THE ROBOTIC PRODUCTION LINE AND METHODS OF FLEXIBLE AND CHAOTIC PRODUCTION

• US 20190332097A1
• Filed: 01/02/2017
• Published: 10/31/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robotek Otomasyon Teknolojileri Sanayi Ticaret Limited Sirketi
• Original Assignee: Robotek Otomasyon Teknolojileri Sanayi Ticaret Limited Sirketi
• Inventors: CANBERI, Osman
• Granted Patent: US 11,550,303 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 5/02 travelling along a guideway
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/0084 comprising a plurality of manipulators
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/0093 co-operating with conveyor means
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41805 characterised by assembly
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4182 manipulators and conveyor only
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/4183 characterised by data acquisition, e.g. workpiece identification
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41875 characterised by quality surveillance of production

Abstract

The robotic production line and methods of flexible and chaotic production The robotic production line is developed in order to provide that glue dispensing, gasket dispensing, potting, weighing, assembling, marking, quality control tasks for production of workpieces having different types and sizes as well as workpieces required to be processed with different combinations of tasks are performed in a compact robotic production line capable of flexible and chaotic production. The robotic production line brings significant advantages such as lower labour and production costs, shorter cycle time, improved quality and reliability, smaller production space, less raw material consumption, less production waste, lower number of defected products and increased safety comparing to conventional manual or semi-automatic production systems.

Claims

1. The robotic production line (RPL), comprising:

one or a plurality of recipes programmed for processing workpieces (W) of different types and sizes as well as workpieces (W) required to be processed with different combinations of tasks, which are composed of workpiece (W) transferring to and unloading from the process conveyors, conveying workpieces (W) between the process conveyors, one or combinations of the following tasks;

glue dispensing, gasket dispensing, potting, weighing, assembling, marking, quality control and handling of workpieces (W) for picking, placing and rotating;

one or a plurality of robots having a mechanical configuration of an articulated robot to which one or a plurality of tasks are assigned;

one or a plurality of multi-purpose end effectors attached to the wrist of the robots and adapted for being manipulated by the robots allowing the robots to perform their tasks as programmed in the recipe of each workpiece (W);

a feeding system (FS), which transfers the workpieces (W) directly to the process conveyors or to the robots allowing the robots to pick the workpieces (W) up from the feeding system (FS) and to place the workpieces (W) onto the process conveyors, wherein the workpieces (W) are transferred, rotated and positioned with a required position precision, and wherein the workpieces (W) are loaded manually by a human operator or automatically from an existing production line or from an auxiliary loading system into the feeding system (FS);

an unloading system (US) for unloading of the workpieces (W) from the unloading system (US) manually by a human operator or automatically by an auxiliary system or conveying of the workpieces (W) by the unloading system (US) to an existing line;

a linear travelling unit (TU) which consists of a travel axis for each of the robots allowing robots to travel on the travelling unit (TU), wherein the length of the linear travelling unit (TU) is determined based on the length of the process conveyors, the position of the feeding system (FS) and the unloading system (US);

one or a plurality of process conveyors positioned in-line and next to each other in the conveying direction of the robotic production line (CD) and positioned parallel to and at one or both sides of a linear travelling unit (TU), wherein the number and the lengths of the process conveyors are determined based on the number of the working stations (WS), the sizes of the workpieces (W) and the process requirements, wherein workpieces (W) of different types and sizes as well as workpieces (W) required to be processed with different combinations of tasks are processed in the robotic production line (RPL) allowing so-called flexible production, and wherein workpieces (W) of different types and sizes as well as workpieces (W) required to be processed with different combinations of tasks are fed randomly to the robotic production line (RPL) and processed on the same process conveyors in the same production cycle allowing so-called chaotic production;

a plurality of working stations (WS) determined on each of the process conveyors, wherein the tasks for the workpieces (W) are performed by each robot travelling on the linear travelling unit (TU) to a pre-defined position for each working station (WS) and performing their tasks as programmed in the recipe of each workpiece (W) positioned on the working stations (WS) on the process conveyors positioned at one or both sides of the linear travelling unit (TU), wherein the workpieces (W) are conveyed from the working stations (WS) to the working stations (WS) of the next process conveyors in the conveying direction of the robotic production line (CD) if further tasks to be processed in the working stations of the next process conveyors, wherein the number of the working stations (WS) are determined based on the production rate and the process requirements;

a workpiece identification system (WIS) whereby the workpieces (W) are identified and associated with their recipes;

one or a plurality of additional subsystems comprising one or combinations of the following units;

raw material preparation and feeding units, cleaning stations, quality control stations, vacuum generators, machine vision systems, laser measurement systems for correcting the position and orientation of the workpieces (W), inspection systems and safety systems;

one or a plurality of transferring positions programmed in the recipes, to which the workpieces (W) are conveyed from the working stations (WS) of the process conveyors if no further tasks to be processed for the workpieces (W), wherein the workpieces (W) are transferred from the transferring position into the unloading system (US) directly by the process conveyors or by the robots after completion of the tasks for each workpiece (W);

one or a plurality of robot controllers for controlling the robots and the linear travelling unit (TU);

a system controller (SC) for storing the recipes and controlling the feeding system (FS), the process conveyors, the unloading system (US), the workpiece identification system (WIS), the process flow and the additional subsystems;

