Patent Application
20250188794
The present disclosure relates to a method of manufacturing a vacuum insulating glass unit, and to a dispenser for dispensing spacers.
Vacuum insulating glass (VIG) units are generally known to provide an insulating glass unit with desirable features such as a space saving unit with good heat insulating capabilities. Such VIG units may comprise spacers distributed in an evacuated gap between two glass sheets of the VIG unit. These spacers may be very small, such as below 0.5 mm in height. This may result in issues when providing automation equipment such as a spacer dispensing solution, since a spacer dispensing solution for use in larger scale VIG unit manufacturing should preferably be both reliable and robust. Moreover it should also preferably be fast.
Different spacer dispensing solutions in VIG unit manufacturing have been disclosed. For example, WO2019218901 discloses a dispenser solution for spacers for VIG units where a vibration arrangement may line up and convey the spacers. WO21208628 discloses a solution for separating spacers for VIG units. A vibrator is used and a separation chamber component is arranged obliquely to the horizontal plane. Other types of spacer dispensing solutions comprises a radial drum solution as disclosed in CN 205258287U, where a radial drum having a horizontal rotation axis collects spacers from a spacer storage and the drum is rotated around the horizontal axis so the collected spacers are delivered. U.S. Ser. No. 11/396,477 discloses a solution where spacers are arranged stacked in a spacer column of a magazine, and pushed horizontally to leave the magazine from the bottom of the magazine to the glass sheet surface. CN106045286 discloses a further VIG unit spacer dispensing solution comprising a reciprocating collection member, or a rotating collection member with a collection opening for receiving a spacer.
The above solutions may suffer from various drawbacks such as being mechanically complex, risk inaccurate spacer placement, may be less reliable, may be space consuming and/or the like. The present disclosure provides a solution that may e.g. help to reduce or avoid one or more of the above mentioned drawbacks. The present disclosure may additionally or alternatively provide a solution that may help to increase reliability and/or speed when dispensing spacers.
The present disclosure relates to a method of manufacturing a vacuum insulating glass unit. The method comprises providing a first glass sheet and dispensing a plurality of spacers comprising predefined, pre-shaped contact surfaces on a major surface of the provided glass sheet by means of at least one dispenser of a spacer dispensing system. The dispenser comprises a housing comprising a guidance space placed between a first housing surface of an upper part of the housing and a second housing surface of a bottom part of the housing. The upper part of the housing comprises a spacer storage compartment comprising a plurality of said spacers, and the spacers may be randomly orientated in the spacer storage compartment. The dispenser moreover comprises a spacer outlet, for example an outlet arranged at the bottom part of the housing. The dispenser also comprises a collection member, such as a connection sheet. The collection sheet may provide a bottom part of the spacer storage compartment. The collection sheet may comprise at least one collection hole extending between opposing major surfaces of the collection sheet. The collection sheet may be arranged in the guidance space. At least one protruding member extends into the spacer storage compartment with a distance to the collection sheet so that an intermediate space is provided between the collection sheet and the protruding member.
The dispensing of spacers comprises providing a first relative movement between the collection sheet and the housing by means of a drive motor so that the collection hole is arranged at the bottom of the spacer storage compartment and collects a spacer from the spacer storage compartment prior to entering the guidance space. The dispensing of spacers moreover comprises providing a further, relative movement between the collection sheet and the housing so that the collection hole with the collected spacer enters the guidance space and is aligned opposite the spacer outlet so as to deliver the collected spacer to the spacer outlet and hereby towards the major surface of the glass sheet.
The collection hole may pass at least a part of the intermediate space during the first relative movement before entering the guidance space.
The method of manufacturing a vacuum insulating glass unit further comprises providing a second glass sheet and sealing together the first glass sheet and the provided second glass sheet at the periphery of the glass sheets with the plurality of dispensed spacers arranged between major surfaces of the glass sheets so that a gap is provided between the first and second glass sheets, and evacuating the gap.
When producing Vacuum Insulated Glass units (VIG units) in a larger, commercial scale, VIG unit manufacturing reliability and manufacturing speed is increasingly important. It has come to the attention of the inventors that a dispenser of the type comprising a collection member such as a collection sheet and a housing with a guidance space may suffer from issues in terms of consistently delivering spacers from a storage comprising randomly orientated spacers.
The inventors have found that providing a protruding member that extends into the spacer storage compartment with a distance to the collection sheet may help to increase the chance of successfully collecting a spacer in the spacer storage before the collection hole enters the guidance space. This may especially be the case when the spacers to be dispensed are randomly orientated in the spacer storage compartment.
The protruding member may e.g., directly or indirectly help to arrange or rearrange spacers in the collection hole that may not be arranged as desired. This may e.g. help to improve dispensing reliability and/or enable a faster manufacturing of VIG units. Additionally or alternatively, the protruding member may help to reduce the risk of that a jamming situation occur. If a spacer get stuck, this may damage the spacer and/or influence negatively on the manufacturing process, e.g. due to the need of solving the jamming situation.
In some embodiments, the spacers in the spacer storage to be dispensed may comprise predefined, oppositely directed, contact surfaces. The protruding member may help to increase the chance that the spacer is arranged with a desired orientation in the collection hole. For example so that the spacer supports on a contact surface of the spacer at a wall surface underneath the collection sheet.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the at least one protruding member may be fixed relative to the housing. This may provide a simple and advantageous fixation of the protruding member. This may e.g. in some embodiments be provided if the collection sheet is moved relative to the housing by the drive motor.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the at least one protruding member is fixed to or integrated in the housing. In some embodiments hereof. The protruding member is attached to or integrated in the upper part of the housing. This may e.g. provide a mechanically simple solution.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the at least one protruding member comprises a pin. The inventors have found that a pin may provide a simple and advantageous protruding member for improving the consistency/reliability in picking a spacer from the spacer storage.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member may be or comprise a metal member such as a steel member. This may provide improved strength and/or elastic properties. In some embodiments, the protruding member may be or comprise a metal pin.
In some embodiments, the protruding member may consist of a metal member such as a metal pin.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member may be electrically conducting. This may e.g. help to reduce the electrical resistance between the housing and the protruding member. This may e.g. help to reduce or avoid issues caused by static electricity.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the collection hole follows, such as moves along, a predefined traveling path in the spacer storage compartment, and wherein the protruding member extends in a direction transverse to the traveling path of the collection hole.
This may help to increase consistency/reliability in picking a spacer from the spacer storage. The inventors have tested the use of a pin arranged like this, and the test indicated an improved spacer delivery consistency.
In some embodiments, a longitudinal direction of the protruding member, such as a pin, may extends in a direction transverse to the traveling path.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, some of the randomly orientated spacers in the storage may support on top of the protruding member 75.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the spacers in the spacer storage compartment may partly or fully surround the protruding member.
The protruding member may in embodiments extend in between the spacers in the spacer storage compartment.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member overlaps the traveling path.
The inventors have seen indications that this may provide a more reliable, improved collection of spacers.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member, such as a pin, has a width, such as a diameter, of less than 3 mm, such as less than 2 mm, such as less than 1 mm. This may help to provide improved spacer collection consistency.
In some embodiments, said width/thickness extends in a direction away from a surface of the collection sheet.
The inventors have provided tests using a pin having a diameter of between 0.5 mm and 0.9 mm, e.g. between 0.8-0.9 mm. Here, the inventors saw indications of improved spacer collection consistency.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member, such as a pin, has a width, such as a diameter, of between 0.3 mm and 5 mm, such as between 0.5 mm and 2 mm, such as between 0.7 and 1.2 mm.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member extends from a side wall of the housing, wherein said side wall comprises a surface facing the spacer storage compartment.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member comprises or is a peg.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member has a length of at least 0.5 mm, such as at least 1 mm, such as at least 3 mm, for example at least 5 mm. This may e.g. help to provide a resiliency of the protruding member and/or enable suitable coverage of the protruding member.
In some embodiments, the said length may extend in a length direction away from a side surface.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member, such as a pin, is suspended as a cantilever beam.
In additional or alternative embodiments of the present disclosure, the collection hole may pass below a part of a half part or quarter part of the protruding member that is proximate a free end of the protruding member.
This may e.g. provide an increased flexibility and/or resiliency of the protruding member. This may e.g. provide one or more of improved re-arrangement of a spacer in the collection hole, improved reliability of the dispenser and/or help to reduce jamming situations.
The protruding member may e.g. hence, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, be supported by/fixed to the housing at just one end of the protruding member.
In other embodiments, the protruding member may be fixated at and/or in opposing walls of the spacer storage arranged at opposing sides of the spacer storage.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the minimum distance between the protruding member and the collection sheet may be less than 5 mm, such as less than 2 mm.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member may be resilient so as to be displaceable by forces from a spacer acting on the protruding member. This may e.g. help to reduce risk of spacer damage and/or help to provide improved rearranging/manipulation of a spacer in a collection hole that is not arranged as desired therein.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the distance between the protruding member and the collection sheet may be less than 5 mm such as less than 3 mm.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the distance between the protruding member and the collection sheet may be less than 1 mm such as less than 0.6 mm, such as less than 0.4 mm or 0.3 mm or less.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the spacers in the spacer storage may have a spacer width that is larger than the spacer height, where the spacer height is defined between oppositely directed predefined contact surfaces of the spacer.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member may be arranged with a distance to the collection sheet so as intersect with a spacer that extend into the collection hole and supports at least partly on the side surface.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the distance between the protruding member and the collection sheet may be smaller than the width of the spacers.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the distance between the protruding member and the collection sheet may be larger than the height of the spacers.
This may e.g. help to provide that the protruding member may help to arrange the spacer more advantageously or as desired in the collection hole.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the distance between the protruding member and a surface of a bottom wall of the housing may be smaller than the width of the spacers. Additionally or alternatively, in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the distance between the protruding member and a surface of a bottom wall of the housing may be larger than the height of the spacers.
The bottom wall part may in embodiments of the present disclosure be a wall part comprising a surface on which the spacer is configured to support, such as slide, during travel towards the spacer outlet. In some embodiments, the bottom wall part may be a housing wall.
