Apparatus for keeping a friction roller

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9776294-B2
Application number	US-201514744239-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 19, 2015
Priority date	Nov 24, 2014
Publication date	Oct 3, 2017
Grant date	Oct 3, 2017

Abstract

The disclosure relates to an apparatus for keeping a friction roller. The apparatus for keeping a friction roller comprises a cylinder provided with a plurality of brackets for storing the friction roller, a friction roller pick-and-place execution unit for picking and placing the friction roller, a cylinder driving unit for driving the cylinder to rotate, a storage sensor unit for sensing whether a friction roller exists on a bracket, a pick-and-place position sensor unit for sensing whether a bracket arrives at a pick-and-place position of the friction roller, and a control unit. The apparatus for keeping a friction roller according to the disclosure may access more friction rollers accurately; and the stroke of the action of picking and placing a friction roller is relatively short, such that the work efficiency of picking and placing a friction roller is also increased very greatly.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus for storing a plurality of friction rollers, the apparatus comprising:
a cylinder provided with a plurality of brackets, wherein each of the plurality of brackets stores a respective one of the plurality of friction rollers at a given time,
a friction roller pick-and-place transfer unit for picking and placing the plurality of friction rollers,
a cylinder driving unit for driving the cylinder to rotate about an axis of rotation,
a storage sensor unit for sensing whether one of the plurality of friction rollers is disposed within a given one of the plurality of brackets,
a pick-and-place position sensor unit for sensing whether the given one of the plurality of brackets is indexed at a pick-and-place position for interfacing with the friction roller pick-and-place transfer unit, and
a control unit,
wherein the cylinder comprises a fixed part and a rotating part, the rotating part is connected with the cylinder driving unit, and the fixed part comprises two placement platforms disposed at opposing ends of the rotating part of the cylinder with respect to the direction in which the axis of rotation extends,
the plurality of brackets are juxtaposed at the periphery of the rotating part of the cylinder,
the storage sensor unit is disposed on the fixed part of the cylinder and corresponds to a position storing the one of the plurality of friction rollers within the given one of the plurality of brackets, and the storage sensor unit comprises a pair of first sensors, where one sensor of the pair of first sensors is disposed on a first of the two placement platforms and another sensor of the pair of first sensors is disposed on a second of the two placement platforms,
the pick-and-place position sensor unit is disposed at a position on the fixed part of the cylinder, and
the friction roller pick-and-place transfer unit, the storage sensor unit, the pick-and-place position sensor unit, and the cylinder driving unit are all connected with the control unit.

2. The apparatus for storing the plurality of friction rollers as claimed in claim 1 , the apparatus further comprising:
an origin position sensor unit disposed at a cylinder origin position on the fixed part of the cylinder, wherein the origin position sensor is used for sensing whether a specified bracket of the plurality of brackets is located at the cylinder origin position.

3. The apparatus for storing the plurality of friction rollers as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the storage sensor comprises a plurality of pairs of first sensors uniformly distributed on the placement platforms, and one sensor of each of the plurality of pairs of first sensors is disposed on the first of the two placement platforms and another sensor of each of the plurality of pairs of first sensors is disposed on the second of the two placement platforms.

4. The apparatus for storing the plurality of friction rollers as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the pick-and-place position sensor unit comprises a pair of second sensors, and one sensor of the pair of second sensors is disposed on the periphery of the first of the two placement platforms and another sensor of the pair of second sensors is disposed on the periphery of the second of the two placement platforms.

5. The apparatus for storing the plurality of friction rollers as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the origin position sensor unit comprises a pair of third sensors, and one sensor of the pair of third sensors is disposed on the periphery of the first of the two placement platforms and another sensor of the pair of third sensors is disposed on the periphery of the second of the two placement platforms.

6. The apparatus for storing the plurality of friction rollers as claimed in claim 5 , wherein each of the plurality of brackets have respective first through-holes for use with the pair of second sensors, and the specified bracket further comprises second through-holes for use with the pair of third sensors.

7. The apparatus for storing the plurality of friction rollers as claimed in claim 2 , the apparatus further comprising a bar code scanner, wherein the bar code scanner is connected with the control unit.

8. The apparatus for storing the plurality of friction rollers as claimed in claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of brackets is disposed at an acute angle with respect to the axis of rotation of the cylinder.

9. The apparatus for storing the plurality of friction rollers as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the cylinder driving unit comprises a driving motor and a transmission belt, wherein the rotating part of the cylinder is connected with the driving motor via the transmission belt.

10. The apparatus for storing the plurality of friction rollers as claimed in claim 1 , the apparatus further comprising a platform and a traveling track that is disposed in the middle of the platform, wherein the friction roller pick-and-place transfer unit is disposed on the traveling track and a plurality of the cylinders are disposed around the traveling track.

11. A method for depositing a friction roller, the method comprising:
providing the apparatus for storing the plurality of friction rollers according to claim 1 ;
placing the friction roller in a friction roller feeding area;
reading a bar code on the friction roller with a bar code scanner of the apparatus;
transmitting bar code information to the control unit;
inputting information on positions of the cylinder where the friction roller is able to be placed;
inputting information on the plurality of brackets on the cylinder in the control unit;
controlling the cylinder driving unit with the control unit to drive the rotating part of the cylinder according to the information on positions of the plurality of brackets;
rotating a given one of the plurality of brackets to rotate to the pick-and-place position by means of the pick-and-place position sensor unit;
controlling the friction roller pick-and-place transfer unit to take the friction roller out from the friction roller feeding area and place the friction roller on the given one of the plurality of brackets in the cylinder; and
controlling the cylinder driving unit with the control unit to drive the plurality of brackets, and cause a specified bracket of the plurality of brackets to rotate back to a cylinder origin position by means of an origin position sensor unit of the apparatus.

12. A method for taking out a friction roller, the method comprising:
providing the apparatus for storing the plurality of friction rollers according to claim 1 ;
inputting in the control unit a bar code of the friction roller to be taken out;
controlling the cylinder driving unit to drive the rotating part of the cylinder and cause a given one of the plurality of brackets where the friction roller corresponding to the bar code is located to rotate to the pick-and-place position by means of the pick-and-place position sensor unit;
controlling the friction roller pick-and-place transfer unit to take the friction roller out from the given one of the plurality of brackets and place the friction roller in the friction roller feeding area;
reading the bar code on the friction roller to confirm its identity via a bar code scanner of the apparatus; and
controlling the cylinder driving unit to drive the plurality of brackets, and cause a specified bracket of the plurality of brackets to rotate back to a cylinder origin position by means of an origin position sensor unit of the apparatus.

Assignees

• Boe Technology Group Co Ltd
• Heifi Xinsheng Optoelectronics Tech Co Ltd
• Hefei Xinsheng Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd

Inventors

• Liu laifeng
• Huang Zhubing
• Jing Hui
• Wang Xiaofeng
• Xiang Qiang

Classifications

• Y10T483/1873

  Indexing matrix · CPC title

• B65G1/02

  Storage devices (furniture A47B; shop fittings A47F) · CPC title

• Y10T483/10

  Process · CPC title

• B23Q3/15546

  Devices for recognizing tools in a storage device, e.g. coding devices · CPC title

• G02F1/1303 Primary

  Apparatus specially adapted to the manufacture of LCDs · CPC title