US3775909A
Expired / Lapsed
US
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Successive lens polishing apparatus
Assignee: Corning Glass Works
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Filing: 1972-01-24
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Granted: 1973-12-04
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Expires: 1992-01-24
Abstract
Abstract Apparatus for handling and conveying a plurality or succession of articles, such as workpiece holders or carrier blocks, from a loading station where the articles, workpiece holders or carrier blocks are manually loaded onto an intermittently moved conveyor and thence are moved from the loading station to and through a plurality of work stations and finally moved to a manual unloading station. The workpiece holders or carrier blocks may, for example, be so-called optical lens blank spot blocks each of which holds or supports a plurality of optical lens blanks which are workpieces that are to be ground to a desired shape and then polished. Under these conditions the plurality of work stations include in succession a rough grinding station, a fine grinding station, and first, second and third polishing stations. The intermittently moved conveyor extends past all of the stations and through an endless looped path of travel. The conveyor comprises a succession of evenly spaced-apart workpiece holder conveyor plates for conveying the workpiece carrier blocks or holders to and from the work stations. A rotatable workpiece holder support means or turntable is provided at each work station and, since it requires approximately three times as long to polish lens blanks as it does to rough grind or to fine grind the blanks, the workpiece holder support means or turntables at the grinding stations are intermittently moved through rotational or arcuate paths of motion or travel three times as often as the similar turntables at the polishing stations. Each of the succession of carrier blocks or workpiece holders are manually loaded in a recess in every other successive one of the conveyor plates of the conveyor and each workpiece holder or carrier block is transferred by such conveyor to and from the support means or turntables at the grinding stations for grinding operations of lens supported on the carrier blocks or workpiece holders. Every first, second and third carrier block or workpiece holder is transferred to and from the support means or turntables at the first, second and third polishing stations, respectively. The conveyor is intermittently moved through its looped path of travel in time relationships with the intermittent movement of the turntables or support means at the plurality of work stations. Automatic control means are provided for the grinding and polishing operations.
Inventors
- 👤 H Best
- 👤 A Spycher
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-07 11:37
CPC Classifications
B; B24; B24B; B24B27/00; B24B27/0023; B23; B23Q; B23Q7/00; B23Q7/02; B23Q7/03; B23Q7/14; B23Q7/1405; B24B13/00; B24B13/0031; B24B13/0037
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 14
Claim 1
Independent Claim
550 words
In combination with a plurality of workpiece holders each supporting on an upper surface thereof at least one workpiece for work operations to be performed thereon and each such holder including a downwardly extending stem portion for handling of the respective holder, an apparatus for handling and transferring said holders between a plurality of spaced-apart work stations including, in sequence, a manual loading station, a first succession of work stations, a second succession of work stations, and a manual unloading station, such apparatus comprising; A. a conveyor including an endless loop of equally spaced conveyor plates each embodying adjacent the outer edge thereof a recess adapted for receiving said downwardly extending stem portion of one of said workpiece holders, such conveyor adapted for intermittent movement through a looped path of travel extending past said work stations, and a succession of said holders being manually delivered at said loading station to said conveyor by manual insertion of said stem portion of each succeeding holder oF said succession of holders in the respective recess of every second conveyor plate successively moved to said loading station; B. workpiece holder support means at each of said work stations, each such means adapted for intermittent rotation through a circular path of travel including a work location associated with the respective support means, and each such support means embodying adjacent the outer circumference of its respective circular path of rotation a plurality of equally spaced-apart recesses each adapted for receiving the downwardly extending stem portion of one of said workpiece holders from the recess in one of said conveyor plates; C. means for intermittently rotating each said workpiece holder support means through its respective said circular path of travel and to and from said work location associated with each respective workpiece holder support means; D. means intermittently moving said conveyor through its said looped path of travel in time relationships with the intermittent rotation of said workpiece holder support means at said work stations, the intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at each station of said first succession of work stations occurring a plurality of times for each intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at each station of said second succession of work stations; E. a workpiece holder transfer means associated with each of said work stations for intermittently transferring said workpiece holders between said conveyor and said workpiece holder support means at the respectively associated work station; and F. motor means associated with each said transfer means for intermittently actuating the respective transfer means in time relationships with the intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at the respectively associated work station, each actuation of a transfer means occurring subsequent to each intermittent rotation of the respectively associated workpiece holder support means, and each such actuation operating to transfer said workpiece holders by the respec-tive transfer means pushing said downwardly extending stem portion of one of such holders out of the recess embodied in one of said conveyor plates and into one of said recesses embodied in the respectively associated workpiece holder support means while simultaneously pushing the downwardly extending portion of a preceding one of the workpiece holders out of a recess embodied in the associated support means and into the recess embodied in one of said conveyor plates.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
550 words
In combination with a plurality of workpiece holders each supporting on an upper surface thereof at least one workpiece for work operations to be performed thereon and each such holder including a downwardly extending stem portion for handling of the respective holder, an apparatus for handling and transferring said holders between a plurality of spaced-apart work stations including, in sequence, a manual loading station, a first succession of work stations, a second succession of work stations, and a manual unloading station, such apparatus comprising; A. a conveyor including an endless loop of equally spaced conveyor plates each embodying adjacent the outer edge thereof a recess adapted for receiving said downwardly extending stem portion of one of said workpiece holders, such conveyor adapted for intermittent movement through a looped path of travel extending past said work stations, and a succession of said holders being manually delivered at said loading station to said conveyor by manual insertion of said stem portion of each succeeding holder oF said succession of holders in the respective recess of every second conveyor plate successively moved to said loading station; B. workpiece holder support means at each of said work stations, each such means adapted for intermittent rotation through a circular path of travel including a work location associated with the respective support means, and each such support means embodying adjacent the outer circumference of its respective circular path of rotation a plurality of equally spaced-apart