DEVICE FOR POSITIONING VEHICLES STANDING ON THEIR OWN WHEELS IN A MANNER WHICH IS SUITABLE FOR AUTOMATION AND FOR VEHICLES OF DIFFERENT TYPES

摘要

In an apparatus for the conveyance and positioning of a vehicle supported on its own wheels along a production line, the vehicle wheels of each vehicle side are assigned conveying systems, for example apron conveyors or drag-chain conveyors, by means of which the vehicles can be moved further on in strokes. So that the vehicles can be positioned and oriented accurately and efficiently in the longitudinal and transverse directions in an automation-compatible and type-flexible way, in each workstation, the two wheel tracks are assigned in each case a prismatic shaped wheel well which can accept variously sized wheels in the same position. The vehicle wheels are supported transversely displaceably therein. Furthermore, a wheel support is arranged at a distance from the wheel wells and can support the wheels of the other vehicle axle likewise so as to be transversely displaceable. The wheel supports cover the various center distances of all the vehicle types occurring in the production line. The same applies to the width of the rolling tracks, the wheel wells and the wheel supports. Each of the wheel wells and the wheel supports has a pair of movably guided centering edges which project above the rolling level of the rolling tracks and which can be laid against mirror-symmetrical sides of the vehicle tires and can be moved by means of a centering mechanism transversely to the conveying direction positively in synchronism and mirror-symmetrically to the center line of the production line.