Method for supplying articles and apparatus therefor

A method of feeding articles to an article feeding position while the articles are stored successively in a transporting member, said method employing:

• a work station for conducting an assembling or working operation by a robot to which said articles stored in the transporting member are fed;
• and
• an article loading station for loading the articles in said transporting member;
• said method comprising the steps of:
• detecting information concerning absence of an article when the articles are picked up from the transporting member by the robot in the work station;
• adjusting a number of the articles loaded in the article loading station in said article loading step on the basis of the information from the detecting step.

A method of feeding articles by an article transporting member for conducting, at a working/assembling station, working or assembling of the articles manufactured at a manufacturing station,

• said method employing an article transporting apparatus for storing the article transporting member in which the articles manufactured in the manufacturing station are stored,
• said method comprising the steps of:
• effecting winding-rewinding of the article transporting member;
• detecting presence of absence of the articles in the article transporting member on the basis of operation of picking up the articles by a robot in the working/assembling station;
• connecting mechanically and electrically the article transporting apparatus to the working/assembling station;
• and
• effecting information interchange between the article transporting apparatus and the working/assembling station by light communication.

A method of feeding articles by an article transporting member for conducting, at a working/assembling station, working or assembling of the articles manufactured at a manufacturing station,

• said method employing an article transporting apparatus for storing the article transporting member in which the articles manufactured in the manufacturing station are stored,
• said method comprising the steps of:
• feeding the article transporting member;
• detecting presence of absence of the articles in the article transporting member;
• connecting mechanically and electrically the article transporting apparatus to the working/assembling station;
• and
• skipping one step of feeding the article transporting member on the basis of a detection result of the detecting step.

A method of feeding articles by an article transporting member for conducting, at a working/assembling station, working or assembling of the articles manufactured at a manufacturing station,

• said method employing an article transporting apparatus for storing the article transporting member in which the articles manufactured in the manufacturing station are stored, and means for counting a number of the articles stored in the article transporting member,
• said method comprising the steps of:
• effecting winding-rewinding of the article transporting member;
• detecting presence of absence of the articles in the article transporting member, based on operation of picking up the articles by a robot in the working/assembling station;
• and
• effecting a count by the counting means in response to picking up the articles from the article transporting member which has been connected to the working/assembling station of the article transporting apparatus.

An apparatus feeding articles by an article transporting member for conducting, at a working/assembling station, working or assembling of the articles manufactured at a manufacturing station,

• said apparatus comprising:
• an apparatus body;
• means for driving winding-rewinding of the article transporting member in which the articles are stored;
• means for detecting presence of absence of the articles in an article picking up position of the working/assembling station;
• means for connecting mechanically and electrically the article transporting apparatus to the working/assembling station mounted in the apparatus body;
• and
• light communication means for effecting communication of a signal of operation of picking up the articles in the article transporting member between the article transporting apparatus and the working/assembling station, on the basis of a signal from the detecting means.