Device and method for detecting the wheel center depth of an aluminum wheel cast blank

Abstract

The invention relates to a device and method for detecting the wheel center depth of an aluminum wheel cast blank, the device includes a roller way tray, a position sensor, a frame, a CCD camera, a programmable controller and a laser distance measurement sensor, an upper servo-cylinder, a motor support, a servo-motor and a lower servo-cylinder. The invention has the following advantages: the method for automatically detecting and identifying the wheel center depth of an aluminum wheel cast blank is utilized for the identification and classification of wheel cast blanks, so as to reduce the influence of large casting dimension tolerance on the machining dimension tolerance, increase the acceptability rate of products from the automatic machining unit, ensure that the production line automatically runs with high quality and quantity and also reduce the labor intensity of operators.

Claims

1. A device for detecting the wheel center depth of an aluminum wheel cast blank, comprising: a roller way tray, a position sensor, a frame, a CCD camera, a programmable controller and a laser distance measurement sensor, an upper servo-cylinder, a motor support, a servo-motor and a lower servo-cylinder, wherein: the frame is suspended above the roller way tray with a space being defined between the frame and the roller way tray for holding the aluminum wheel cast blank to be detected; the upper servo-cylinder is mounted on the frame and drives the laser distance measurement sensor to move horizontally, the motor support is mounted below the roller way tray, the servo-motor is mounted to the motor support to drive the roller way tray to rotate, the lower servo-cylinder is connected onto the motor support to drive the roller way tray to move up and down, the CCD camera and the programmable controller are mounted on the frame, and the laser distance measurement sensor is mounted on the upper servo-cylinder.

2. A method for detecting the wheel center depth of an aluminum wheel cast blank comprising: conveying a wheel cast blank onto a roller way tray, actuating a CCD camera mounted on a frame to collect an image of the wheel cast blank, outputting to a programmable controller, and performing image recognition on the obtained image by the programmable controller, identifying a position of one bolt hole counter bore on the wheel cast blank that is closest to the X axis, and taking any point on a bottom plane of the bolt hole counter bore as a wheel center measurement point, and calculating an included angle between the wheel center measurement point and the X axis, and calculating the angle difference, and outputting a signal to a servo-motor to drive the roller way tray to rotate, making the wheel center measurement point on the wheel cast blank superposed on the X axis, and transmitting the X-axial position of the wheel center measurement point after superposition to the programmable controller, enabling the programmable controller to calculate the X-axial position of the wheel center measurement point and the position where the laser sensor is located and outputting a signal to an upper servo-cylinder to drive a laser distance measurement sensor to move in the axial direction until reaching the position directly over the wheel center measurement point, then enabling the programmable controller to send a command to a lower servo-cylinder, to drive the roller way tray to lift up, enabling a machining position reference plane of the wheel cast blank in contact with the position sensor that is mounted on the frame, enabling a position sensor to transmit a position signal to the programmable controller, also actuating a distance measurement function of the laser distance measurement sensor to measure the distance to the wheel center measurement point, and transmitting the data to the programmable controller, enabling the programmable controller, based on the data fed back from the position sensor and the laser distance measurement sensor, to calculate the difference, to obtain the wheel center depth.

3. A method for machining a low pressure cast aluminum wheel blank, the method comprising measuring the wheel center depth using the method of claim 2, enabling the programmable controller to determine which range of tolerance the wheel center depth of the wheel cast blank lies in based on the comparison to the input theoretical dimension, then enabling the programmable controller to send a signal to the roller way tray, conveying the wheel cast blank to a predefined automatic machining unit to implement the identification and classification of the wheel cast blank.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0013] The embodiments of the invention will be described below in details with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

[0014] FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the principle of a method for automatically detecting and identifying the wheel center depth of a wheel cast blank

[0015] FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the position of a wheel center measurement point.

[0016] In the figures, 1-roller way tray; 2-wheel cast blank; 3-position sensor; 4-frame; 5-CCD camera; 6-programmable controller; 7-laser distance measurement sensor; 8-upper servo-cylinder; 9-wheel machining positioning reference plane; 10-wheel center measurement point; 11-motor support; 12-servo-motor; 13-lower servo-cylinder.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Example 1

[0017] As shown in FIG. 1, the wheel cast blank (2) is conveyed onto the roller way tray (1), the CCD camera (5) that is mounted on the frame (4) is actuated, to collect an image of the wheel cast blank (2), the image is output to the programmable controller (6) which performs image recognition on the obtained image, to identify the position of one bolt hole counter bore on the wheel cast blank that is closest to the X axis, and any point on the bottom plane of the bolt hole counter bore is taken as a wheel center measurement point (10), and the included angle between the wheel center measurement point (10) and the X axis is calculated, the angle difference is calculated, a signal is output to the servo-motor (12) to drive the roller way tray (1) to rotate, the wheel center measurement point (10) on the wheel cast blank (2) is superposed on the X axis, and the X-axial position of the wheel center measurement point (10) after superposition is transmitted to the programmable controller (6), the programmable controller (6) calculates the X-axial position of the wheel center measurement point (10) and the position where the laser sensor (10) is located, and outputs a signal to the upper servo-cylinder (8) to drive the laser distance measurement sensor (7) to move in the axial direction until reaching the position over the wheel center measurement point (10), then the programmable controller (6) sends a command to the lower servo-cylinder (13), to drive the roller way tray (1) to lift up, the machining position reference plane (9) of the wheel cast blank (2) is allowed in contact with the position sensor (3) that is mounted on the frame (4), the position sensor (3) transmits a position signal to the programmable controller (6), also the distance measurement function of the laser distance measurement sensor (7) is actuated to measure the distance to the wheel center measurement point (10), and the data is transmitted to the programmable controller (6), the programmable controller (6), based on the data fed back from the position sensor (3) and the laser distance measurement sensor (7), calculates the difference, to obtain the wheel center depth. That is, the Y-axial distance from the machining position reference plane (9) to the wheel center measurement point (10), the programmable controller (6) to determine which range of tolerance the wheel center depth of the wheel cast blank (2) lies in based on the comparison to the input theoretical dimension, then the programmable controller (6) sends a signal to the roller way tray (1), the wheel cast blank (2) is conveyed to a predefined automatic machining unit, so as to implement the identification and classification of the wheel cast blank (2), reduce the influence of casting dimension tolerance on the machining dimension tolerance, increase the acceptability rate of products from the automatic machining unit, and ensure that the production line automatically runs with high quality and quantity.