Nissan Motor Company Limited

Fumiki Yokota

Yoshitada Sekine

Kinichi Tamura

Kazuyoshi Abe

Susumu Kawada

Ryosuke Ishikawa

Hisashi Kubota

For holding a plurality of different, in shape, workpieces, a holding unit comprises a laminated body with a number of thin identical shaped elongate plates which have one ends forming a workpiece supporting surface, a vibrator unit for moving the elongate plates so as to vary the shape of the workpiece supporting surface to create a new one, and a bias mechanism for clamping the laminated body, so the newly created shape of the workpiece supporting surface is maintained.

Machine for holding workpiece

For holding a plurality of different, in shape, workpiece, a holding unit comprises a laminated body with a number of thin identical shaped elongate plates which have one ends forming a workpiece supporting surface, a vibrator unit for moving the elongate plates so as to vary the shape of the workpiece supporting surface to create a new one, and a bias mechanism for clamping the laminated body, so the newly created shape of the workpiece supporting surface is maintained.

A method for detecting flaws in a surface of an inspected object can moderate the requirements for inspection condition accuracy, particular for adjustment of spatial relationships among a laser unit, the surface and an laser detector unit. The method includes the step of transmitting a laser beam in a known configurationonto a specular surface of the inspected object, projecting the laser beam reflected by the surface onto a light-scattering screen and forming an image of the surface on the screen, and detecting the image of the surface in the known configuration in relation to a predetermined portion of the screen. An apparatus carrying out the method includes a sensor for detecting positional deviation of the image of the surface from a fixed monitored portion of the screen, a adjuster for adjusting the angle subtended by the axes of a transmitter of the laser slit beam and a flaw-detecting image sensor and an adjuster for adjusting the inclination of a plane defined by the axes of the transmitted and the flaw-detecting image sensor relative the surface, both adjusters operating in accordance with the output of the deviation detecting sensor.

Surface flaw detecting method and apparatus

A method and system for automatically attaching works to respective vehicle bodies carried on a slat conveyor using a robot. The method comprises the steps of (a) providing a base on which the robot is mounted and which is movable within a movement range, at least one part of which is alongside of the conveyor; (b) providing work feeders for sequentially feeding plural kinds of the works which are different according to vehicle types (sedan, hardtop, etc.) of the vehicle bodies to predetermined positions; (c) identifying the vehicle type of one of the vehicle bodies to which the required work is to be attached at a first position; (d) determining a target position according to the identified vehicle type; (e) controlling the robot so as to grasp the required work from the work feeders at the target position; (f) positioning the robot to a stand-by position along the conveyor; (g) detecting sequentially a deviation of a relative position toward a direction of travel of the conveyor between a tracking point and reference point since the vehicle body has arrived at a second position downstream of the first position; and (h) moving the base to follow the conveyor so that the deviation becomes zero and simultaneously controlling the robot so as to attach the grasped work to the vehicle body.

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Yamato, Japan

Fumiki Yokota