FR2718378A1 - Assembly chain for parts, esp. motor vehicle sub-assembly parts, used in automobile manufacturing - Google Patents

Abstract

The assembly chain of piece parts (28,29) consists of a plurality of storage zones provided for the storage of containers (20), each container being designed to hold several pieces (28) in the course of assembly or finishing. The work stations (50,60) are characterised in that between the consecutive storage zones, there consists a loading unloading zone (15,16,17) so that each work station (15) is either associated with one unique loading or unloading zone (15) or with two consecutive loading unloading zones (16,17) one upstream and the other downstream. Each work station (50,60) is designed to, receive a piece extracted from a container (20) found in zones (15) or (16); carry out an assembly operation of one or more elements (28,29) on the piece and placing the piece part back into the container (20). Each loading unloading zone (15,16,17) can receive a container (20) from the storage zone (12,13,14) upstream and move it to a storage area (12,13,14) downstream.

Description

The present invention relates to a parts assembly line, in particular

  automotive sub-assemblies. Said invention applies in particular to the field of automobile construction or any other industry in which rigorous management of spare parts is necessary. Among the many parts manufactured in a factory, some of them must undergo assembly with other parts before

  to obtain a set that can be used directly.

  The parts to be assembled are each manufactured at a different manufacturing site, stored in boxes, said boxes being then transferred to an assembly station where said parts will then be assembled. The assembly thus produced will in turn be stored in a box to be sent to a transporter

  to bring said assembly to the vehicle assembly line.

  Such an organization causes many problems. On the one hand, the rate of assembly station is dependent on the rate of

  two stations for manufacturing parts intended to be assembled.

  On the other hand, it is easy to notice that such an organization requires repeated manipulations, costly in time and in hand.

of work.

  The assembly line according to the invention does not propose to considerably improve the existing methods of preparation and

loading of spare parts.

  Blle is made up of workstations and a plurality of storage areas designed to store containers, each container being designed to contain one or more pieces in progress

mounting or finished.

  According to a characteristic of the invention, between two consecutive storage zones, said assembly line comprises a loading / unloading zone, and each work station is associated either with a single loading / unloading zone or with two loading / unloading zones. consecutive unloading, one zone known as the upstream zone and the other known as the downstream zone, each station being designed to a) receive a part extracted from a container located in said single zone or in the upstream loading / unloading zone associated with said station, b) be able to mount one or more elements on said part, c) allow the introduction of a part in a container located in said single zone or in the associated downstream loading / unloading zone, each loading zone / unloading being provided for: a) receiving a container from the corresponding upstream storage area when no container is present in said area, b) expelling said container d e said zone in the downstream storage zone when the parts contained in said container have been either all extracted, or all introduced, or all

extracted and then introduced.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, each container comprises support means for supporting one or more trays intended to receive one or more parts during assembly or finished, said trays being extracted from a container to extract the part or parts that it supports, and being introduced into a container to introduce into said container the

parts it supports.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, said plates slide horizontally on their support means for their

  extraction, or their introduction into a container.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, said chain comprises means for allowing, in a loading / unloading area, the extraction or the introduction into a determined location of each of the parts that a container contains

present in said area.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, it comprises means for allowing, in a loading / unloading area, the extraction or the insertion at the same predetermined location of

  each tray supported by a container present in said zone.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, said support means are arranged in a succession and can slide in substantially the same direction, each support means being connected to each of said support means which are adjacent to it by a flexible element which, stretched , keeps said support means and said neighboring support means distant from each other and which can be folded back on itself when said support means and said neighboring support have one side of the other, the means support & a first end of the succession being sliding in said direction by drive means. According to another characteristic of the invention, each element

  flexible between two support means is of adjustable length.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, the areas of

  storage consist of conveyor lines.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, said containers have external dimensions corresponding to the size of the body of a transport vehicle so that they can be stored one by one.

  following the other in said transport vehicle.

  The features of the invention mentioned above, as well as others, will appear more clearly on reading the

  following description of an exemplary embodiment, said description

  being made in relation to the accompanying drawings, among which: FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an assembly line according to the invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of a container according to an embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 3 is a view of a container according to the invention in

  different states depending on its position in the chain.

