The present invention relates in general to the glass manufacturing field and, in particular, to an automated glass seaming system and a method for seaming edges of glass sheets.
Sheet glass manufacturing generally requires three steps; melting of raw material, forming the melted glass into the proper shape, i.e., glass sheets otherwise known as lites, and finally shaping the glass sheets into a final shape which is satisfactory for the user of the glass sheets. The final shaping step includes edging, or seaming, the glass sheets to strengthen the glass sheets and make the glass sheet more manageable for handling operations. Seaming a glass sheet, otherwise known as arissing, involves removing the sharp edges of glass sheets by grinding them away. Seaming the glass sheet makes it less dangerous to handle and also reduces the number of microcracks formed if the glass sheet is later tempered. The discussion herein relates to the process of seaming of glass sheets.
Glass sheet seaming is typically done one glass sheet or lite at a time by utilizing a grinding wheel which has groove(s) formed therein. The formed groove(s) create a shape on the edge of the glass sheet that mirrors the groove. Unfortunately, there are several problems with the known techniques.
Because one sheet is processed at a time, throughput is compromised and productivity is limited. It would be desirable to increase the throughput of lites through a seaming process thereby increasing productivity. Also, the position of the glass at the seaming station needs to be carefully controlled. It would be desirable to have a system that can accommodate and process randomly positioned glass sheets at the seaming station. In addition, for a very large glass sheet, the time it takes to carry out the seaming process at least doubles. It would also be desirable to reduce the time it takes to seam large glass sheets.
In addition, particulates (e.g., chips, glass dust and/or particles) created during the seaming process can get imbedded within the grinding wheel's grooves which can limit the effectiveness of the grinding wheel as well as potentially damaging the glass sheet itself. It would be desirable to reduce the amount of debris exposed to the seaming head and glass sheet in order to increase its effectiveness and reduce defective product.
The following drawings are illustrative of particular embodiments of the present invention and therefore do not limit the scope of the invention. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, and are intended for use in conjunction with the explanations in the following detailed description. Different embodiments of the invention will hereinafter be described in connection with the appended drawings, wherein like numerals denote like elements.
The following detailed description is exemplary in nature and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description provides practical illustrations for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention. Examples of constructions, materials, dimensions, and manufacturing processes are provided for selected elements; all other elements employ that which is known to those of ordinary skill in the field of the invention. Those skilled in the present art will recognize that many of the noted examples have a variety of suitable alternatives.
Downstream of the optional auto-logo station 22 is an inspection station 24 that preferably has an in-line camera system (not shown) to plot the shape, size and position of each lite on the transport mechanism as it passes underneath the inspection system and this data is transformed to code which steers at least one of the robot arms during the seaming process. Preferably, the vision system for robot path generation is a Teledyne-Dalsa line scan camera with one red LED line light at a wavelength of 630 nm. The inspection system downloads the position and orientation information to a controller for controlling the operation of robot arms and associated seaming heads in the seaming station 12 as will be described in further detail hereinafter.
Downstream of the inspection station 24 is the seaming station 12 which will be described in greater detail hereinafter and, downstream of that, is a post-seaming transport which may deliver the seamed glass to post-processing stations such as a tempering oven, for example.
In the seaming station, the transport mechanism is divided preferably into four quadrants, Q1-Q4, as shown in
The division of the transport mechanism into quadrants allows for multiple and different sizes of lites to be processed simultaneously, sequentially, or both as will be described in detail hereinafter.
The following scenarios may present themselves at the four quadrants of the seaming station 12.
Once the larger lite 60 has been seamed, it can be lowered and either remain on the transport mechanism or conveyed out of the seaming station 12. Depending on the separation distance between the two smaller lites 62 and 64, the lifting devices of the third and fourth quadrants will either lift the smaller lites simultaneously if the distance is great enough and one robot arm seaming head and its associated seaming head will be used to seam one lite while the other robot arm and its associated seaming head is used to seam the other lite. If there is not enough distance between the two lites 62 and 64, either quadrant three or four will lift its lite and use one robot arm to seam that lite and, once it is seamed, that lifting device is deactivate to lower the lite while the other lite is lifted by its associated lifting device. Once the smaller lites are seamed, they can be conveyed out together.
Each seaming head is also equipped with a vacuum port to couple the interior of the seaming head to a vacuum system. In particular, a port 80 as shown in
While a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described, it should be understood that various changes, adaptations and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 14/688,577, filed Apr. 16, 2015, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Child | 15935364 | US |