This may e.g. help to provide that the protruding member may help to arrange the spacer more advantageously in the collection hole.
In some embodiments, the collection sheet may be placed between the protruding member and said surface of a bottom wall of the housing.
In further embodiments, a convex side surface of the spacer extends between the predefined contact surfaces. The convex surface may make it more easy for the protrusion to arrange the spacer in a desired orientation in the collection hole.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the spacers in the spacer storage have a spacer width that is larger than the spacer height. The spacer height may be defined between oppositely directed predefined contact surfaces and a side surface, such as a convex side surface, of the spacer may extend between the predefined contact surfaces.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member may intersect with a spacer extending into the collection hole and supporting at least partly on the side surface.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the minimum distance between the protruding member and the collection sheet may be between 0.1 mm and 5 mm, such as between 0.2 and 0.5 mm.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, said first and further relative movement between the collection sheet and the housing may be a rotational movement around a rotation axis, such as wherein the collection sheet is rotated relative to the housing by means of the drive motor.
This may help to provide a reliable, fast and/or space saving spacer delivery solution where spacers may be placed randomly and intermixed in the spacer storage compartment and picked one by one from the spacer storage by means of the collection hole “sweeping” the spacer storage compartment bottom.
In other embodiments of the present disclosure, said first and further relative movement between the collection sheet and the housing may be or comprise reciprocating, linear movements where the collection sheet and hence the collection hole reciprocates between the spacer storage compartment and the outlet.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, one or both of the opposing major surfaces of the collection sheet may be coated with a wear resistant coating, such as an electrically conducting, wear resistant coating.
This may e.g. help to provide a wear resistant solution and/or a coating that is electrically conducting in order to reduce or prevent buildup of static electricity. The coating may also help to provide low friction.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, one or both of the opposing major surfaces of the collection sheet is/are coated with a chromium nitride (CrN) coating. This may e.g. provide a wear resistant and/or electrically conducting solution.
In some embodiments, the coating may be provided by means of a High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS) technology.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, a charge modulation system may reduce and/or maintain a difference in electrostatic charge potential between the glass sheet and the dispenser to be below 10 kV, such as below 5 kV, such as below 2 kV.
This may help to reduce or avoid static charge issues.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the charge modulation system comprises one or more of:
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, said housing may be grounded.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, said protruding member is connected to a grounding connection through the housing. This may e.g. help to reduce or even omit static charge/static electricity build-up
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the first and further relative movement between the collection sheet and the housing is a rotational movement around a rotation axis. In further embodiments hereof, the spacer storage compartment may be elongated and extend partly around the rotation axis. In still further embodiments, the spacer storage compartment may be arc shaped.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the spacer storage compartment may be shaped so that the collection hole enters into the guidance space at an entrance position located underneath a wall between ends of the elongated spacer storage compartment. This may e.g. help to reduce risk of jamming.
In some embodiments, the wall surface underneath which the collection hole enters into the guidance space may extend with an angle different from 90 degrees, such as with an angle of less than 90 degrees, e.g. less than 45 degrees or less than 25 degrees relative to the traveling path. This may e.g. help to reduce an advantageous entrance angle which may reduce e.g. risk of jamming situations.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, each of the plurality of spacers in the spacer storage compartment may have a spacer height extending between the contact surfaces, and wherein each of said spacers has a spacer width, wherein the height of the guidance space is smaller than the spacer width.
Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the guidance space may have a height which is less than 1.4 times the spacer height.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, one of the contact surfaces of the collected spacer may support on and slide on a surface of the dispenser, such as on the second housing surface, in the guidance space during the further rotational movement.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the collection sheet may comprise an upwardly facing first major surface and a downwardly facing, oppositely directed second major surface, wherein the second housing surface covers at least 90%, such as at least 98% of the surface area of the second major surface, and/or wherein the first housing surface covers at least 40%, such as at least 60%, such as at least 75% of the surface area of the first major surface of the collection sheet.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the collection sheet has an outer maximum disc diameter, and wherein the housing has a width, such as a diameter, that is larger than the disc diameter.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the collection sheet may be disc shaped.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the housing encloses at least 80% such as at least 95% of the outer boundary, such as periphery, of the collection sheet by means of a wall part, such as an annular wall part, arranged opposite to the outer boundary of the disc shaped collection sheet. In some embodiments the housing may fully enclose the outer boundary, such as periphery, of the collection sheet by means of a wall part, such as an annular wall part, arranged opposite to the outer boundary of the disc shaped collection sheet.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the housing has a maximum width, such as a maximum outer diameter, that is 50 mm or less, such as 40 mm or less, for example 30 mm or less.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the spacer height of the spacers in the spacer storage compartment may be less than 0.4 mm, such as less than 0.25 mm, for example 0.2 mm or less.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the maximum width, such as the maximum diameter of the spacers, is at least 2 times larger, such as at least 2.5 times larger than the height of the spacers.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the maximum width, such as the maximum diameter, of the spacers is between 2 times and 5 times, such as between 2 times and 4 times larger than the height of the spacer 2.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the spacer storage compartment may be defined between opposing side wall surfaces of the housing, and wherein at least a side wall surface enclosing and facing a part of the spacer storage compartment and which is placed proximate a rotation axis of the collection sheet is convexly shaped, such as wherein at least a part of the convexly shaped side wall surface is coaxial with the rotation axis.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the spacer storage compartment is arranged in, such as integrated in, such as milled into, the upper part of the housing.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the thickness of the collection sheet may be within ±15%, such as within ±10%, such as within ±5% or within ±3% of the spacer height.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the thickness of the collection sheet is between 1 and 1.4 times the spacer height, such as between 1 and 1.3 times the spacer height.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, detection of a jamming situation may be provided during said first and/or further relative movement, and/or a jamming controller provides one or more anti-jamming operations when predetermined criteria is complied with.
This may provide e.g. improved consistency of spacer delivering over time. Tests have indicated that a combination of detecting a jamming situation and providing anti-jamming operations if needed, and using a protruding member, may help to increase dispenser reliability and hence help to enable a more efficient VIG unit manufacturing.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the detection of a jamming situation may comprise monitoring one or more parameters. These/this parameter(s) may be based on input data.
This may provide an advantageous, automatized jamming monitoring providing detection of a jamming situation and thereby enabling detection of when a anti-jamming operation may be beneficial to provide.
The predetermined criteria may be based on the one or more monitored parameters. In some embodiments, the input data comprises input from one or more sensors.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the detection of a jamming situation may be provided based on input from one or more sensors.
This may provide e.g. reliable and/or efficient jamming detection.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the one or more sensors comprises a torque sensor. A torque sensor may provide an advantageous way of determining if a jamming situation occur. When a jamming situation occur, this may be caused by a spacer being stuck in the dispenser. A stuck spacer may result in an increase in power/current consumption by the driver, by increased loads, such as torsion forces, in a driving part connected directly or indirectly to the a driven part (such as the collection sheet) of the dispenser, or the like. This may be registered in an advantageous way by means of a torque sensor.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, one or more sensors, such as comprising a torque sensor, is configured to provide input data based on one or more of power consumption, voltage and/or consumed electric current of the drive motor.
This may provide advantageous and/or cost efficient detection of a jamming situation. In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the one or more anti-jamming operations may comprise that a relative movement between the collection sheet and the housing is provided in a direction opposite to the first driving direction, such as by means of the drive motor.
Experiments have shown that this may help to resolve a jamming situation. This may e.g. be caused by that one or more spacers in or near the collection opening are moved to be re-orientated, and/or that spacers in the storage may help to push/arrange a spacer in the collection hole into a proper orientation.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the movement between the collection member and the housing in the direction opposite to the first driving direction is followed by resuming a relative movement between the collection member and the housing by means of a driver in the first driving direction.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, a relative movement between the glass sheet surface and the spacer outlet is provided in a direction along the glass sheet surface by means of a displacement motor, such as an electrical motor, and a plurality of spacers from the spacer storage are distributed with a mutual spacer distance on the glass sheet surface by means of the dispenser through the spacer outlet.
The present disclosure moreover relates, in a second aspect, to a dispenser for dispensing spacers on a major surface of a glass sheet during manufacturing of a vacuum insulating glass unit. The dispenser comprises:
A relative movement between the collection sheet and the housing is configured to be provided so that the collection hole is arranged at the bottom of the spacer storage compartment, and so that a further relative movement between the collection sheet and the housing provides that the collection hole enters the guidance space and is arranged opposite to the spacer outlet.
The upper part of the housing comprises said spacer storage compartment. The dispenser comprises at least one protruding member extending into the spacer storage compartment with a distance to the collection sheet so that an intermediate space is provided between the collection sheet and the protruding member. In some embodiments, the collection hole may be configured to pass at least a part of the intermediate space.
In one or more embodiments of the second aspect, the dispenser is for dispensing spacers that randomly intermixed in the spacer storage compartment.
In one or more embodiments of the second aspect, the dispenser is for dispensing spacers that comprises predefined contact surfaces, such as spacer that have a spacer width that is larger than the spacer height.
In one or more embodiments of the second aspect, the dispenser is used in, is configured to be used in a method according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure as described above.
In one or more embodiments of the second aspect, the dispenser is a dispenser as described above according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.
