Abstract:
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a picture frame and a system thereof. The method adopts a wire as workpiece to manufacture the picture frame and comprises the steps of edge milling, glue application, workpiece turnover, folding and picture frame solidifying. The system is a production line and operates under the control of a control system. The system comprises an edge milling machine, a glue sprayer, a workpiece turnover machine, an automatic picture frame folding machine and a conveyor belt for connecting the edge milling machine, the glue sprayer and the automatic picture frame folding machine, in the production line. The method and the system for manufacturing the picture frame provided by the present invention achieve the automatic production of picture frames, improve the work efficiency and have a simple and controllable production line.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to the field of industrial automatic production of picture frames, in particular to a method for manufacturing a picture frame and a system thereof. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    A common picture frame is similar to a square; a frame is disposed on the periphery; the inside is hollowed-out; and a photo can be placed on a blank space. The main part of the picture frame is the frame. A current common square picture frame is an enclosed empty frame which is surrounded by head and tails of four wires. 
         [0003]    Currently, picture frame wires are usually adopted to manufacture picture frames in the production process of the picture frames. Picture frame wires are materials for manufacturing picture frames and are generally made of aluminum alloy, wood or other materials. The shape of a picture frame wire is as shown in  FIG. 1 . The picture frame wire is an integral wire  01 ; a recess  02  is formed inwards on the front face of the wire  01 ; as illustrated in  FIG. 1   a,  the wire  01  can be divided into four sections; as illustrated in  FIGS. 1   b  and  1   c,  two sections  04  and  06  have equal length and are two opposite sides of the picture frame, and two sections  05  and  07  have equal length and are two opposite sides of the picture frame; three notches  03  are cut out on the wire  01  by a cutting machine; as illustrated in  FIG. 1   b,  cross sections of the notches are in the shape of isosceles right-angled triangles; an incline  08  is respectively cut out at both ends of the wire; the inclines  08  at both ends are also in the shape of an isosceles right-angled triangle when combined; an adhesive is sprayed on the notches  03  and the inclines  08 ; all the sections are bent to form a square; the notches  03  and the inclines  08  are matched with each other; and the picture frame is formed. 
         [0004]    Currently, the method for manufacturing the picture frame by the wire adopts the means of manual cutting, glue spraying and bending and forming to manufacture the picture frame. As manual work and simple machines are adopted, the production efficiency is relatively low and the cost is high. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    The present invention overcomes the defects of low production efficiency and high cost due to the adoption of simple machines and semi-hand means and provides a method for automatically manufacturing a picture frame by a wire and a system thereof. 
         [0006]    The present invention provides a method for manufacturing a picture frame at first, which adopts a wire as workpiece to manufacture the picture frame and comprises the steps of edge milling, glue application, workpiece turnover, folding and picture frame solidifying, wherein the folding step includes: 
         [0007]    primary folding, in which notches on both sides of the workpiece are folded inwards so that a first section and a fourth section of the workpiece are respectively perpendicular to a second section and a third section; and 
         [0008]    secondary folding, in which a notch in the middle of the workpiece is folded in such a way that the second section and the third section of the workpiece are perpendicular to each other, and at this point, inclines on both sides of the first section and the fourth section in the workpiece are overlapped to form an enclosed frame. 
         [0009]    Moreover, in the method for manufacturing the picture frame, the workpiece must be subjected to dust removal after edge milling. 
         [0010]    Moreover, in the method for manufacturing the picture frame, in the step of edge milling, three notches of which cross sections are in the shape of isosceles right-angled triangles are milled on the wire to divide the wire into four sections to form the workpiece, in which the first section and the third section have equal length and the second section and the fourth section have equal length; and an incline with the angle of 45 degree is respectively milled at head and tail of the wire. 
         [0011]    Moreover, in the method for manufacturing the picture frame, in the gluing step, hot-melt adhesive guns are adopted to spray a hot melt adhesive on the three notches and the two inclines in the workpiece at the same time. 
         [0012]    Moreover, in the method for manufacturing the picture frame, in the step of workpiece turnover, the workpiece after glue spraying is turned over 90 degree. 
