the stops 12; and FIG. 22 shows a schematic side view of the processing machine according to FIG. 21 with the side insertion unit 70 in the parking position, with the two flat members 5, one which is bent over in its front portion and the other which lies on the transfer table 80.