  The assembly line shown in FIG. 1 includes a line 10 consisting of a plurality of storage areas 11, 12, 13 and 14 on each of which can be stored and move containers 20 provided, as will be seen later, to contain

  one or more parts being assembled or finished.

  Each room & mount is for example made up of a wall base which is mounted one or more elements. These can be sub-assemblies of vehicles, such as fuel tanks, dashboards, aprons, etc. For example, in the case of a tank, the base is formed from the tank itself, while the elements which are mounted may consist of fixing means & a frame, of the plug, of the fittings, etc. The chain shown & FIG. 1 also includes, at the downstream end of line 10, a zone for unloading into the vehicle 30 containers 20 containing finished parts and, at the upstream end of line 10, a zone 40 in which empty containers are introduced on line 10. It also includes, on the side of line 10, work stations 50 and 60 each provided for being able to carry out the mounting of one or more elements on a part present at this work station and

during assembly.

  Between two storage zones 11, 12, 13 and 14, there is a zone 15, 16 and 17 intended, as will be seen below, to charge

  or & unload a container 20 which is present in this zone.

  Each of these zones is called in the following description of the zone

  loading / unloading 15, 16, 17.

  Each loading / unloading zone 15, 16, 17 is designed to receive a container 20 from the upstream storage zone 11, 12, 13 when no container 20 is present in said loading / unloading zone and to expel into the downstream storage area the container 20 which is in said loading / unloading area when the parts contained in said container 20 have either been all extracted or all inserted,

  either all extracted and then introduced.

  In the illustrated and preferred embodiment, each storage area 11, 12, 13 consists of a conveying section provided for driving a container 20 which has just been expelled from the loading / unloading area & its upstream end towards its downstream end where this container 20 is stored before being introduced into the

  loading / unloading located at its downstream end.

  The movement of the containers 20 on each of the conveying sections 11 & 14 can be controlled by a control unit (not shown) which manages their speed of movement, as well as their

  switching on or off & at predetermined times.

  According to one embodiment, the conveying sections 11, 12, 13 and 14 are inclined downstream so that the containers 20 which they carry move only by gravity, their stopping and their departure being done by setting commanded stop action or

  manually or by an appropriate control unit.

  The containers 20 are generally parallelepipedal in size so that they can be introduced into the body of a trailer 30, as they appear at the entrance to said body and at the downstream end of the last conveying section 14 of line 10. The width and height of the containers 20 correspond to the

  vehicle body size 30.

  Thus, by virtue of their shape and their dimensions, the containers 20 are directly stored one after the other in the body of the trailer 30 without requiring manipulations, such as

stacks and without loss of space.

  To further facilitate the storage of the containers 20 in the box of the trailer 30, the floor of this box can be provided with a conveying section 31 of the same type as the sections 11 & 14. Means (not shown) may also be provided to hold the containers 20 in place once they are stored in the

trailer 30.

  Although the invention applies to containers 20 which directly support one or more parts to be mounted, each container 20 is provided, according to a preferred embodiment, to support a plurality of trays 21, which support one or more

  several parts to be assembled or sub-assemblies.

  Several types of tray 21 are provided for receiving

  different types of subsets.

  Support means are provided on each container 20 to support, advantageously horizontally, the plates 21, the number of which per container 20 depends on the dimensions of the sub-assemblies that these plates 21 support. These means are also provided to allow the horizontal sliding of the plates 21 in order to ensure their extraction from a container or their insertion into a container,

  and this advantageously horizontally.

  In an embodiment shown schematically in FIG. 2, the container support means 20 consist, for each plate 21, of two slides 22 and 23 which can slide jointly vertically so as to keep the plates 21 horizontal. In Fig. 2, we can see in particular four support means 22, 23 and the dashed line xx 'represents the height

  extraction / insertion of the plates 21.

  Each support means 22, 23 is connected to each of said support means which are adjacent to it by a flexible element 25, 26 which, stretched, keeps said support means and said neighboring support means distant from each other and which can be folded back on itself when said support means and said neighboring support means are

one & side of the other.

  The high support means is driven in sliding by

  drive means, such as a roller 27.

