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:
Mar. 01, 2005
Filed:
Oct. 30, 2002
Klaus Vogel, Kirschau OT Rodewitz, DE;
Klaus Vogel, Kirschau OT Rodewitz, DE;
Trumpf Sachsen GmbH, Neukirch, DE;
Abstract
A workpiece loading apparatus has a large number of selectively targetable suction grips () provided in a divided suction grip array () which suction is subdivided into individually addressable, mutually intersecting columns () and rows (). All suction grips () are associated with dedicated control pistons () all of which can be moved into an idle position or an operating position upon the release of a lock latch (). Each control piston () is assigned to the point of intersection () of a particular column () and row () and is selectably held in its idle position or locked in an operating position. The idle positions can be sequentially unlocked row by row () and the operating positions of the control pistons () can be addressed by columns () and then locked by rows (). Once all rows () have been set, the suction grips () can be activated into the pick-up mode or deactivated by the control pistons ().