Abstract: A precision indexing conveyor for moving workpieces incrementally along a longitudinal pathway from work station to work station, has a pair of in-line sprockets provided at opposite ends of a frame. An endless conveyor, comprising longitudinally spaced apart workpiece carriers mounting on a series of prestretched equal length, flexible, spirally wound cable links having precisely longitudinally spaced apart, rigid pins fixed to their ends at locations such as to provide a common cable length at a time when the cables are all under a predetermined common tensile load, is trained around the sprockets. A drive drives the conveyor in increments of revolution punctuated by periods of dwell sufficient for a work operation to be performed at the work stations and the mechanism maintains a predetermined tensile load on the conveyor substantially equal to the load applied to the cables when the pins are fixed thereto.