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AssigneeHonda Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorsMinoru Ueda, Masami Mitsuhashi, Nobuo Mashino, Eisaku Andou, Yasushi Tokoyo
Estimating the term…
A workpiece transfer system includes a bracket rotatably supported on a support part, a rotary drive mechanism provided on the support part in order to rotate the bracket, a workpiece support arm swingably and axially supported on the bracket, a swing drive mechanism provided on the bracket in order to swing the workpiece support arm, and a workpiece retainer provided on a tip end part of the workpiece support arm and retaining a workpiece that is to be transferred, the workpiece being inclined by operation of the swing drive mechanism when the rotary drive mechanism is operated so that a center of gravity of the workpiece comes on the vicinity of an axis of rotation of the rotary drive mechanism. This reduces the rotational load on the rotary drive mechanism, and since a small size and a reduction in weight can be achieved for the system, the workpiece transfer system and method enables a single worker to easily give a workpiece an inclination and inversion attitude change.
A workpiece transfer system comprising a bracket rotatably supported on a support part, a rotary drive device provided on the support part in order to rotate the bracket, a workpiece support arm vertically, swingably and axially supported on the bracket, a swing drive device provided on the bracket in order to swing the workpiece support arm, a workpiece retaining device provided on a tip end part of the workpiece support arm and-configured to retain a workpiece that is to be transferred, and a restricting device for restricting an angle of the workpiece support arm, which is swung vertically by operation of the swing drive device at a predetermined fixed angle so that when the workpiece is retained by the workpiece retaining device a center of gravity of the workpiece will be located on an axis of rotation of the rotary drive device or in the vicinity thereof , and operation of the rotary drive device enabling the bracket to be rotated while the workpiece support arm is set at the predetermined swing angle by the restricting device.
A workpiece transfer method comprising a first step of retaining, by a tip end part of a workpiece support arm axially supported on a bracket supported on a support part rotatably around a horizontal axis, a workpiece that is to be transferred, while swinging the workpiece support arm vertically, a second step of inverting the workpiece by rotating the workpiece support arm around the horizontal axis after the first step, and a third step of moving the bracket to thus move the workpiece to a predetermined transfer position and releasing retention of the workpiece after the second step, the workpiece support arm being vertically swung to and restricted at a predetermined fixed angle where the center of gravity of the workpiece is located on the horizontal axis or in the vicinity thereof in the first step, and in the third step the workpiece at a predetermined angle after being swung being rotated around the horizontal axis by rotation of the bracket.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.