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US 9,897,380 B2Granted
Carrier transport system
AssigneesToyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha, Hirata Corporation
InventorsMasanari Matsuura, Sotaro Oi, Tomoyuki Kubota
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A carrier transport system transports a plurality of carriers by a transport conveyor into a heating furnace, advances a comb-shaped carrier stopper having a plurality of protrusions toward the carriers, moves the carriers by the transport conveyor in a transport direction to engage cutout grooves, provided respectively for the carriers, with the protrusions of the carrier stopper to thereby position the carriers at a time. The carrier transport system advances the carrier stopper toward the carriers to insert distal ends of the protrusions of the carrier stopper into insertion holes, and then determines, on the basis of a moved distance X of the carrier stopper, whether the carriers are properly positioned.
Claims11
A carrier transport system comprising:
- a plurality of carriers on which pieces of work are respectively mounted;
- a transport conveyor that transports the plurality of carriers;
- a heating furnace that covers part of the transport conveyor and that heats the pieces of work;
- and
- a positioning portion that positions the plurality of carriers in the heating furnace, wherein:
- the heating furnace includes a plurality of heating devices for heating the pieces of work inside so that the plurality of heating devices are arranged at predetermined intervals in a transport direction in which the carriers are transported,
- each of the carriers has at least one engagement portion, and
- the positioning portion includes
- a comb-shaped carrier stopper having a plurality of protrusions that are engageable with the engagement portions of the respective carriers;
- an actuating portion that moves the carrier stopper toward the carriers in order to engage the protrusions with the engagement portions;
- a moved distance detecting portion that detects a moved distance of the carrier stopper moved by the actuating portion;
- and
- a determination portion that determines, on the basis of the moved distance detected by the moved distance detecting portion, whether the carriers are properly positioned,
- wherein the engagement portions of the respective carriers are cutout grooves that are wider in the transport direction of the carriers than the protrusions,
- rear end portions in the transport direction of the cutout grooves respectively have insertion holes that allow distal ends of the protrusions to be inserted, and
- the actuating portion may advance the carrier stopper so as to engage the protrusions with the cutout grooves and insert the distal ends of the protrusions into the insertion holes in coordination with transport operation of the transport conveyor,
- wherein the determination portion determines that the carriers are properly positioned when the moved distance exceeds a predetermined reference value, the reference value being a moved distance of the carrier stopper at a time when the distal ends of the protrusions start to be inserted into the insertion holes.
14 more elements
A carrier transport system comprising:
- a plurality of carriers on which pieces of work are respectively mounted;
- a transport conveyor that transports the plurality of carriers;
- a heating furnace that covers part of the transport conveyor and that heats the pieces of work;
- and
- a positioning portion that positions the plurality of carriers in the heating furnace, wherein:
- the heating furnace includes a plurality of heating devices for heating the pieces of work inside so that the plurality of heating devices are arranged at predetermined intervals in a transport direction in which the carriers are transported,
- each of the carriers has at least one engagement portion, and
- the positioning portion includes
- a comb-shaped carrier stopper having a plurality of protrusions that are engageable with the engagement portions of the respective carriers;
- an actuating portion that moves the carrier stopper toward the carriers in order to engage the protrusions with the engagement portions;
- a moved distance detecting portion that detects a moved distance of the carrier stopper moved by the actuating portion;
- a determination portion that determines, on the basis of the moved distance detected by the moved distance detecting portion, whether the carriers are properly positioned;
- the engagement portions of the respective carriers are cutout grooves that are wider in the transport direction of the carriers than the protrusions;
- rear end portions in the transport direction of the cutout grooves respectively have insertion holes that allow distal ends of the protrusions to be inserted;
- the actuating portion may advance the carrier stopper so as to engage the protrusions with the cutout grooves and insert the distal ends of the protrusions into the insertion holes in coordination with transport operation of the transport conveyor;
- the moved distance detecting portion detects a first moved distance that the protrusions of the carrier stopper move into the cutout grooves and a second moved distance that the protrusions of the carrier stopper move into the insertion holes;
- and
- the determination portion determines, on the basis of the second moved distance detected by the moved distance detecting portion, whether the carriers are properly positioned.
15 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.