US 6,604,622 B2Granted

Transport system used in body shell assembly of vehicle bodies

AssigneeEisenmann Maschinenbau KG

InventorsHans-Joachim Weinand, Franz Ehrenleitner

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Abstract

A transport system for the shell assembly of vehicle bodies comprises a rail system (2, 3) which connects at least two processing stations and on which at least one carriage (4), which carries the workpiece, is capable of travelling. The guidance of the carriage (4) on the rail system (2, 3) and/or the design of the said carriage permits a certain displacement of the carriage (4) transversely to the direction of movement and in the vertical direction. Disposed in the processing stations are spatially fixed positioning means (13a, 13b, 17a, 17b, 31) which cooperate with corresponding positioning means (10a, 10b, 15a, 15b, 16, 28) on the carriage and shift the carriage (4), without having recourse to any other driving source than the movement of the carriage (4) itself in the processing station, into the exact position which is necessary for processing the workpiece in the said processing station.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A transport system for the shell assembly of vehicle bodies comprising:

a) a rail system connecting at least two processing stations;
b) at least one carriage associated with the rail system by means of a driving arrangement and on which the workpiece can be fastened;
and
c) positioning means which bring about the exact spatial location of the workpiece at each processing station, in each of
ca) the vertical direction;
cb) the direction transverse to the rail system;
and
cc) the direction of the said rail system;
the positioning means comprising a first positioning means component which is disposed in a stationary manner at each processing station, and a second positioning means component which is located on the carriage and cooperates with the first positioning means, both the first and second positioning means are passive components without a drive of their own, the first and second positioning means being activated solely by the movement of the carriage and independent of the rail system,
wherein the association between the carriage and rail system permits movement of the workpiece transverse to the direction of the rail system and in the vertical direction when corresponding forces act upon the carriage.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.