US 4,369,872 AGranted

Apparatus for the manufacture and/or handling of workpieces

OwnerWalter Stichtinventor

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Abstract

An assembly line comprises a succession of work stations and a conveyor transporting workpieces from, to and between the stations. A mechanism is associated with each work station for handling a respective workpiece and includes a plurality of rectilinear guide tracks extending at an angle to each other, a gripping element movable along the guide tracks and a drive associated with the guide tracks for moving the workpiece between a first working position within the range of the conveyor and a second working position spaced therefrom. A first one of the guide tracks extends parallel to the elongated guide for the conveyor and two additional guide tracks extend, respectively, in a plane parallel to the plane defined by the elongated conveyor guide and transversely thereto, and the other additional guide track extends in a plane perpendicular thereto. A control operates the drives in a programmed sequence.

Claims26

Dependent claims

An apparatus for the manufacture or the handling of workpieces, which comprises

(a) a succession of work stations,
(b) conveyor means interconnecting the work stations and arranged for transporting respective ones of the workpieces from, to and between the work stations,
(c) elongated guide means for the conveyor means,
(d) a mechanism associated with each one of the work stations for handling a respective one of the workpieces, the mechanism including
(1) a fixed support,
(2) three rectilinear guide tracks extending perpendicularly to each other, a first one of the guide tracks extending in a plane perpendicular to the plane defined by the elongated guide means and being affixed to the fixed support, and two additional guide tracks extending in a plane parallel to the plane defined by the elongated guide means, one of the additional guide tracks extending parallel to the elongated guide means and the other one of the additional guide tracks extending perpendicularly thereto,
(3) a holder slidably mounted on the first guide track and one of the additional guide tracks being affixed to the holder,
(4) a carrier element slidably mounted on the additional guide track affixed to the holder and another one of the additional guide tracks being affixed to the carrier element,
(5) a gripping element slidably mounted on the additional guide track affixed to the carrier element and capable of gripping the respective workpiece, and
(6) drive means associated with the guide tracks for moving the respective workpiece gripped by the gripping element along respective ones of the guide tracks, and
(e) a control for operating the drive means in dependence on each other.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.