Patent ID: 7720565
Filing Date: 2010-05-18
Classification: B23P,B65G,F16G,G01B,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A ring management system for management of a plurality of rings having elasticity in the radius direction for constituting a stacked ring; the system comprising: size measurement means for measuring size of each of the rings by hanging the rings having a circular shape over a pair of rollers whose shaft-to-shaft distance can be changed so that the rings have a substantially elliptic shape; first convey means for moving each of the rings removed from the pair of rollers, while sandwiching the rings by sandwiching means so as to maintain the substantially elliptic shape of the rings which tends to return to the circular shape; first storage means having a plurality of storage positions for storing the rings conveyed in by the first convey means and released from the sandwiching means of the first convey means while regulating the rings tending to return to the circular shape from the substantially elliptic shape in a short-axis direction with regulating means; and second convey means for conveying out the rings from the first storage means by releasing the rings from the regulating means of the first storage means by sandwiching the rings and reducing a sandwiching interval while maintaining the substantially elliptic shape with the sandwiching means, wherein the regulating means is configured to prevent the rings from tending to the circular shape.