Conveyor assemblies adapted for use in painting booths, embodying conveyor units having upper and lower frames spaced apart by post portions aligned in the direction of travel. A dust cover encloses the drive mechanism and has a top wall between the upper and lower frames. A slot is provided to permit passage of the aligned post portions, and the slot is covered by a resilient flexible flap which can be displaced by the post portions as they travel through the slot. The drive mechanism includes alternative drive chains, one of which has a pusher for effecting advance of the units, the other of which has a bifurcated coupling which may effect both advance and retraction of the units along their path of travel. The lower frame has swivelable wheels which may ride in the elevated wheel-guide tracks in the painting booth to provide stabilization of the frame against lateral sway.
A device for positioning a number of working implements, for example spray nozzles, to certain working or treatment point on a car body as the latter is supported by an overhead conveyor for travel between different working and assembly stations on a production line. The device comprises a vertically movable base structure and a working implement carrying frame movably supported on the base structure. Hydraulic jacks on the base structure are arranged to accomplish a vertical parallel movement of the frame up towad the underside of the car body until one of four contact sensors indicate contact with the later. A final vertical adjustment of the frame is accomplished by four vertical cylinders which raise the frame in a non-parallel movement until at least three of the four contact sensors indicate contact with the car body. The docking of the frame to the car body is completed by activating two expandable dowels which are introduced into openings in the car body bottom shell. Thereby, the frame is arrested relative to the car body and the spray nozzles are activated to perform the intended treatment of the car body.
A hybrid carrying truck is disclosed which has merits of both of a skid carrier and a carrying truck such that it can successively and smoothly transfer between different carrying lines to carry a work whatever the carrying lines are and can secure a removing position from the carrying line to a refuge area freely and with safety. The hybrid carrying truck includes traveling wheels mounted at front and back positions on the left and right sides of a truck body for being rolled on a pair of rails to allow the truck body to travel along a carrying line, a pair of left and right skid members mounted on a bottom face of the truck body and elongated in a carrying direction of the hybrid carrying truck, and a truck hauling engaging member mounted at a central position of the bottom face of the truck body in a widthwise direction of the truck body.
An automatic stabilizing unit for a free trolley and a load carriage in an inverted power and free conveyor system is connected to the free trolley. The stabilizing unit includes a stabilizer actuator which extends above a free track containing the free trolley from beneath the floor of a building which houses the conveyor, and a stabilizing gear mounted on the load carriage. At locations in an assembly plant, such as robotic welders or riveting stations where load shifting tolerances are critical, there must be additional stabilization of the load carriage. At these locations, stabilizing rails are positioned on top of the free track in line with stabilizing trucks on the stabilizing actuator. When the stabilizing trucks contact the rails, the trucks are urged upward, pushing an attached piston upward against a spring which causes a pair of stabilizing wheels on the stabilizing gear to rotate downward into contact with the factory floor, thus stabilizing the carriage only when needed.
A stop mechanism for detaching a conveyor trolley from a drive system which normally drives the trolley along a conveyor track. A ramp can be moved into the path of a trolley dog so that the trolley dog moves upwardly along an inclined ramp surface to disengage the trolley dog from a drive dog carried by a driven chain of the conveyor system. The actuating mechanism for the ramp includes a pivotal cam plate actuated by a power cylinder. A cam slot in the cam plate receives a cam roller connected with a guide link which moves in a vertical guide slot. The guide link is connected with the ramp to move it up and down under the control of the actuating cylinder.
A method for positioning a number of working implements, for example spray nozzles, to certain working or treatment points on a car body as the latter is supported by an overhead conveyor for travel between different working and assembly stations on a production line. A vertically movable base structure is provided and a working implement carrying frame is movably supported on the base structure. Hydraulic jacks on the base structure are arranged to accomplish a vertical parallel movement of the frame up toward the underside of the car body until one of four contact sensors indicates contact with the latter. A final vertical adjustment of the frame is accomplished by four vertical cylinders which raise the frame in a non-parallel movement until at least three of the four contact sensors indicate contact with the car body. The docking of the frame to the car body is completed by activating two expandable dowels which are introduced into openings in the car body bottom shell. Thereby, the frame is arrested relative to the car body and the spray nozzles are activated to perform the intended treatment of the car body.
