Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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PCTIEP 97I04994 2 Amended Sheet
The invention teaches that this object can be accomplished by the features
disclosed in
the characterizing portion of Claim 1.
In a configuration of a welding device as claimed by the invention, a
processing device
is created that can be used independently of an external energy supply, and
can be
used in any desired location to which it can be moved by guide devices laid in
the floor.
It is controlled exclusively be devices that are associated with the workpiece
to be
processed. The processing device is thereby equipped with a processing unit
with the
processing tools required for the work process to be carried out, whereby at
(east one
processing unit is mounted on a carriage on a guide support) and can be
adjusted at
least in the vertical and horizontal direction. It is thereby possible to work
on parts of
workpieces that run at least essentially parallel or perpendicular to the
guide support,
whereby the workpieces can also tie inclined or uneven within the range of the
horizontal adjustability of the guide support. To work on parts of the
workpiece that
-extend in the horizontal direction, the advance of the activated processing
unit is
executed along the part of the workpiece to be processed by a correspondingly
controlled forward movement. The processing device, which operates self
sufficiently,
thereby makes it possible to adjust the processing unit mounted on it in a
coordinate
system in the x: direction as well as in the y and z directions. For the
automatic position
control of the processing unit along the horizontal, vertical or inclined part
of the
workpiece, there is at least one position sensor device that mechanically or
optically
scans the profile of the portion of the workpiece to be processed, and the
processing
unit then tracks this profile by adjusting the guide support and/or the
carriage.
For the self sufficient operation of the processing device, an internal
combustion
engine, e.g. one operated with a fuel gas, can also be installed on the
carriage, with an
electric generator connected to it, from which the energy required for the
operation and
the control of the work processes can be taken. It is thereby not necessary to
have
electrical connecting cables to tap electrical energy from the electrical
power grid; so
that the level on which the processing device rolls and on which the workpiece
stands
remains freely accessible for other uses. Because the respective processing
unit must
also be controlled along the three
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WO 98I13168 3 PCT/EP97I04994
unit then tracks this profile by adjusting the guide support and/or the
For the self sufficient operation of the processing device, internal
combustion
engine, e.g. one operated with a fuel gas, can al a installed on the carriage,
with
an electric generator connected to it) fr ich the energy required for the
operation
and the control of the work pr ses can be taken. It is thereby not necessary
to
have electrical conne cables to tap electrical energy from the electrical
power
grid, so that evel on which the processing device rolls and on which the
stands remains freely accessible for other uses. Because the respective
coordinates of the workpiece,
the wheels of the carriage can also be rubber-tired) and as a result of the
realization
of a steerable axle) during the advance movement of the carriage) the guidance
parallel to the workpiece is satisfactorily ensured by a distance sensor.
Uneven spots
in the floor on which the carriage is traveling and resulting changes in the
inclination
of the carriage or guide support can therefore be compensated by means of a
tactile
contour sensor that is part of the processing unit. Guide rails that are
oriented with
respect to the workpiece to be processed, and on which the processing unit can
be
moved along the workpiece, are therefore no longer necessary.
At (east one welding tool is located on the guide support. As an additional
processing
unit, a weld grinding tool can be located on the guide support, and after the
welding
process proper has been completed, it can grind the weld seam flat so that it
is plane
with respect to the surrounding sheet metal. When aluminum is being welded, it
is
thereby appropriate to accompany the welding tool with a brushing tool which,
during
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the process of welding aluminum, travels ahead of the welding tool and
mechanically
brushes away any oxide layers from the weld seam, to prevent defects in the
weld
seam. It is also possible, however, that the grinding tool that is fastened to
a revolver
head together with the welding tool can be provided with a brush head that is
used
before the welding process, and the weld seams can be brushed in a controlled
manner using the contour sensor.
