Abstract:
A drive system for positioning the tooling of linear transfer automatic gaging and/or assembly machines is disclosed which allows the use of standardized modular components for greatly varying machine applications. The drive system includes a power take-off shaft extending along the machine workpiece transfer system and a series of motion mechanisms located at each tooling station, each motion mechanism including a rotary cam driven by a flexible drive element in turn driven by the power take-off shaft, a pivoted lever oscillated by the rotary cam, and a tooling mounting slide translated by oscillation of the pivoted lever. Variations in the position of the tooling relative the power take-off shaft and the transfer system required for various applications are taken up in the flexible drive element to allow the use of standardized cam-lever-slide modules for the varying machine configurations.