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US 10,618,742 B2Granted
Autonomous conveyor system
AssigneeEwab Engineering AB
InventorMats Wahrén
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Disclosed herein is a conveyor system comprising a plurality of work piece carriers, each presenting a machine readable and writable tag and being adapted for supporting at least one work piece during transportation. The system further comprises distribution highway conveyors each in the form of an endless conveyor adapted for transporting and circulating the work piece carriers, flow balancing conveyors and operation unit conveyors. Control of the system is achieved by autonomous switch control devices arranged at each intersection between conveyors to control the flow of the work piece carriers at the respective intersection.
Claims17
A conveyor system, comprising:
- a plurality of work piece carriers, each presenting a machine readable and writable memory tag and being adapted for supporting at least one work piece during transportation;
- at least two distribution highway conveyors each in the form of an endless conveyor adapted for transporting and circulating said work piece carriers;
- at least one flow balancing conveyor in the form of an endless conveyor adapted for transporting said work piece carriers,
- wherein the distribution highway conveyors are interconnected via the flow balancing conveyor, such that said work piece carriers can pass from one of the distribution highway conveyors via the flow balancing conveyor to the other distribution highway conveyor;
- at least two operation unit conveyors, each in the form of an endless conveyor adapted for transporting said work piece carriers,
- wherein the operation unit conveyors are arranged to receive a work piece carrier from an associated distribution highway, to move the work piece carrier to an operation station, and to return the work piece carrier to the distribution highway after processing at the operation station;
- wherein a respective tag writer device is configured to derive a next operation address and to write said address to the tag of the work piece carrier after the processing at the operation station;
- and
- wherein autonomous switch control devices are arranged at each intersection between the conveyors to control the flow of the work piece carriers at the respective intersection.
6 more elements
A production system, comprising:
- a plurality of operation stations, and
- a conveyor system for moving work pieces between the operation stations, comprising
- a plurality of work piece carriers, each presenting a machine readable and writable tag and being adapted for supporting at least one work piece during transportation;
- at least two distribution highway conveyors each in the form of an endless conveyor adapted for transporting and circulating said work piece carriers;
- at least one flow balancing conveyor in the form of an endless conveyor adapted for transporting said work piece carriers,
- wherein the distribution highway conveyors are interconnected via the flow balancing conveyor, such that said work piece carriers can pass from one of the distribution highway conveyors via the flow balancing conveyor to the other distribution highway conveyor;
- at least two operation unit conveyors, each in the form of an endless conveyor adapted for transporting said work piece carriers,
- wherein the operation unit conveyors are arranged to receive a work piece carrier from an associated distribution highway, to move the work piece carrier to one of the operation stations, and to return the work piece carrier (WPC) to the distribution highway after processing at said one of the operation stations;
- wherein a respective tag writer device is configured to derive a next operation address and to write said address to the tag of the work piece carrier after the processing at said one of the operation stations;
- and
- wherein autonomous switch control devices are arranged at each intersection between the conveyors to control the flow of the work piece carriers at the respective intersection.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.