The present disclosure moreover relates to a method of manufacturing a vacuum insulating glass unit. The method comprises providing a first glass sheet and dispensing a plurality of spacers comprising predefined, pre-shaped contact surfaces on a major surface of the provided glass sheet by means of at least one dispenser of a spacer dispensing system. The dispenser comprises a housing comprising a guidance space placed between a first housing surface of an upper part of the housing and a second housing surface of a bottom part of the housing. The upper part of the housing comprises a spacer storage compartment comprising a plurality of said spacers, and the spacers may be randomly orientated in the spacer storage compartment. The dispenser moreover comprises a spacer outlet, for example an outlet arranged at the bottom part of the housing. The dispenser also comprises a collection member, such as a connection sheet. The collection sheet may provide a bottom part of the spacer storage compartment. The collection sheet may comprise at least one collection hole extending between opposing major surfaces of the collection sheet. The collection sheet may be arranged in the guidance space. The dispensing of spacers comprises providing a first relative movement between the collection sheet and the housing by means of a drive motor so that the collection hole is arranged at the bottom of the spacer storage compartment and collects a spacer from the spacer storage compartment prior to entering the guidance space. The dispensing of spacers moreover comprises providing a further, relative movement between the collection sheet and the housing so that the collection hole with the collected spacer enters the guidance space and is aligned opposite the spacer outlet so as to deliver the collected spacer to the spacer outlet and hereby towards the major surface of the glass sheet.
In one or more embodiments of the third aspect, one or both of the opposing major surfaces of the collection sheet may be coated with a chromium nitride (CrN) coating. This may e.g. provide a wear resistant and/or electrically conducting solution.
In one or more embodiments of the third aspect, one or both of the housing surfaces facing the collection sheet may be coated with a chromium nitride (CrN) coating. This may e.g. provide a wear resistant and/or electrically conducting solution.
In one or more embodiments of the third aspect, the wall surface underneath which the collection hole enters into the guidance space may extend with an angle different from 90 degrees, such as with an angle of less than 90 degrees, e.g. less than 45 degrees or less than 25 degrees relative to the traveling path. This may e.g. help to reduce an advantageous entrance angle which may reduce e.g. risk of jamming situations.
The method of manufacturing a vacuum insulating glass unit according to the third aspect may further comprises providing a second glass sheet and sealing together the first glass sheet and the provided second glass sheet at the periphery of the glass sheets with the plurality of dispensed spacers arranged between major surfaces of the glass sheets so that a gap is provided between the first and second glass sheets, and evacuating the gap.
In one or more embodiments of the third aspect, the dispenser may be a dispenser as described e.g. previously according to one or more embodiments above.
The present disclosure will in the following be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings:
a: illustrates various embodiments of a dispenser comprising a protruding member arranged with a distance to a collection sheet, according to different embodiments of the present disclosure,
As can be seen, the dispenser comprises a housing 12. The housing 12 comprises an upper part 12a such as a body part 12a and a bottom part 12b. The upper body part 12a is configured to be attached to the lower body part 12b by mechanical fastening means 26, such as releasable fastening means such as one or more threaded bolts, screws, clips or the like. The fastening means in
The upper body part 12a comprises a spacer storage compartment 11. This storage compartment is configured to store a plurality of spacers 2 therein. The spacers for VIG units are small (ad explained in more details below), such as having a spacer height H1 less than 0.4 mm, such as less than 0.25 mm, for example 0.2 mm or less. More than 10.000, such as more than 20.000, for example more than 40.000 spacers may be stored in the storage 11 at the same time.
A guidance space 13 is placed between the upper body part 12a of the housing 12 and the bottom part (12b) of the housing. In the embodiments of
As can be seen, the annular wall 19 of the bottom part 12b may extend around and encircle/enclose the guidance space when the dispenser is assembled.
The dispenser 10 also comprises a collection sheet 15. This collection sheet 15 may e.g. as illustrated in
In some embodiments of the present disclosure (not illustrated), the collection sheet 15 may have another shape than disc shape. E.g., in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the collection sheet 15 may have a polygonal shape, such as a symmetric polygonal shape.
The size such as the diameter and thickness TH1 of the collection sheet 15 is adapted so that the collection sheet 15 can be rotated around it's centre CDC in the guidance space 13, around a rotation axis RAX. Hence, the major surfaces of the collection sheet 15 comprises/defines a plane that are substantially perpendicular to the rotation axis RAX. The rotation axis RAX is preferably arranged to extend through the collection sheet centre CDC.
A shaft 27 extends through the upper body part 12a and may be connected/attached to the upper body part by means of a bearing 27a such as roller bearing or another suitable type of bearing that enables relative rotation between the housing 12 and the shaft 27 around the rotation axis RAX. The rotation axis is in
The collection sheet 15 may as illustrated e.g. have hole or the like at the centre CDC, to enable fastening of e.g. a shaft or the like to the collection sheet 15. As can be seen, the bottom wall 24 of the bottom part 12b may be provided with a recess or a hole (the latter being illustrated in
As can be seen, the outer periphery of the housing 12 is circular and has an outer diameter D2, and the housing 12 may as illustrated be substantially cylindrical. Here, the outer sidewall 12c of the dispenser extending between top 12to and bottom 12bo of the dispenser housing is curved to provide the cylinder shape. However, in other embodiments, the outer side wall 12c of the housing 12 may have another shape (not illustrated in
The housing 12 may in embodiments of the present disclosure have a maximum width D2, such as a maximum outer diameter, that is 50 mm or less, such as 40 mm or less, for example 30 mm or less. The housing 12 may in embodiments of the present disclosure have a maximum width D2 that is between 20 mm and 70 mm, such as between 20 mm and 50 mm. such as between 25 mm and 45 mm for example 30 mm.
The width D2 may in an embodiment of the present disclosure be determined/defined along a plane extending in a direction transverse to, such as perpendicular to, the rotation axis RAX1.
The maximum width D2 may in an embodiment of the present disclosure be determined/defined in a direction transverse to, such as perpendicular to, the rotation axis RAX1, such as in a direction extending transverse to, such as perpendicular to, the rotation axis RAX1.
The bottom part 12b comprises a spacer outlet 16 for dispensing spacers one at a time towards a glass sheet surface. The spacer outlet is arranged in the major surface 17b facing towards the upper body part 12a and the collection sheet 15.
The as can be seen from
In other embodiments, the collection sheet 15 may comprise a plurality of collection holes 15a. In some embodiments, these 15a may be distributed with a mutual distance of e.g. π (pi), ½π or less. For example, the collection sheet may comprise 3 collection holes arranged with 120° there between, four collection holes arranged with 90° there between or the like. The collection sheet 15 may comprise between one and ten collection holes 15a, such as between one and six collection holes, such as between two and six collection holes (not illustrated). However, it is understood that the collection sheet 15 may also comprise just one collection hole 15a as illustrated. See also
It is understood that in embodiments of the present disclosure, one or both surfaces 17a, 17b may be uncoated or coated. If the surface(s) 17a, 17b is/are coated, they may be coated e.g. by an electrically conducting layer or an electrically substantially electrically un-conducting layer. In additional or alternative embodiments, if the surface(s) 17a, 17b is/are coated, the coating may comprise a friction-reducing layer such as a polymer, such as Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) or other suitable materials.
It is understood that in embodiments of the present disclosure, one or both surfaces 15b, 15c of the collection sheet may be coated or uncoated. If these/this surface(s) 17a, 17b is/are coated, the coating may e.g. comprise a friction-reducing layer such as a polymer, such as Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) or other suitable materials. In embodiments the coating may comprise a magnetic material.
In some embodiments, the coating of the surfaces 17a, 17b and/or the coating at/of the opposing major surfaces 15b, 15c of the collection sheet 15 may comprise or be a chromium nitride (CrN) coating. In some embodiments, the coating may be provided by means of a High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HIPIMS) technology.
The collection sheet may hence comprise an intermediate structural sheet layer, such as a metal layer, such as a structural steel layer, and said coating(s) on one or both sides of the intermediate structural sheet layer.
The collection sheet 15 provides a bottom part of the spacer storage compartment 11, and hence a plurality of the spacers 2 in the storage compartment are configured to be in touch with and support on the major surface 15b of the collection sheet, such as due to gravity. Hence, the size and/or shape of the spacer storage compartment 11 proximate the collection sheet 15 provides that a plurality of spacers are in touch with the surface 15b. Hence, e.g. more than 50, such as more than 200, such as more than 500 or more than 1000 spacers may be in touch with the collection sheet surface 15b.
In
The relative rotation around the rotation axis RAX provides that the collection hole 15a enters into the bottom of the spacer storage compartment 11 with the spacers in the storage compartment resting on the surface 15b. Hence, a relative movement between the spacers 2 at the bottom of the compartment 11, which supports on the surface 15b of the collection sheet in the compartment 11, and the collection sheet surface 15b, is provided during this “first” movement. Hence, a spacer 2 is collected in the collection hole 15a during the rotational movement when the collection hole 15a “moves through”/swipes the compartment 11 bottom. The collection hole 15a then leaves the spacer storage bottom (with a collected spacer therein) and enters the guidance space 13 again at a guidance space entrance 13a due to a further rotation around the rotation axis RAX.
The dispenser 10 hence dispenses collected spacers consecutively one by one through the spacer outlet 16. This is provided when needed and controlled by a hardware controller that controls a driver 18.
It is understood that these movements in some embodiments may comprise a continuous movement in the same direction, or one or more movements that are separated by a pause in movement.
One or more of the housing top part 12a, bottom part 12b and/or the collection sheet 15 may in embodiments of the present disclosure be made from metal such as steel, such as stainless steel, brass or aluminium. In some embodiments, the entire housing 12 and the collection disc 15 may be made from the same metal material or from different metal materials. The material may be non-magnetic.
The spacer 2 has a spacer height H1 extending between the predefined contact surfaces 2a, 2b. This height H1 may in embodiments of the present disclosure be less than 0.4 mm, such as less than 0.25 mm, for example 0.2 mm or less.
As can be seen, the spacer 2 has a spacer width W1. As the spacer 2 in embodiments of the present disclosure may have an outer circular side periphery (see
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the maximum width W1, such as the maximum diameter, of the spacer 2 may be larger than the height H1 of the spacer 2, such as at least 1.3, times, such as at least 1.5 times or at least 1.8 times larger than the height H1 of the spacer 2.
The spacer side surface 2c as illustrated extends between the contact surfaces 2a, 2b, and may as illustrated, in embodiments of the present disclosure, be curved and convexly extending, such as bulging, between the contact surfaces 2a, 2b. Hence, the width W2 (such as diameter) of the contact surfaces 2a, 2b may be less than the maximum width W1 (such as diameter) of the spacer 2. For example, the width (such as diameter) W2 of the contact surfaces 2a, 2b may be less than 0.95 times, such as less than 0.8 times, for example less than 0.6 times the maximum width W1 (such as diameter) of the spacer 2.
