Data managing system for work production line

A data managing system for a production line in which a plurality of separated assembly lines are connected together by a conveying pallet. Both the assembly pallet and conveying pallet are provided with a data storage member, the inspection result at each inspection station is stored in the data storage member attached to the assembly pallet, and the data stored in the data storage member attached to the assembly pallet is transferred to the storage member provided at the conveying pallet at a workpiece removing station.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a data managing system for a work 
production line for supplying and receiving processing data between a 
memory disposed on a conveying pallet and a processing station disposed on 
a conveying passage of the palette. 
Conventionally, during manufacturing mechanical apparatus constituted by 
assembling a plurality of parts, as disclosed in Unexamined Japanese 
Patent Application (OPI) No. Sho. 60-16348, in a case of conveying a 
workpiece mounted on a palette along a production line and a plurality of 
parts are assembled onto the workpiece at the various processing 
variations a memory member such as an IC card or the like is disposed on 
the palette, which memory stores therein processing conditions or 
inspection data, thereby to provide data corresponding to the specific 
workpiece. 
However, in a case where a plurality of separate lines are required, for 
example, if the production line cannot be constructed continuously in a 
single line due to a small installation space, if the cycle time is 
different between assembly lines or if a workpiece is conveyed from an 
assembly line for individual units to a main assembly line for the overall 
products, the palette must be conveyed to the next line while the 
workpiece is mounted thereon. For this reason, it is often difficult to 
convey such a palette, particularly when the production line is for set up 
producing a small scale product such as a recording head of a printing 
apparatus. 
The above problem may be solved by providing connections between the 
assembly lines by a transmission line to transmit data for each workpiece. 
However, this will cause another difficulty in that the workpiece must be 
identified with specific data. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention was made in view of the foregoing difficulties and 
problems accompanying the conventional data managing system for production 
lines. 
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a data 
managing system for a production line in which a plurality of separated 
assembly lines are connected together by a conveying pallet. Each of the 
assembly lines includes a parts supplying station, a process station, an 
inspection station and a workpiece removing station, which are provided 
along a passage for conveying assembly pallets. First and second data 
storage members are disposed on each of the assembly pallets and the 
conveying pallets, an inspection result is stored in the first data 
storage member at each of the inspection stations, whereas the data stored 
in the first data storage member is transferred to the second data storage 
member at the workpiece removing station, and the data stored in the 
second data storage member is transferred at the next parts supplying 
station to a first data storage member of the assembly palette, 
corresponding to each of the workpieces. 
According to the present invention, a plurality of the inspection data 
obtained in one assembly line are transferred to the second data storage 
member, and then the data is transferred to the first data storage member 
of the assembly palette in the next assembly line, corresponding to the 
specific workpiece. Therefore, according to the present invention, even if 
the plurality of assembly lines are separated from one another or located 
far from one another, the inspection data of each workpiece by each 
assembly line can accurately be maintained. The reliability of managing 
the quality of workpieces can be maintained effectively.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
The preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in 
detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of an assembly line to 
which the present invention is applied. A parts supplying station 1 where 
a workpiece conveyed from the outside is mounted on an assembly palette 40 
is disposed at an initial stage of a first assembly line I. The assembly 
line I includes, along the conveying passage of the assembly palette 40, 
process stations 2, 2 where the workpieces mounted on the assembly palette 
40 are processed, and inspection stations 3, 3 where processed dimensions 
and processed accuracy are measured and which are disposed immediately 
after the process station 2. Each of the inspection stations 3, 3 is 
provided with an IC card reading and writing member 4, so that inspection 
results of every processed part are recorded in an IC card mounted on the 
assembly palette 40. 
