The Application Of Industrial Robots For Foam Pattern In LFC Processing

Having the advantages of low cost, high accuracy, high efficiency and energy-saving,LFC technology had become the primary means of casting molds. Making a mould blankwith foam material was a vital part in LFC. However, three-axis CNC machining had beenunable to meet the processing needs of the foam model when the foam shapes werecomplicated. Therefore, in this paper we proposed to use multi-degree of freedom ofindustrial robots to achieve efficient processing and to solve the problem of machiningcomplex shapes. Afterward, three-dimensional scanning technology was used for rapiddetection, to control the accuracy and to shorten the manufacturing cycle. Details are asfollows:(1) The basic theory of kinematics was described; The kinematic model of the robotwas created based on MOTOMAN-HP6industrial robot dimensions and the homogeneoustransformation theory, and the forward and inverse kinematics was analyzed with DHmethod; the optimal solution of robot motion was discussed to solve the problem ofmultiple solutions in inverse kinematics. The foundation was created for the offlineprogramming.(2) The transformation between robot Cartesian coordinate system and the robot jointspace coordinate system was analyzed; the NC code APT language and JBI robot controllanguage was briefly introduced, and the feasibility of the conversion between the twolanguages was analyzed; the control commands in both languages was studied, especiallythe arc control during command conversion process. The offline control system forMOTOMAN industrial robots manufacturing was designed based on Microsoft VisualStudio development environment; integration of CAD/CAM/Robotics data wasachieved.(3) Industrial robot control systems and rotary cutting units and other ancillaryprocessing components were designed; Based on UG/CAM module, trajectory planningfor automotive panel machining process were carried out; Based on UG/Modelingenvironment, the simulation model of MOTOMAN-HP6robot motion was built, and theinterference collision between different parts was detected though advanced motionsimulation of cutting; the efficiency of robots manufacturing was improved by analyzing the pre-simulation result of robot processing; The processing the foam model of typicalcar cover mold was finished with MOTOMAN industrial robots.(4) The foam model was quickly scanned based on3D scanning technology;Geomagic was used to subsequently process scanned data; the designed model and theactual processing model was comparatively analyzed and the accuracy and deformationprocessing was analyzed; The accuracy of industrial robots for processing was verified.