In some embodiments, the width W2 (such as diameter) of the contact surfaces 2a, 2b may be larger than 0.4 times, such as larger than 0.5 times, for example larger than 0.6 times the maximum width W1 (such as diameter) of the spacer 2.
In some embodiments, the width W2 (such as diameter) of the contact surfaces 2a, 2b may be less than 0.7 times, such as less than 0.6 times, for example less than 0.5 times the maximum width W1 (such as diameter) of the spacer 2.
The thickness TH1 of the collection sheet 15 may in embodiments of the present disclosure be within ±15%, such as within ±10%, such as within ±5% or within ±3% of the spacer height H1.
The thickness TH1 (see
The thickness TH1 of the collection sheet 15 may in embodiments of the present disclosure be less than the spacer height H1. The thickness TH1 of the collection sheet 15 may in embodiments of the present disclosure be between 1 and 1.4 times the spacer height H1, such as between 1 and 1.3 times the spacer height H1, for example between 1 and 1.15 times the spacer height H1.
The spacer 2 may e.g. have spacer height H1 extending between the predefined contact surfaces 2a, 2b that may be less than 0.4 mm, such as less than 0.25 mm, for example 0.2 mm or less.
The thickness TH1 of the collection sheet 15 may in embodiments of the present disclosure be less than 0.6 mm such as less than 0.35 mm, for example 0.28 mm or less.
The thickness TH1 may in embodiments of the present disclosure be between 0.05 mm and 0.8 mm, such as between 0.1 mm and 0.6 mm, for example between 0.1 mm and 0.3 mm
The thickness TH1 may in embodiments of the present disclosure be less than the spacer width W1.
The spacer 2 may be made from a metal, such as steel, such as stainless steel, or iron, or a polymer material. The spacer may be made from a material that provides no or low outgassing in the evacuated gap of the VIG unit, in order to maintain the desired vacuum integrity of the VIG unit.
As can be seen, the collection sheet 15 comprises an upwardly facing first major surface 15b and a downwardly facing, oppositely directed second major surface 15c.
The second housing surface 17b facing towards the top 12to of the housing may in embodiments of the present disclosure cover a major part of the major surface of the collection disc. For example, the surface 17b may in embodiments of the present disclosure cover at least 85% or at least 90%, such as at least 98% of the surface area of the second major surface 15c of the collection sheet.
The first housing surface 17a facing the bottom part with the spacer outlet 16 may in embodiments of the present disclosure cover at least 40%, such as at least 60%, such as at least 75% of the surface area of the first major surface 15b of the disc shaped collection sheet 15.
One or more of the spacer storage compartment 11 and optional holes for sensors, pressurized air and/or the like may cause a reduced covering of the surface 15b by the surface 17a compared to the covering of the surface 15c by the housing surface 17b.
The collection sheet 15 has an outer maximum disc diameter (D1) and the housing 12 has a width D2, such as a diameter, which is larger than the collection sheet diameter D1.
The housing 12 encloses at least 80% such as at least 95%, such as e.g. more than 99% of the outer boundary, such as periphery, 15d of the collection sheet 15. The housing may in embodiments of the present disclosure fully enclose the outer boundary 15d, such as outer periphery, of the collection sheet 15. This may be provided by means of the wall 19 part, such as an annular wall part, that is arranged opposite to the outer periphery 15d of the disc shaped collection sheet 15. The wall part 19 may be part of, such as unitary with the bottom part 12b as illustrated, or may be unitary with the upper body part 12a.
The guidance space 13 may be obtained upon assembly of the upper housing part 12a and the lower bottom part 12b.
In
The diameter/width of the collection hole 15a (which may be a circular hole) is fitted/configured to be larger than the spacer width W1 such as spacer diameter. However, not larger than preventing two spacers 2 from entering into the collection hole at once. For example, the collection hole 15a may have a width, such as a diameter that is between 1.01 and 1.6 times, such as between 1.1 and 1.5 times, for example between 1.2 and 1.4 times the spacer width W1.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the collection hole 15a may have a maximum width such as diameter that is between 0.01 mm-0.3 mm larger, such as between 0.05 mm-0.2 mm larger, for example between 0.08 mm-0.13 mm larger than the spacer width W1 such as spacer diameter. For example, for spacers with a diameter of 0.5 mm, the collection hole diameter may be 0.6 mm, i.e. 0.1 mm larger than the spacer diameter.
The spacers 2 in the spacer storage compartment 11 may in embodiments of the present disclosure be randomly intermixed and/or randomly orientated (e.g. as illustrated). This may be provided by loading, pouring or the like the spacers 2 into the storage compartment 11. When the collection hole 15a enter through the bottom of the spacer storage 11, this movement may help to provide that one of the randomly orientated spacers 2 enters into/is collected by the collection hole 15a.
The collection sheet 15 (and the collection hole 15a) moves due to the rotation around the rotation axis RAX (see
In
In some embodiments, the guidance space height H2 may be configured so that the collection sheet 15 can move therein. The guidance space 13 height H2 may hence be larger than the spacer height H1 but may be smaller than the spacer width W1.
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the guidance space 13 has a height H2 at the collection hole entrance 13a to the guidance space 13 from the spacer storage compartment 11 which is less than 1.4 times the spacer height H1, the height H2 of the guidance space 13 at the entrance is smaller than the spacer width W1. This height may be substantially constant for the entire guidance space 13 between the surfaces 17a, 17b, or may at least be the case/present for/at the collection hole entrance 13a to assure that only one spacer enters the guidance space. In some embodiments, the height H2 may be larger at other locations than at the entrance 13a.
The edge 28 (See
Hence, the distance between the surface 15b of the collection sheet 15 and the housing surface 17a is less than the spacer height H1, such as less than half of the spacer height.
In embodiments of the present disclosure, guidance space 13 has a height H2 that is between 1.05 and 1.4 times, such as between 1.1 and 1.3 times the spacer height H1.
It is understood that in embodiments of the present disclosure, the spacers 2 may have a spacer height H1 of less than 0.5 mm such as less than 0.3 mm, such as less than 0.25 mm. For example, the spacer height H1 may be 0.2 mm or less.
The surfaces 17a and 17b may help to maintain guidance of the collection sheet 15 and the collected spacer 2, and/or help to maintain collection sheet integrity and/or shape over time.
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the height H2 of the guidance space 13 is less than 0.5 mm, such as less than 0.3 mm, such as less than 0.25 mm.
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the height H2 of the guidance space 13 is less than 1.5 times, such as less than 1.3 times the thickness TH1 of the disc shaped collection sheet 15.
In
Gravity may induce the dropping of the collected spacer into the spacer outlet, but one or more of applied vibrations, pressurized air and/or the like may in further embodiments of the present disclosure help the spacer 2 to drop into the outlet.
As can be seen, the spacer 2 is designed with the predefined, pre-shaped contact surfaces 2a, 2b. These 2a, 2b are shaped so that when the dispenser 10 dispenses the spacer 2, the spacer 2 will generally land on the glass sheet surface 3a and support on one of the first and second contact surface 2a, 2b.
In some embodiments, if the side edge surface (see e.g.
As illustrated in
In other embodiments, the vacuum channel in the sheet 15 may extend from the collection hole towards the centre portion of the collection sheet, and the vacuum path may hence e.g. be arranged together with and/or inside a shaft for rotating the sheet, or a stationary part extending from the centre of the sheet 26 dependent on the constitution of the dispenser.
The housing 12 may additionally or alternatively comprise a vacuum space, such as a vacuum channel, arranged opposite to a major surface of the collection sheet, wherein the vacuum in the vacuum space provides a suction at the collection hole 15a when the collection hole is arranged at the bottom of the spacer storage compartment to collect a spacer from the bottom of the spacer storage compartment.
It is understood that in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the vacuum path may be designed so that when the collection hole is not arranged at the bottom of the spacer storage compartment, but e.g. is arranged in the guidance space opposite the spacer outlet or in the guidance space between opposing surfaces of the bottom part of the housing and the upper body part, the vacuum/suction in the collection hole may be reduced or omitted/prevented.
The vacuum path may comprises an elongated, curved vacuum channel 21b extending around the rotation axis RAX, such as at least 45° around the rotation axis, for example at least 80° around the rotation axis RAX.
The vacuum path may comprise comprises an elongated, curved vacuum channel 21b extending less than 270° around the rotation axis RAX, such as less than 190° around the rotation axis RAX.
In
In
The output 22a from the sensor 22 and/or the output 22a from the sensor 23 is received by a controller 22c, such as a hardware processor 22c, such as a micro controller, microprocessor, FPGA or the like. The controller 22c can hence, based on the sensor output 22, determine if a spacer should be dispensed dependent on if a spacer is present in the collection hole 15a or not.
If a spacer 22 was detected in the collection hole by sensor 22, but a spacer was not detected by sensor 23, it may be concluded that a spacer has been collected and dispensed.
If a spacer 22 was detected in the collection hole by sensor 22, but a spacer 2 is still detected by sensor 23, it may be concluded that a spacer has clogged the collection hole or the spacer outlet 16 (in the latter case a spacer or a foreign object may clog the spacer outlet 16).
If a spacer 22 was not detected in the collection hole by sensor 22, it may be concluded that the collection sheet did not succeed in collecting a spacer from the storage 11, and a further turn around the rotation axis may be needed to try to collect a new spacer e.g. by means of the same or another collection hole of the collection sheet.
Hence, the controller 12c may provide a warning, a control output and/or the like so that the glass sheet will not be moved further before a spacer 2 has been collected and dispensed, it may provide a warning that the glass sheet may not have received the desired number of spacers and/or the like.
In embodiments of the present disclosure, output from the sensor system 22, 23 may be used by a counter (e.g. a counter of the controller 22c) for counting the number of spacers 2 dispensed by the dispenser.