  It can be seen in FIG. 2 that the slides 22 are interconnected by a ribbon 25 and the slides 23 by a ribbon 26. The ribbons 25 and 26 are provided to wind in the same direction on a

roller 27.

  Thus, the ribbon portions 25, 26 which are located under the line xx 'are relaxed so that the support means 22 and 23 also under this line are brought closer to one another. On the other hand, above this line xx ′, the parts of tape 25, 26 are stretched and the support means 22 and 23 are spaced apart, leaving sufficient space between two adjacent plates 21 for

  a sub-assembly 28, with or without elements 29.

  In each loading / unloading zone 15, 16, 17 there is a tray positioning device 18 21 which cooperates with the support means 22 and 23 of the container 20 which are located in said zone, so that the extraction operations / insertion of all the trays 21 of this container 20 are carried out at said extraction / insertion height, this, tray after tray. This device 18

  is for example mounted on a gantry 19.

  If the support means are constituted as shown in FIG. 2, each positioning device 18 cooperates with the roller 27 of the container 20 and thus controls the winding or unwinding of the ribbons 25 or 26. It therefore controls the spacing e of the supports 22 and 23 between them, and therefore the spacing

  enclose any supported trays 21.

  The maximum spacing e between two plates 21, obtained when the parts of the strips 25 and 26 between the supports 22, 23 are

  stretched, can be adjusted according to the height of the

28 sets they support.

  It will be noted that the means described in relation to FIG. 2 could also be used to give the same result with horizontal and non-vertical containers like those

have been shown & FIG. 2.

  Furthermore, other means could be implemented in the context of the present invention when these means allow, in a loading / unloading area, the extraction or insertion at the same predetermined location of each of the parts. or some

  trays contained in a container present in said zone.

  The first work station 50 is located opposite the first loading / unloading zone 15. It * and equipped with a tray support 51 designed to receive, at the extraction / insertion height determined by 11 positioning device 18, a plate 21 which has just been extracted from the container 20 present in the loading / unloading zone 15 and for conveying it to a working position. Likewise, the support 51 is provided for conveying the plate 21 which is in the working position towards

  container 20, and this at the same height.

  The support 51 is for example made up of two rails parallel to each other on which the plates 21 can slide horizontally. These two rails are at the extraction / insertion height determined by the positioning device 18. At the end opposite to that from line 10, the support 51 is provided with means (not shown) for holding a tray 21 in the working position. The second work station 60 is located along line 10 between the loading / unloading zones 16 and 17 It includes a rotary unloading table 61 designed to receive the tray 21 which has just been extracted from the container 20 present in the zone 16 and to present it, by rotation of 90, on a work table 62, for example parallel to line 10. It also includes a rotary loading table 63 designed to receive a tray 21 extracted from the working table 62 and to load it into the container 20 which is present in the area 17. L a work table 62 is designed to support one or more trays which can slide

  horizontally to move from one working position to the next.

  It is for example made up of two rails parallel to each other. We have shown & FIG. 3 states I to VII of a container 20 during its movement along line 10 at the locations

  correspondents marked I to VII in FIG. 1.

  The containers 20 arrive on the first section 11 of the line 10 provided with their empty trays 21. They are in state I.

  The plates 21 are in the lower part of the container 20.

  By the conveying section 11, each container 20 is brought into the loading / unloading area 15. There, each tray 21 is extracted from the container 20, is brought to the work station 50 where an operator loads it, for example with a base 28 of a subassembly to be assembled. This operator reintroduces the loaded tray 21 into the

  container 20 in the place it previously occupied.

  In state II, the upper plate 21 has been extracted.

  When all the trays 21 of the container 20 present in the loading / unloading zone 15 have thus been loaded, the container 20 is ejected onto the following section 12 and is then

  transferred to the second loading / unloading area 16.

  State III shows this container 20 loaded, of which all the plates 21 support bases 28. It can be seen that the plates 21 are

spaced from each other.

  The trays 21 of the container 20 in the loading / unloading area 16 are extracted and conveyed to the table

  work 62, as already explained above.

  State IV is that in which two trays were extracted.

  When all of the trays 21 of the container 20 in the loading / unloading area are unloaded, the container 20 is ejected

  from zone 16 and is conveyed to zone 17.

