DESCRIPTION

The present patent relates to sheet metal bending and processing systems, and in particular it concerns a device for loading bending tools into at least one press and a new procedure for loading tools into at least one press.

Presses for bending and machining sheet metal in general are known, wherein said presses comprise two superimposed and aligned guides, a lower and an upper guide, on which the machining tools are mounted, and means suited to move said upper guide towards/away from said lower guide.

More specifically, the machining tools comprise one or more dies mounted on the lower guide and one or more punches mounted on the upper guide.

Said dies and punches are modular, that is, they are arranged one after the other, side by side, according to the dimensions of the sheet metal to be processed.

Said guides and said tools are configured in such a way that said tools are mounted on said guides in a sliding manner, so that they can be loaded and extracted from the guide through a simple sliding movement along the guide itself.

Tool loading and extraction operations are usually carried out manually by an operator or automatically by an anthropomorphic robot.

Once the press has been correctly loaded, an operator performs the required machining operations on the metal sheets. When the machining cycle has been completed and it is necessary to extract the tools in order to load a different sequence, the operator or the robot must extract the loaded tools, arrange them orderly into a tool magazine and load the tools to be used at a later moment.

These operations therefore require that the machine, and therefore production, be stopped for all the time necessary to unload and load the tools.

Documents US 2020/316665 Al, EP 3 330 015 Al and WO 2017/212386 Al describe devices for loading tools according to the known art. The subject of the present patent is a new device for loading tools into a press for machining sheet metal.

In addition, the present patent concerns a method for loading tools into a sheet metal press.

The main object of the present invention is to reduce machine downtime as the tools to be loaded are prepared during machining.

In this way, the loading step is performed in a single operation following the step in which the used tools are extracted. Furthermore, once removed, the tools can be orderly arranged into a tool magazine.

These and other direct and complementary objects are achieved by the new device for loading tools into a press for machining sheet metal.

The new loading device comprises: at least one first lower guide oriented according to a first direction; at least one second lower guide arranged so that it is parallel to said first lower guide; means for translating at least said second lower guide according to a second direction which is orthogonal to said first direction, for example for selectively arranging said at least one second lower guide in a position in which it is coplanar and side by side with said at least one first lower guide; means for selectively arranging said first or said second lower guide in an aligned and coplanar position with respect to a lower transfer guide, the latter being intended to be positioned so that it is aligned and coplanar with a lower guide of a press; a first upper guide oriented according to said first direction; a second upper guide arranged so that it is parallel to said first upper guide; means for translating at least said second lower guide according to a second direction which is orthogonal to said first direction, for example for selectively arranging said second upper guide in a position in which it is coplanar and side by side with said first upper guide; means for selectively arranging said first or said second upper guide in an aligned and coplanar position with respect to an upper transfer guide, the latter being intended to be positioned so that it is aligned and coplanar with an upper guide of a press.

The procedure for loading/unloading a press thus comprises the following steps: preloading step, that is, the positioning of a plurality of tools on said second lower guide; said step is performed manually or by a robot that picks the tools from a tool magazine; positioning of said first lower guide so that it is coplanar and aligned with said lower transfer guide;

- transfer of the tools from said press to said first lower guide through said lower transfer guide; moving said first and second upper guides in a synchronized manner in such a way that said second lower guide is positioned aligned and coplanar with said lower transfer guide;

- transfer of the tools from said second lower guide to said lower guide of said press through said lower transfer guide.

The procedure is repeated exactly in the same way for the upper guides.

In the preferred solution, the loading device is configured in such a way that said first lower guide can only translate horizontally and orthogonally with respect to the direction on which it lies, between a position in which it is aligned and coplanar with said lower transfer guide and a backward position with respect to said lower transfer guide.

Said second lower guide, instead, can translate both horizontally and vertically, and more specifically: horizontally and orthogonally with respect to the direction on which it lies, between a forward position in which it is coplanar with said lower transfer guide and a position in which it is aligned and coplanar with said lower transfer guide;

- vertically and orthogonally with respect to the direction on which it lies, between a lower position with respect to said lower transfer guide and said first lower guide and a position in which it is at the same height as said lower transfer guide and said first lower guide.

In this way, during the step of preloading of said second lower guide, the latter is in a forward and lowered position with respect to said first lower guide. In this configuration, both lower guides can be accessed by an operator or a robot that has to perform any operation.

Analogously, concerning said upper guides, according to the invention said first upper guide can translate only horizontally and orthogonally with respect to the direction on which it lies, between an aligned and coplanar position with respect to said upper transfer guide and a backward position with respect to said upper transfer guide, whereas said second upper guide can translate both horizontally and vertically, and more specifically: horizontally and orthogonally with respect to the direction on which it lies, between a forward and coplanar position with respect to said upper transfer guide and an aligned and coplanar position with respect to said upper transfer guide;

- vertically and orthogonally with respect to the direction on which it lies, between a higher position with respect to said upper transfer guide and said first upper guide and a position in which it is at the same height as said upper transfer guide and said first upper guide.

The characteristics of the present invention are highlighted in greater detail in the following description, with reference to the drawings that are attached hereto by way of non-limiting examples.

Figure 1 shows a three-dimensional view of the new loading device (1) with the guides (100, 200, 300, 400) arranged in the preloading configuration (A). The loading device (1) is arranged beside a press (P) for processing sheet metal.