The processing unit, which may if necessary carry a plurality of processing
tools on a
single revolver head, the axis of rotation of which lies parallel in the
horizontal
direction to the principal direction of travel of the carriage, preferably
sits on a cross
slide rest that can be displaced horizontally at right angles to the principal
direction of
travel of the carriage of a compound slide rest, the height of which can be
adjusted
on a guide column of the guide support. The position of the compound slide
rest as
well as the advance of the frame are thereby controlled as a function of the
scanning
position of a tactile or optical contour sensor. The welding tool can thereby
be
associated with a suitable contour sensor which scans the weld joint as long
as it is
still open. The brush or grinding tool can have its own sensor, which can sit
in the
open weld seam or to the side of the area of the workpiece currently being
processed, and control a grinding of the weld seam down to the level of the
uninfluenced side wall area of the workpiece. The tactile or optical sensors)
can
thereby be realized in the form of a joystick control unit, the control lever
of which
acts as a mechanical pin that scans the area of the tool lsic - should be
"woikpiece "J to be processed, and the position sensor of which generates
control
signals for the adjustment of the guide support andlor of the forward motion
of the
carriage.
The invention is explained in greater detail below with reference to the
accompanying
schematic perspective drawing of the device.
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A railway car body that consists of a plurality of wall elements 2 to be
jointed together
and supported by a plurality of support pieces 3 stands on a quasi-plane floor
1
formed by the floor of an industrial building, Fixed in position on support
pieces 3,
underneath a vertical long-side facade consisting of a plurality of wall
elements 2
placed one next to the other is a metal or current-conducting guide rail 4
that acts as
a batten, which extends in the longitudinal direction of the car body parallel
to the
plane of the wall elements 2 forming the longitudinal side wall. The guide
rail 4 is
thereby connected to the metal structure of the car body by means of flexible
electrical conductors. Between the wall elements standing in a vertical plane
and
arranged one next to another, and also extending at least to the roof wall
element 2.1
and the frame 2.2, there are joints 6, by means of which the wall elements 2,
2.1 and
2.2 are to be firmly and permanently connected to one another by welding. It
may be
appropriate to brush the joint 6 before the welding and to grind the weld
seams flat
after the welding.
To be able to pertorm such processing steps automatically, the car body has a
processing device that has a carriage 9 mounted on wheels 7, 8 that do not run
on
rails. On the carriage 9 there is an at least largely encapsulated propulsion
and control
unit 10, in which are installed an electrical generator with a gas-powered
engine
connected to it, as well as various auxiliary devices such as exhaust systems
and gas
bottles, as well as electrical and hydraulic propulsion and control means for
the self
sufficient operation of the processing device. At least one axle of the wheels
7, 8 or a
pair of wheels 7 is mounted on the carriage 9 so that it can be steered and
can be
actively steered by means of a steering control device 11 via the control unit
10. The
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wheel pair 8, on the other hand) can be propelled and controlled by means of
the
control unit 10 for the movement of the carriage in the forward or reverse
direction of
travel.
On the carriage 9 is a guide support that is formed from a vertical guide
column 12, a
compou nd slide rest 13 mounted on it, the height of which can be adjusted,
and an
integrated drive unit and a cross slide rest that can be displaced
horizontally at right
angles to the prinapal direction of travel of the carriage 9. On the end
closer to the wall
elements 2, the cross slide rest 14 has a processing unit 15 that comprises a
revolver
head disc, to which a welding tool 16 and, offset by approximately 90~, a
grinding or
brushing unit with a grinding or brush roller 17 are attached. Instead of a
combination)
however, the processing unit can also have separate processing tools for
grinding and
brushing. The revolver head disc is thereby mounted in particular so that it
can rotate
.around a horizontal axis 18 that lies in the principal direction of travel of
the carriage 9
with respect to the cross slide rest 14 on the guide support 12-14.
So that the welding tool 16 can be guided along a weld seam joint 6 without
manual
intervention) the processing unit 15 has a position sensor unit 19. This
position sensor
unit can work like a joystick control device, and can have a tracer pin 20
mounted so
that it moves in a circular motion and at right angles to its longitudinal
direction) i.e. in
the manner of a ball-and-socket joint.
To produce a weld seam like the one indicated at 6.1, an electrical sliding
contact 22 is
mounted on the carriage 9 and is positioned by a spring 21 in sliding contact
with the
guide rail 4 that acts as the welding current return. The sliding contact 22
is
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connected to the electrical welding power supply of the welding device.