  State V shows a container 20 whose set of trays is

  extracted and which is stored in storage area 13.

  During this time, the base 28 which is supported by a plate 21 is modified by adding element 29. For example, if the bases are protective shields for automobiles, it will be possible to add, at the second work station 60, fixing means, fog lights, etc. Once the modifications made to the bases 28, this plate 21 is pushed onto the loading table 63 located opposite the loading / unloading zone 17 in order to reintroduce the plate 21

  with the finished products in container 20 present in zone 17.

  State VI represents two trays 21 which have been loaded into the container 20 while the other two trays 21 are on the work table 62. It will be noted that the supports 22 and 23

lower are joined.

  Once all the trays 21 of the container 20 in the loading / unloading area 17 have been loaded, the container 20 is ejected onto

  the section 14 o it is conveyed to the trailer 30.

  State VII represents the container 20 with the trays 21 filled with finished products, that is to say provided with a base 28 and a

item 29.

Claims (8)

  1) assembly line for parts made up of a plurality of elements (28, 29), said chain comprising a plurality of storage zones intended for storing containers (20), each container (20) being designed to contain one or more several parts (28) during assembly or finished, and work stations (50, 60), characterized in that between two consecutive storage zones, it comprises a loading / unloading zone (15, 16, 17) , and in that each work station (50, 60) is associated either with a single loading / unloading zone (15) or with two consecutive loading / unloading zones (16, 17), a zone (16) called zone upstream and the other (17) said downstream area, each station (50, 60) being provided for: a) receiving a part extracted from a container (20) located in said single area (15) or in the upstream area loading / unloading (16) associated with said station (50, 60), b) being able to carry out the mounting of one or more elements (2 8, 29) on said part, c) allow the introduction of a part into a container (20) located in said single zone (15) or in the associated downstream loading / unloading zone (17), each zone of loading / unloading (15, 16, 17) being provided for: a) receiving a container (20) from the upstream storage area (11, 12, 13) corresponding when no container (20) is present in said area loading / unloading (15, 16, 17), b) expelling said container (20) from said zone (15, 16, 17) in the downstream storage zone (12, 13, 14) when the parts contained in said container (20) were either all extracted,   either all introduced, or all extracted and then introduced.   2) assembly line according to claim 1, characterized in that each container (20) comprises support means (22, 23) for supporting one or more plates (21) intended to receive one or more parts (28, 29) during assembly or finished, said plates (21) being extracted from a container (20) to extract the part or parts (28, 29) which it supports, and being introduced into a container (20) to introduce into said container (20) the parts (28, 29) that it supports.   3) Chain according to claim 2, characterized in that said plates (21) slide horizontally on their support means (22, 23) for their extraction from, or their introduction into a container (20).   4) Chain according to one of the preceding claims, characterized   in that it comprises means (25, 26, 27, 18) for allowing, in a loading / unloading area (15, 16, 17), the extraction or the insertion at the same predetermined location of each of the parts (28, 29) contained in a container (20) present in said zone (15, 16, 17).   ) Chain according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that it comprises means (25, 26, 27, 18) to allow, in a loading / unloading area (15, 16, 17), 1 extraction or l 'introduction to the same predetermined location of each tray (21) supported by a container (20) present in said area (15, 16, 17).  6) Chain according to claim 5, characterized in that said support means (22, 23) are arranged in a succession and can slide in substantially the same direction, each support means (22, 23) being connected to each of said means support (22, 23) which are adjacent to it by a flexible element (25, 26) which, stretched, keeps said support means (22, 23) and said neighboring support means (22) away from each other , 23) and which can be folded back on itself when said support means (22, 23) and said neighboring support means are one next to the other, the support means (22, 23) at a first end of the succession being driven to slide in said direction by drive means (18, 27).   7) Chain according to claim 6, characterized in that each flexible element (25, 26) between two support means (22, 23) is of adjustable length.   8) Chain according to one of the preceding claims, characterized   in that the storage areas (11, 12, 13, 14) consist of conveyor lines.   9) Chain according to one of the preceding claims, characterized   in that said containers (20) have external dimensions corresponding to the size of the body (30) of a transport vehicle so that they can be stored one after the other in said transport vehicle.