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:
Sep. 06, 1994
Filed:
Dec. 16, 1992
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A cable carrier that slides upon itself is provided with pad and padless surfaces or a stainless steel strip therealong. The cable carrier may be connected to a fast moving robotic trolley and manipulative arm assembly in a storage library containing automated magnetic tape cartridges or optical disk cartridges or magnetic disk cartridges. The pad and padless surfaces are made of dissimilar materials, such as stainless steel and plastic respectively. When the pad and padless surfaces slide across one another, there is a minimum of wear and galling of the surfaces. Several arrangements are employed to quickly modify existing carriers to obtain the benefits of this invention. One type of discrete pad can be easily mounted to the existing carrier with double-sided tape and another type of discrete pad can be easily mounted to the existing carrier with tabs. Further, both type of pads are configured with curves to make a smooth transition of pad-to-padless surface or pad-to-pad surface. Another embodiment of the invention is a pad that consists of a stainless steel strip. The stainless steel strip can be easily attached to the carrier with doublesided tape. Since the strip is stainless steel, there is very little wear or galling as compared to that arising from plastic sliding on plastic.