The moving unit 3 moves the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 so as to cut out the first segment 201. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the moving unit 3 includes a moving mechanism 4 corresponding to each of the pair of pushing-out claws 11, 12 and the pair of restricting claws 21, 22. Hereinafter, the moving mechanism 4 for moving the first pushing-out claw 11 is referred to as a moving mechanism 4A, the moving mechanism 4 for moving the second pushing-out claw 12 as a moving mechanism 4B, the moving mechanism 4 for moving the first restricting claw 21 as a moving mechanism 4C, and the moving mechanism 4 for moving the second restricting claw 22 as a moving mechanism 4D, and when description is made without distinguishing these, they are simply referred to as the moving mechanism 4. The moving mechanism 4A, the moving mechanism 4B, the moving mechanism 4C, and the moving mechanism 4D are independently controlled by the control device 70. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the moving mechanism 4 includes a first linear actuator 41, a first moving body 42, a second moving body 43, a second linear actuator 44, a coupling member 45, an arm 46, and a linear guide 47.

The first linear actuator 41 is configured with a servo motor controlled by the control device 70, a ball screw driven by the servo motor to rotate, a traveling body that reciprocates in the front-back direction along with the rotation of the ball screw, a linear guide that guides the front-back movement of the traveling body, and the like. The first moving body 42 is a plate-like member that is coupled to the first linear actuator 41 and that moves in the front-back direction in accordance with the driving of the first linear actuator 41. The second moving body 43 is a plate-like member that is coupled to the first moving body 42 via the linear guide 47. The second linear actuator 44 is a linear actuator controlled by the control device 70. The second linear actuator 44 includes a rod 441 that reciprocates in the up-down direction. The coupling member 45 is a member that couples the second moving body 43 and the rod 441. With the second moving body 43 and the rod 441 coupled together, the second moving body 43 moves in the up-down direction in accordance with the driving of the second linear actuator 44. In the present embodiment, a floating joint utilizing a spherical surface contact is used as the coupling member 45. The linear guide 47 is a member that guides the up-down movement of the second moving body 43. In the present embodiment, an LM guide (Registered Trademark) utilizing the rolling of a ball is used as the linear guide 47. The arm 46 is a member that couples the second moving body 43 with the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2. The arm 46 extends forward from the second moving body 43, and upper ends of the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 are connected to a lower surface of a tip end of the arm 46. The first moving body 42 moves in the front-back direction in accordance with the driving of the first linear actuator 41, so that the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 move in the front-back direction. Further, the second moving body 43 moves in the up-down direction in accordance with the driving of the second linear actuator 44, so that the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 move in the up-down direction.

The camera 30 is an image capturing device that is disposed above the retaining unit together with an illumination device (not illustrated) and that captures an image of the stack body 300 in accordance with the control by the control device 70 to acquire the image. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the cutting-out apparatus 100 includes two cameras 30A, 30B, the camera acquiring an image of the first region R1 of the stack body 300, the camera 30B acquiring an image of the second region R2.

The pusher 40 and the stopper 50 are members that move in the front-back direction in accordance with the control by the control device 70 to contact the segment 200 and the stack body 300 so as to position the segment 200 and the stack body 300. The pusher 40 is disposed on the rear side of the stack body 300, and the stopper 50 is disposed on the front side of the stack body 300.

The rail moving unit 60 is a member that supports the second rail 10B and moves in the front-back direction in accordance with the control by the control device 70 so as to move the second rail 10B in the front-back direction. The rail moving unit 60 is configured with a servo motor, a ball screw, a traveling body, a linear guide, and the like.

The control device 70 includes a processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), an I/O interface, and the like, and controls the cutting-out unit 20, the camera 30, the pusher 40, the stopper 50, and the rail moving unit 60 by executing predetermined programs. The control device 70 includes, as a processing unit, a control unit 701 and a detecting unit 702. The control unit 701 controls the cutting-out unit 20, the pusher 40, the stopper 50, and the rail moving unit 60. The detecting unit 702 detects a boundary between the segments 200 that are adjacent to each other in the stack body 300 based on the image acquired by the camera 30. The details of the processing executed by the detecting unit 702 will be described later.

Method for Cutting Out Piston Ring

Hereinafter, a method for cutting out the first segment 201 (method for cutting out the piston ring) at the tip end from the stack body 300 using the cutting-out apparatus 100 will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the method for cutting out the piston ring by the cutting-out apparatus 100. First, in an image acquiring step of step S10, images of the first region R1 and the second region R2 of the stack body 300 are acquired by the camera 30. FIG. 5 is a side view of the cutting-out apparatus 100 for explaining the image acquiring step. In the image acquiring step, first, the stack body 300 is positioned at a predetermined image capturing position within the field of view of the camera 30. The stack body 300 is positioned by the pusher 40 and the stopper 50. Specifically, the pusher 40 is advanced by the control of the control unit 701 of the control device 70 so as to push the stack body 300 forward bringing it into contact with the stopper 50 standing by at a predetermined position. In this manner, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the stopper 50 contacts the front end (first segment 201) of the stack body 300, and the pusher 40 contacts the rear end of the stack body 300 so that the stack body 300 is positioned at the image capturing position. With the stack body 300 positioned at the image capturing position, an image of the first region R1 is captured by the camera 30A, and an image of the second region R2 is captured by the camera 30B so as to acquire the images of the first region R1 and the second region R2. FIG. 6 is a view illustrating an example of an image acquired by the camera 30. In FIG. 6, as an example, an image of the first region R1 acquired by the camera 30A is illustrated. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the camera 30 acquires an image including at least a boundary B1 between the first segment 201 and the second segment 202.