Figure la shows a detail of a lower transfer guide (500) aligned with the first lower guide (100).

Figure 2 shows a side view of the loading device (1) with the guides (100, 200, 300, 400) arranged in the preloading configuration (A) shown in Figure 1.

Figures 2a and 2b respectively show two details of the upper guides (300, 400) and the lower guides (100, 200) of the loading device (1) in the preloading configuration (A), as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 3 shows a three-dimensional view of the new loading device (1) during the step of extraction (B) of the tools from the press (P).

Figure 4 shows a three-dimensional view of the new loading device (1) with the guides (100, 200, 300, 400) arranged in the loading configuration (C).

Figure 4a shows a detail of the lower transfer guide (500) aligned with the second lower guide (200).

Figure 5 shows a side view of the loading device (1) with the guides (100, 200, 300, 400) arranged in the loading configuration (C) shown in Figure 4.

Figures 5a and 5b respectively show two details of the upper guides (300, 400) and the lower guides (100, 200) of the loading device (1) in the loading configuration (C), as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 6 shows a three-dimensional view of the new loading device (1) during the step of transfer (D) of the tools from the loading device (1) to the press (P).

The loading device (1) comprises a first lower guide (100) and a second lower guide (200), which are parallel to each other and on which one or more tools or dies (110) are mounted in a sliding manner.

For example, said first and said second lower guide (100, 200) are oriented so that they are parallel to a first horizontal reference direction X, shown in Figure 1.

As can be seen in Figure 2b, said first lower guide (100) comprises a linear body (101) provided with a groove (102) into which one or more tools (110) are slidably inserted.

Said second lower guide (200) comprises a linear body (203) on which one or more tools or dies (210, 210') are slidably mounted, which in turn can be mounted directly in a groove (204) of said lower guide (200) or, if necessary, on one or more slides (201), for example provided with grooves (202), which in turn are slidably mounted on said guide (200).

In Figure 1, said lower guides (100, 200) are arranged in a first preloading configuration (A), in which said first lower guide (100) is aligned with a lower transfer guide (500), which in turn is aligned with a guide (Pl) of the press (P) on which the tools (110) used during the machining process are mounted.

Said second lower guide (200), on the other hand, is in a forward position with respect to said first lower guide (100) and at a lower height, in order to facilitate access to both guides for an operator or robot positioned in front of the device (1).

The tools (210, 210') that must subsequently be loaded into the press (P) are preloaded on said second lower guide (200).

The device (1) also comprises a first upper guide (300) arranged so that it is coplanar, parallel and superimposed with respect to said first lower guide (100), and a second upper guide (400) arranged so that it is coplanar, parallel and superimposed with respect to said second lower guide (200).

Analogously to what occurs with said lower guides (100, 200), said upper guides (300, 400) are configured with linear bodies (301, 401), for example provided with grooves (302, 402) suited to allow the tools (310, 410) to be housed and to slide therein. Said grooves (302, 402) are conveniently configured with shaped parts (311, 411) to ensure that the tools can fit therein (310, 410).

In said preloading configuration (A), said first upper guide (300) is aligned with an upper transfer guide (600) which in turn is aligned with a guide (P2) of the press (P) on which the tools (310) used during machining process are mounted. Analogously to what occurs with the lower guides (100, 200), said second upper guide (400), instead, is in a forward and higher position with respect to said first upper guide (300), in order to facilitate access to both guides for an operator or a robot positioned in front of the device (1).

The tools ( 10) that must be subsequently loaded into the press (P) are preloaded on said second upper guide (400).

When the guides (100, 200, 300, 400) are in the preloading configuration (A), the tools can be extracted from the press (P) and brought to the loading device (1).

The extraction step (B) is schematically shown in Figure 3: the tools (110, 310) previously mounted in the press (P) slide on the guides (Pl, P2) of the press (P) and on the transfer guides (500, 600) and are transferred onto said first lower guide (100) and first upper guide (300), which are aligned with the transfer guides (500, 600).

At this point, the second lower guide (200) and the second upper guide (400) are translated along a vertical direction (Z) which is orthogonal to the direction on which they lie, until they are brought to the same height as the respective first lower guide (100) and first upper guide (300).

Subsequently, said lower guides (100, 200) and said upper guides (300, 400) are translated horizontally according to a direction (Y) which is orthogonal to said direction (X) on which the same guides lie, until said first lower guide (100) and said first upper guide (200) are positioned backwards with respect to the corresponding transfer guides (500, 600) while said second lower guide (300) and said second upper guide (400) are positioned so that they are aligned with the corresponding transfer guides (500, 600).

This configuration, or loading configuration (C), is schematically shown in Figures 4, 5, 5a and 5b.

In this configuration, the transfer step (D) can take place, during which the tools (210, 210', 410) are brought from said second lower and upper guides (200, 400) to said guides (Pl, P2) of the press (P) through said transfer guides (500, 600). According to the invention, the lower guides (100, 200) can be moved independently of said upper guides (300, 400) or in a synchronous manner.

Said means for translating said lower guides (100, 200) and upper guides (300, 400) comprise conventional mechanical and/or hydraulic devices. According to the invention, the device can also be equipped with safety barriers. Therefore, with reference to the above description and the enclosed drawings, the following claims are expressed.