Metal working – Means to assemble or disassemble – Means to interrelatedly feed plural work parts from plural...
Reexamination Certificate
2002-12-03
2004-11-09
Hong, John C. (Department: 3726)
Metal working
Means to assemble or disassemble
Means to interrelatedly feed plural work parts from plural...
C029S430000, C114S06500R
Reexamination Certificate
active
06813827
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a manufacturing system for small planing watercrafts, wherein after an engine is mounted on a hull, a deck is attached by adhesive bonding to the hull to thereby produce a small planing watercraft.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Small planing watercrafts of the type including a jet pump mounted on a rear portion of the hull are known. The jet pump is driven by an engine to pump up water from the bottom of the hull and subsequently eject the pumped water rearward to thereby propel the watercraft forward. A conventional manufacturing system used for producing such planing watercrafts will be described with reference to FIG.
9
.
As shown in
FIG. 9
, the conventional small planing watercraft manufacturing system
200
has a straight or rectilinear travel path
203
along which carriers
202
travel with hulls
201
carried respectively thereon. In the straight travel path
203
, a hull loading station
207
, an engine mounting station
208
, an adhesive applying station
209
, a deck assembling station
210
, a clamping station
211
, a curing station
212
and a watercraft unloading station
213
are disposed in the order named as viewed from a supply end
205
toward a discharge end
206
of the travel path
203
.
For assembly of a small planing watercraft
215
, a hull
201
is placed or loaded on each of the carriers
207
at the loading station
207
. The carrier
202
with the hull
201
supported thereon is then transferred along the travel path
203
to the engine mounting station
208
. At the engine mounting station
208
, an engine
216
is mounted on the hull
202
. The hull
202
carried on the hull carrier
202
is further advanced along the travel path
203
to the adhesive applying station
209
where an adhesive
217
is applied to a bonding portion of the hull
201
. Thereafter, the hull
201
is transferred by the carrier
202
to the deck assembling station
210
.
At the deck assembling station
210
, a deck
218
, which is standing by on the right side of the deck assembling station
210
with parts or accessories mounted thereon, is placed on the hull
201
. Thereafter, at the clamping station
211
, the hull
201
and the deck
218
are damped together so that respective bonding surfaces of the hull
201
and deck
218
are closely fitted with each other via the adhesive
217
. The hull
201
and deck
218
thus clamped are fed to the curing station
212
where the adhesive
217
is caused to cure to thereby firmly joining the hull
201
and the deck
218
together. A complete small planing watercraft
215
is thus produced.
The complete small planing watercraft
215
is transferred to the unloading station
213
where the watercraft
215
is discharged to an inspection area
219
which is provided contiguously with the discharge end
206
of the travel path
203
. At the inspection area
219
, the complete small planing watercraft
215
is tested for water jet performance. If the test results are satisfactory, the small planing watercraft
215
will be forwarded to a subsequent processing station (packaging station, for example) for storage or shipment.
In the conventional manufacturing system
200
, the carrier
202
becomes empty when the small planing watercraft
215
is discharged from the unloading station
213
. In preparation for the next loading process, the empty carrier
202
is returned to the loading station
207
through a carrier return path
220
. The foregoing processes are repeated until a desired number of small planing watercrafts
215
are produced.
Since all of the stations
207
-
213
are disposed in the straight travel path
203
, the entire length of the travel path
203
is relatively large. The conventional manufacturing system
200
having such long travel path requires a relatively large space for installation thereof.
Additionally, since the carrier
202
becomes empty at the unloading station
213
which is located at one end (discharge end
206
) of the straight travel path
203
, the carrier return path
220
extending from the one end to the other end (supply end
203
) of the straight travel path
203
must be provided to return the empty carrier
202
to the loading station
207
which is located at the supply end
205
of the straight travel path
203
. To insure continuous processing of the watercrafts
215
along the stations
207
-
213
, a certain large number of empty carriers must be present on the carrier return path
220
. With this requirement, a total number of carriers
202
used on the conventional manufacturing system
200
is relatively large. Due to the necessity of the carrier return path
220
and use of an increased number of carriers
202
, equipment cost of the conventional manufacturing system
200
is considerably large.
In order to reduce the equipment cost, an attempt may be made to reduce the number of carriers
202
used in the manufacturing system
200
. However, attempted reduction in number of the carriers
202
will give rise to a problem that, due to an insufficient number of empty carriers returned to the loading station
207
, the productivity of the manufacturing system is considerably reduced.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide a manufacturing system for small planing watercrafts, which requires a relatively small space for installation thereof, can be constructed at a relatively low equipment cost and is able to produce small planing watercrafts with increased efficiencies.
To achieve the foregoing object, according to the present invention, there is provided a manufacturing system for small planing watercrafts, comprising a plurality of hull carriers, a closed loop-shaped travel path along which the hull carriers travel in succession, a hull loading station for loading a hull on each of the hull carriers, an engine mounting station for mounting an engine onto the hull, an adhesive applying station for applying an adhesive to a bonding portion of the hull, a deck assembling station for assembling a deck onto the hull such that a bonding portion of the deck comes face to face with the bonding portion of the hull, a clamping station for clamping together the respective bonding portions of the hull and deck with the adhesive held therebetween, a curing station for causing the adhesive to cure, with the bonding portions being kept clamped, to thereby firmly join the bonding portions to form a complete small planing watercraft, and a watercraft unloading station for unloading the complete small planing watercraft from the hull carrier. The hull loading station, engine mounting station, adhesive applying station, deck assembling station, clamping station, curing station and watercraft unloading station are disposed in the closed loop-shaped travel path in the order named with the hull loading station and the watercraft unloading station located adjacent to each other.
Since all of the processing stations are disposed in succession along the length of the closed loop-shaped travel, the manufacturing system is smaller in length than the conventional manufacturing system having a straight travel path. Additionally, since the hull loading station and the watercraft unloading station are located adjacent to each other, it is possible to return an empty hull carrier from the watercraft unloading station to the hull loading station in a short time. This will increase the productivity of the manufacturing system. Use of the closed loop-shaped travel path makes it unnecessary to provide a separate carrier return path as done in the conventional manufacturing system. Adjacent arrangement of the hull loading station and the watercraft unloading station that can be realized by the use of the closed loop-shaped travel path is able to reduce the total number of hull carriers used in the manufacturing system. Thus, the manufacturing system can, therefore, be constructed at a relatively low cost.
The manufacturing system may further include a plurality of deck carriers, a second closed loop-shaped t
Kobayashi Sadayuki
Murakami Masatoshi
Suzuki Takanori
Takahashi Atsushi
Torii Yasuo
Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Hong John C.
Rankin, Hill Porter & Clark LLP
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