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AssigneeHitachi, Ltd.
InventorsKinji Mori, Yasuo Suzuki, Masayuki Orimo, Shoji Miyamoto, Hirokazu Ihara
Estimating the term…
A plurality of machine tools are disposed along a circulating conveyor transporting materials to be processed by the machine tools, and material selector subsystems associated with the respective machine tools are provided together with a load/unload command subsystem. The material selector subsystems exchange information therebetween to track materials loaded on the conveyor under command of the load/unload command subsystem so as to reserve materials requested by the individual machine tools. Each of the reserved materials is unloaded from the conveyor under command of the load/unload command subsystem as soon as it arrives at the position of the corresponding machine tool.
A method for transportation of materials in a work-processing system including a plurality of work-processing means processing materials transported thereto by transporting means, comprising the steps of loading newly externally supplied materials on said transporting means detecting material transported by said transporting means by using a detector means associated with each of said work-processing means and storing the results of detection;
An apparatus for transportation of materials in a work-processing system including a plurality of work-processing means processing materials transported thereto by transporting means, comprising load/unload commanding means for commanding loading of newly externally supplied materials on said transporting means and commanding unloading of said materials from said transporting means;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.