EP 1 772 410 A12510152025303540455055DescriptionBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION(1) Field of the Invention?[0001] The present invention relates to an adhesivetape joining apparatus used when an adhesive tape isjoined to a curved workpiece such as a door sash of anautomobile.(2) Description of the Related Art?[0002] In recent years, in a manufacturing process ofan automobile, in place of black coating processing on adoor sash, a technology to join a black adhesive tapehas been developed. For example, an adhesive tape join-ing apparatus (an adhesive tape joining jig) has beensuggested. Herein, an adhesive tape from which a sep-arator is separated is elastically pressed against a tapejoining face with a joining roller to be joined thereto whileguiding and moving this adhesive tape joining apparatuson hand along a workpiece (for example, refer to JP-?A2001-11511,7).?[0003] This adhesive tape joining apparatus (the ad-hesive tape joining jig) is provided with four bottom guiderollers to be engaged on back and forth and right and leftof a bottom face that is a tape joining face of the workpieceand four side guide rollers to be engaged on back andforth two places of the right and left side faces of theworkpiece at its base. In addition, a single pressing rollerto be elastically pressed against the upper face of theworkpiece is mounted on a pressing lever that is pivotallyconnected to the base. Then, a bottom guide roller groupand the pressing roller sandwich the workpiece verticallyso as to keep the posture of the adhesive tape joiningapparatus with respect to the workpiece. Further, by en-gaging the side guide rollers from right and left of theworkpiece, positioning in a right and left direction of theadhesive tape joining apparatus with respect to the work-piece has been made.?[0004] Thus, moving the adhesive tape joining appa-ratus of which position and posture are determined alonga workpiece F due to the guidance of engagement by theroller group, the adhesive tape is elastically pressedagainst the bottom of the workpiece by an elastic rollerarranged at the rear end of the base to be joined thereto.In addition, the adhesive tape to be supplied is curvedand guided ahead of the elastic roller. In this case, theseparator is separated to be fed forward in a joining mov-ing direction through a gap formed between the base anda sliding plate.?[0005] In other words, in the suggested adhesive tapejoining apparatus, the separated separator is dischargedforward in a joining moving direction of the adhesive tapejoining apparatus. Therefore, in the case of carrying outthe joining processing on the horizontally long bottomface of the workpiece, even if the separated separatormoves forward in a moving direction of the adhesive tapejoining apparatus, it is not obstructive to the forward mov-ing because it hangs down downward by its own weight.However, in the case of performing the joining processingon the longitudinal directed place in the workpiece, theseparator moved forward in the moving direction of theadhesive tape joining apparatus is obstructive to the for-ward moving. Accordingly, this involves a disadvantagesuch that the attention to the adhesive tape joining op-eration gets distracted due to the operation to wave asidethe separator or the joining moving speed is lowered soas to deteriorate finish of joining.SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION?[0006] The present invention has been made takingthe foregoing problems into consideration and an objectof which is to provide an adhesive tape joining apparatusthat can smoothly carry out the adhesive tape joiningwithout being distracted by the separated separator andcan easily set setting of the adhesive tape.?[0007] In order to attain the aforementioned object, thepresent invention may include the following structure asfollows:?[0008] An adhesive tape joining apparatus which sup-plies an adhesive tape to a joining roller while movingforward along a workpiece and joins this adhesive tapeon a tape joining face of the workpiece by pressing theadhesive tape against the tape joining face, the appara-tus including the followings:?a guide member which determines the position ofthe main body and keeps the posture of the mainbody with respect to the workpiece being engagedwith the outer face of the workpiece which is differentfrom the tape joining face on the main body which ismoved and operated along the tape joining face ofthe workpiece;a joining roller which joins the adhesive tape to thetape joining face of the workpiece by pressing theadhesive tape against the tape joining face of theworkpiece and can be elastically transformed;a tape supply roller which winds and guides the ad-hesive tape and leads the tape to the joining roller;a separator guide arranged to be opposed to thetape supply roller; anda tape guide for preventing disengagement of thetape that is fed in the tape supply roller;whereina separator guide face for guiding a separator whichis peeled off the adhesive tape at a region where thetape is wound of the tape supply roller in a directiondifferent from a tape joining and moving direction isformed on the separator guide, and the separatorguide can be changed between a posture for a sep-arator guiding operation opposed to the tape supplyroller and a release posture which is largely sepa-rated from the tape supply roller.1 2
