	US 7,549,565 B2
	Conveyor for sheet-shaped thin plate and method of conveying same
Hideyuki Kai, Hamamatsu (Japan); Manabu Kobayashi, Hamamatsu (Japan); Masahiro Ogawa, Hamamatsu (Japan); Ryoichi Kimura, Hamamatsu (Japan); Sachio Kishino, Hamamatsu (Japan); and Kenji Tsukamoto, Hamamatsu (Japan)
Assigned to Suzuki Kabushiki Kaisha, Hamamatsu-Shi (Japan)
Filed on Sep. 07, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/219,758.
Claims priority of application No. P2005-004173 (JP), filed on Jan. 11, 2005; and application No. P2005-160188 (JP), filed on May 31, 2005.
Prior Publication US 2006/0151291 A1, Jul. 13, 2006
Int. Cl. B23K 37/00 (2006.01); B65G 13/06 (2006.01)

U.S. Cl. 228—5.7 [228/17; 198/789]

12 Claims

1. A conveyor for guiding and conveying a plurality of sheet-shaped plates to a welding position, comprising:

a plurality of driven conveying rollers disposed in parallel to each other and provided side-by-side on the same horizontal plane to define adjacent conveying paths, wherein the conveying rollers are driven to convey sheet-shaped plates in a conveying direction along the conveying paths, and wherein the conveying rollers are arranged such that the conveying paths are horizontally separated from each other upstream in the conveying direction and horizontally approach each other downstream in the conveying direction whereby opposing vertical edges of sheet-shaped plates conveyed on the conveying rollers abut one another at a certain position along the conveying direction, which certain position is upstream of the welding position in the conveying direction; and

a guide unit having a guide surface and being positioned to vertically deform the opposing edge of one of the sheet shaped plates with respect to the opposing edge of the other of the sheet shaped plates at a position in the conveying direction between two of said conveying rollers conveying the one of the sheet shaped plates, and upstream of said certain position.