Method and system for assembling indoor units of air conditioners along conveyor lines

Abstract

Indoor air conditioner units are manufactured by pre-assembling evaporators and supplying the evaporators to a plurality of unit assembling stations, whereby at each unit assembling station, the evaporators are assembled with other air conditioner elements to form finished indoor air conditioner units. The evaporators can be assembled at an evaporator assembling station which supplies all of the unit assembling stations with evaporators. Alternatively, the evaporators can be assembled at each of the unit assembling stations.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A system for assembling indoor air conditioner units, comprising: 
 at least one evaporator assembly section for assembling evaporators; and    a plurality of unit cells for receiving evaporators assembled at said at least one evaporator assembly section and for assembling completed indoor air conditioner units incorporating said evaporators.    
     
     
         2 . The system according to  claim 1  wherein each of said unit cell comprises, in sequence: 
 a rear body input section for forming a first structure each having an air conditioner rear body;  
 an evaporator fixing section for fixing evaporators to respective ones of said first structures to form second structures;  
 a wiring section for electrically wiring said second structures;  
 a front panel fixing section for fixing front panels onto said wired second structures to form final indoor air conditioner units;  
 an inspection section for testing quality of said final air conditioner units; and  
 a packing station for packing said final air conditioner units which pass the quality testing.  
 
     
     
         3 . The system according to  claim 2  wherein each unit cell further includes a kit box conveying section for conveying kit boxes, each kit box containing a rear body, an electrical wiring, and a front panel for a respective indoor air conditioner unit, the kit box conveying section arranged to convey said kit boxes along a path from said rear body input section to said front panel fixing section.  
     
     
         4 . The system according to  claim 2  wherein there is a plurality of said evaporator assembly sections, each connected to a rear body input section of a respective unit cell.  
     
     
         5 . The system according to  claim 2  wherein there is one evaporator assembly section for assembling all evaporators incorporated at said evaporator fixing sections of all of said unit cell.  
     
     
         6 . The system according to  claim 1  wherein said sections of each unit cell are linearly arranged.  
     
     
         7 . The system according to  claim 1  wherein said sections of each unit cell are arranged in U-shaped.  
     
     
         8 . A method of assembling indoor air conditioner units comprising the steps of: 
 A. assembling evaporators;    B. connecting the evaporators to other air conditioner elements to form completed indoor air conditioner units;    C. performing quality testing on the completed indoor air conditioner units; and    D. packing said indoor air conditioner units which pass said quality testing.    
     
     
         9 . The method according to  claim 8  wherein the step B comprises: 
 fixing evaporators onto respective first structures containing rear bodies to form second structures; electrically wiring said second structures; and fixing front panels to said wired second structures.  
 
     
     
         10 . The method according to  claim 9  wherein step B further comprises the steps of inserting said elements into a kit box and conveying said kit box along a series of stations wherein step B is performed.  
     
     
         11 . The method according to  claim 8  wherein steps B, C and D are performed at a first unit cell, and steps B, C and D are also performed at a second unit cell, step A being performed at a station separate from said first and second unit cells, and evaporators assembled at said station being supplied to both of said first and second unit cells.  
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 8  wherein steps B, C and D are performed at a first unit cell, and steps B, C and D are also performed at a second unit cell; step A being performed at each of the unit cells.