         [0013]    Meanwhile, the present invention further provides a manufacturing system designed according to the method for manufacturing the picture frame. The system is a production line and operates under the control of a control system. The system comprises an edge milling machine, a glue sprayer, a workpiece turnover machine, an automatic picture frame folding machine and a conveyor belt for connecting the edge milling machine, the glue sprayer and the automatic picture frame folding machine, wherein 
         [0014]    the automatic picture frame folding machine includes a first folding machine and a second folding machine; the first folding machine is disposed on the downstream part of the glue sprayer on the conveyor belt and includes a first folding arm, a second folding arm, a first extrude bar and a second extrude bar; the first extrude bar and the second extrude bar are disposed in parallel on the conveyor belt at the distance of the total length of the second section and the third section in the workpiece; the first folding arm and the second folding arm are symmetrically and respectively disposed at front ends of the first extrude bar and the second extrude bar and expanded outward; 
         [0015]    the second folding machine is disposed on the downstream part of the first folding machine on the conveyor belt and includes a third folding arm, a third extrude bar and a fourth extrude bar; the fourth extrude bar is disposed at the rear end of the second extrude bar and is in line with the second extrude bar; the third extrude bar is parallel to the fourth extrude bar; the distance between the third extrude bar and the fourth extrude bar is the length of the second section of the workpiece; and the third folding arm is disposed at the front end of the third extrude bar and expanded outward. 
         [0016]    Moreover, in the system for manufacturing the picture frame, a workpiece cleaning machine is also disposed between the edge milling machine and the glue sprayer, on the conveyor belt, and includes a blower disposed on the conveyor belt and a dust collector disposed beneath the conveyor belt; and a blow-off nozzle of the blower faces notches and inclines of the workpiece. 
         [0017]    Moreover, in the system for manufacturing the picture frame, the edge milling machine is a commercially available edge milling machine; and under the control of the control system, the inclines are milled at both ends of the wire and the three notches of which cross sections are in the shape of isosceles right-angled triangles are milled at determined positions in the middle of the wire. 
         [0018]    Moreover, in the system for manufacturing the picture frame, the glue sprayer is disposed on the downstream part of the edge milling machine on the conveyor belt and includes five spray guns; spray heads of the spray guns are respectively opposite to the notches and the inclines of the workpiece on the conveyor belt; all the spray guns are disposed on a gantry frame; support arms on both sides of the gantry frame are cylinders which are controlled by the control system to drive the spray guns to move up and down; a detection electric eye for detecting whether the workpiece is just under the spray heads is disposed under the gantry frame; and output of the detection electric eye is connected with the control system. 
         [0019]    Moreover, in the system for manufacturing the picture frame, the first folding machine and the second folding machine further include a first position regulator, a second position regulator and a third position regulator for regulating the position of the first extrude bar, the second extrude bar and the third extrude bar respectively. 
         [0020]    The method and the system for manufacturing the picture frame provided by the present invention achieve the automatic production of picture frames, improve the work efficiency and have a simple and controllable production line. 
         [0021]    Detailed description will be given below to the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings and the embodiments. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0022]      FIG. 1   a  illustrates a wire adopted for manufacturing a picture frame; 
           [0023]      FIG. 1   b  illustrates a four-section workpiece formed by the edge milling of the wire; 
           [0024]      FIG. 1   c  is a side view of  FIG. 1   b;    
           [0025]      FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of the system for manufacturing the picture frame provided by the embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0026]      FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram of a glue sprayer in the system for manufacturing the picture frame provided by the embodiment of the present invention; and 
           [0027]      FIG. 4  is a schematic structural view of a cleaning machine in the system for manufacturing the picture frame provided by the embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0028]    In the figures,  1 . edge milling machine;  2 . glue sprayer;  21 . spray gun;  22 . spray head;  23 . gantry frame;  24 . cylinder;  25 . turpentine electric eye;  3 . first folding machine;  31 . first folding arm;  32 . second folding arm;  33 . first extrude bar;  34 . second extrude bar;  35 . first position regulator;  36 . second position regulator;  4 . second folding machine;  41 . third folding arm;  42 . third extrude bar;  43 . fourth extrude bar;  44 . third position regulator;  5 . cleaning machine;  51 . blower;  52 . dust collector;  6 . workpiece turnover machine;  7 . conveyor belt;  8 . workpiece;  81 . notch;  82 . incline;  83 . first section;  84 . second section;  85 . third section;  86 . fourth section. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0029]    The embodiment 1 relates to a system for manufacturing a picture frame. As illustrated in  FIG. 2 , the system is a production line on which an edge milling machine  1 , a cleaning machine  5 , a glue sprayer  2 , a workpiece turnover machine  6 , a first automatic folding machine  3  and a second automatic folding machine  4  of an automatic picture frame folding machine are connected with each other through a conveyor belt  7  from the forehead to the tail; and the edge milling machine  1 , the cleaning machine  5 , the glue sprayer  2 , the workpiece turnover machine  6  and the automatic picture frame folding machine are connected with each other through the conveyor belt  7 . The system is controlled by a control system to operate harmoniously. A workpiece  8  formed by the edge milling of a wire through the edge milling machine  1  is subjected to various processes to finally form the picture frame. 
