Battery assembly dual workstation

A battery assembly machine having at least two workstations comprising:

• a frame;
• a first workstation and a second workstation carried by the frame, the workstations being in side-by-side relationship, immediately adjacent to, and in line with each other in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of battery cases through the workstations;
• a shuttle carried by the frame for movement alternately between the first and second workstations along a path generally transverse to the direction of movement of the battery cases through the workstations, a first actuator operably connected to the shuttle to move the shuttle alternately between the first and second workstations in a direction generally transverse to the direction of movement of workpieces through the workstations;
• a tool carried by the shuttle for movement by the shuttle alternately between the first and second workstations and driven by a second actuator for movement towards and away from battery cases in the workstations;
• a first conveyor configured to advance a single row of a plurality of battery cases through the first workstation;
• a first lift in the first workstation movable by a lift actuator relative to the first conveyor from a lowered position below the first conveyor to a raised position to lift a battery case from the first conveyor and to retain the lifted battery case in the first workstation;
• a second conveyor configured to advance a single row of a plurality of battery cases through the second workstation;
• a second lift in the second workstation and movable by a lift actuator relative to the second conveyor from a lowered position below the second conveyor to a raised position to lift a battery case from the second conveyor and to retain the lifted battery case in the second workstation;
• and
• an automated control system configured to operate the first actuator to alternately move the shuttle between the first and second workstations, and to operate at least one lift actuator so that alternately in the one of the first and second workstations without the shuttle therein, its lift is moved to the lowered position so that the battery case thereon is removed by the conveyor in such one workstation and a new battery case is advanced by such conveyor into such one workstation and the at least one lift actuator moves such lift to its raised position to lift the new battery case from such conveyor and retain the battery case in such one workstation to ensure that a workpiece carried by a battery case is available to be worked on by the tool in at least one of the workstations at all times to increase the number of workpieces the tool can work on in a given amount of time.