Box erecting apparatus and method
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsSzu-Chen HUANG, Fu-Hsien LI, Mao-Jung CHIU, Mao-Shun LIEN, Po-Hsien CHIU
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Abstract
An apparatus and method for expanding a box blank into a box, the apparatus comprising an arm assembly, a controller, a camera and a box blank conveyor. The arm assembly includes a folding arm having a position in a first direction and a rotational angle controlled by the controller based on a position of a feature of the box blank in the field of view of the camera. The camera captures images of the box blank which are used to position the arm assembly and to evaluate the need to reject a box blank.
Claims20
An apparatus for expanding a box blank, comprising:
- an arm assembly, including:
- a base having a surface;
- a first arm coupled to the surface of the base through a rotation joint, the first arm having a box blank contact surface perpendicular to the surface of the base;
- and
- an actuator, including:
- a body, coupled to the surface of the base;
- and
- an actuator arm coupled to the first arm;
- a box blank conveyor, which, in operation, moves the box blank against the box blank contact surface of the first arm of the arm assembly, expanding the box blank;
- and
- a controller, the controller in operation, sets a rotation angle of the first arm around the rotation joint based on a first dimension of the box blank.
An apparatus, comprising:
- a controller;
- a push extension, by the controller during operation, in a first direction;
- a folding extension positionable, by the controller, during operation, the folding extension in operation forming an angle with the push extension the angle determinable by the controller;
- a box blank conveyor, which in operation moves a box blank in a second direction different from the first direction to contact the folding extension;
- a camera electronically coupled to the controller, the camera having a field of view, which, during operation, includes a feature of the box blank, a position of the feature in the field of view being determined by the camera or the controller;
- and
- the controller, in operation, uses the position of the feature in the field of view to position the push extension in the first direction, such that in operation the box blank conveyor moves the box blank in the second direction to contact the folding extension and cause the box blank to expand.
A method for expanding a box blank, including:
- generating an image by imaging a box blank using a camera having a field of view including a feature of the box blank;
- determining a position of the feature of the box blank using the image of the field of view;
- moving a folding arm in a first direction to align the folding arm with a panel of the box blank using the position of the feature of the box blank;
- determining a folding arm angle using the position of the feature of the box blank;
- rotating the folding arm to the folding arm angle by a folding arm actuator;
- and
- moving the box blank in a second direction, different from the first direction causing the box blank to contact the folding arm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.