Abstract: A cutter for use in an electrode tip dresser, which has a cutter holder for holding the cutter and dresses an electrode tip for a resistance welding apparatus, has a rising portion which has a cutting tooth for cutting a front peripheral portion of the electrode tip and a flat portion which faces a front end surface of the electrode tip. The flat portion has a single cutting tooth for cutting the front end surface of the electrode tip. The single cutting tooth extends from that central point of the cutter as and origin which coincides with an axis of rotation of the cutter holder towards a predetermined radial direction. An origin portion of the single cutting tooth further extends beyond the central point towards a direction which is opposite to the radial direction.

Abstract: An object having three-dimensional surfaces such as an automotive vehicle body is painted by painting mechanisms movable along a transfer path near the object. Each of the painting mechanisms has a plurality of paint spray guns displaceable dependent on the surfaces to be painted, the paint spray guns being adjustably located at optimum distances and angles with respect to the surfaces to be painted for applying a uniform paint coat to the object. No paint runs and sags will be formed on the coated surfaces.

Abstract: An automotive body and body panels such as an engine hood, a trunk lid, and doors are assembled together along an assembling line. The automotive body with the body panels removably installed thereon and a feed jig on which the body panels can removably be installed thereon, are alternately fed along a first feed path. Then, the body panels are removed from the automotive body while they are being fed along the first feed path and the body panels are installed on the feed jig which is fed upstream of the automotive body along the first feed path. The automotive body from which the body panels have been removed and the body panels which have been installed on the feed jig are thereafter coated. Thereafter, the coated automotive body and the coated body panels are fed along a second feed path. The body panels are removed from the feed jig while they are being fed along the second feed path and the removed body panels are installed on the automotive body which is also fed along the second feed path.

Abstract: A paint discharge control device includes a housing having a paint supply port and a paint discharge port defined therein, a paint passage through which the paint supply and discharge ports communicate with each other, a diaphragm disposed in the paint passage and actuatable by air under pressure for controlling the rate of a paint flow through said paint passage, a piston slidably disposed in the housing and having a hole defined therein as part of the paint passage, and a needle valve supported in the housing and having a portion disposed in the hole in the piston. The paint passage includes a paint discharge control passageway defined between the hole and the needle valve portion. The cross-sectional area of the paint discharge control passageway can be varied in response to sliding movement of the piston in the housing.

Abstract: An object having three-dimensional surface such as an automotive vehicle body is painted by painting mechanisms movable along a transfer path near the object. Each of the painting mechansims has a plurality of paint spray guns displaceable dependent on the surfaces to be painted, the paint spray guns being adjustably located at optimum distances and angles with respect to the surfaces to be painted for applying a uniform paint coat to the object. No pain runs and sags will be formed on the coated surfaces.

Abstract: The present invention is for an apparatus and method of batch type surface treatment on a car body. The car body is rolled in the bath about the horizontal and longitudinal axis of the car body.

Abstract: In the first embodiment of this invention, an inner panel portion of a front door region of a vehicle body and an inner panel portion of a rear door region of a vehicle body on each side of a 4-door type vehicle are painted respectively by a pair of front and rear painting robots located on side portions of a painting stage. In the second embodiment, an inner panel portion of the door region of a vehicle body on each side of a 2-door type vehicle is painted by dividing into halves the area to be painted by the front and rear painting robots on each side of the vehicle.

Abstract: A painting apparatus for a vehicle body is provided. The painting apparatus comprises a long paint booth through which the vehicle is conveyed, the paint booth including a plurality of stages positioned longitudinally in series, at least some of the plurality of stages being provided with painting robots disposed therein such that while the vehicle body is passed through the painting booth, inner and outer panel regions thereof are painted by the painting robots, wherein the vehicle body is stopped at each of the stages. Each of the painting robots comprises a multi-axis robot and bell-type atomizer attached thereto, and the plurality of stages are in communication with one another without partitions therebetween.

Abstract: A welding torch is disclosed in combination with an industrial robot, the industrial robot having an arm and a wrist at one end thereof, the wrist including a rotary casing having a rotary shaft extending in a direction along the axis of the arm and a pair of sprocket members disposed on the sides of the rotary shaft. The torch and robot further have a first central core wire guide within the rotary shaft and extending along the axis thereof, and a second central core wire guide within the welding torch and fixed to the rotary shaft, the second central core wire guide being aligned with and in communication with the first central core wire guide.

Abstract: An automatic welding machine of a type, in which a welding torch is subjected to predetermined three-dimensional locus motions by means of three profile cams for controlling movement of the torch in the left-and-right, up-and-down, and front-and-back directions in accordance with predetermined programs set in the machine, the machine being constructed with (a) a driving section including a frame to support component members thereon, a shaft rotatably held on the frame, an electric motor axially fitted at one end of the shaft, a plurality of profile cams fixedly provided on the other end part of the shaft so as to be rotated therewith, the cams being arranged with an appropriate space interval between them, and cam follower members corresponding in number to the profile cams and intimately contacted with the cams to move in accordance with rotational movement of the cams; and (b) a driven section including a frame to support component members thereon, a plurality of movable members in the left-and-right, up-an