Method of producing vehicle body assembly

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10435094-B2
Application number	US-201715715291-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 26, 2017
Priority date	Sep 29, 2016
Publication date	Oct 8, 2019
Grant date	Oct 8, 2019

Abstract

A vehicle body assembling apparatus includes a lower jig, an upper jig movable by an arm of a robot, and a joining device. The joining device performs joining operations for lower component parts (e.g., a temporary assembly of a rear floor frame) transported by the upper jig and positioned by the lower jig, upper component parts (e.g., a temporary assembly of a rear floor panel) held by the upper jig, and a temporary assembly of a vertical assembly (e.g., rear floor component) formed by overlapping the upper assembly with the lower assembly, above the lower jig at different timings.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of producing a vehicle body assembly, for assembling a vertical assembly as a component part of a vehicle body, by overlapping an upper assembly formed by joining two or more upper component parts together, above a lower assembly formed by joining two or more lower component parts together, and joining the upper assembly and the lower assembly together, the method comprising the steps of:
positioning the lower component parts by operating an arm of a robot to move an upper jig supported by the arm so as to transfer the two or more lower component parts held by the upper jig to a lower jig, and positioning the lower component parts by the lower jig;
performing lower joining operation by joining the lower component parts positioned by the lower jig, using a joining device to form the lower assembly;
performing upper joining operation by joining the upper component parts positioned by the upper jig, using the joining device to form the upper assembly, above the lower component parts or the lower assembly positioned by the lower jig;
performing vertical positioning operation by operating the arm to move the upper jig so as to overlap the upper assembly above the lower assembly, and position the upper assembly relative to the lower assembly; and
performing vertical joining operation by joining the lower assembly and the upper assembly together using the joining device to form the vertical assembly.

2. The production method according to claim 1 , wherein the lower jig includes a lower engagement section, and the upper jig includes an upper engagement section configured to engage with the lower engagement section, and a lower component part positioning section configured to position a portion of the lower component parts; and
in the step of performing the lower joining operation, the lower component parts are positioned by the lower component part positioning section, and the lower engagement section and the upper engagement section are brought into engagement with each other.

3. The production method according to claim 2 , wherein, in the step of performing the vertical joining operation, the lower engagement section and the upper engagement section are brought into engagement with each other.

4. The production method according to claim 1 , wherein the obtained vertical assembly is transported to outside by the upper jig.

5. The production method according to claim 1 , wherein a rear floor frame, a rear floor panel, and a rear floor component are obtained as the lower assembly, the upper assembly, and the vertical assembly, respectively.

Assignees

• Honda Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Kawasaki Nobuya
• Ishitsuka Hisashi
• Komiya Shinji

Classifications

• Y10T29/49904

  Assembling a subassembly, then assembling with a second subassembly · CPC title

• Y10T29/49895

  Associating parts by use of aligning means [e.g., use of a drift pin or a "fixture"] · CPC title

• B25J11/005

  Manipulators for mechanical processing tasks · CPC title

• B62D25/2027

  the subunits being rear structures · CPC title

• B62D65/026 Primary

  by using a jig or the like; Positioning of the jig · CPC title