Patent ID: 6941645

Claim:
An automatic piston inserting apparatus using a vision system for inserting a piston with a connecting rod into a cylinder bore formed in a cylinder block provided with a crank shaft, clamping a connecting rod cap to the connecting rod and connecting the piston to the crank shaft, said automatic piston inserting apparatus comprising: block positioning means for moving said cylinder block in both vertical and horizontal directions or rotating said cylinder block around said crank shaft to position the cylinder block in a predetermined position; piston positioning means for positioning said piston for insertion thereof vertically from above into the cylinder bore formed in the cylinder block positioned by said block positioning means; cap positioning means for positioning said connecting rod cap for clamping vertically from below to the connecting rod of said piston inserted into said cylinder bore; clamp means for clamping said connecting rod cap vertically from below to said connecting rod; and a vision system, wherein said vision system photographs an image of said cylinder bore formed in the cylinder block positioned by said block positioning means and an image of said piston at a start-point chuck position, calculates central position coordinates of said cylinder bore and central position coordinates of said piston from image data obtained, and calculates from both said central position coordinates an increment of movement of said piston for insertion thereof into said cylinder bore, and on the basis of said increment of movement thus calculated, said piston positioning means moves said piston to a piston inserting position.