         [0030]    The edge milling machine  1  is disposed at the initial end of the production line and is a commercially available edge milling machine. Under the control of the control system, inclines  82  are milled at both ends of the wire by the edge milling machine; three notches  81  of which cross sections are in the shape of isosceles right-angled triangles are milled at positions in the middle of the wire; and the workpiece  8  is formed. As illustrated in  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the workpiece  8  consists of a first section  83 , a second section  84 , a third section  85  and a fourth section  86 , in which the first section  83  and the third section  85  are opposite sides of the picture frame and have equal length, and the second section  84  and the fourth section  86  are opposite sides of the picture frame and have equal length. The embodiment is used for manufacturing an aluminum alloy picture frame; the first section  83 , the second section  84 , the third section  85  and the fourth section  86  are all made of aluminum alloy materials and formed by cutting through the edge milling machine  1 . 
         [0031]    There is milled powder on the workpiece  8  cut by the edge milling machine  1 , at an outlet of the edge milling machine  1 . Therefore, cleaning is required. As illustrated in  FIG. 4 , the cleaning machine  5  includes a blower  51  disposed on the conveyor belt  7  and a dust collector  52  disposed beneath the conveyor belt  7 , and a blow-off nozzle of the blower  51  faces the notches  81  and the inclines  82  of the workpiece  8 . The blower  51  is configured to blow the aluminum alloy powder on the workpiece and the dust collector  52  is configured to collect the aluminum alloy powder, so that the surface of the workpiece  8 , particularly places requiring the spraying of a hot melt adhesive, e.g. the notches  81  and the inclines  82 , can be clean. 
         [0032]    After the workpiece  8  is cleaned, the hot melt adhesive can be sprayed on the notches  81  and the inclines  82 . For the convenience of downward glue spraying of spray heads  22  of the glue sprayer  2 , at this point, the notches  81  of the workpiece  8  are upwards. The glue sprayer  2  is disposed on the downstream part of the edge cleaning machine  1  and the cleaning machine  5  on the conveyor belt  7 . As illustrated in  FIGS. 2 and 3 , the glue sprayer  2  includes five spray guns  21 ; the spray heads  22  of the spray guns  21  are respectively opposite to the notches  81  and the inclines  82  of the workpiece  8  on the conveyor belt  7 ; all the spray guns  21  are disposed on a gantry frame  23 ; support arms on both sides of the gantry frame  23  are cylinders  24  which are controlled by the control system to drive the spray guns  21  to move up and down; a detection electric eye  25  for detecting whether the workpiece  8  is just under the spray heads  22  is disposed under the gantry frame  23 ; and output of the detection electric eye  25  is connected with the control system. When the detection electric eye  8  detects that the workpiece  8  is just under the gantry frame  23 , the detection electric eye  8  generates a signal to the control system; the control system controls the conveyor belt  7  to stop moving forward and meanwhile controls the cylinders  24  to compress to lower the gantry frame  23  until the spray heads  22  are extended into the notches  81  or the inclines  81 ; glue spraying is performed; and after glue spraying, the control system controls the cylinders  24  to raise the gantry frame  23  and controls the conveyor belt to move forward continuously until the detection electric eye  25  detects the next workpiece and the next glue spraying process is performed. 
