Digital precision positioning system
AssigneeXMX Corporation
InventorsManfred R. Kuehnle, Steven O. Cormier
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A digital positioning system has a carrier in the form of a belt with a work surface and arrays of first and second conductors extending under that surface generally parallel to one another, each second conductor being spaced close to a first conductor to define a narrow gap between them. A voltage source applies a potential difference between the conductors to produce electrostatic fields which can attract and hold a substrate to said carrier work surface. Sensors are provided to enabling the longitudinal and lateral positions of the belt to be monitored to produce control signals to shift work elements operating on selected locations of the substrate at successive work stations to compensate for unwanted movements of the belt.
Claims7
A roller with adjustable conicalness comprising:
- a cylindrical center section having an axis of rotation;
- a pair of mirror-image annular end sections extending along said axis from the opposite ends of the center section and being composed of a circular array of flexible fingers which can be flexed toward and away from said axis;
- a pair of mirror-image shafts extending along said axis from opposite ends of the center section within and beyond the end sections;
- a resilient sleeve snugly surrounding the center and end sections, and
- flexing means for flexing the fingers of each end section towards and away from said axis simultaneously so as to decrease or increase the diameter of each end section and the portion of the sleeve surrounding each end section.
A roller with adjustable conicalness comprising:
- a cylindrical center section having opposite ends and an axis of rotation;
- a shaft extending from each end of the center section on said axis;
- a resilient cylindrical sleeve engaged around said center section and having opposite end sections overhanging the ends of the center section;
- control means on the shafts underlying said opposite end sections of the sleeve for varying the diameters of said end sections, said control means comprising
- a pair of roller end sections mounted co-axially to the shafts, each roller end section having a conical interior surface and being composed of a circular array of flexible cantilevered fingers which can be flexed towards and away from said axis;
- a conical wedge member having a conical surface and slidably mounted on the shaft within each roller end section so that the conical surface of the wedge member and corresponding roller end section are in mating contact, and
- means for moving each wedge member along the corresponding shaft so as to adjust the radius of the overlaying finger array.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.