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. 16, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 13, 2001
Vanon David Pratt, Blanchester, OH (US);
Lorne Weeter, Springboro, OH (US);
Motoman, Inc., West Carrollton, OH (US);
Abstract
A workpiece enclosure system of the present invention includes a workpiece loading section, a laser workstation cell, and a workpiece unloading section. The workpiece loading section includes a materials handling robot arranged to move workpieces from an input conveyor to a light-tight pass-through enclosure in communication with the laser workstation cell. The laser workstation cell includes an additional materials handling robot arranged to move workpieces from the pass-through enclosure to one of two dual headstock/tailstock positioners for laser operations. Preferably, two sets of laser-cutting robots are arranged to perform laser-cutting operations on workpieces held by the headstock/tailstock positioners. The materials handling robot is further arranged to move workpieces from the headstock/tailstock positioners to an additional pass-through enclosure in communication with the workpiece unloading section. The workpiece unloading section includes a final materials handling robot arranged to move workpieces from the additional pass-through enclosure to an output conveyor. It is contemplated that the materials handling robots may be eliminated if a user desires to manually load and unload workpieces.