HIGH SPEED MANUFACTURING SYSTEM

• Main Authors: LAW, CHAD, E, PATTANTYUS-ABRAHAM, IMRE, A, CHANG, STEPHEN, T, STEDMAN, STANLEY, W, WEBER, PATRICK, J
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 17.03.2004
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: COMBINATIONS OR ASSOCIATIONS OF METAL-WORKING MACHINES, NOTDIRECTED TO A PARTICULAR RESULT; CONVEYING; DETAILS, COMPONENTS, OR ACCESSORIES FOR MACHINE TOOLS, e.g.ARRANGEMENTS FOR COPYING OR CONTROLLING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL; MACHINE TOOLS; MACHINE TOOLS IN GENERAL CHARACTERISED BY THE CONSTRUCTION OFPARTICULAR DETAILS OR COMPONENTS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PACKING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS; SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS; STORING; TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING ORTIPPING; TRANSPORTING

A high speed manufacturing system for processing articles of manufacture requiring processes to be performed on the articles at a pre-selected processing rate includes a trunk for simultaneously conveying a plurality of the articles of manufacture at the pre-selected processing rate in a first mode of motion from the beginning of the manufacturing system to the end of the system. At least one branch processing station is positioned intermediate the beginning and the end of the trunk wherein the branch processing station during its operation performs at least one process on articles of manufacture conveyed on the branch processing station and where the articles are conveyed in a second mode of motion. At least one transfer device is positioned intermediate the trunk and the branch processing station to continuously extract articles of manufacture from the trunk and transition the movement of the extracted articles of manufacture from the first mode of motion to the second mode of motion for transfer to the branch processing station. The transfer device also extracts each of the processed articles of manufacture from the branch processing station and transitions the movement of the articles from the second mode of motion to the first mode of motion for transfer to the trunk.