A workpiece removing station 5 is located at an end of the assembly line I 
where, after the workpiece is subjected to required processes, the 
workpiece is removed from the assembly pallet 40 and mounted on a 
conveying pallet 6 on which are mounted a plurality of workpieces. The 
conveying pallet 6 is provided with a storage member such as an IC card 7, 
for example, having a capacity for storing the inspection data of a 
plurality of workpieces. IC card reading and writing members 8 and 9 are 
disposed at the workpiece removing station 5 and a position of waiting for 
the conveying pallet, respectively, so that the inspection data is read 
out by the IC card reading and writing member 8 from the IC card mounted 
on the assembly pallet 40 simultaneously with the removal of the workpiece 
which is provisionally assembled from the assembly pallet 40 at the 
workpiece removing station 5. At the same time, the data is recorded on 
the IC card 7 mounted on the conveying pallet 6 by the IC card reading and 
writing member 9. 
A second assembly line II, which is separately constructed from the first 
assembly line I, includes at an initial stage thereof a head parts 
supplying station 10 where the workpiece which is provisionally assembled 
by the first assembly line I and conveyed therefrom upon the conveying 
pallet 6 is mounted on an assembly pallet 40 which is the same as that 
used in the first assembly line I. 
IC card reading and writing members 11 and 12 are disposed at a position of 
waiting for the conveying pallet 6 and the head parts supplying station 
10, respectively, so that the data of each workpiece recorded on the IC 
card in the assembly line I is read out by the IC card reading and writing 
member 11 and transferred to the IC card reading and writing member 12 and 
then recorded on the IC card 7 of the assembly pallet 40 every time the 
provisionally assembled workpiece is taken off the conveying pallet 6. 
Similar to the first assembly line I, the second assembly line II includes, 
along the conveying passage of the assembly palette 40, process stations 
13, 13 where the workpieces mounted on the assembly palettes 40 are 
processed and inspection stations 14, 14 where processed dimensions and 
processed accuracy are measured and which are disposed immediately after 
the process station 2. Each of the inspection stations 14 is provided with 
an IC card reading and writing member 15 and 16, with which inspection 
results of all processed parts are recorded in an IC card mounted on the 
assembly palette 40. A head removing station 17 is located at an end of 
the assembly line II where the workpiece is removed from the assembly 
pallet 40. The head parts removing station 17 is provided with an IC card 
reading and writing member 18 for reading out process data of the 
recording head (work) recorded on the IC card 43 of the assembly pallet 40 
and then transferred to a recording device 19. 
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the process station and inspection 
station, which constitute the assembly line according to one embodiment of 
the present invention. 
The assembly pallets 40 move on a pair of conveying rails 31, 31 fixedly 
secured on an upper surface of a base frame 30. Process stations 34 and an 
inspection station 35 are provided at desired locations as a unit. The 
unitary structure enhances the flexibility of the production line 
architecture. 
FIGS. 3A and 3B show an embodiment of the assembly pallet. The assembly 
pallet is provided with a pallet body 40, a pair of guide grooves 41 at a 
lower surface of the side wall thereof which are parallel with the 
assembly line for engaging with the pair of conveying rails 31, and a 
socket 42 at the bottom of the body 40 for inserting therein the IC card 
43. Reference numeral 45 denotes a head for connecting the pallet to an IC 
card reading and writing member. 
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of an IC card 
applicable for the present invention. A plate-like IC card 50 has a 
semiconductor storage circuit and reading and writing control circuit, 
which are encapsulated with a high-molecular material. The IC card is 
further provided at a surface thereof with a pair of coils 57 and 58 for 
transmission of power and signals in a non-contacting manner. The coils 57 
and 58 are supplied with operational power from an alternate magnetic 
field from a recording head 55 when the coils are located at a position 
facing the recording head. Further, data is transferred between the coils 
and recording head by a high frequency signal acting as a carrier signal, 
so that the data from the inspection station is stored in and read from 
the semiconductor storage circuit. 
The operation of the system thus constructed will be described with 
reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. 5. 
