The invention resides in a revolution transport system for manufacturing and assembly lines for transporting workpieces between several work stations arranged along the transport system.
Such revolution transport systems are used if workpieces need to be machined at several subsequent workstations or if subassemblies or components need to be assembled at subsequent assembly stations in a continuous manner.
Herein the workpieces or components are moved on workpiece carriers from work station to work station along the transport system wherein at a start station a workpiece or component is disposed on the workpiece carrier and, after passing through the subsequent workstations, is again removed from the workpiece carrier at an end station. The workpiece carrier is then moved along the revolution transport system back to the start station.
Such a revolution transport system includes a transport frame which, with support and guide rails forms a transport path along which the workpiece carriers are movable which may be in the form of carriages or similar.
In known revolution transport systems of this type, the support and guide rails are arranged vertically and the workpiece carriers are vertically supported thereon. This however results in a large construction height and a need for a relatively large space.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a revolution transport system of the type described which however has lower space requirements and, in particular, a lower construction height and which, with regard to design and expansion can easily be manufactured economically in various sizes and with various track or rail lengths.