In
The sensor 22 and/or 23 may have a detection/monitoring zone and/or monitoring/detection direction. The sensor(s) 22, 23 may be arranged so that this detection/monitoring zone and/or monitoring/detection direction is placed opposite to the travel path of the collection hole 15a to be able to detect if a spacer is present in the hole 15a. Hence, when the hole 15a travels in it's travel path (or the housing is rotated dependent on the rotation solution), the hole enters in and out of the detection/monitoring zone of the sensor or sensors 22, 23. Hence, when the housing or collection sheet has rotated 360 degrees around the rotation axis RAX, it will have entered the detection zone of the sensor(s) 23, 22.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the sensor output may be correlated with information of the rotational position of the housing and/or collection sheet, for in order to determine when the collection hole should be within the monitoring zone.
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the sensor/sensors 22, 23 and/or a controller 22c may be calibrated or in other ways adapted to be able to distinguish between detecting the major surface 15b of the collection sheet and the surface 17b of the housing. In some embodiments, the sensor or sensors 22, 23 may be a distance sensor.
In embodiments, the sensor or sensors 22, 23 may e.g. be sensor(s) configured to provide different sensor output 22a 23a dependent on the characteristics of the surface 15b, 17 and or contact surface 2a/2b. Here, at least two of these surfaces may provide/comprise different surface characteristics that will trigger the sensor(s) to provide different output 22a, 23a. For example based on difference in surface structure, surface colour, surface reflection properties and/or the like. For example one of the surfaces 2a/2b, 17b, 15b may be configured so that it will return an optical sensor signal, such as a changed polarization, when compared to the returned another of the surfaces.
The length of this travel path TPS is a subset of the continuous/repeated travel path CTP for the collection hole 15 illustrated in
The length of the travel path TPS in the storage 11 may in embodiments of the present disclosure be at least 0.7 times, such as 0.9 times, such as at least 1.2 times, such as at least 1.8 times, the distance DIS2 between the rotation axis RAX and the outer periphery of the dispenser housing 12. For example, in
In embodiments of the of the present disclosure, the length of the travel path TPS of the collection hole 15a in/across the storage bottom 11 may be more than 90° such as more than 140° such as more than 170°.
It is generally understood that the spacer storage compartment 11 in embodiments of the present disclosure may be integrated in, such as milled into, the upper part, and the storage compartment 11 comprises a loading opening spacer inlet at the dispenser housing 12 top.
In
As can be seen from among others
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the storage 11 may as e.g. illustrated in
In
In other embodiments, at least a part of the spacer storage 11 may be curved/arc shaped and/or may comprise a part, such as a straight part or a curved part shaped to be non-coincident with the rotation axis RAX. This may e.g. be provided at the area where the collection hole exits the spacer storage, so that the collection hole exits the spacer storage 11 at another location than at an end E2 of the elongated storage 11, for example underneath an edge of the side wall 11b. See e.g.
The narrowing of the walls 11a, 11b in a direction towards the disc shaped collection sheet 15 surface 15b This provides, in
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the volume of the uppermost 25% of the storage compartment 11 proximate the housing 12 top 12to may be at least 10% such as at least 30% such as at least 50% larger than the volume of the lowermost 25% of the storage compartment 11 proximate the sheet 15 surface 15b at the storage bottom.
This provides that over time when spacers 2 are collected from the storage 11 by means of the hole 15a, the spacers in the storage 11 will be gradually guided towards the storage bottom at the sheet surface 15a, and the funnel shape may moreover provide that the spacers at the lower parts of the storage are guided towards the travel path of the collection opening as illustrated by dashed arrows in
Gravity acts on the spacers 2 in the storage 11 and provides that the weight of the spacers 2 in the storage acts towards the sheet surface 15a, which may help, e.g. together with the funnel shape (if present), to increase the chance of collecting a spacer by the collection hole 15a.
The dispensers are arranged e.g. side by side in a dispenser distribution direction DIR2 that may be transverse to the movement MOV1 (see e.g.
The array 50 may in embodiments of the present disclosure comprise between 4 dispensers and 80 dispensers, such as between 4 dispensers and 50 dispensers, such as between 4 dispensers and 30 dispensers. Each dispenser may be part of/comprised in an individual spacer dispensing system 200.
The spacer dispensing systems 200 may each comprise a spacer storage 11, for example a spacer storage arranged in the housing 12 as previously described, and the storage 11 comprises a plurality of spacers 2. Moreover, the spacer dispensing system 200 may comprise a dispenser 10, such as a dispenser of the type described above in accordance with various embodiments. Each dispensing system 200 comprises a spacer outlet 16 for dispensing spacers 2 collected from the spacer storage 11, In the illustrated embodiment a spacer outlet 16 provided in a dispenser housing 12.
In
Distance controllers 31 are configured to control distance adjustment motors 30 to move the spacer outlet 16 towards and/or away from the glass sheet surface 3a during the spacer placement sequence based on output 32a from a distance sensor 32. This distance control is configured so as to adapt the surface 3a to spacer outlet 16 distance DIS1 to the local surface topology of the major glass sheet surface 3 opposite to the spacer outlet 16 one or more times, such as continuously, during a spacer placement sequence.
It is generally understood that a spacer placement sequence comprises placing a plurality of spacers 2 at the major glass sheet surface 3a by means of the dispenser(s) 10. Here, the spacer placement sequence comprises providing relative movement between the glass sheet surface 3a and the spacer outlet 6 in a direction along the glass sheet surface by means of a displacement motor 80, such as an electrical motor, and distributing a plurality of spacers 2 from the spacer storage 11 with a mutual spacer distance DIS4 (see
The glass sheet is placed on a support 45, such as conveying means, for example a movable table or plate, a conveyer band or chains, rollers and/or the like, e.g. so that the surface 3a extends horizontally, and the motor 80 moves the glass sheet relative to the systems 200. In other embodiments, the motor 80 may be configured to move the array 500/system(s) 200 instead.
In the example of
For example, the glass sheet 3 may be a tempered glass sheet, for example a thermally tempered glass sheet. Such glass sheets may provide advantages with regards to strength, and tempered glass sheets may be cost efficient. However, for example thermally tempered glass may have a glass sheet surface 3a with an unevenness of at least 0.1 mm, such as at least 0.2 mm, for example at least 0.3 mm. In some embodiments, the glass sheet 3, 4 surface 3a, 4a unevenness may even be equal to or larger than the spacer height H1.
The distance controller 31 may e.g. help to provide that the dispenser outlet 16 can get close enough to the glass sheet surface 3a to reduce the risk of spacer 2 misplacement during the spacer placement sequence when arranging spacers s on the glass sheet surface.
For example, the distance setting may be set to e.g. 0.1 mm, and hence, the distance controller provides adjustment/adaption of the spacer outlet 16 to glass surface 3a distance during the spacer placement sequence so that the outlet is maintained substantially at 0.1 mm from the glass sheet surface during spacer dispensing in spite of the glass sheet surface being uneven.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the distance controller 21 controls the distance adjustment motor 30 to move the spacer outlet 16 towards and/or away from the glass sheet surface during the spacer placement sequence based on a distance setting DSE and output from a distance sensor.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, distance sensor 32 may comprise an optical sensor, such as a fibre optic sensor, or an ultrasonic sensor or another suitable type of sensor.
The spacers 2 are placed one by one, consecutively, at the glass sheet surface 3a by means of the respective dispenser, see also
The distance controller may comprise one or more hardware processors, such as one or more microcontrollers, Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), Programmable Logic controllers (PLC), microprocessors and/or the like. For example, the hardware processor may comprise one or more general-purpose hardware processors.
Generally, a system controller (not illustrated in
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the distance controller 31 and the system controller may be the same controller or may be provided by means of different hardware controllers, such as distributed hardware controllers.
For example, in some embodiments, the distance adjustment motor, such as a servo motor, may comprise a hardware controller and regulation circuitry, and may handle the distance control based on direct sensor input or sensor input suppled from another hardware controller. Such a controller may e.g. receive distance-setting input supplied from e.g. a separate hardware controller.
As can be seen in
In several of the figures described above, the disc shaped collection sheet 15 is arranged at the lower fourth, such as the lower sixth, such as the lower eighth of the housing 12, proximate the bottom wall 24a of the housing.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the horizontal distance between adjacent spacer outlets 16 in the spacer array 500 may be between 20 mm and 70 mm, such as between 25 mm and 45 mm. This In this case, the adjacent outlets 16 are aligned and abuts the same horizontal plane.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the horizontal distance between adjacent spacer outlets of more than 50% or more than 60% of the spacer outlets of the spacer dispensing array 500 may be between 20 mm and 70 mm, such as between 25 mm and 45 mm.
The distance controller 31 comprises distance regulation circuitry. This may provide closed loop distance control, such as by means of one or more of Proportional, Integral and/or derivative (PID) control. This closed loop control is based on the output 32a from the distance sensor 32 and at least a distance setting DSE stored in a data storage DS during the spacer placement sequence. Naturally, other regulation settings may be stored in the data storage that may be used by the controller 31. The controller 31 hence may control the distance adjustment motor 30 based on the setting DSE and the sensor output 32a during the spacer placement sequence.
The distance controller 31 may monitor a distance representative of a distance DIS1 between the glass sheet surface 3a and the spacer outlet 16. For example, a predefined distance may be used for the monitoring, and this distance may e.g. be larger than the distance DIS1. This may e.g. be acceptable as long as a distance offset is known.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the distance setting DSE comprises one or more distance set points such as a distance target setting or a distance range setting representing a desired distance.
The distance sensor 32 may in embodiments of the present disclosure monitor the distance DIS1 between the glass sheet surface 83a and the spacer outlet 16 directly or indirectly.
