Vehicle assembly method
First Claim
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1. An automatic vehicle assembly line for automatically mounting a vehicle component to a vehicle body, comprising:
- a body conveyor defining an assembly path and having multiple body holders, each body holder adapted to carry a body and the body conveyor continuously moves the body holders along the assembly path;
a component conveyor defining a component path and having multiple component holders, each component holder adapted to hold a component and the component conveyor continuously moves the component holder along the component path, a portion of the component path coincides with the assembly path to define an assembly area, and the component conveyor and the body conveyor move in synchronous motion along the assembly area; and
a mating machine disposed adjacent to and capable of moving along the body conveyor and the component conveyor in the assembly area and the mating machine indexes the body holder and the component holder relative to the mating machine and couples the body holder and the component holder while the body holder and the component holder are moving.
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Abstract
A vehicle assembly line for automatically and continuously assembling vehicle components to a vehicle assembly. The vehicle assembly line can include multiple stations such as a component assembly station, module assembly station, fluid filling station, door assembly station, wheel alignment station, and brake test station.
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Citations
150 Claims
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1. An automatic vehicle assembly line for automatically mounting a vehicle component to a vehicle body, comprising:
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a body conveyor defining an assembly path and having multiple body holders, each body holder adapted to carry a body and the body conveyor continuously moves the body holders along the assembly path;
a component conveyor defining a component path and having multiple component holders, each component holder adapted to hold a component and the component conveyor continuously moves the component holder along the component path, a portion of the component path coincides with the assembly path to define an assembly area, and the component conveyor and the body conveyor move in synchronous motion along the assembly area; and
a mating machine disposed adjacent to and capable of moving along the body conveyor and the component conveyor in the assembly area and the mating machine indexes the body holder and the component holder relative to the mating machine and couples the body holder and the component holder while the body holder and the component holder are moving. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 90, 91, 92, 93)
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41. An automatic vehicle assembly line comprising:
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a vehicle assembly conveyor defining an assembly path and having multiple vehicle assembly holders each adapted to carry a vehicle assembly and the vehicle assembly conveyor continuously moving the vehicle assembly holders along the assembly path; and
a component assembly station comprising;
a component conveyor defining a component path and having multiple component holders adapted to hold a component and the component conveyor continuously moving the component holder along the component path, a portion of the component path coincides with the vehicle assembly path to define an assembly area, and the component conveyor and the vehicle assembly conveyor move in synchronous motion along the assembly area; and
a mating machine disposed adjacent to and capable of moving parallel to the vehicle assembly conveyor and the component conveyor in the assembly area and the mating machine adapted to index the vehicle assembly holder and the component holder relative to mating machine and coupling the vehicle assembly holder and the component holder while the vehicle assembly holder and the component holder are moving. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150)
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60. The automatic assembly line according to
claim 60 , wherein the undocking platform further comprises a fixing mechanism to fix the relative position of the pallet and the platform.
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94. A method of automatically assembling a vehicle in an automated line comprising a vehicle assembly conveyor defining an assembly path and having multiple vehicle assembly holders each adapted to carry a vehicle assembly and a component conveyor defining a component path and having multiple component holders each adapted to carry a component and the component conveyor continuously moving the component holder along the component path, and a portion of the component path coincides with the assembly path to define an assembly area, the method comprising:
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continuously moving the vehicle assembly holders and the component holders in synchronous motion along the assembly area; and
coupling the vehicle assembly holder to component holder while the vehicle assembly holders and component holders are being continuously moved in synchronous motion. - View Dependent Claims (95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144)
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Specification