Joint guarantee system for vehicle assembly and control method of the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9533403-B2
Application number	US-201314089195-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 25, 2013
Priority date	Apr 3, 2013
Publication date	Jan 3, 2017
Grant date	Jan 3, 2017

Abstract

A system and method for vehicle assembly may include a vehicle body sensing unit sensing positions of vehicle bodies conveyed at regular intervals along a vehicle body convey line, a tool sensing unit disposed on a fastening tool for assembling parts to a vehicle body and sensing movement displacement of the fastening tool with respect to an origin of the fastening tool, a tool controller that transmits a fastening torque value of a predetermined part to the fastening tool in accordance with the movement displacement of the fastening tool and records an accumulated value of the movement displacement of the fastening tool, and a main controller that stores a result value of fastening the part, corresponding to a vehicle number of the vehicle body, on the basis of the accumulated value of the movement displacement of the fastening tool and positional information of the vehicle body.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A joint guarantee system for vehicle assembly, comprising;
a vehicle body sensing unit disposed outside a vehicle body convey line and sensing positions of vehicle bodies conveyed at regular intervals along the vehicle body convey line;
a tool sensing unit disposed on a fastening tool for assembling parts to a vehicle body and sensing movement displacement of the fastening tool with respect to an origin of the fastening tool;
a tool controller that transmits a fastening torque value of a predetermined part to the fastening tool in accordance with the movement displacement of the fastening tool sensed by the tool sensing unit and records an accumulated value of the movement displacement of the fastening tool; and
a main controller that stores a result value of fastening the part, corresponding to a vehicle number of the vehicle body, on the basis of the accumulated value of the movement displacement of the fastening tool acquired from the tool controller and positional information of the vehicle body acquired by the vehicle sensing unit.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle body sensing unit includes:
a barcode reader disposed at an entrance of the vehicle body convey line and recognizing a barcode on the vehicle body, and
a vision camera disposed at at least one of the entrance or an exit of the vehicle body convey line and taking a picture of the vehicle body.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the tool sensing unit includes an acceleration sensor that senses in real time an acceleration value on three motional axes (x, y, and z axes) of the fastening tool and outputs the sensed acceleration value to the tool controller.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the tool sensing unit further includes a gyroscope sensor that senses inclination of the fastening tool and outputs the sensed inclination to the tool controller.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the tool sensing unit further includes a geomagnetic sensor that senses inclination of the fastening tool with respect to a gravitational direction of the earth and outputs the sensed inclination to the tool controller.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the tool controller corrects the acceleration value sensed by the acceleration sensor with the inclinations sensed by the gyroscope sensor and the geomagnetic sensor, and accumulates and records the corrected acceleration value.

7. The system of claim 3 , wherein the tool controller determines movement displacement of the fastening tool on three motional axes by integrating the acceleration value sensed by the acceleration sensor to time and then integrating again the integrated value.

8. A control method of a joint guarantee system for vehicle assembly, the method comprising:
providing a joint guarantee system for vehicle assembly, wherein the joint guarantee system comprises;
a vehicle body sensing unit disposed outside a vehicle body convey line and sensing positions of vehicle bodies conveyed at regular intervals along the vehicle body convey line:
a tool sensing unit disposed on a fastening tool for assembling parts to a vehicle body and sensing movement displacement of the fastening tool with respect to an origin of the fastening tool;
a tool controller that transmits a fastening torque value of a predetermined part to the fastening tool in accordance with the movement displacement of the fastening tool sensed by the tool sensing unit and records an accumulated value of the movement displacement of the fastening tool; and
a main controller that stores a result value of fastening the part, corresponding to a vehicle number of the vehicle body, on the basis of the accumulated value of the movement displacement of the fastening tool acquired from the tool controller and positional information of the vehicle body acquired by the vehicle sensing unit;

sensing the positions of the vehicle bodies conveyed at regular intervals along the vehicle body convey line by the vehicle body sensing unit;
sensing the movement displacement of the fastening tool with respect to the origin of the fastening tool by the tool sensing unit, outputting sensed signal or signals to the tool controller, and recording an accumulated value of the movement displacement of the fastening tool on the tool controller;
transmitting the fastening torque value of the predetermined part to the fastening tool by the tool controller, when it is determined that the movement displacement on three motional axes (x, y, and z axes) of the fastening tool is substantially “0”; and
acquiring the accumulated value of the movement displacement of the fastening tool from the tool controller, acquiring positional information of the vehicle body from the vehicle body sensing unit, and storing the result value of fastening a part, in correspondence to the vehicle number of the vehicle body, on the basis of the acquired accumulated value and positional information.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
sensing acceleration on the three motional axes (x, y, and z axes) of the fastening tool and inclination of the fastening tool by the tool sensing unit.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the acceleration value of the fastening tool is corrected on the basis of the measured inclination value of the fastening tool and the corrected acceleration value is accumulated and recorded by the tool controller.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein when a fastening completion signal of a part to a vehicle body is input through the tool controller, the result value of fastening the part is stored in a server in correspondence to the vehicle number of the vehicle body.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
recognizing a barcode of the vehicle body moving into the vehicle convey line by the vehicle body sensing unit; and
taking a picture of the vehicle body by the vehicle body sensing unit at an entrance or an exit of the vehicle body convey line.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein fastening coordinates of the fastening tool are determined and the origin of the fastening tool is reset on the basis of the vehicle number of the vehicle body.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein the stored result value on a server is transmitted to a subsequent repair process.

Assignees

• Hyundai Motor Co Ltd
• Kia Motors Corp

Inventors

• Lee Jaehyun
• Ryu Sung Phil

Classifications

• B25B23/14 Primary

  Arrangement of torque limiters or torque indicators in wrenches or screwdrivers (couplings for transmitting rotation or clutches F16D; devices for measuring torque per se G01L) · CPC title

• Y10T29/4978

  Assisting assembly or disassembly · CPC title

• B23P2700/50

  Other automobile vehicle parts, i.e. manufactured in assembly lines · CPC title

• Y10T29/49766

  torquing threaded assemblage or determining torque herein · CPC title

• Y10T29/49829

  Advancing work to successive stations [i.e., assembly line] · CPC title