Hanging conveyance equipment and learning system therefor

Hanging conveyance equipment comprising:

• a carriage movable along a horizontal travelling path having a plurality of stop positions arranged therealong;
• work supports each fixed below one of the stop positions, the work supports each having an amount of work-lifting positioning and an amount of work-lowering positioning both set therefor;
• and
• a work hand for holding a work hanging therefrom, the work hand supported by the carriage in such a manner that the hand can be positioned horizontally two-dimensionally with respect to the carriage, the work hand being vertically movable with respect to the carriage to load a work onto or unload a work from each of the work supports;
• wherein the work hand is positioned horizontally two-dimensionally in accordance with the amount of work-lifting positions for each of the work supports when the work hand is lowered from the carriage in the associated stop position to lift a work from the support;
• and wherein the work hand is positioned horizontally two-dimensionally in accordance with the amount of work-lowering positioning for each of the work supports when the work hand is lowered from the carriage in the associated stop position to lower a work onto the support;
• wherein the amount of work-lowering positioning for each of the work supports is the associated amount of work-lifting positioning corrected with an amount of correction equivalent to the error between the position of the work hand holding a work and lowered to a predetermined height over the work support and the position of the hand lowered to the height without holding a work.

A learning system for use with hanging conveyance equipment including a carriage movable along a horizontal travelling path having a plurality of stop positions arranged therealong, work supports each fixed below one of the stop positions, the work supports each having a fixed position set thereon, and a work hand for holding a work hanging therefrom, the work hand supported by the carriage in such a manner that the hand can be positioned horizontally two-dimensionally with respect to the carriage, the work hand being vertically movable with respect to the carriage to load a work onto or unload a work from each of the work supports, the learning system being able to learn an amount of horizontal two-dimensional displacement of the work hand with respect to each of the work supports at the time when the carriage is in the associated stop position, the learning system comprising:

• a first jig that can be placed in the fixed positions on the work supports and has a fixed position thereon;
• a second jig that can be placed in the fixed position on the first jig and includes a held part for engaging with the work hand to be held thereby;
• one of the jigs including a detected part;
• the other jig including a detector for detecting the horizontal two-dimensional position of the detected part to find reference position data for the detected part with the second jig placed an the fixed position on the first jig and comparative position data for the detected part with the second jig held by the work hand of the carriage in each the stop positions and lowered onto the first jig;
• and
• a means of displacement operation for finding an amount of horizontal two-dimensional displacement of the work hand with respect to each of the work supports from the reference position data and the associated comparative position data.

A learning method for use with hanging conveyance equipment including a plurality of carriages supported movably along a horizontal path, work hands each supported by one of the carriages vertically and horizontally movably with respect thereto, and a plurality of work supports fixed below the horizontal path, the learning method comprising the steps of:

• choosing a reference carriage from the carriages and a reference work support from the work supports;
• performing a first learning process for finding a first amount of horizontal two-dimensional positioning for the work hand of die reference carriage with respect to each of the work supports;
• storing the first amounts of positioning with respect to the work supports as unified amounts of positioning in the carriages other than the reference carriage;
• performing a second learning process for finding a second amount of horizontal two-dimensional positioning for the work hand of each carriage with respect to the reference work support performing a comparison operation of the unified and second amounts of positioning for each of the carriages to find an amount of correction exclusive to each of the carriages and common to all of the work supports;
• and
• correcting the unified amount of positioning for each of the work supports with the amount of correction.