Injection molding system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10675802-B2
Application number	US-201615339932-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 1, 2016
Priority date	Nov 2, 2015
Publication date	Jun 9, 2020
Grant date	Jun 9, 2020

Abstract

In order to calculate a ball screw abrasion amount of an injection-axis ball screw or a mold-clamping-axis ball screw, a position of a ball nut fitted to the ball screw is photographed by a camera installed in an injection molding machine. Then, if the photographed position of the ball nut is found, as a result of analysis of an image captured by the camera, to be deviated from the position of the ball nut when a ball screw has no abrasion, it is determined that the ball screw is abraded.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An injection molding system, comprising:
a servo motor;
a transmission mechanism configured to convert a rotational motion of the servo motor into a linear motion;
a transmission mechanism photographing unit configured to photograph the transmission mechanism;
a position calculation unit configured to analyze image data photographed by the transmission mechanism photographing unit and calculate a position of the transmission mechanism;
a position detector provided in the servo motor and configured to detect a rotation position of the servo motor; and
a comparison unit configured to compare
(1) a first position coordinate obtained by converting the rotation position of the servo motor into a position of the transmission mechanism, the rotation position being detected by the position detector, with
(2) a second position coordinate calculated by the position calculation unit by analyzing the image data photographed by the transmission mechanism photographing unit.

2. The injection molding system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
an alarm unit configured to issue an alarm in response to a determination that a difference between the first position coordinate obtained by converting the rotation position of the servo motor into the position of the transmission mechanism and the second position coordinate calculated by the position calculation unit exceeds a predetermined amount.

3. The injection molding system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a display unit configured to display a difference between the first position coordinate obtained by converting the rotation position of the servo motor into the position of the transmission mechanism and the second position coordinate calculated by the position calculation unit.

4. The injection molding system according to claim 1 , wherein
the transmission mechanism comprises a screw and a nut engaged with the screw,
the nut comprises a mark,
a position of the mark on the nut is stored in advance as a reference, and
the position calculation unit is configured to calculate a position of the nut, as the position of the transmission mechanism, from the position of the mark in the image data photographed by the transmission mechanism photographing unit.

5. An injection molding system, comprising:
a servo motor;
a transmission mechanism configured to convert a rotational motion of the servo motor into a linear motion;
a camera configured to photograph the transmission mechanism;
a position detector provided in the servo motor and configured to detect a rotation position of the servo motor; and
a controller programmed to
analyze image data photographed by the camera,
calculate a position of the transmission mechanism from the analyzed image data, and
compare (i) a first position coordinate of the transmission mechanism obtained by converting the rotation position of the servo motor into a position of the transmission mechanism, the rotation position being detected by the position detector, with (ii) a second position coordinate of the transmission mechanism calculated by analyzing the image data photographed by the camera.

Assignees

• Fanuc Corp

Inventors

• Nagano Yasumasa

Classifications

• B29C45/661

  using a toggle mechanism for mould clamping · CPC title

• B29C2945/76083

  Position · CPC title

• B29C2945/76163

  Errors, malfunctioning · CPC title

• B29C2945/76464

  cameras · CPC title

• B29C2045/1792

  Machine parts driven by an electric motor, e.g. electric servomotor · CPC title