Coating apparatus – Work holders – or handling devices
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-03
2001-02-27
Lund, Jeffrie R. (Department: 1763)
Coating apparatus
Work holders, or handling devices
C118S728000, C204S298150
Reexamination Certificate
active
06193801
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the coating of lenticular articles for use in the electronics and opto-electronics industries. In particular, this invention relates to an improved apparatus for retaining such articles during the coating process, and to an improved coating method which utilizes that apparatus. More particularly, this invention relates to a metallic fixture adapted to releasable retain one or more lenticular articles in a fixed orientation while the coating is being applied, and to continue to retain them thereafter, during the course of subsequent processing and handling.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the electronics and opto-electronics industries, there are many products (such as sensors and fiber optic components of medical and other devices) in which transparent objects of various shapes, e.g., spheres, are used as lenticular articles in order to transmit or reflect light rays and at the same time to produce a convergent or divergent effect on the light rays that are transmitted or reflected. Such lenticular articles (also referred to hereinafter as “lenses”) are typically comprised of glass, plastic, or crystalline substrate materials, and often a thin film optical coating must be applied to the substrate in order to enhance or vary the transmissive or reflective properties of these lenses in particular desired ways. Such thin film coatings usually constitute dielectric and/or metallic materials, and they are conventionally applied to the lens substrate in one or more layers.
Both high temperature and low temperature processes for applying thin film optical coatings to glass and to other lenticular substrate materials are known in the art. However, for some substrates it is also known that the low temperature coating processes are not as efficient as those which utilize high temperatures, and accordingly, for those substrates the latter processes are generally preferred. Yet the prior art has not dealt, at least not in a satisfactory way, with the need to releasably immobilize the lenses while they are being subjected to the fluctuations in temperature that result when a thin film coating is applied using a high temperature coating process. Moreover, regardless of whether a high temperature coating process or a low temperature coating process is used, the prior art has failed to address the need to releasably immobilize the lenses, both during the coating process and thereafter, especially when such lenses cannot be manipulated easily by hand (due to their size and/or shape) and also when they must be coated on more than one side, thus requiring that they be subjected to multiple applications of the coating process.
It is therefore the principal object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for releasably retaining one or more lenses in a fixed orientation while a thin film coating is being applied, thereby overcoming the disadvantages of the prior art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the invention, a fixture adapted to releasably retain one or more lenticular articles in a fixed orientation, while they are being subjected to one or more applications of a thin film coating process, is provided. The fixture is fabricated of metal, specifically, of iron-nickel-cobalt or iron-nickel alloys, and for most applications the thickness of the metal fixture bears a ratio to the size of the lenses being retained that is within a particular range. The fixture is perforated with apertures of the appropriate size and shape to enable the lens(es) to be accommodated therein in a friction fit.
It is a feature of this invention that it provides a fixture which may accommodate many different lens shapes, and which can also function as a convenient holder to protect and to releasably retain the lens(es) not only during the coating process but also during subsequent steps in the manufacturing and distribution process, until each lens is ultimately needed for use in its intended application, at which time the fixture can also function as a dispenser, allowing automated removal of the lens(es) therefrom and simultaneous placement or insertion of the lens(es) into another holder or into a connecting device.
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Hogan Daniel Matthew
Hooker Daniel Roy
Scarnecchia Vincent O.
Gottlieb Rackman & Reisman
Lund Jeffrie R.
Semi-Alloys Company
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