Opener mechanism and system utilizing same

Abstract

A mechanism for opening a vehicle closure such as a deck lid or hood is positioned at a work station such as a paint booth and includes interconnected gripper and floating arms mounted for rotary movement between a parked position, a pick-up position and a full-open position corresponding to an open position of the closure. The closure is utilized as a member of a four-bar linkage. Arm control linkage provides a two-stage harmonic motion including smooth acceleration and deceleration of the closure after a gripper mechanism mounted on the free end of the gripper arm has received the closure at the pick-up position. A fixture is mounted on the closure for engagement by a pair of opposing fingers of the gripper mechanism. Gripper control linkage is connected to the arm control linkage to open and close the fingers of the gripper mechanism in synchronism with the motion of the gripper arm. A system utilizing the opener mechanism includes a hydraulic power supply and a manifold assembly. The manifold assembly includes metering valves which control the cycle time. A solenoid valve controls a rotary actuator of the opener mechanism. Magnetic proximity switches provide status signals to a programmable controller of the system which controls the solenoid valve. The switches indicate different positions of the floating and gripper arms.