Conveyance system

A conveyance system, comprising rail apparatuses and moving bodies which are supported and guided by the rail apparatuses so as to move freely on a fixed path, characterized in that:

• each of said rail apparatuses comprises a lateral pair of rail members each having an upward wheel supporting surface and an inward roller guide surface formed thereon;
• the fixed path comprises one or more linear path portions and a branching-and-joining path portion;
• a branching-and-joining section formed by said path portions are provided with linear-side guide members extending along the linear path portions and a branching-and-joining-side guide member extending along the branching-and-joining path portion, said linear-side guide members and said branching-and-joining guide member including respective sideward guide sections;
• and
• the moving bodies are each provided with wheels supported and guided on said wheel supporting surface, side guide rollers guided on said roller guide surface, and a direction restricting member guided by the sideward guide sections of said guide members,
• wherein said moving bodies include a lateral-movement means for driving the direction restricting member to move in a lateral direction between a location corresponding to the linear-side guide member and a location corresponding to the branching-and-joining-side guide member, and
• wherein the branching-and-joining path portion is arranged between a pair of said linear path portions, said pair of linear path portions being parallel,
• the linear-side guide members of both linear path portions each has a linear guide section formed outside a parallel portion of each said linear-side guide member, and a branching-and-joining guide section formed inside the parallel portion of each said linear-side guide member,
• the branching-and-joining side guide member comprises a branching-side guide member and a joining-side guide member which are severed from each other, and a branching-side guide section and a joining-side guide section which are extended from the branching-and joining-side guide member are formed to extend in different directions, and
• there is a severed section in which the direction restricting member moved along the branching-side guide section is guided to the joining-side guide section.