Conveyors: power-driven – Processes
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-16
2001-04-10
Bratlie, Steven A. (Department: 3652)
Conveyors: power-driven
Processes
C198S346100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06213288
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates generally to the field of manufacturing systems, and in particular to systems that both fabricate and assemble component parts.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In a typical manufacturing system, it is often desirable to connect processes that manufacture the component parts to processes that assemble these parts into a finished product. Some of the benefits of this connection are: reduced labor for material handling; improved product quality, since the parts are not subjected to manual handling that may cause damage to the parts; and a reduction in the work-in-process inventory.
However, there are several potential obstacles to this type of connection that must be overcome. The parts may not lend themselves to conveyance directly, due to their size, shape, or presence of fragile features. The processes themselves may not lend themselves to direct connection. The parts manufacturing operation may be an intermittent process (i.e. part of the machine cycle the tooling is manufacturing the part and the remainder of the machine cycle the part is transferred to the next operation in the operation). The assembly operation, on the other hand, may be continuous motion (i.e. the tooling moves with the parts around a circular turret). When this occurs, it is not possible to time phase the output of the parts manufacturing operation to the input of the assembly operation. Also if too many operations are connected in series, without some time buffer, the overall efficiency of the manufacturing system will be reduced significantly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It has been proposed to add a new feature to a film cartridge, such as a 35 mm cartridge after it has been completely assembled and placed into the canister. A method of manufacturing the components, properly orientating them, and assembling them to an existing film cartridge was needed. This created a need to develop a method to merge dissimilar manufacturing operations in a cost effective manner.
The present invention utilizes transport pucks to connect intermittent parts manufacturing processes with continuous motion assembly processes. The use of these transport pucks provides the benefits of interconnection, while overcoming the obstacles noted above.
The invention also provides a means of accurately aligning the pucks to the die set in which parts are manufactured, using some means of separating the pucks, and a lift mechanism to pilot the pucks into the base of the die set. This improves the accuracy and reliability with which the parts can be loaded into the transport pucks.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4180154 (1979-12-01), Andersson
patent: 4664248 (1987-05-01), Goodman, Jr. et al.
patent: 5484052 (1996-01-01), Pawloski et al.
Marowski Robert E.
Merz Gary E.
Richter Edward B.
Bocchetti Mark G.
Bratlie Steven A.
Eastman Kodak Company
Rosenstein Arthur H.
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