Coupled to the
sliding contact is a distance sensor 23 which measures the distance from the
guide rail
4 that acts as a mechanical directional rail. For the distance measurement, a
mechanical
measuring tape 24 is provided, which is held on its free end in the rolling
position on the
guide rail 4 by means of the sliding contact 22, and which generates a varying
control
signal in the distance sensor 23 according to its extracted position. The
control signal
steers the wheel pair 7 so that the distance between the carriage 9 and the
guide rail 4
remains at least approximately constant.
To execute the vertical weld seam 6. 9 , the propulsion and control unit 10 is
activated
and the processing device as a whole, with the sliding contact 22 in contact
with the
guide rail 4, is moved toward the corresponding weld joint seam 6, into which
the tracer
pin 20 falls. After the welding current is turned on and the welding process
is ignited
automatically, the welding material is fed automatically as the compound slide
rest 13
is moved along the weld seam joint 6. The position sensor unit 19, as a
function of the
position of the tracer pin 20, emits a control signal to a control unit for
the compound
slide rest 13, which keeps the compound slide rest 13 and thus the welding
tool 16 at
the proper welding discharge from the corresponding weld seam joint 6, and
thereby
effects the vertical adjustment of the compound slide rest 13 for the optimal
welding
process. Horizontal changes in the distance of the welding tool 16 from the
weld seam
6 can thereby be compensated by forward or backward movements of the carriage
9
parallel to the guide rail 4 or mechanically, while the distance of the
welding tool from
the weld seam is kept approximately constant by means of the position sensor
19 by a
horizontal displacement of the cross slide rest 14.
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Alternatively or in addition, the distance of the welding tool from the weld
can also be set
to the optimum value as a function of the welding current.
If the weld seam to be executed runs horizontally, during the welding process
the
carriage 9 is propelled in the direction of the weld seam by means of a motor
at an
advance speed that corresponds to the welding process. The sliding contact 22
thereby
maintains the welding current return over the distance traveled) and the
distance
sensor 23 controls the steering device 11 so that the distance from the guide
rail 4 is
kept as constant as possible. Deviations of the weld seam joint 6 are then
once again
detected by the position sensor 19) the tracer pin 20 of which travels ahead
of the wire
electrode of the welding tool 16 in the open weld seam joint 6. For this
purpose, the
position sensor 19 is moved as appropriate. The control signal from the
position sensor
19 then effects a corresponding correction in the height of the compound slide
rest 13
on the guide column 12, as well as a correction of the welding tool 16 with
respect to
the weld seam joint 6 by means of~ the cross slide rest 14. The wheels 7, 8
and the
corresponding wheel pairs are thereby not connected to the rails, and are in
particular
provided with rubber or elastomer tires, which run unguided along the level 1,
like those
of an automotive vehicle. Changes in position that result from uneven spots in
the
plane 1 are thereby also detected immediately by means of the position
sensors, and
the correction is made as the compound slide rest 13 is controlled by the
position
sensor 19 and the drive device of the carriage, based on the deviation
detected by the
distance sensor 23) in effectively the opposite direction. Horizontal
deviations from the
specified distance detected by the position sensor 19 therefore also have an
effect on
the vertical drive of the cross slide rest 14) and vertical deviations in the
distance from
the specified path of the weld joint in question are compensated for by the
compound
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slide rest 13. The distance sensor 23, by acting on the steering device 71,
thereby
ensures that a specified lateral distance from the wall elements 2 and/or the
corresponding weld seam joints 6 is maintained. The distance sensor 23 is
thereby
provided in the vicinity of the shortest connection between the guide column
12 and the
guide rail 4, so that with a specified diagonal position of the longitudinal
axis of the
carriage with respect to the longitudinal axis of the guide rail, the smallest
possible
deviations from the specified distance can be achieved.
When a processing device is constructed and controlled as claimed by the
invention, by
interacting with the components to be welded, weld seams and the processes
(brushing,
grinding) that precede and follow them can be performed without manual
intervention,
and weld seams can thereby be executed in the vertical or horizontal
direction) as well
as in a diagonal direction) whereby the processing device can be self
sufficient and, as
a guide plane, can use the plane that is also associated with the workpiece to
be
processed.
