Patent ID: 7132622

Claim:
A laser machining apparatus comprising: laser irradiating units; mounting sections for facing said laser irradiating units, respectively; a single supply stocker; a supply-side transfer unit for removing from said single supply stocker, and holding, workpieces equal in number to that of said laser irradiating units, and for simultaneously supplying the workpieces to said mounting sections, respectively; a discharge-side transfer unit for simultaneously removing from said mounting sections the workpieces after having been simultaneously processed by said laser irradiating units; a discharge stocker; a supply-side support table; and a discharge-side support table, wherein said supply-side transfer unit includes supply-side retaining members capable of holding/releasing the workpieces such that said supply-side transfer unit is for simultaneously supplying the workpieces to said mounting sections by using said supply-side retaining members to simultaneously transfer the workpieces to said mounting sections while the workpieces are being held by said supply-side retaining members, respectively, and then causing said supply-side retaining members to release the workpieces, wherein said discharge-side transfer unit includes discharge-side retaining members capable of holding/releasing the workpieces such that said discharge-side transfer unit is for simultaneously removing the workpieces from said mounting sections by using said discharge-side retaining members to simultaneously remove the workpieces from said mounting sections, respectively, wherein said supply-side support table, said supply-side retaining members and said supply stocker are constructed and arranged such that said supply-side transfer unit is for removing from said supplying stocker, and holding, the workpieces by (i) having one of said supply-side retaining members face said supply stocker and remove a first of the workpieces from said supply stocker, then (ii) releasing the first of the workpieces from said one of said supply-side retaining members onto said supply-side support table, and then (iii) using another of said supply-side retaining members to hold the first of the workpieces, and using said one of said supply-side retaining members to remove from said supply stocker and hold, a second of the workpieces, and wherein said discharge-side support table said discharge-side retaining members and said discharge stocker are constructed and arranged such that after said discharge-side retaining members simultaneously remove the workpieces from said mounting sections, (i) one of the workpieces is released from one of said discharge-side retaining members onto said discharge stocker and another of the workpieces is released from another of said discharge-side retaining members onto said discharge-side support table, and then (ii) said one of said discharge-side retaining members removes the another of the workpieces from said discharge-side support table and releases this workpiece onto said discharge stocker.