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US 6,471,837 B1Granted
Vacuum coating installation and coupling device
AssigneeUnaxis Trading AG
InventorsMichael Hans, Martin Zaech
Life of this patent
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AssigneeUnaxis Trading AG
InventorsMichael Hans, Martin Zaech
Estimating the term…
A vacuum coating installation has at least a central distribution station which can be evacuated and has a transport arrangement driven in a controlled manner essentially along a plane, for the material to be treated. One operating station for the distribution station as well as at least two processing stations for the material to be treated are provided. The three or more stations communicate by way of operating openings with the distribution station, through which openings the material to be treated can be transported from one station into the other by the transport arrangement for the material to be treated. The material to be treated is formed by individual workpiece holders of the installation, each having a plurality of workpiece supports. On at least one of the processing stations, a drive and a driving connection, which can be established and released in a controlled manner, between the drive and the workpiece supports of a workpiece holder introduced in the processing station is provided for ensuring a three-dimensional workpiece processing in the processing station.
A vacuum coating installation for treating multiple workpieces, comprising a central distribution vacuum station having a workpiece transport arrangement controllably driven in said central distribution station for movement essentially along a plane;
Electric and/or mechanical coupling arrangement between a vacuum treatment station and a workpiece holder with workpieces to be processed in the station, comprising a station-side truncated-cone wheel and a workpiece-holder-side truncated-cone wheel, whose small faces, in a processing position of the workpiece carrier in the station, rest on one another and establish a mechanical driving connection and/or an electric transmission connection from the station to the workpiece carrier.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.