Patent ID: 8312979

Claim:
Workpiece conveying equipment comprising: a workpiece conveying path including a first conveying path and a second conveying path branched off perpendicularly and horizontally with respect to the first conveying path; a workpiece conveying traveling body having a workpiece support carriage and an auxiliary carriage adjacent to at least one of a front and a rear in a traveling direction of the first conveying path of the workpiece support carriage; a workpiece conveying traveling body drive means juxtaposed on the first conveying path to make the workpiece support carriage and the auxiliary carriage travel integrally; a carriage diverging means arranged at a branching point between the first conveying path and the second conveying path so as to leave the auxiliary carriage on the first conveying path and to diverge and introduce only the workpiece support carriage perpendicularly and horizontally into the second conveying path; a workpiece support carriage drive means juxtaposed on the second conveying path to make the workpiece support carriage travel perpendicularly and horizontally with respect to the traveling direction of the workpiece support carriage on the first conveying path; a terminal end of the second conveying path coupled perpendicularly with respect to the first conveying path at a meeting point set so as to adjoin the branching point; and an auxiliary carriage drive means juxtaposed between the branching point and the meeting point adjacent to each other so as to move the auxiliary carriage having been left on the first conveying path at the branching point to an adjacent position before or after the workpiece support carriage approaching the meeting point and to make the auxiliary carriage wait.