Railways – Traction – Chain
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-31
2001-12-04
Morano, S. Joseph (Department: 3617)
Railways
Traction
Chain
C104S165000, C104S172100, C104S172500, C198S465100, C198S465300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06324992
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a carrying truck for carrying a work such as a body of an automobile in a factory.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, various carriers for carrying a work between various working steps such as a carrying truck and a skid carrier are used in a factory.
FIG. 8
shows an example of a carrying truck for receiving a work W such as a body of an automobile and carrying the work in an oven in order to dry the work W after the work W is painted in a painting step. Referring to
FIG. 8
, a carrying truck A
1
has four flanged traveling wheels A
2
on a lower face of a body thereof. The traveling wheels A
2
are supported on a pair of rails A
4
secured to a support frame A
3
on a floor face G in the oven and hauled by a truck carrying conveyor A
5
provided between the rails A
4
to carry the work W.
The truck carrying conveyor A
5
has a trolley A
8
guided and supported for traveling movement by and on guide rollers A
7
which are rolled on a pair of guide rails A
6
having a channel-shaped cross section and disposed in an opposing relationship to each other on the opposite left and right sides of the trolley A
8
. The trolley A
8
of the truck carrying conveyor A
5
is connected to a conveyor chain not shown such that, when the conveyor chain is driven, the carrying truck A
1
travels.
Meanwhile,
FIG. 9
shows an example of a skid carrier for receiving a work W and carrying it in an oven. Referring to
FIG. 9
, the skid carrier is generally denoted at B
1
. A skid carrying roller conveyor B
2
includes a support frame B
3
located on a floor face, and a large number of flanged free rollers B
4
arranged along a carrying direction at one of the opposite ends of the support frame B
3
in a widthwise direction. A large number of drive rollers B
5
are disposed at the other end portion of the support frame B
3
in the widthwise direction in an opposing relationship to each of the flanged free rollers B
4
.
Each of the flanged free rollers B
4
is mounted for free rotation around a horizontal axis and has a pair of flanges F formed on the opposite sides of an outer periphery thereof. Each of the flanged free rollers B
4
thus guides, with the flanges F thereof, the opposite side faces of a roller contacting portion t provided at a bottom portion of one of a pair of skid legs B
6
of the skid carrier B
1
, on which a work W is received, and receives, at the outer periphery thereof, the lower face of the roller contacting portion t.
Each of the drive rollers B
5
receives, at an outer periphery thereof, the lower face of the roller contacting portion t of the other skid leg B
6
of the skid carrier B
1
so that the skid carrier B
1
is carried by rotation of the drive roller B
5
.
In the conventional carrying truck A
1
described above with reference to
FIG. 8
, since the traveling wheels A
2
at the lower portions of the body are rolled on the rails A
4
to cause the carrying truck A
1
to travel, where the carrying truck A
1
changes a truck carrying conveyor from a current step to a next step, where the carrying truck A
1
transfers between a truck carrying conveyor and a traverser for carrying to an orthogonal carrying line or where the carrying truck A
1
transfers between a truck carrying conveyor and a lifter, the allowable track connection distance or the allowable track offset distance between the rails A
4
provided on the truck carrying conveyor, traverser, lifter and so forth are approximately 10 mm in the maximum particularly where such a work W as a body of an automobile is carried. If this allowable distance is exceeded, then smooth transfer becomes difficult, and high transferring power is required and accidental dislocation of the traveling wheels from the rails may possibly occur. Therefore, a carrying line must be designed taking prevention of such accidental dislocation as described above sufficiently into consideration.
Accordingly, where a carrying line for such a conventional carrying truck A
1
as described above is laid, there is a problem that a heavy construction burden and a high cost are imposed in order to secure an appropriate allowable track connection distance and an appropriate allowable offset distance of the rails A
4
which is heavy, thick, long and large.
Further, the conventional carrying truck A
1
described above cannot be applied to a carrying line which includes such a skid carrying roller conveyor B
2
as a roller conveyor or a friction roller conveyor because it does not have a lower body frame elongated in a carrying direction as is intended so as to engage with and be carried by the skid carrying roller conveyor B
2
such as a roller conveyor or a friction conveyor. Therefore, there is a difficult problem that, in order to perform working operation for a work W, which has been carried by the carrying truck A
1
, on a carrying line which includes such a skid carrying roller conveyor B
2
as described above, the work W must be transferred from the carrying truck A
1
to the skid carrier B
1
.
Meanwhile, in the conventional skid carrier B
1
described above with reference to
FIG. 9
, since it does not include wheels for traveling and the overall weight of the skid carrier B
1
on which the work W is loaded is received by the large number of flanged free rollers B
4
disposed on the skid carrying roller conveyor B
2
side, a sufficient strength which eliminates distortion or deflection of the skid carrier B
1
in its longitudinal direction must be assured. Consequently, the conventional skid carrier B
1
has a problem in designing that the weight of the skid carrier B
1
cannot be reduced readily.
Further, since the skid carrier B
1
described above does not include such traveling wheels A
2
as described above, even if a traverser is used, the skid carrier B
1
cannot be removed from an ordinary carrying line to an arbitrary refuge area, different from the conventional carrying truck A
1
which includes the traveling wheels A
2
, but the position for removal is limited only to a specific refuge area in which a large number of free rollers are provided on the floor. Therefore, the skid carrier B
1
cannot take refuge to an arbitrary position. Where a large number of free rollers are provided specifically on the floor over a wide refuge area, this increases the cost for the equipment significantly and besides gives rise to restrictions to safety in working such as the necessity to draw a worker's attention so that the worker may not inadvertently step on the free rollers. Accordingly, there is a problem in working schedule control that it cannot be anticipated to maintain a predetermined production processing efficiency when a countermeasure against a trouble on the carrying line is taken.
Further, when it is tried to transfer such a skid carrier B
1
as described above to a turntable or the like to change the carrying direction, the turntable is required to have an outer diameter sufficient to support the entire skid legs B
6
which extend in the carrying direction, that is, an outer diameter corresponding to the overall length of the skid legs B
6
, and consequently, there are much restrictions to layout designing of the carrying line.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a hybrid carrying truck which has merits of both of a skid carrier and a carrying truck such that it can successively and smoothly transfer between different carrying lines to carry a work whatever the carrying lines are and can secure a removing position from the carrying line to a refuge area freely and with safety.
In order to attain the object described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a hybrid carrying truck, comprising a truck body, two pairs of traveling wheels mounted at front and back positions on the left and right sides of the truck body for being rolled on a pair of rails of a first type of carrying line to allow the truck body to travel along the first type of carrying line, a pair of left and rig
Kawano Susumu
Morikiyo Akira
Ueno Ichiro
Howson & Howson
Morano S. Joseph
Olson Lars A.
Tsubakimoto Chain Co.
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