Bending device having workpiece guidance by a multi-articulated arm robot

• Main Authors: Weigmann, Uwe-Peter, Walker, Thomas
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 11.07.2023
• Subjects: CHAMBERS PROVIDED WITH MANIPULATION DEVICES; HAND TOOLS; MANIPULATORS; MECHANICAL METAL-WORKING WITHOUT ESSENTIALLY REMOVINGMATERIAL; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PORTABLE POWER-DRIVEN TOOLS; PUNCHING METAL; TRANSPORTING; WORKING OR PROCESSING OF SHEET METAL OR METAL TUBES, RODS ORPROFILES WITHOUT ESSENTIALLY REMOVING MATERIAL

The invention relates to a bending device (2) for bending a rod-like or tubular workpiece (4), comprising a bending machine (6), which has a bending head (8), which is designed for bending the workpiece (4) in a forming process, and a control means (24), which controls the operation of the bending machine (6), a robot (10), which comprises a multi-joint arm (11) which can be adjusted by motors, having a gripper end (12), which is designed for gripping and holding the workpiece (4), and a control unit (22), which is designed to control the operation of the robot (10), wherein the control means (24) is designed to control the bending machine (6) and the robot (10) during the bending process. The control unit (22) of the robot (10) is switched, at least during the bending process, to a slave mode in which it receives control commands from the control means (24) of the bending machine (6), and the control means (24) of the bending machine (6), during the bending process, continuously issues setting specifications for the motor-adjustable multi-joint arm (11) and the gripper end (12) to the control unit (22) of the robot (10) which has been switched to slave mode and thereby controls the robot (10) to introduce the workpiece (4) into the bending head (8), to stabilize the workpiece during the forming process and to remove the workpiece from the bending head (8) after the forming process.