The dispenser housing 10 is attached to a dispenser holding part 61 of the dispenser system 200. The dispenser holding part 61 is attached to or integrated in a height adjustable movable frame part 67. This part 67 that can be displaced vertically by the motor 31 relative to a fixed frame part 69. The movable frame part 67 is connected to, such as attached to, the fixed frame part 69 by means of a displaceable connection such as a rail solution, an actuator and/or the like 68. The movable frame part 67 may thus hang directly or indirectly from the fixed frame part 69. The fixed frame part may in embodiments of the present disclosure comprise a plurality of dispensing systems 200, such as an array 500 as previously described.
The drive motor 18 may as illustrated, in embodiments of the present disclosure, be attached to the movable frame part 67.
In other embodiments, RAX1 and RAX may be coincident.
In other embodiments, DIS1 may be larger than H1.
During a spacer placement sequence, and/or between spacer placement sequences, the distance controller 31 may hence displace the dispenser(s) towards and/or away from the glass sheet surface 3a.
It is generally to be understood that the dispenser 10 used in the system(s) 200 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure may in embodiments of the present disclosure be of the rotary type as e.g. described according to various embodiments above and/or further below. However, in other embodiments of the present disclosure, the dispensers 11 used in the system(s) 200 where for example distance control is provided may be of another type such as of the reciprocating collection member/sheet dispenser type or another type.
The distance sensor 32 may in embodiments of the resent disclosure be attached to the dispenser housing, and hence move together with the housing when the motor 30 displaces the housing towards and away from the glass sheet surface 3a.
In some embodiments, the sensor 32 may be arranged in the housing 12 of the dispenser 10. In other embodiments it may be attached to/at the outside of the dispenser 10 housing. In still further embodiments of the present disclosure, the sensor 32 may be attached directly or indirectly to the height adjustable movable frame part 67 for example attached to the dispenser holding part 61.
In
As can be seen from
The distance controller 31 may individually, directly or indirectly, monitor the distance DIS1 between the glass sheet surface 3a and the spacer outlet 16 of the dispenser 10 of the respective individual spacer dispensing system 200 based on output from a distance sensor 32a. Each individual distance controller 31 may hence in embodiments of the present disclosure individually control the/an individual distance adjustment motor 30 to move the spacer outlet 16 of the dispenser 10 of that spacer dispensing system 200 towards and/or away from the glass sheet surface 3a, for example during the spacer placement sequence.
Individual distance adjustment by means of a distance controller may be based on sensor output 32a from an individual distance sensor 32 assigned each spacer dispensing system 200. In other embodiments, sensor output from a single sensor 32 may be used as input for regulating spacer outlets 16 of two or more systems. For example, adjacent dispensers may be placed close enough so that a single sensor input may be suable for providing spacer outlet 16 to glass sheet surface 3a distance control. The reason for this may be that the surface variation of the surface 3a may not vary so much per distance, and/or the outlet may not be arranged so close DIS1 to the surface 3a during dispensing, that the surface variation within the spacer distance DIS4 may be critical or become an issue. Hence, for example, in some embodiments, the sensor output 32a from a single sensor 32 may be used for, for example common, distance regulation of two or more adjacent dispenser outlets of the array 500, such as for example between two and six, such as between two and four, for example between 2 and 3, adjacent distance outlets (16). This regulation may be provided by e.g. providing a single motor 30 for regulating outlet 16 to glass sheet surface 3a distance of a plurality of spacer outlet 16 of adjacent dispensers 10 during the dispensing sequence. In such embodiments (not illustrated), these dispensers may be attached to and moved by means of a common movable frame part 67.
It is understood that in still further embodiments, distance adjustment may be provided for a whole row/array of dispensers, e.g. based on sensor feedback. Hence, no individual distance DIS1 control may be provided during a spacer placement sequence.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the spacer outlets 16 of the dispensing systems 200 are arranged in a line extending transverse to, such as perpendicular to, the direction of the relative movement MOV1 between the glass sheet surface and the spacer outlet along the glass sheet surface provided by means of a displacement motor 80. In other embodiments, the outlets may be e.g. arranged staggering transverse to, such as perpendicular to, the direction of the relative movement MOV1.
Generally, in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the distance DIS4 between adjacent dispensed spacers on the glass sheet surface 3a along the movement direction MOV, such as between more than 50% or more than 60%, such as more than 90% of the dispensed spacers 2 may be between 20 mm and 70 mm, such as between 25 mm and 45 mm.
Generally, in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the distance DIS4 between adjacent dispensed spacers on the glass sheet surface 3a transverse to the movement direction MOV, such as between more than 50% or more than 60%, such as more than 90% of the dispensed spacers 2 may be between 20 mm and 70 mm, such as between 25 mm and 45 mm.
Generally, the distance DIS4 between more than 60%, such as more than 90% or more than 95% of all the dispensed adjacent spacers 2 on the glass sheet surface 3a may in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure be between 20 mm and 70 mm, such as between 25 mm and 60 mm, such as between 25 mm and 45 mm.
It is to understood that in other embodiments of the present disclosure, no distance adjustment may be provided by means of the distance controller during the spacer placement sequence.
Hence, for example, the spacer outlet(s) 16 may be maintained a predefined distance from the support 45 (at least corresponding to the glass sheet thickness+spacer height+a smaller distance for clearance). A distance controller may hence adapt the distance DIS1 to fit the glass sheet height and spacer height, but may not provide adjustment during the spacer placement sequence as such. The smaller distance for clearance may in embodiments of the present disclosure be at least half the spacer height H1 (H1/2) or at least H1×2. It may however in embodiments be less than H1×30 such as less than H1×20 or less than H1×10 or less than H1×5.
The dispenser holding part 61 is separate to a shaft 27 for rotating the disc shaped collection sheet 15 and/or the housing 12 around the rotation axis RAX.
The vibrator 46 may in embodiments of the present disclosure comprise a motor with an unbalanced mass such as an unbalanced flywheel. I other embodiments of the present disclosure, the vibrator 46 may be of the Linear Resonant Actuator (LRA) vibrator type.
In
In further embodiments, the vibrator may comprise or be provided by means of the drive motor 18 for driving the collection sheet 15 (see e.g.
In some embodiments, the vibrator may be used as an anti-jamming operation in order to solve an issue with a jamming of a spacer in the dispenser.
The glass sheets 3, 4 are sealed together at the periphery of the glass sheets 3, 4 with the plurality of dispensed spacers arranged between the major surfaces 3a, 4a in the gap 5. The sealing together of the first and second glass sheets may comprise use of an edge seal material 7 such as a solder glass edge seal material or a solder metal edge seal, or it may comprise fusing the glass sheets directly together. In some embodiments, the sealing together may comprise locally heating at least at the edge seal location, or heating the entire VIG unit assembly to a desired temperature in e.g. a furnace. The sealing together of the glass sheet 3, 4 edges may provide a fused, rigid edge seal. Other airtight edge seal solutions may alternatively be provided.
The glass sheets 3, 4 may be annealed glass sheets or tempered glass sheets, such as thermally tempered glass sheets. One or both glass sheets 3, 4 may have a thickness between 1 mm and 6 mm, such as between 2 mm and 4 mm, for example between 2.5 mm and 3.5 mm including both end points. The glass sheets 3, 4 may be of the same or different thickness.
The gap 5 has been evacuated to a reduced pressure. In embodiments of the present disclosure, the pressure in the gap 5 may be below 0.05 mbar, such as below 0.005 mbar, such as 0.003 or 0.001 mbar or below. This may be obtained by means of an evacuation pump (not illustrated. For this evacuation of the gap, the pump may have been connected directly or indirectly to an evacuation outlet 6, and after the evacuation, the evacuation outlet 6 is sealed by a sealing 6a, such as at least partly by means of a solder material. In
The spacers 2 placed by means of the dispenser(s) 10 maintains a distance between the glass sheet surfaces 3a, 4a across the evacuated gap when the gap has been evacuated. The distance between the glass sheet surfaces 3a, 4a may in embodiments of the present disclosure be 0.5 mm or below, such as 0.3 mm or below, for example 0.2 mm or below.
The evacuation of the gap 5 may in embodiments of the present disclosure be provided by means of one or more one or more of: a vacuum chamber, such as a vacuum chamber containing the entire VIG unit assembly therein, one or more vacuum pumps in communication with the gap, for example by means of a suction cup. Additionally, one or more getters may be arranged in the gap to provide further pressure reduction in the gap and/or to maintain vacuum integrity.
It is generally to be understood that the VIG unit may e.g. be transparent to at least visible light.
At glass pairing station 180c, the glass sheets 4 and 3 are paired by placing the second glass sheet 4 on top of the first glass sheet 3 to cover the spacers 2. The glass sheet 4 may e.g. rest on the edge seal material 7. The glass pairing station may comprise automation systems such as one or more of a robotic arm, one or more linear displacement members, one or more rails and/or the like for transporting the glass sheet 4 to the position opposite the surface 3a and lowering the glass sheet towards the surface 3a.
After this, the edge seal material 7 of the VIG unit assembly 150 may be heated and the gap is evacuated to a reduced pressure. It is understood that the edge seal material, if even needed, may be placed/applied subsequent to placing the spacers at station 18a instead. It may even in some embodiments be provided in an evacuation chamber or be omitted if the glass sheets are fused directly together by an glass sheet 3, 4 edge melting operation.
In
It is understood that if smaller glass sheets 3 are then to be supplied with spacers in a spacer placement sequence, and hence the number of dispensers in the array is larger than the number of spacers to be arranged in e.g. a row, the number of used dispensers 10 of the array may be reduced so that some of the dispensers are unused for that glass sheet.
One or more of the ionizer device(s) 400, humidity control system 30 and/or the grounding connection 70 may together or alone reduce and/or maintain a difference in electrostatic charge potential between the glass sheet 3 and the dispensing system 200, such as between the between the glass sheet 3 and the one or more dispensers 10 or array 500 to be below a maximum allowed voltage value. This maximum allowed voltage value may in embodiments of the present disclosure be 10 kV, such as 8 kV, such as 5 kV or 2 kV or 1 kV.
One or more of the ionizer device(s) 400, humidity control system 30 and/or the grounding connection 70 may together or alone reduce and/or maintain a difference in electrostatic charge potential between the glass sheet 3 and the dispensing system 200, such as between the between the glass sheet 3 and the one or more dispensers (10) or array 500 to be below 10 kV, such as below 5 kV, such below 2 kV. In certain embodiments, the maximum voltage allowed between the glass sheet 3 and the dispensing system 200, such as between the between the glass sheet 3 and the one or more dispensers (10) or array 500 may be below 1 kV such as below 0.5 kV.
The one or more ionizing device(s) 400, one or more humidity control system(s) 300 and/or one or more grounding connections 70, 71, 72 may be considered a charge modulation system, or considered comprised in a charge modulation system for controlling the electrostatic charge potential between the glass sheet 3 (and/or glass sheet handling system 45) and the dispensing system 200, such as between the glass sheet 3 (and/or glass sheet handling system 45) and the one or more dispensers (10) or array 500 to be below a maximum allowed voltage value as e.g. disclosed above.
In one or more embodiments, for example the ionizer bar may be omitted, and e.g. only the grounding connection(s) 70 and/or humidity control may be used.
Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the charge modulation system may be configured to reduce static electricity/charge between components of the dispenser 10. For example, a grounding connection 70 and/or an ionizer bar may help to provide this. Hence, substantially no static electricity/charge may build up between the spacers in the spacer storage 11, the collection sheet 15 and the housing 12.
The spacer outlet 16 may as illustrated, in embodiments of the present disclosure, be arranged in the respective dispenser housing bottom surface 24, As can be seen from
The dispenser system 200 may as illustrated in
The drive arrangement comprising the drive motor 18, such as an electric motor, frame parts, such as height adjustable frame parts and/or the like if present (see e.g.
As can be seen, the compression of the steel ball provides that the convex side edge surfaces (2c, 2d) (imagined if looking at a cross section of the spacer), describes circular 97 arcs having non-coinciding centres C1, C2.
In other embodiments (not illustrated), ceramic balls or balls from another material may be processed, such as mechanically (for example by grinding) or chemically processed to have predefined and pre-shaped, such as flat, contact surfaces 2a, 2b. The convex side surfaces 2c, 2d may here describes minor circular arcs having a coinciding centre. In stull further embodiments, the spacers 2 may e.g. be cylindrical in shape and extend substantially linear between the surfaces 2a, 2b, or may have another shape.
It is generally understood that the spacers may be made from any suitable materials such as be made from, such as comprise or consist of metal, polymer material and/or ceramic.
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the maximum width W1, such as the maximum diameter, of the spacer 2 may be at least 2 times, such as at least 2.4 times or at least 2.8 times larger than the height H1 of the spacer 2. In
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the maximum width W1, such as the maximum diameter, of the spacer 2 may be between 1.3 and 6 times, such as between 1.5 and 6 times, for example between 2 times and 4 times larger than the height H1 of the spacer 2.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the maximum width W1, such as the maximum diameter of the spacer 2 may be less than 0.8 mm, such as less than 0.6 mm, such as less than 0.4 mm. In certain embodiments of the present disclosure, the diameter of the spacer may be 0.3 mm or less.
In
The compressive load on each of at least 50%, such as at least 70% of the spacers 2 in a VIG unit (see e.g.
It is generally understood that the tolerances for the spacers 200 in the spacer storage 11 and/or the distributed spacers may in embodiments of the present disclosure may be ±30 micron, such as ±20 micron, or ±10 micron or less. For example, spacer height H1 may be 0.2 mm with a ±30 micron, such as ±20 micron, or ±10 micron tolerance.
For example, maximum spacer width W1 may be for example 0.44 mm or 0.66 mm with a ±40 micron, such as ±20 micron, or ±10 micron tolerance. The tolerances of the spacer width W1 may in some embodiments of the present disclosure be less restrictive that the tolerance requirements to the spacer height H1.
It may be preferred that surfaces 2a, 2b of spacers are shaped/designed so as not allow to trap pockets of gasses between glass surface and pillar surface, and hence the contact surface 2a, 2b flatness may in embodiments of the present disclosure be substantially flat and/or comprise one or more grooves/furrows and/or the like to reduce the risk of trapping gasses in between the glass sheet surfaces 3a, 4a and the contact surfaces 2a, 2b.
Outgassing from the spacers 2 should be minimized. Particularly outgassing of non-getterable species should be avoided.
As can be seen from e.g.
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the surface 17a part of the upper housing part 12 facing the thickened part 15e may be adapted to the shape and size of the thickened part. Hence, for the embodiment of the present disclosure, the surface 17a may have a concavely extending surface (not illustrated). In certain embodiments of the present disclosure, a vacuum channel or the like may be provided in a part of the thickened part 15e, for example in order to provide a vacuum path/duct interface between a shaft and the collection hole 15a.
In
In
The spacers 2 are however not illustrated in
In
In
In the embodiment of
The inventors have by tests seen indications that the protruding member 75 may improve consistency with regard to collecting a spacer 2 from the storage 11. Additionally or alternatively, the protruding member 75 may help to reduce the occurrence of jamming situations.
The first movement (of e.g. the collection disc) to collect a spacer in the storage, and the further movement (of e.g. the collection disc) to deliver the spacer at the dispenser outlet may, as also previously described, be a movement around a rotation axis RAX. The spacer storage compartment 11 is elongated and extends partly around the rotation axis, thereby providing an at least partly arc shaped spacer storage compartment 11. In
Further embodiments (not illustrated), the entrance position 13a may be located underneath the wall 11a instead of at the end E1 or underneath wall 11b.
Hence it is understood that the spacer storage compartment 11 in some embodiments (as e.g. illustrated in
In other embodiments, the entrance position 13a may be located at the end E2 of the elongated, curved/arc shaped spacer storage 11, as e.g. illustrated in
The dispenser housing 12 may as previously described be grounded 70, and/or another charge modulation system may be provided. The protruding member 75 may be connected to a grounding connection through the housing 12.
a illustrates schematically and in cross section a dispenser 10 according to various embodiments of the present disclosure, comprising a protruding member 75. The protruding member 75 is fixated at one end and is suspended to extend into the spacer storage compartment 11 from the surface 11a. A free end 75a of the protruding member may be placed proximate the entrance area 13a (See e.g.
The protruding member 75 in
The collection hole 15a may in some embodiments pass below a part of a half part, or quarter part, of the protruding member 75 that is proximate the unsupported/free end 75a of the protruding member 75. This may help to provide that the resiliency of the pin 75 may provide positive effects on the orientation of a spacer in the compartment 11 and/or collection hole, so that an increased chance of successful spacer collection may be obtained.
The protruding member 75 may have a length of at least 0.5 mm, such as at least 1 mm, for example at least 3 mm, for example at least 5 mm. This length may extend in a length direction away from a side surface 11a, 11b facing the storage 11. The length of the protruding member may in embodiments of the present disclosure be at least ⅙, such as at least ½, such as at least ¾ of the width of the storage 11 at the area of the protruding member. However, in some embodiments, the length of the protruding member may substantially correspond to the width of the storage 11 at the area of the protruding member 75. This may also depend on the desired resiliency of the protruding member/and/or from which side the protruding member extends.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the spacers 2 in the spacer storage 11 may have a spacer width W1 that is larger than the height H1 of the spacer 2. See e.g.
As can be seen, the protruding member 75 is arranged with a distance P_DIS to the collection sheet 15 surface 15b. Hereby, an intermediate space 76 is provided between the collection sheet 15 and the protruding member 75.
The protruding member 75 may in some embodiments have a length of less than 20 mm, such as less than 15 mm, such as less than 10 mm.
As illustrated, a distance P_DIS between the protruding member 75 and the collection sheet 15 surface 15b is provided. The distance P_DIS extends between a lower edge 75e of the protrusion that faces the collection sheet 15.
In some embodiments, this distance P_DIS may be smaller than the spacer width W1, such as at least 20% or at least 40% smaller than the spacer width W1.
In some embodiments, the distance between the protruding member 75 and the housing surface 17b of the bottom wall 24 of the bottom part 12b is smaller than the spacer width W1, such as at least 20% or at least 40% smaller than the spacer width W1.
This may provide that when a spacer is placed in the collection hole, the protruding member 75 may directly or indirectly help to arrange the spacer 2 so that a contact surface (see 2a and 2b of
The distance P_DIS between the protruding member 75 and the collection sheet 15 may in some embodiments be less than 1 mm such as less than 0.6 mm, such as 0.4. mm or less, such as 0.3 mm or less.
The distance P_DIS1 between the protruding member 75 and the housing surface 17b of the bottom wall 24 of the bottom part 12b may in some embodiments be less than 5 mm such as less than 3 mm.
The distance P_DIS1 between the protruding member 75 and the housing surface 17b of the bottom wall 24 of the bottom part 12b may in some embodiments be less than 1 mm such as less than 0.6 mm, such as 0.3 mm or less.
The distance P_DIS1 between the protruding member 75 and the housing surface 17b of the wall 24 of the bottom part 12b may in some embodiments be larger than 0.1 mm, such as larger than 0.2 mm, such as larger than 0.4 mm.
In some embodiments, the distance P_DIS between the protruding member 75 and the collection sheet 15 may be larger than 0.1 mm, such as larger than 0.2 mm, for example 0.3 mm or larger.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the distance P_DIS between the protruding member 75 and the collection sheet 15 surface 15b may be larger than the spacer height H1 and smaller than the spacer width W1.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the distance P_DIS1 between the protruding member 75 and the housing surface 17b of the bottom wall 24 of the bottom part 12b may be larger than the spacer height H1 and smaller than the spacer width W1.
The distance P_DIS1 may in embodiments of the present disclosure be a distance to a wall part comprising the surface 17b on which the collected spacer 2 support, such as slide, during travel towards the spacer outlet 16. In some embodiments, the bottom wall part surface 17b may be a surface of a housing wall, such as an exterior housing wall or another housing/dispenser wall that is placed between (not illustrated) an exterior housing wall and the collection sheet 15.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member 75, such as a pin, has a width, such as a diameter PD, of less than 3 mm, such as less than 2 mm, such as less than 1 mm. The width PD may as illustrated extend in a direction away from the surface 15b of the collection sheet 15.
