Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Takeo Yoshiji

Yutaka Sato

Teruo Yoshioka

Kimitake Uzuyama

Masao Tegawa

Masakazu Hironaka

Akira Takeshima

Takayuki Hoshino

Kuniaki Okuma

Nobuyoshi Shimada

Takasi Kuwabara

Sumio Kurata

Daizo Kaneko

Mizuo Shibazaki

A vacuum wall walking apparatus includes an annular body frame, a plurality of leg mechanisms extending downward from the body frame, and a plurality of suction cups attached to fore ends of the respective legs. The body frame is composed of a flexible member. The body frame thus constructed is bendable to conform to the profile of a curved surface when the vacuum wall walking apparatus is used with a wall having such curved surface. With this bending or deformation of the body frame, the suction cups are always able to retain an optimum posture to insure that the vacuum wall walking apparatus is stably held on the curved surface of the wall by a vacuum formed in the suction cups. The vacuum wall walking apparatus may include a surface treatment mechanism, in which instance a winch is provided to minimize or substantially eliminate the load exerted from the surface treatment mechanism to the vacuum wall walking apparatus. The surface treatment mechanism further includes a dust exhausting arrangement to secure a surface treatment operation without contamination of the surrounding environment.

Vacuum wall walking apparatus

A working line having a plurality of work stations arranged in series and a free-flow transport conveyor for transporting workpieces to the work stations. An outer frame supporting the conveyor extends over the work stations. A jig base is provided in each of the work stations and is inserted into a framed space of the outer frame. A jig is provided on each of the jig base supporting and positioning each of the workpieces on the transport conveyor at the respective work station. The transport conveyor includes a main transport conveyor on the outer frame, a plurality of pallets riding on the main transport conveyor, and a return conveyor supported on the outer frame under the transport conveyor for returning empty pallets to a starting end of the line. The transport conveyor and return conveyor comprise, respectively, a pair of right and left conveying members provided in parallel to each other on both lateral sides thereof. The outer frame includes a plurality of supporting frames in portal shape provided at a predetermined pitch along the working line, a pair of right and left guide members for the transport conveyor extendedly provided between upper portions of the supporting frames for guiding the conveying members of the transport conveyor, and a pair of right and left guide members for the return conveyor extendedly provided between lower portions of the supporting frames for guiding the conveying members of the return conveyor.

Working line

An apparatus having a robot on an frame having in front thereof a jig base for positioning thereon workpieces to which parts are to be assembled. The robot supports an assembling head equipped with a parts-holding member movable in a longitudinal and a vertical direction towards and away from the jig base so that the parts can be picked up out of a parts-containing pallet supplied at a predetermined pickup position on the frame and assembled to the workpiece positioned on the jig base. A pair of front and rear pallet chambers are formed in a space under the frame such that parts-containing pallets can be brought in and taken out in a stacked condition, one of the chambers being used as a feeding pallet chamber and the other as a discharging pallet chamber. A pallet conveying apparatus is provided to lift the parts-containing pallets fed to the feeding pallet chamber to an upper position of the chamber successively from the uppermost one, transport them from the upper position to an upper position of the discharging pallet chamber, and then lower them into the discharging pallet chamber. The parts inside the parts-containing pallets are picked up by the assembling head with the pallets stopped in the pickup position which is set at the upper position of the front side pallet chamber.

Automatic assembly apparatus

An automatic coating apparatus has a plurality of nozzle devices movable in X-, Y-, and Z-axis directions along tracks over a workpiece to be coated. One of the nozzle devices is displaceable with respect to the other nozzle device. Different coating materials are ejected from the nozzle devices toward the workpiece. Each of the nozzle devices has a nozzle which can be opened and closed by a valve operated by a cylinder mechanism. While a coating material is being ejected from one of the nozzle devices, the other nozzle device is closed. By thus selectively opening and closing the nozzle devices, the different coating materials can be coated successively on the workpiece.

Method of and apparatus for automatically coating a workpiece

A parts installing system installs a plurality of parts on a workpiece substantially simultaneously. The system includes a parts stocker for stocking a cluster of substantially closely arranged parts thereon, and a parts transfer device for transferring the parts from the parts stocker to a prescribed position over the workpiece and setting the transferred parts over the workpiece. The parts transfer device includes a parts spreading mechanism unit which picks up the clustered parts from the parts stocker and spreads them into respective relative positions corresponding respectively to relative positions which will be taken by the parts set on the workpiece. The system also includes a pressing device for pressing the parts set over the workpiece onto the workpiece, and a bolt fastening device for fastening the pressed parts to the workpiece with bolts. The parts installing system is suitable for use on various automated production lines to achieve a high rate of production. For example, the parts installing system is particularly advantageous when employed on an engine assembling line for installing camshaft holders on a cylinder head, and also for installing bearing caps on a cylinder head.

System for installing parts on workpiece

A robot apparatus is operable in a Cartesian coordinate system for moving a workpiece gripped by a hand thereof. The robot apparatus includes a self-propelled X-axis slide unit movably mounted on an X-axis rail unit extending in the direction of the X-axis of the Cartesian coordinate system. A Y-axis slide unit extending in the Y-axis direction normal to the X-axis direction has one end fixed to the X-axis slide unit. A self-propelled Z-axis slide unit is movably mounted on the Y-axis slide unit, and a slide base to which the robot hand is attached is mounted on the Z-axis slide unit. Lead wires connected to drive mechanisms for driving the X-axis slide unit, the Y-axis slide unit, and the Z-axis slide unit pass through case members, and are housed in the X-axis rail unit and connected to a terminal box secured to an end of the X-axis rail unit. The X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis slide units are prevented from interfering with the respective tracks of other units during operation of the robot apparatus, so that the working envelope of the robot apparatus can be increased.

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Sayama, Japan

Takeo Yoshiji