Next, in a dividing portion detecting step of step S20, the detecting unit 702 of the control device 70 acquires the images of the first region R1 and the second region R2 from the camera 30 and detects the dividing portion P1 in each of the first region R1 and the second region R2. Here, as illustrated in FIG. 6, in the stack body 300, there is a plurality of boundaries between the segments 200 that are adjacent to each other. Of the plurality of boundaries, the n-th (n is an integer) boundary from the tip end side (front end side) of the stack body 300 is a boundary Bn. In image processing performed by the detecting unit 702, the acquired image is subjected to an edge detection for detecting the boundary between the segments 200 in the stack body 300. Then, the detecting unit 702 specifies, as the dividing portion P1, a boundary closest to the tip end of the stack body 300 among the detected plurality of boundaries. In this manner, the boundary B1 between the first segment 201 and the second segment 202 is specified as the dividing portion P1.

Next, in an inserting step of step S30, the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 are inserted into the dividing portion P1. FIG. 7 is a side view of the cutting-out apparatus 100 for explaining the inserting step. FIG. 8 is a top view illustrating the positional relation between the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 and the stack body 300 in the inserting step. FIG. 9 is a side view of the cutting-out apparatus 100 for explaining the inserting step. FIG. 10 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the dividing portion of the cutting-out apparatus 100 in the inserting step.

In the inserting step, first, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 are moved in the front-back direction so as to match the positions of the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 in the front-back direction to the position of the dividing portion P1 in the front-back direction. More specifically, the control unit 701 of the control device 70 drives the first linear actuator 41 of the moving mechanism 4 based on the detection result of the detecting unit 702 in the dividing portion detecting step to move the first moving body 42 in the front-back direction, so that the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 are disposed immediately above the dividing portion P1. As described above, in the stack body 300, due to the step (positional deviation between the opposite ends 200a, 200b in the axial direction) formed at the abutment G1 of the segment 200, the position of the dividing portion P1 in the front-back direction differs between the first region R1 and the second region R2. Therefore, the control unit 701 independently controls the first linear actuator 41 of the moving mechanism 4A, the first linear actuator 41 of the moving mechanism 4B, the first linear actuator 41 of the moving mechanism 4C, and the first linear actuator 41 of the moving mechanism 4B so as to dispose the first pushing-out claw 11, the second pushing-out claw 12, the first restricting claw 21, and the second restricting claw 22 immediately above the P1 that each of them corresponds. In this manner, as illustrated in FIG. 8, the first pushing-out claw 11 and the first restricting claw 21 are disposed immediately above the dividing portion P1 in the first region R1, and the second pushing-out claw 12 and the second restricting claw 22 are disposed immediately above the dividing portion P1 in the second region R2. In the axial direction of the segments 200 in the stack body 300, the first pushing-out claw 11 and the first restricting claw 21 are disposed at the same position, and the second pushing-out claw 12 and the second restricting claw 22 are disposed at the same position that is on the rear end side of the stack body 300 relative to the first pushing-out claw 11 and the first restricting claw 21.

Subsequently, in the inserting step, as illustrated in FIG. 9, the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 are moved downward (in the inserting direction) so that the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 are inserted into the dividing portion P1. More specifically, the control unit 701 drives the second linear actuator 44 of the moving mechanism 4 to lower the second moving body 43 so as to insert the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 into the dividing portion P1. In this manner, as illustrated in FIG. 10, the first pushing-out claw 11 and the first restricting claw 21 are inserted into the dividing portion P1 in the first region R1, and the second pushing-out claw 12 and the second restricting claw 22 are inserted into the dividing portion P1 in the second region R2. In this manner, the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 are interposed between the first segment 201 and the second segment 202. Here, as described above, the coupling member 45 that couples the rod 441 of the second linear actuator 44 and the second moving body 43 is a floating joint. Therefore, the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 coupled to the rod 441 via the arm 46 and the coupling member 45 can be displaced in a very small range relative to the rod 441 in the axial direction (that is, the front-back direction) of the segment 200. In this manner, any deviation between the positions of the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 and of the dividing portion P1 in the front-back direction or any deviation angle when the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 are inclined relative to the up-down direction is accepted, so that inserting the pushing-out unit 1 and the restricting unit 2 into the dividing portion P1 is facilitated.

Next, in a separating step of step S40, the first segment 201 is separated from the stack body 300 to be delivered forward along the retaining unit 10. FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 are side views of the cutting-out apparatus 100