Railways – Traveling track
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-31
2002-07-09
Morano, S. Joseph (Department: 3617)
Railways
Traveling track
Reexamination Certificate
active
06415721
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a storage conveyor for a carrying truck for transporting a work such as a body of an automobile in a factory.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in order to carry, in a factory, a carrier such as a carrying truck or a skid carrier on which a work such as a body of an automobile is loaded, various conveyors are used in accordance with a type of a carrier.
FIG. 7
shows an example of a conveyor for 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. 7
, 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 A
9
in such a manner as shown in
FIG. 8
which is an enlarged sectional view taken along line A—A of FIG.
7
. When the conveyor chain A
9
is driven, a hauling member All formed from a pusher dog or the like on the truck carrying conveyor A
5
side is removably engaged with a truck hauling engaging member A
10
provided on the bottom face of the carrying truck A
1
and projecting toward the floor to haul the truck hauling engaging member A
10
to cause the carrying truck A
1
to travel.
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 truck carrying conveyor A
5
described above, such a cumbersome attaching method as to secure a lower portion of each rail A
4
formed from an I-beam to a fixed side frame using a holding plate, a bolt, a nut and so forth must be adopted to attach the rails A
4
to the fixed side frame. Further, the distance between the pair of rails A
4
must be checked carefully to assure smooth carrying of the carrying truck A
1
with reduced carrying noise. In short, a predetermined rail gauge must be observed using a ruler for the rail gauge frequently, and a heavy burden is imposed by construction and a high cost for construction is required.
Further, where the conventional truck carrying conveyor A
5
is used, upon transfer from a track carrying conveyor A
5
for a current step to another track carrying conveyor A
5
for a next step, upon transfer between the truck carrying conveyor and a traverser for carrying to an orthogonal carrying line or upon transfer between a truck carrying conveyor and a lifter, the allowable track connection distance or the allowable track offset distance between the rails laid on the truck carrying conveyor, traverser and lifter is approximately 10 mm in the maximum particularly where such a work 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 besides 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.
Furthermore, in order to prevent frame assembling and adjusting operation of the truck carrying conveyor A
5
at a site of the carrying line, the frame is in most cases shipped after it is assembled by the manufacturer of the truck carrying conveyor A
5
. The assembled frame of the truck carrying conveyor A
5
is bulky, and this gives rise to various problems in terms of the transporting medium, transporting efficiency, cost of transport and so forth.
Further, in the conventional truck carrying conveyor A
5
, since the hauling member A
11
formed from a pusher dog or the like on the truck carrying conveyor A
5
side is removably engaged with the truck hauling engaging member A
10
provided on the bottom face of the carrying truck A
1
and projecting toward the floor to haul the truck hauling engaging member A
10
to cause the carrying truck A
1
to travel, it is important to secure a tolerance with which reliable engagement and disengagement of them can be achieved. Consequently, a high degree of accuracy in production is required, and besides, there is a cumbersome problem that a working person must perform a desired operation carefully so that it may not be caught or held by the hauling member.
Furthermore, in the conventional truck carrying conveyor A
5
, since a plurality of hauling members All for engaging with a plurality of carrying trucks A
1
are mounted on the single hauling conveyor chain A
9
each through a trolley A
8
, if the length of the conveyor is changed because of modification to the carrying step or the like, it is necessary to cut the hauling conveyor chain A
9
and add or remove a predetermined number of frame units. Consequently, there is a problem that a heavy burden is imposed by the changing operation. Besides, if a failure or the like occurs with a drive unit of the truck carrying conveyor A
5
, then the driving force is removed from the overall length of the conveyor, and there is a problem that much man-labor is required for a countermeasure operation against it.
On the other hand, since the skid carrier B
1
which is carried by the conventional skid carrying roller conveyor B
2
described hereinabove with reference to
FIG.9
is produced with a weight as low as possible taking the carrying efficiency or the thermal efficiency when it is carried in a drying furnace with an automobile body after painted loaded thereon into consideration and besides it is usually formed in such an elongated shape that the length is 5 to 6 m and the width is approximately 800 mm, it is likely to be deflected by a load acting thereon and is liable to have deformation upon manufacture thereof.
Therefore, when the skid carrier B
1
is carried by the skid carrying roller conveyor B
2
described above, one of the drive rollers B
5
which is opposed to the roller contacting portion t of the skid leg B
6
is likely to be displaced out of contact with the roller contacting portion t of the skid leg B
6
due to the deflection or the deformation of the skid leg B
6
. If such displacement occurs, then sufficient driving force is not transmitted from the drive roller B
5
to the skid
Goto Masaru
Morikiyo Akira
Tanaka Zento
Umezawa Kenji
Howson & Howson
McCarry, Jr. Robert J.
Morano S. Joseph
Tsubakimoto Chain Co.
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