When a preassembled workpiece is conveyed by a parts conveying pallet (not 
shown) to a starting point of the production line (Step A), the workpiece 
is mounted on the assembly pallet 40 by the head supply station 1 (Step 
B). The assembly pallet 40 is conveyed by a belt-conveyer or the like to 
the process stations 2 (Step E), necessary parts are assembled onto the 
workpiece (Steps F, G) and, after the assembling process (Step H), the 
pallet 40 is conveyed to the next process station 2 (Step E). 
The assembly is thus completed with required process steps. The pallet 40 
is then moved to the inspection station 3 (Step I) where the size or 
relative position of the parts assembled on the workpiece during the 
assembling processes are measured (Step J). After finishing the 
measurement (Step K), the data representing the result of the measurement 
is output by the IC card reading and writing member 4 to the recording 
head and written in the IC card 43 attached to the assembly pallet 40 with 
ID data (FIG. 6, I,II and Step L), 
After the inspection, the workpiece assembled with required parts is 
transferred to the workpiece removing station 5, which is an end station 
of the production, where the workpiece mounted on the assembly pallet 40 
is removed therefrom by an arm of an industrial robot or the like and then 
accommodated on the conveying pallet 6 (Step M). At the same time, the 
measurement data stored in the IC card 43 attached to the assembly pallet 
41 from which the workpiece is removed is read by the IC card reading and 
writing member 8 provided at the workpiece removing station 5, and the 
data is transferred to the IC card reading and writing member 9 provided 
at the conveying pallet 6 through a transmission line and then written in 
the IC card 7 attached to the conveying pallet 6 (FIG. 6, III and Step N). 
The workpiece preassembled as described above is accommodated on the 
conveying pallet 6, which conveys the workpiece to a start point of the 
second assembly line II (Step A). At the start point of the second 
assembly line II, each preassembled workpiece is taken off the conveying 
pallet 6 in a predetermined sequence by the head parts supplying station 
10 and then mounted on the assembly pallet 40, which is similar to that 
employed in the first assembly line (Step B). In this case, since the 
second line is subsequent to the first assembly line (Step C), the 
measurement data stored during the former inspection in the storage member 
(IC card) 7 is read out by the IC card reading and writing member 11 and 
transferred through the transmission line to an IC card reading and 
writing member 12. The measurement data thus transferred is then written 
in the IC card 43 of the assembly pallet 40 mounting thereon the 
preassembled workpiece (FIG. 6, V and Step D). 
After carrying out a predetermined provisional process, the assembly pallet 
40 is conveyed to the process station 13 where necessary parts are 
assembled on the preassembled workpiece (Steps F, G and H), similar to the 
first assembly line I. Afterwards, the second inspection is carried out in 
necessary steps by inspection stations 14 (Steps I, J and K). The result 
of the inspection (measurement) is written in the IC card 43 attached to 
the assembly pallet 40 by the IC card reading and writing member 15 (FIG. 
6, V and Step L). 
When the assembly pallet 40 is conveyed to the end of the assembly line 
after completing the predetermined process steps, the completely assembled 
workpiece is removed from the assembly pallet 40 at the removing station 
17. At the same time, all inspection data is read out by the IC card 
reading and writing member 43 provided at the assembly pallet 40 and 
stored in the recording device 19. 
Although the above embodiment relates to the case of employing separate two 
assembly lines, the invention is not limited thereto or thereby. For 
example, it is apparent that the concept of the present invention may be 
applied to a product line having three separate assembly lines. 
As described above, according to the present invention, both the assembly 
pallet and conveying pallet are provided with a data storage member, the 
inspection result at each inspection station is stored in the data storage 
member attached to the assembly pallet, and the data stored in the data 
storage member attached to the assembly pallet is transferred into the 
storage member provided at the conveying pallet at the workpiece removing 
station. Therefore, the inspection data for a specific workpiece which 
must be assembled through a plurality of separated assembly lines can be 
managed corresponding to the workpiece. Owing to this data managing 
system, even if one product line is divided into a plurality of assembly 
lines which are located far from one other, the reliability of managing 
the quality of workpieces can be maintained effectively.