Limiting plate shifting within a plate pallet
AssigneeEastman Kodak Company
InventorsMark Silverman, Pavel Korolik
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for aligning and inserting a plate stack (112) into an automatic plate loader (100) in a predefined position. A plate pallet (116) carries the plate stack. A plate pallet adapter (128) adapted to carry the plate pallet, a centering element (236, 264) attached to the plate pallet adapter aligns the plate stack in a center position relative to the plate pallet adapter. A guiding unit (216, 220, 224, 228, 232, 504, 712) is attached to the plate pallet adapter, configured to align to the plate pallet and guide the plate pallet adapter into the automatic plate loader. In one embodiment, a plate adapter positioning sensor (268) is configured to sense and notify (124) an operator when the pallet adapter reaches the predefined position (248).
Claims10
An apparatus for aligning a plate stack and inserting the plate stack into an automatic plate loader in a predefined position comprising:
- a plate pallet adapted to carry said plate stack;
- a plate pallet adapter adapted to carry said plate pallet;
- a centering element attached to said plate pallet adapter configured to align said plate stack in a center position relative to said plate pallet adapter;
- a guiding unit attached to said plate pallet adapter configured to be aligned with respect to said plate pallet position and guide said plate pallet adapter into said automatic plate loader;
- a plate adapter positioning sensor in said automatic plate loader adapted to sense and notify said pallet adapter reaching said predefined position;
- and
- wherein said plate adapter further comprising a floating surface base configured to align said plate pallet relative to said guiding unit.
An apparatus for aligning a plate stack and inserting the plate stack into an automatic plate loader in a predefined position comprising:
- a plate pallet adapted to carry said plate stack;
- a plate pallet adapter adapted to carry said plate pallet;
- a centering element attached to said plate pallet adapter configured to align said plate stack in a center position relative to said plate pallet adapter;
- a guiding unit attached to said plate pallet adapter configured to be aligned with respect to said plate pallet position and guide said plate pallet adapter into said automatic plate loader;
- a plate adapter positioning sensor in said automatic plate loader adapted to sense and notify said pallet adapter reaching said predefined position;
- and
- wherein said plate adapter further comprising a ball rollers surface configured to align said plate pallet relative to said guiding unit.
An apparatus for aligning a plate stack and inserting the plate stack into an automatic plate loader in a predefined position comprising:
- a plate pallet adapted to carry said plate stack;
- a plate pallet adapter adapted to carry said plate pallet;
- a centering element attached to said plate pallet adapter configured to align said plate stack in a center position relative to said plate pallet adapter;
- a guiding unit attached to said plate pallet adapter configured to be aligned with respect to said plate pallet position and guide said plate pallet adapter into said automatic plate loader wherein all the elements of said guiding unit are adjustable and always form a parallelogram and wherein said elements of said guiding unit comprises of at least one of guiding beams, limiter beams, skids, parallel connecting beams, or a combination thereof;
- and
- a plate adapter positioning sensor in said automatic plate loader adapted to sense and notify said pallet adapter reaching said predefined position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.