Automated tracking and storage system for use with an automated thermal battery manufacturing system
AssigneeEaglepicher Technologies, LLC
InventorsGraham Dixon, Mark Hart, Ola Pettersson, Chad Sneath
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Abstract
The present invention is directed at a system for automatically manufacturing thermal batteries. In the present invention, thermal batteries are manufactured using a press system, a stacking system and an enclosing system. The present invention uses a tracking, storage, and/or retrieval system to track various components used in the manufacturing process to improve manufacturing quality and to track the various components throughout the manufacturing process.
Claims20
A system to at least one of track, store, and retrieve thermal battery components, the system comprising:
- a plurality of storage containers configured to hold a plurality of thermal battery pellets, wherein each storage container is associated with a unique identifier, and wherein each unique identifier is associated with information describing characteristics of one or more thermal battery pellets stored in the storage container;
- a unique identifier reading device comprising circuitry to read the unique identifier;
- and
- a tracking device configured to track a plurality of thermal battery pellets as the thermal battery pellets are manufactured, wherein the tracking device is configured to associate the location of the thermal battery pellets with the unique identifier.
A system to track, store, and retrieve thermal battery components, the system comprising:
- a plurality of storage containers configured to hold a plurality of thermal battery pellets, wherein each storage container is associated with a unique identifier, and wherein each unique identifier is associated with information in a database describing characteristics of one or more thermal battery pellets stored in the storage container;
- a unique identifier reading device comprising circuitry to read the unique identifier;
- and
- a tracking device comprising circuitry, wherein the tracking device and the database are configured to communicate with the unique identifier reading device and to track a plurality of thermal battery pellets as the thermal battery pellets are manufactured,
- wherein the database is configured to associate the unique identifier with at least one of a quantity, a type, a size, and a location of the plurality of thermal battery pellets.
A system to produce a thermal battery, comprising:
- a press system to form pellets from a powder material;
- a stacking system associated with the press system, the stacking system configured to select pellets from a plurality of storage containers and to stack the selected pellets in a predetermined order;
- an enclosing system associated with the stacking system, wherein the enclosing system is configured to enclose the stacked pellets;
- and
- an inventory system coupled to at least one of the press system, the stacking system, and the enclosing system to at least one of track, store, and retrieve the pellets while the pellets are located in at least one of the press system, the stacking system, and the enclosing system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.