Assembly line arrangement

An assembly line arrangement defining a linear conveying path for successive workpieces or workpiece carriers, which comprises a succession of replaceable in-line working stations, each working station having a conveyor section extending substantially from one end to the other end of the working station, and the conveyor sections of successive ones of the in-line working stations being arranged end-to-end in series to constitute the conveying path, the conveyor section of each working station having a succession of areas each of which accommodates a respective one of the workpieces or workpiece carriers and at least one of the successive areas being a waiting area and at least one other one of the areas being a processing area for working on the respective workpiece, and each conveyor section including guide means for vertically and laterally guiding the successive workpieces or workpiece carriers along the conveying path, the guide means being arranged to provide access to the workpieces or workpiece carriers in the processing area from below, and discrete friction drive rollers spaced along, and separate from the guide means, the drive rollers being dimensioned and operable for individually driving each workpiece or workpiece carrier independently through the conveyor section and being so spaced along the guide means that the processing area is free of drive rollers, the guide means of each conveyor section of a respective one of the in-line working stations extending substantially to the functional ends of the working stations and being arranged to provide a continuous planar conveying path between the working stations and along the entire assembly line arrangement for securely holding the successive workpieces or workpiece carriers.