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:
Aug. 28, 2001
Filed:
Apr. 23, 1999
John O. Wirtz, Fort Gratiot, MI (US);
Stephanus Petrus Janse van Vuuren, Atlanta, GA (US);
Leko U.S.A., Inc., Port Huron, MI (US);
Abstract
An apparatus having at least two separate workstations to which workpieces are alternately advanced to provide at substantially all times, in at least one workstation, a workpiece ready to be worked on by a tool carried by a shuttle which transfers the tool between the workstations. Desirably, after working on a workpiece in a first workstation, the shuttle carries the tool to a second workstation to work on a workpiece waiting in the second workstation. Simultaneously, the workpiece in the first workstation, that was just worked on by the tool, is moved downstream away from the tool and a subsequent workpiece is advanced into the first workstation so that it is ready to be worked on by the tool when the tool returns to the first workstation. Thus, the tool does not have to wait for a new workpiece to be advanced into position after performing work on a workpiece. Desirably, this dramatically increases the productivity of the apparatus or machine without substantially increasing the cost of the apparatus or machine as a whole.