Conveyors: power-driven – With means to facilitate working – treating – or inspecting... – Means engaging conveyor or load on a conveyor to align load...
Patent
1992-05-05
1992-12-15
Olszewski, Robert P.
Conveyors: power-driven
With means to facilitate working, treating, or inspecting...
Means engaging conveyor or load on a conveyor to align load...
B65G 1564
Patent
active
051708760
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to an installation for processing, i.e. machining and/or assembling components on workpiece supports, which are provided with receptacles to hold the components. The supports are guided on a vertical and/or lateral guideway and are conveyed by a feed device.
In such installations, basically a distinction is made between so-called loosely interlinked and rigidly interlinked workpiece supports. In the loosely interlinked installations, the workpiece supports are moved totally independently of each other along the installation and when one device fails in a single work station, the activity in the other work stations is almost unaffected over a certain period of time. In the rigidly interlinked installations, the workpiece supports are connected for common movement, so that in the case of disturbances in the region of one work station, all the workpiece supports and all the work stations are blocked. Each of the two types of installation has its specific range of use. The rigidly interlinked installations are used where only a few work stations are linked with each other. The loosely interlinked installations are mostly used for the interlinking of a large number of work stations, for example up to 40 work stations and over.
Various installations with loose interlinking have already become known--for example from my U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,681,043, 4,762,218, 4,619,205, 4,530,287 and 4,492,297, which have proved successful in practice for the interlinking of a large number of work stations. The workpiece supports are in each case guided independently of each other on vertical and lateral guideways comprising conveyor rollers pressed against the lateral faces of the workpiece supports, which provide a combined lateral and vertical guidance and conveyance of the workpiece supports, and position them exactly over the entire course of such an installation.
Furthermore, rigidly interlinked installations are known, in which the individual workpiece supports are connected via conveying chains--in accordance with DE-OS 26 40 593--. It has been difficult to mass produce such installations, or in each case to adapt them to a differing requirement with a different number of work stations. Moreover, the installing of the chain onto the assembly or machining devices arranged in the work stations was difficult.
Other known rigidly interlinked installations for machining and assembling components are formed by rotary tables which may also be interlinked with each other if required via additional conveying devices--e.g. in accordance with DE-OS 31 34 195. Such rigidly interlinked installations can not be expanded subsequently by additional work stations, and require a large space, especially in the arrangement of several work stations in series. In addition, the accessibility the construction and also the maintenance are difficult because of the compact arrangement of the assembly, handling or machining devices inside the rotary table.
The present invention solves the problem of creating an installation for machining and/or assembling components, which in a technically simple manner provides workpiece supports and guide devices for workpiece supports, which makes the system able to be adapted to differing conditions of use. Moreover, it is also possible with such installations to replace conventional rigid machining and/or assembling systems, which are designed for a single case of application.
According to the invention, the workpiece support is provided with support rollers, which are guided on the vertical and/or lateral guideway and, between the workpiece support and one of the two lateral guideways or between a lateral guideway and a machine table holding the latter, a pressing device is provided, which exerts a pressure in the direction of the opposite lateral guideway, whereby it is possible to give the workpiece support an exactly defined position at every location on its feed path, and hence also to position the equipment necessary for the machining and/or assembling devices, and equip them with posit
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Gastineau Cheryl L.
Olszewski Robert P.
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