         [0033]    In the embodiment, as the glue spraying part has high requirement on glue spraying, a profiled glue spraying process is designed and a special spray gun design structure must be designed particularly. But as the design structure of a barreled polyurethane reactive (PUR) glue sprayer usually has two outlets and at least five “V”-shaped notches are required to be sprayed once for each picture frame, the structure of a transfer type midway glue station is utilized according to the special requirement of the special product to satisfy the requirement of the glue spraying of a plurality of notches and meanwhile ensure the consistency of outflow glue of each hose and each spray gun. 
         [0034]    A workpiece turnover machine  6  for turning over the workpiece is also disposed before the workpiece enters the lower part of the glue sprayer. The machine is configured to turn over the workpiece  8  backwards for 90 degree. 
         [0035]    After the workpiece is turned over backwards for 90 degree by the workpiece turnover machine  6 , the step of workpiece folding is carried out. In the embodiment, the automatic picture frame folding machine includes the first folding machine  3  and the second folding machine  4 ; the first folding machine  3  is disposed on the downstream part of the glue sprayer  2  on the conveyor belt  7  and includes a first folding arm  31 , a second folding arm  32 , a first extrude bar  33  and a second extrude bar  34 ; the first extrude bar  33  and the second extrude bar  34  are disposed in parallel on the conveyor belt  7  at the distance of the total length of the second section  84  and the third section  85 ; the first folding arm  31  and the second folding arm  32  are symmetrically and respectively disposed at front ends of the first extrude bar  33  and the second extrude bar  34  and expanded outward; the second folding machine  4  is disposed on the downstream part of the first folding machine  3  on the conveyor belt  7  and includes a third folding arm  41 , a third extrude bar  42  and a fourth extrude bar  43 ; the fourth extrude bar  43  is disposed at the rear end of the second extrude bar  34  and is in line with the second extrude bar  34 ; the third extrude bar  42  is parallel to the fourth extrude bar  43 ; the distance between the third extrude bar  42  and the fourth extrude bar  43  is the length of the second section  84  of the workpiece; and the third folding arm  41  is disposed at the front end of the third extrude bar  42  and expanded outward. 
         [0036]    When the workpiece  8  transversely enters a bell mouth formed by the first folding arm  31  and the second folding arm  33  and moves forward continuously, as the bell moth is gradually narrowed from the first folding arm  31  to the second folding arm  33 , the workpiece can only be bent inwards. As the workpiece is provided with three notches  81 , the workpiece is folded herein. As stress points are formed at outer ends of the first section  83  and the fourth section  86 , at this point, the notches on both sides are folded but the notch in the middle cannot be folded, and hence the first section  83  and the fourth section  86  are folded backwards but the second section  84  and the third section  85  are unchanged. At this point, the workpiece is disposed between the first extrude bar  32  and the second extrude bar  33  and moves forward continuously. The first section  83  and the fourth section  86  are respectively parallel to the first extrude bar  32  and the second extrude bar  34  and abut against the inside of the first extrude bar  32  and the inside of the second extrude bar  34  respectively. When the workpiece is away from the first extrude bar  32  and the second extrude bar  34  and moves forward continuously, the workpiece reaches an opening formed by the third extrude bar  42  and the third folding arm  41 . At this point, the first section  83  also abuts against the third extrude bar  42  and the outer end of the third section  85  abuts against the third folding arm  41 . Under the pressure of the third folding arm  41 , the notch  81  between the second section  84  and the third section  85  is pressed and folded. When the workpiece is disposed between the third extrude bar  42  and the fourth extrude bar  43 , the inclines  82  of the first section  83  and the fourth section  86  are combined in such a way that the first section  83 , the second section  84 , the third section  85  and the fourth section  86  are surrounded to form a square. And hence the picture frame is formed. Subsequently, the picture frame is solidified. 
         [0037]    In the embodiment, in order to manufacture picture frames with different specifications, the first folding machine  3  and the second folding machine  4  further include a first position regulator  35 , a second position regulator  36  and a third position regulator  44  for regulating the position of the first extrude bar  33 , the second extrude bar  34  and the third extrude bar  42 . 
         [0038]    The distance between the first extrude bar  33  and the second extrude bar  34  is regulated by the first position regulator  35  and the second position regulator  36  so as to be adapted to the length between the second section and the third section of the picture frames with different specifications; and the distance between the third extrude bar  42  and the fourth extrude bar  43  is regulated by the third position regulator so as to be adapted to the length of the second section  84  of the workpiece.