Material or article handling – Apparatus for charging a load holding or supporting element... – Load holding or supporting element including gripping means
Patent
1993-07-27
1995-08-01
Underwood, Donald W.
Material or article handling
Apparatus for charging a load holding or supporting element...
Load holding or supporting element including gripping means
1984181, 1984686, 901 8, B65H 500
Patent
active
054375290
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a conveying system for conveying a variety of automobile body components to be assembled in an automobile assembly line.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
Up to now, an assortment of processing machines have been installed in a limited space of an automobile body assembly line. Automobile body components are conveyed to these processing machines at predetermined timing so as to be assembled into an automobile in the preset sequence.
In such an automobile assembly line, a number of conveyers, carriers and hanging conveyers are used to deliver the automobile components at the predetermined timing. The components are also transferred by lifts to other conveying routes which are on different levels.
In an under-body assembly line as shown in FIG. 16 of the accompanying drawings, one type of front floor 121 and two types of rear floors 122 (having different shapes) are loaded on a carrier 123, which is moved toward a transfer area Q1 near a welding section WR. In front of the transfer area Q1, the front and rear floors 121 and 122 are transferred to a lift 126 via a fork lift 125. The lift 126 descends to deliver the floors 121 and 122 to the welding section WR via a conveyer (not shown).
Numerous front floors 121 of the one type are guided to the carrier 123 via a path 127. The rear floors 122 of two types are guided to the carrier 123 via a path 128. Then, the front and rear floors 121 and 122 are loaded on the carrier 123 together, and are delivered to the transfer area Q1, where the floors 121 and 122 are transferred to the lift 126 by the fork lift 125.
As shown in FIGS. 17 and 18, the lift 126 comprises a vertical post 131, a frame 132, and a sliding fork member 133. The frame 132 is slidable on the vertical post 131, and supports the sliding fork member 133. The sliding fork member 133 includes a horizontal plate 134 and a slider 136 for horizontally sliding a table 135 on which the automobile component is placed. The frame 132 is connected to a balancing counterweight 138 via a cable 137. The cable 137 is activated by a lift driver 139 so as to ascend and descend the sliding fork member 133.
The conventional lift 126 usually needs a relatively large balancing counterweight 138. Therefore, the vertical post 131 tends to become long so as to house such a large balancing counterweight.
In operation, the lift 126 is controlled according to the routine as shown in FIG. 20. When an automobile component is placed on the table 135, a control unit (not shown) emits an upward movement command in step a1. In response to this command, the fork member 133 is activated so as to move upwardly in the direction Y as shown in FIG. 19(b). The control unit waits until the sliding fork member 133 reaches its upper destination.
After confirming the arrival of the sliding fork member 133 at its upper destination, the control unit emits an advancing command in step a3, thereby moving the sliding fork member 133 forwardly (i.e. horizontally as shown by arrow X in FIG. 19(c)). As shown in FIG. 19(c), when the sliding fork member 133 gets to its upper destination, the control unit goes to step a5, where it causes a hanger to close and receive the component therein. Then, the control unit advances to step a6, where it emits a downward movement command in response to a hanger closing signal. When the sliding fork member 133 returns to a position for descending motion, the control unit emits a backward movement command. Thus, the slider retracts, returning to its original position as shown in FIG. 19(a). Then, the lift 126 is on standby. As described so far, the conventional lift 126 performs the upward movement, forward movement (horizontal movement), backward movement (horizontal movement), and downward movement in one cycle, which takes rather a long time.
When the front and rear floors 121 and 122 are conveyed by the carrier 123 to the lift 126 and are simultaneouly placed on their set positions of the lift 126 as shown in FIG. 16, the types of components to be carried via the pa
REFERENCES:
patent: 3608698 (1971-09-01), Crall
patent: 4675969 (1987-06-01), Sciaky et al.
patent: 5135349 (1992-08-01), Lorenza et al.
patent: 5238240 (1993-08-01), Prim et al.
Kakida Takuya
Kimura Akiyoshi
Mikami Akira
Nakamura Yoshiki
Okada Shoiti
Mitsubishi Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Underwood Donald W.
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