Patent ID: 6651799
Filing Date: 2003-11-25
Classification: B23Q,B65G

Abstract:
A chassis for use in a manufacturing process line wherein manufacturing process steps are performed by manufacturing devices on workpieces carried by pallets, the chassis comprising:a. a base including a horizontal top plate, the top plate pre-configured for mechanically attaching one or more of the manufacturing devices to the chassis; b. an incoming pallet conveyor aligned horizontally on the top plate to receive a set of incoming pallets from an incoming side of the chassis; c. a pallet transfer and index module attached to the chassis proximate the incoming pallet conveyor and aligned to accept the set of incoming pallets from the incoming pallet conveyor, the transfer and index module including an indexing mechanism to accurately position each of the retrieved incoming pallets in the set in one of a plurality of workstations during a transfer cycle so that at the end of the transfer cycle the process steps can be performed on each of the workpieces supported by each of the plurality of pallets in the set during a process cycle; d. an outgoing pallet conveyor aligned horizontally on the top plate to receive the set of pallets from the pallet transfer and index device and move the set of pallets to an outgoing side of the chassis at the end of the process cycle; and e. a pallet return conveyor aligned on the top plate parallel to the incoming and outgoing pallet conveyors proximate an operator side of the chassis, the return conveyor positioned to receive pallets from the outgoing side and move them to the incoming side.