Patent ID: 8011491

Claim:
A conveyance apparatus for an assembly line, comprising: support means being arranged, for supporting an object on a conveyance carriage for conveying the object such as an automobile at a predetermined height above the conveyance carriage; the support means being configured by a column installed upright on the conveyance carriage outside the object and object support devices attached to the column; the conveyance apparatus being configured such that a part assembly work can be performed from below an object on the conveyance carriage, the conveyance apparatus, wherein below a specific section where the part assembly work is performed within a traveling route of the conveyance carriage, a synchronous traveling carriage capable of traveling in synchronization with the conveyance carriage from a start point position to an end point position in the specific section is arranged, on the synchronous traveling carriage, a lifter provided with an elevating base that is elevated via an aperture arranged on a floor surface of the conveyance carriage is loaded, an assembly-part support base carried in on the carriage floor surface is lifted up to a predetermined height by the elevating base of the lifter; the synchronous traveling carriage being supported on the floor surface in a manner capable of traveling back and forth parallel with the traveling route of the conveyance carriage, is provided with joining means that can be joined to and detached from a joined portion arranged on the conveyance carriage, and is arranged with reversing drive means for causing the synchronous traveling carriage of which the joining to the conveyance carriage is cancelled at the end point position in the specific section to travel back to the start point position in the specific section; the joined portion being composed of a columnar protrusion protrudingly provided downwardly at a bottom of the conveyance carriage, the joining means being configured by a pair of front and rear openable, closable gripping pieces for gripping the columnar protrusion from both front and rear sides in a traveling direction of the conveyance carriage, and a pair of actuators for separately driving to open and close the gripping pieces, and in the front-side gripping piece, detecting means for detecting approaching of the columnar protrusion is appended.