2. The robotic production line (RPL) according to claim 1, wherein the feeding system comprises of:

an interconnection conveyor (ICC), whereby the workpieces (W) are fed to the feeding system (FS) automatically from an existing production line or automatically from an auxiliary loading system,

a manual workpiece loading station (MWLS), whereby the workpieces (W) are loaded into the feeding system (FS) manually by a human operator,

an accumulation conveyor (AC), which accumulates workpieces (W),

a shuttle conveyor (SC), whereby the conveyance direction of the workpiece feeding (FC) are changed,

a transfer conveyor (TC), which transfers the workpieces (W) from the shuttle conveyor (SC) to the workpiece positioning conveyor (WPC),

a workpiece positioning conveyor (WPC), whereby the workpieces (W) are positioned allowing the robots to pick the workpieces up from the feeding system (FS) with a required position precision and to place the workpieces (W) onto the process conveyors.

3. The robotic production line (RPL) according to claim 1, wherein the workpiece identification system (WIS) is configured to facilitate workpiece (W) identification by means of one or the combinations of a barcode reader, machine vision and sensors.

4. The robotic production line (RPL) according to claim 1, wherein the workpieces (W) are in the form of V-filters, compact air filters, panel filters, HEPA filters and ULPA filters.

5. A method for operating a robotic production line (RPL), it is characterized by comprising the operation steps of:

programming of one or a plurality of recipes for processing workpieces (W) of different types and sizes as well as workpieces (W) required to be processed with different combinations of tasks, the recipes being composed of workpiece (W) transferring to and unloading from the process conveyors, conveying workpieces (W) between the process conveyors, one or combinations of the following tasks glue dispensing, gasket dispensing, potting, weighing, assembling, marking, quality control and handling of workpieces for picking, placing and rotating, one or a plurality of tasks assigned to one or a plurality of robots having a mechanical configuration of an articulated robot;

storing recipes into a system controller (SC) which controls the feeding system (FS), the process conveyors, the unloading system (US), the workpiece identification system (WIS), the process flow and one or a plurality of additional subsystems comprising one or combinations of the following units raw material preparation and feeding units (PFU), cleaning stations (CS), quality control stations, vacuum generators, machine vision systems, laser measurement systems for correcting the position and orientation of the workpieces, inspection systems and safety systems;

feeding of workpieces (W) by the feeding system (FS), the feeding system (FS) transferring, rotating and positioning the workpieces (W) with a required position precision, the workpieces (W) being loaded manually or automatically from an existing production line or from an auxiliary loading system in to the feeding system (FS);

identifying workpieces (W) and associating each workpiece (W) with their recipe by means of the workpiece identification system (WIS);

transferring of the workpieces (W) from the feeding system (FS) directly to the process conveyors by the feeding system (FS) or to the robots allowing the robots to pick the workpieces (W) up from the feeding system (FS) and to place the workpieces (W) onto the process conveyors, one or a plurality of process conveyors being positioned in-line and next to each other in the conveying direction of the robotic production line (CD) and positioned parallel to and at one or both sides of a linear travelling unit (TU), the robots travelling on the linear travelling unit (TU) consisting of a travel axis for each of the robots, one or a plurality of multi-purpose end effectors being attached to the wrist of the robots and adapted for being manipulated by the robots allowing the robots to perform their tasks as programmed in the recipe of each workpiece (W), the number of the working stations (WS) being determined based on the production rate and the process requirements, the number and the length of the process conveyors being determined based on the number of the working stations (WS), the sizes of workpieces (W) and the process requirements, the length of the linear travelling unit (TU) being determined based on the length of the process conveyors and the position of the feeding system (FS) and the unloading system (US), the robots and the linear travelling unit (TU) being controlled by one or a plurality of robot controllers (RC);

processing of the tasks for the workpieces (W), each robot travelling on the linear travelling unit (TU) to a pre-defined position for each working station (WS) and performing their tasks as programmed in the recipe of each workpiece (W) positioned on the working stations (WS) on the process conveyors positioned at one or both sides of the linear travelling unit (TU), workpieces (W) of different types and sizes as well as workpieces (W) required to be processed with different combinations of tasks being processed in the robotic production line (RPL) allowing so-called flexible production, workpieces (W) of different types and sizes as well as workpieces (W) required to be processed with different combinations of tasks being fed randomly to the robotic production line (RPL) and processed on the same process conveyors in the same production cycle allowing so-called chaotic production;

conveying of the workpieces (W) from the working stations (WS) of the process conveyors to one or a plurality of transferring positions programmed in the recipes if no further tasks to be processed for the workpieces (W) or to the working stations (WS) of the next process conveyor in the conveying direction of the robotic production line (CD) if further tasks to be processed in the next process conveyor;

transferring of the workpieces (W) from the transferring position into the unloading system directly by the process conveyors or by the robots after completion of the tasks for each workpiece (W);

unloading of the workpieces (W) from the unloading system (US) manually by a human operator or automatically by an auxiliary system or conveying of the workpieces (W) by the unloading system (US) to an existing line.