The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 12, 1991
Filed:
Dec. 30, 1988
Robert Francisco, New Fairfield, CT (US);
Pitney Bowes Inc., Stamford, CT (US);
Abstract
A material processing system comprising a plurality of material processing stations, a base material processing station, and apparatus for directing material to be processed serially through the plurality of stations in a given order to the base station; the improvement wherein each of the plurality of stations and the base station comprise a separate data and control processor, and further comprising a communication loop interconnecting the processors of the plurality of stations in the given order to the processor of the base station and interconnecting the processor of the base station to the processor of the first of the plurality of stations. The processor of each respective one of the plurality of, responding to a signal from the processor of the base station, passes to the processor of the next succeeding station identification data that the respective station has assigned to itself, whereby the processor of the base station receives data from the last of the plurality of stations corresponding to the number of the plurality of stations connected to the communication loop. The base station includes a display. Each of the processors of the plurality of stations can generate error and status messages concerning the respective station, and can pass to the next succeeding station the error and status messages generated therein and received from the preceding adjacent station. The processor of the base station can display error and status messages received thereby on the display.