Production control system for vehicle assembly lines - uses coded parts which are scanned at each station to determine work required

摘要

The production control system is for motor vehicle assembly lines and ensures that the features such as left- or right hand drive, automatic- or manual-transmission which have to be built in on a particular passing chassis are not omitted. In order to achieve this the body parts of the vehicle carry binary coded information in the form of holes and 'no-holes'. This information is read by a block reader constructed from a series of forked air gates (6) each provided with an air supply nozzle (8) and a measurement opening (10) separated from it by a gap (9). The coded strip is placed in the gap so that air can pass through any holes into the opening (10) following which the pneumatic signals so produced are converted into electrical signals which are amplified and used to activate and control the relevant tools on that assembly line station.