recesses each adapted for receiving the downwardly extending stem portion of one of said workpiece holders from the recess in one of said conveyor plates; C. means for intermittently rotating each said workpiece holder support means through its respective said circular path of travel and to and from said work location associated with each respective workpiece holder support means; D. means intermittently moving said conveyor through its said looped path of travel in time relationships with the intermittent rotation of said workpiece holder support means at said work stations, the intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at each station of said first succession of work stations occurring a plurality of times for each intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at each station of said second succession of work stations; E. a workpiece holder transfer means associated with each of said work stations for intermittently transferring said workpiece holders between said conveyor and said workpiece holder support means at the respectively associated work station; and F. motor means associated with each said transfer means for intermittently actuating the respective transfer means in time relationships with the intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at the respectively associated work station, each actuation of a transfer means occurring subsequent to each intermittent rotation of the respectively associated workpiece holder support means, and each such actuation operating to transfer said workpiece holders by the respec-tive transfer means pushing said downwardly extending stem portion of one of such holders out of the recess embodied in one of said conveyor plates and into one of said recesses embodied in the respectively associated workpiece holder support means while simultaneously pushing the downwardly extending portion of a preceding one of the workpiece holders out of a recess embodied in the associated support means and into the recess embodied in one of said conveyor plates.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
64 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 and further including at said work location in said circular path of travel of each respective said support means, a rotatable chuck for engaging said downwardly extending stem portion of each workpiece holder delivered to and dwelling at the respective work location during said intermittent rotation of the respective support means located at the respectively associated work station.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
54 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 2 and further including motor means associated with each said chuck for selectively imparting rotation to the respective chuck and thereby to each of said workpiece holders whose downwardly extending stem portion is engaged by the respective chuck while such workpiece holder is dwelling at the respective work location.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
98 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 and in which, said workpieces supported by said workpiece holders are lens blanks which are to be ground and polished to produce finished lens, said first succession of work stations comprise two successive lens grinding stations, said second succession of work stations comprise three successive lens polishing stations, and each of said plurality of times of occurrence of the intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at each of said grinding stations is three times for each intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at each of said polishing stations.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
98 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 2 and in which, said workpieces supported by said workpiece holders are lens blanks which are to be ground and polished to produce finished lens, said first succession of work stations comprise two successive lens grinding stations, said second succession of work stations comprise three successive lens polishing stations, and each of said plurality of times of occurrence of the intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at each of said grinding stations is three times for each intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at each of said polishing stations.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
98 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 3 and in which, said workpieces supported by said workpiece holders are lens blanks which are to be ground and polished to produce finished lens, said first succession of work stations comprise two successive lens grinding stations, said second succession of work stations comprise three successive lens polishing stations, and each of said plurality of times of occurrence of the intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at each of said grinding stations is three times for each intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at each of said polishing stations.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
48 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 4 and in which the durations of the grinding and polishing operations on the lens blanks at each said work station are automatically controlled in a time relationship with each intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at the respective work station.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
48 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 5 and in which the durations of the grinding and polishing operations on the lens blanks at each said work station are automatically controlled in a time relationship with each intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at the respective work station.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
48 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 6 and in which the durations of the grinding and polishing operations on the lens blanks at each said work station are automatically controlled in a time relationship with each intermittent rotation of the workpiece holder support means at the respective work station.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
61 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 and further including a separate manually actuable means associated with each said work station of said second succession of work stations, respectively, and control means, associated with each said manually actuable means and activated by the actuation of the respectively associated manually actuable means, to disable the apparatus at the respectively associated work station only.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
45 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 10 and further including means for giving an indication, at said manual loading station, of the disabled condition of the apparatus at a work station disabled by the actuation of the manually actuable means associated with the disabled work station.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
61 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 4 and further including a separate manually actuable means associated with each said work station of said second succession of work stations, respectively, and control means, associated with each said manually actuable means and activated by the actuation of the respectively associated manually actuable means, to disable the apparatus at the respectively associated work station only.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
45 words
Apparatus in accordance with claim 12 and further including means for giving an indication, at said manual loading station, of the disabled condition of the apparatus at a work station disabled by the actuation of the manually actuable means associated with the disabled work station.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
| Annuity Stage | Window Opens | Payment Deadline | Surcharge Period Until | Estimated Fee | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 Years (Year 4) | 1976-12-03 | 1977-06-04 | 1977-12-04 | $2000.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 1980-12-03 | 1981-06-04 | 1981-12-04 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 1984-12-03 | 1985-06-04 | 1985-12-04 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |