Media handling equipments' most used and maybe sophisticated assembly is the picker assembly, which actually is coming in direct contact to the media, making the physical connection between the subject of manipulation and the rest of the handling equipment. Until now, these pickers were designed to handle one single media at a time. The big inconvenient was low productivity, too many additional motions of the robotics, due insufficient efficiency of the picker.
With the increase of the recording speed and number of recording units incorporated in the same equipment, while before the robotics was waiting after the recording, now is getting there, that the recording is waiting after the robotics, especially due to inefficiency of the picker. Elimination of unnecessary motions, by increasing the efficiency of the picker, results in shorter robotics cycles and increased productivity of the whole equipment.
In the prior art, once the work-piece has been picked up from the input bin, the robotic is accessing the recording drive or loading platen and the work-piece is loaded into it. Then, the robotic is accessing again the input bin, picking up the next work-piece and loading it into the next drive or loading platen.
The repeated accessing of the input/output bins was increasing significantly the robotics cycle, slowing production down considerably.
In other industrial use—like in wafer processing, by example—there are the same productivity and efficiency increase needs.
The invention is directed to increase the efficiency of single-piece pickers and it applies to the most already existent or even future single-piece pickers. It applies to all picking systems, where the work-piece has been picked up as a single-piece or from a stack of work-pieces.
The multiple picker system has the ability to pick the work-pieces up and to store them until processing in a LIFO (Last In/First Out) work-stack in/on the stack-shaft of the picker.
The work-pieces are loaded at once into the picker's stack shaft, than released one by one into the recording drives or loading platen, eliminating the unnecessary motions to the input bins and back.
Also, when the drives or loading platen are loaded with processed/recorded media, the multiple picker is picking them up one by one, storing them temporarily on the stack shaft, than the picker goes to the output bin and releases them all.
The multiple picker systems subdivide in 2 major groups, into internal multiple picker systems and external multiple picker system, depending on the gripping style of the work-pieces, which can be internally—thru an existing hub on the work piece—or externally—around the external perimeter—of the work-pieces.
Optionally, the multiple picker system also can be used as a single-piece picker too.
As follows, it will be described, as an example, a direct application of the invention in the CD/DVD processing robotics.
The invention, the multiple-media picker system, consists of a primary retaining system and a secondary retaining system of the media. They are controlled and activated in a manner, which allows them to handle, as needed, simultaneously more than one media. Usually, but not necessarily, the number of recording units determines the number of media needed to be handled simultaneously. So, an ‘n’ recording unit equipment needs to handle ‘n’ media simultaneously. The picker has to be able to:
In system drawing
In all drawings of the multiple picker assembly 100:
The invention, the multiple picker assembly 100, showed in
The primary retain-release mechanism 1 is used to retain or release all ‘x’ stack of media, and the secondary retain-release mechanism 2 used to retain or release the ‘x-1’ stack of media, both as needed.
Combined use of this double mechanism, in certain sequences, allows the handling of ‘x’, ‘x-1’ or one single media, as needed.
The drawings are representing the main components of the multiple-media picker system. Picker 1 and picker 2 have each just one active gripper, the other are passive. Picker 1 is activated for retain by powering the actuator 5 ON, usually a solenoid; and deactivated for release by powering 5 OFF, helped by the spring 3.
Picker 2 is activated for retain by powering 6 ON; and deactivated for release by powering 6 OFF, helped by the spring or other elastic assembly 4.
As observed, 1 is longer than 2, and 1 being designed to retain ‘n’ media, and 2 being designed to retain ‘n-1’ media.
The length of the stack-shaft 7, actually the length of 1, is usually ‘n’ times the thickness of the media.
The drawings are representing the internal picker in a different version from
It is representing the internal picker system with the stack shaft 7 and the number of ‘x’ media.
It is representing an external picker system, in a 6×1 configuration, where there are 6 external arms, each one with 1 gripper. The arms are working simultaneously in 2 configurations of 3, one group of 3 having grippers for level ‘n’ and the other group of 3 having grippers for level ‘n-1’. Each group of 3 is arranged into a 120 degree circular position.
It is representing an external picker system, in a 3×2 configuration, where there are 3 external arms, each with 2 grippers. The arms are mounted into a 120 degree circular position. The grippers are at level ‘n’ and ‘n-1’ on each arm.
It is a more detailed representation of
On 9 it can be mounted a spring 12, to pull it down, for a more reliable functionality. Also, that spring 12 together with the flag 9, can help the advance of the media on the stack-shaft, as a pusher, during a machine-cycle.
It is a system drawing of use of a multiple picker system in a CD/DVD recording robot. The picker 100 is moving up and down on the tower 200, which is able to turn around its own vertical axis, making possible the accessing of 300, the input/output bins, which are storing the unprocessed and already processed media.
It is also possible to access the loading platen 400, which is making the discharge of the processed media and load of the unprocessed media into the processing/recording units 500.
Once the recording drives closed, the tower-picker assembly can proceed with the discharge of the recorded media from the output column of the platen 400 into the output bins 300 and reloading of the input column of the platen 400 from the input bins 300.
During a complete machine cycle, the multi-media picker system has to be able to perform as described in the ‘SUMMARY OF INVENTION’ and as follows:
The machine and the machine cycle from above are not strictly defined, it is just an example.
It should be understood that the invention is not intended to be limited by the specifics of the above described embodiment, but rather defined by the operating principles.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60510434 | Oct 2003 | US |