Engraving machine for engraving offboard and onboard items
AssigneeThe Hillman Group, Inc.
InventorsDavid Wilkinson, Nalinikanth Garikapati
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An engraving machine is disclosed. The engraving machine may have a housing and an engraver located within the housing. The engraving machine may have a slot disposed on the housing for receiving a cartridge including an offboard item to be engraved. The engraving machine may have an onboard storage configured to store a plurality of tags. The engraving machine may have a carrier for receiving the cartridge through the slot and for positioning the cartridge relative to the engraver. The engraving machine may have a pick mechanism for selectively retrieving a tag from the tags stored in the onboard storage and for positioning the tag relative to the engraver. The engraver may engrave the offboard item or the tag based on a user selection.
Claims26
An engraving machine, comprising:
- a housing;
- an engraver located within the housing;
- a slot disposed on the housing and configured to receive a cartridge including an offboard item to be engraved;
- an onboard storage configured to store a plurality of tags;
- a carrier configured to receive the cartridge through the slot and to position the cartridge relative to the engraver;
- and
- a pick mechanism configured to selectively retrieve a tag from the tags stored in the onboard storage and position the tag relative to the engraver,
- wherein the engraver is configured to engrave a selected one of the offboard item or the tag.
An engraving machine, comprising:
- a housing;
- an input device associated with the housing;
- an engraver located within the housing;
- a slot disposed on the housing and configured to receive a cartridge including an offboard item to be engraved;
- a carrier configured to receive the cartridge through the slot and to position the cartridge relative to the engraver;
- an onboard storage configured to store a plurality of tags;
- a pick mechanism configured to selectively retrieve a tag from the tags stored in the onboard storage and to position the tag relative to the engraver;
- a chute configured to dispense the tag;
- and
- a controller, configured to:
- receive, from the input device, a user selection of one of the offboard item or the tag for engraving;
- and
- selectively control one or more of the carrier, the pick mechanism, or the engraver to engrave one of the offboard item or the tag based on the user selection.
An engraving machine, comprising:
- a housing;
- an engraver located within the housing;
- a circular carousel configured to store a plurality of tags in one or more magazines configured to eject a tag in a radially inward direction towards a center of the carousel;
- and
- a pick mechanism configured to selectively retrieve the tag ejected from the carousel and position the tag relative to the engraver,
- wherein the engraver is configured to engrave the tag.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.