Patent ID: 8556245

Claim:
A work inspecting and carrying device for carrying and inspecting a workpiece having a planetary gear mechanism in which a plurality of planetary gears are incorporated in a planetary carrier without a sun gear, the work inspecting and carrying device comprising: a holding unit for holding the planetary carrier of the workpiece; an inspection unit including a sun gear, the inspection unit being operable to inspect a load torque of the sun gear while meshing the sun gear with the planetary gears of the workpiece held by the holding unit; and a carrier unit for carrying the holding unit and the inspection unit together, wherein the carrier unit includes a lifting and lowering holder that holds the holding unit and the inspection unit, a lifting and lowering drive mechanism that drives the lifting and lowering holder to move up and down, and a horizontal drive mechanism that drives the lifting and lowering holder in a horizontal direction, wherein the holding unit is provided at an underside of the lifting and lowering holder and includes a plurality of grasping arms for grasping sides of the workpiece, and an arm drive mechanism for driving the grasping arms, wherein the sun gear of the inspection unit is disposed under the lifting and lowering holder and at a center of the grasping arms; wherein the inspection unit further includes a rotation drive mechanism for rotatably driving the sun gear, a load detection mechanism for detecting a load of the rotation drive mechanism, and a pressing mechanism for increasing pressing force in a direction along which the sun gear is meshed with the planetary gears while making the sun gear come into contact with the planetary gears and stopping downward movement of the sun gear in accordance with a load against a meshing operation when moving down the sun gear to mesh with the planetary gears of the workpiece, wherein the rotation drive mechanism includes a drive source fixed to the lifting and lowering holder, and a drive shaft that is rotatably driven by the drive source and coupled with the sun gear at a lower end thereof, the drive shaft includes an upper shaft rotatably driven by the drive source and a lower shaft connected to the upper shaft so as to be movable in an axial direction and to integrally rotate with the upper shaft, the sun gear is connected to a lower end of the lower shaft, and the pressing mechanism includes an urging spring that downwardly urges the lower shaft with respect to the upper shaft.