The inventors have provided tests using a pin having a diameter of between 0.5 mm and 0.9 mm, e.g. between 0.8-0.9 mm, and this provided a good result.
In one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member 75, such as a pin, has a width, such as a diameter, of between 0.3 mm and 5 mm, such as between 0.5 mm and 2 mm, such as between 0.7 and 1.2 mm.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member 75 may be configured so as to engage with a spacer 2 at or in the collection hole 15a. An example hereof is illustrated schematically where a protruding member 75, in this case a pin, is seen in cross section in
In
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the protruding member 75 may be resilient so as to be displaceable by forces from one or more spacers acting on the spacer. The forces may originate from the relative displacement between housing 12 and collection sheet 15. This may e.g. help to reduce risk of spacer damage and/or help to provide improved rearranging of a spacer 2 in a collection hole 15a that is not arranged as desired therein. The resiliency may e.g. be obtained by arranging the protruding member to only be supported at one end, see e.g.
The resiliency of the protruding member may e.g. be defined by the shape, size and/or material of the protruding member.
In other embodiments, the protruding member 75 may be stiff and substantially non-resilient to forces from spacers acting on the protruding member during normal dispenser use.
The protruding member may so to say extend in between the spacers in the spacer storage compartment as e.g. indicated in
It is generally understood that the protruding member 75 in some embodiments may be fixed relative to the housing. In some embodiments, the protruding member 75 may be fixed to or integrated in the housing 12, such as to/in the upper part 12a of the housing.
In
In
In
In
In
In
In some embodiments of the present disclosure (not illustrated), the dispenser 10 may comprise a plurality of protruding members 75 extending into the spacer storage 11 at different heights above the collection sheet.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure (not illustrated), the dispenser 10 may comprise a plurality of protruding members 75 of different resilience, different thickness and/or different length.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, one or more of:
It is generally understood that in embodiments of the present disclosure, one or more of one or more protruding members may comprise or consist of a peg.
The collection sheet 15 may in some embodiments of the present disclosure comprise between one and thirty collection holes 15a, such as between one and fifteen collection holes, such as between two and twelve collection holes (not illustrated).
The collection holes are evenly distributed with the same radial distance to the rotation axis RAX. The number of collection holes and the angular spacing ANS between adjacent collection holes may be configured so that the distance (along the traveling path TPS) between adjacent collection holes is smaller than the length of the traveling path TPS in the compartment 11.
The jamming sensor 90 in
When a jamming situation occur, this may be caused by a spacer being stuck in the dispenser. A stuck spacer 2 may result in an increase in power/current consumption by the driver 18. This may e.g. be caused by increased loads, such as torsion forces, in a driving part 66, 27 connected directly or indirectly to the driven part such as the collection sheet 15 of the dispenser. This may be registered in an advantageous way by means of a sensor arrangement, such as a torque sensor arrangement, of the driver.
In
In additional or other embodiments of the present disclosure, the one or more jamming sensors 90 may comprise one or more of a strain gauge circuitry, such as a Wheatstone bridge circuit, a proximity sensor, an optical sensor, a speed sensor, and/or a magnetic sensor.
In still further embodiments, the jamming detection may be provided by means of a sensor-less solution by means of a timer, or a combination of a timer and one or more sensors 90, 22, 23. For example, if a spacer is not dispensed within a predetermined time interval, or if a portion of a movable part has not reached a certain location within a predetermined interval, This may indicate a jamming situation.
At time t1 (horizontal axis) the driver 18 is started in order to dispense a spacer 2. At time t2, the spacer has been dispensed (e.g. detected by means of a sensor 23 as e.g. previously described), and the driver is hence stopped. The current consumption between t1 and t2 may be considered a normal current/power consumption. During the time t1 and t2, another spacer may be collected from the spacer storage 11 by means of another collection hole and/or another routine (not illustrated) may be provided between t2 and t3 in order to collect a spacer.
At time t3, the driver 18 is started again to dispense a further spacer. However, at time t4, a sudden increase in power/current consumption Id is detected by the jamming sensor 90, and at time t5, the consumed current exceeds a threshold THR1. This may reflect that a jamming situation has occurred, and the driver/motor 18 may be stopped and/or one or more anti-jamming operations may automatically be initiated by a hardware controller in order to resolve the jamming situation.
The threshold THR1 may be or comprise a predetermined threshold such as a fixed threshold. The threshold THR may be determined based on experiential data and/or may be adapted dynamically over time.
It is understood that conversion circuitry may be configured to transform the consumed current into a torque value.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the threshold value THR1 may be below 10 Nm, such as below 3 Nm, for example below 1.5 Nm such as below 1 Nm.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the threshold value THR1 may be above 0.01 Nm, such as above 0.03 Nm, for example above 0.05 Nm.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the threshold value THR1 may be between 0.01 Nm and 10 Nm, such as between 0.03 Nm and 3 Nm, for example between 0.05 Nm and 1 Nm.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the threshold value THR1 may be set to e.g. 0.07, 0.08 or 0.09 Nm.
The above threshold value example may e.g. be relevant for a solution where a servo motor comprises torque sensor circuitry. It is however naturally understood that the threshold THR1 may be adapted based on e.g. sensor 90 type and/or point of measurement.
It is generally understood that the detection of the jamming situation may comprise monitoring one or more parameters (in
In embodiments of the present disclosure, a jamming controller 91 may provide one or more anti-jamming operations AJO when predetermined criteria is complied with. Such as criteria may e.g. comprise that the consumed power, current and/or a torque value exceeds a threshold THR1
These predetermined criteria may be based on the one or more monitored parameters Id. For example, when the monitored consumed current Id exceeds the threshold THR1, the predetermined criteria may be complied with. The predetermined criteria may comprise just one criteria or a plurality of predetermined criteria that needs to be complied with before it is determined that a jamming situation may have been detected.
Hence, the detection of a jamming situation may comprises monitoring one or more parameters Id that is/are based on the input from one or more sensors 90.
The predetermined criteria THR1 may be based on the one or more monitored parameters such as e.g. comprising:
In embodiments of the present disclosure, if a jamming situation is detected (e.g. as described above in relation to
For example, in some embodiments, the one or more anti-jamming operations may comprise operating the driver 18 according to a control scheme, such as a predefined control scheme. An embodiment of a control scheme is described in more details in
If no spacer has yet been dispensed, the jamming controller 91 monitors, in test (TE343) the one or more parameters to see if the predetermined criteria is complied with. For example by monitoring power consumption/current consumption of the driver 18 to monitor if the threshold THR1 is exceeded. As long as the criteria is/are not complied with, the dispenser is operated 10 in order to dispense a spacer.
If the criteria is/are complied with (see e.g. t5 of
In
The jamming controller then tests (Test T344) if predetermined criteria are complied with. This may e.g. comprise that the collection sheet is driven a predetermined amount in said opposite direction initiated at step S343. This may e.g. be determined based on sensor input such as distance sensor input, angular sensor input, a timer and/or the like.
In
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the relative movement (S343) between the collection sheet 15 and the housing 12 provided in the direction opposite to the first driving direction may provide that the collection hole 15a is moved at least 1 mm, such as at least 3 mm, for example at least 10 mm in the direction opposite to the first driving direction.
In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the collection hole 15a may be rotated (S343) at least 1°, such as at least 10° or at least 14° in the opposite direction around a rotation axis in the direction opposite to the first driving direction.
When the test TE344 is complied with, the driver 18 is stopped again (Step S344-STP. MOT), and a new try is initiated in order to try to dispense a spacer. In
The jamming controller 91 may be configured to provide the anti-jamming control illustrated in
In some embodiments, the jamming controller 91 may be integrated in or be part of a hardware controller that may also provide distance control and/or other control of the dispenser. This controller may be integrated in the driver 18 or may be separate to the driver 18.
It is generally understood that the anti-jamming operation AJO may comprise one or more anti-jamming operations such as one or more of:
It is understood that in some embodiments, the anti-jamming operation may comprise just one of the examples mentioned above. In other embodiments, the anti-jamming operation may comprise a plurality of the examples mentioned above. In still further embodiments, the number and/or type of provided anti-jamming operations may be varied, such as increased. This may e.g. be the case if it is detected by the sensor 90 that a jamming situation has not been resolved despite providing a first anti-jamming operation. For example, the anti-jamming operation AJO of
It is generally understood that one or more controllers for controlling dispensing of the spacers 2 during VIG unit manufacturing (see e.g. controllers as described above such as e.g. 22c, 31, 91 and/or a driver 18 controller) in relation to various embodiments of the present disclosure may comprise one or more microprocessors which execute appropriate software. For example, a processor system, such as processor subsystem, may be embodied by a single Central Processing Unit (CPU) or a combination or system of such CPUs and/or other types of processing units. The software for controlling e.g. the dispensing of spacers may have been downloaded and/or stored in a corresponding memory, e.g., a volatile memory such as RAM or a non-volatile memory such as Flash. Additionally or alternatively, the control of the dispensing of spacers may be implemented in the form of programmable logic, e.g., as a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). The control of the dispensing of spacers may be provided/executed by means of different, distributed hardware controllers and/or by means of a single hardware controller.
In embodiments of the present disclosure, the manufactured VIG unit may be for use in a building window. In some embodiments, the building window may be a roof window. In other embodiments, the building window may be a vertical window such as a façade window. In some embodiments, the VIG unit when used in a building window may be laminated at one or both sides of the VIG unit by means of an interlayer and a further glass sheet. In other embodiments of the present disclosure, the VIG unit may be used for e.g. cooling furniture such as in a door of a refrigerator or freezer and/or for heating furniture such as in a door of an oven. The VIG unit to enable a view through the VIG unit towards the goods stored in the interior of the cooling or heating furniture.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23215760.2 | Dec 2023 | EP | regional |
