Workpiece transfer apparatus

A workpiece transfer apparatus, comprising:

• a belt conveyor that includes a belt having a transfer surface and is configured to move the belt in a transfer direction;
• a rack allowing for storage of thin plate workpieces spaced apart from each other in a thickness-wise direction of the workpieces, wherein the rack includes two opposing side panels and pairs of support grooves arranged on opposing surfaces of the two side panels to support two ends of each of the workpieces;
• a lift mechanism configured to lift and lower the rack at a position where the pairs of the support grooves are arranged in a vertical direction and an extension direction of the support grooves coincides with the transfer direction;
• a removal mechanism configured to apply an external force in the extension direction of the support grooves to a side surface of one of the workpieces that is located immediately above the transfer surface, among the workpieces stored in the rack, so as to remove the one of the workpieces from the rack onto the transfer surface;
• and
• a controller that controls the lift mechanism and the removal mechanism to lift or lower the rack so that whenever one of the workpieces is removed from the rack with the removal mechanism, another one of the workpieces stored in the rack is moved to immediately above the transfer surface.