EP2015148B1 - Support ring and system for handling and transporting timepiece movements - Google Patents

Abstract

The system has a transporting vane including an opening that removably receives a molded support ring (1) corresponding to mechanical or electromechanical timepiece i.e. watch, movement. The ring has cylindrical support surfaces (18-21) and a radial knob (30) provided at its interior, and pre-stressing units e.g. flexible hooks and band (24, 28), provided at its exterior for precisely positioning a plate for the movement in the ring. Cylindrical reference surfaces (34, 42, 43) are supported to precisely position the ring in a space i.e. work station of assembly or production line.

Description

Background of the invention

The invention relates to a system for handling and transporting clock movements of different types during manufacture, comprising different types of support rings which correspond respectively to the different types of movements and are each arranged to support a platinum. a movement in a certain position. The invention also relates to a support ring of this kind.

The invention is particularly applicable to the mass production of watch movements, but can also be used to support such movements in other circumstances. It is especially useful in the automated assembly of mechanical or electromechanical movements which have a plate, base plate serving both to support the main components and to position said movement, especially in workstations on an assembly line and then in a watch boot. However, the applications of the invention are not limited to assembly operations and can advantageously extend to a large part of the manufacture and control of a watch movement, as well as storage thereof.

The movements of mechanical or electromechanical watches are typically products assembled in series on largely automated lines, but in which some stations may require manual intervention or treatment of certain offline movements in order to make corrections or adjustments. As a result, these lines often have branches that allow additional operations to be performed on certain products or groups of products before they are reintroduced to the line. Each line also has buffers for temporarily storing products in a queue. Thus, the number of products present on the line at a given moment can be large and represent a fairly expensive stock. This also increases the length of time a product passes through the line.

For example, a linear transfer system commonly used in current production lines is the BOA system of Lécureux SA, Bienne (Switzerland), which uses plastic pallets each with five receptacles to support five movements and transport them together. along a production line. Ten pallets can be grouped on a tray to form a store of fifty pieces, used in particular in buffer stocks online, which may contain several hundred movements in some cases. Three sizes of pallets are provided for small, medium and large movements, respectively. With such a system, once a pallet is in place in a workstation, it is necessary to extract successively each movement of the pallet to place it in a machine or on a pose adapted to this type of movement. This operation requires either special mechanical means or a manual action. Another disadvantage of this system is that the movements are not fixed on the pallets and can therefore fall in the event of a journey incident.

Licences CH 310 885 , CH 380 660 and CH 392 400 describe pallets or support plates similar to the principle of the BOA system. The second of these patents further describes a system still widely used to position each movement in a workstation, by means of pins vertically engaging in holes of the movement. According to the third patent, the plates can be stacked for transport, that of the top can be provided with a protective cover.

In the FR 1156164 (corresponding to DE 1719342U ) is described a substantially cylindrical individual support of plastic for mounting and transporting a watch movement, particularly in a series production. The outer edge of the movement stage rests in a rabbet of the upper edge of the support. Several of these supports can be stacked, the upper support being able to serve as a cover. The cylindrical mantle of the support simply serves as a base.

We also know patents FR 1 489 847 and FR 2 204 139 a movement door according to the preamble of claim 1 of the patent.

In manufacturing or assembly lines, because of the wide variety of types (generally called calibres) of watch movements that a factory must provide, the tools for gripping, receiving and fixing the machines must be changed quite frequently. movements in the machines, which implies significant costs and downtime. With each change of caliber, it is necessary to realize at least receptacles (or posages) specific, to install them and to adjust them in the successive workstations. This re-equipment work is therefore time consuming and expensive.

Summary of the invention

The present invention aims to avoid to a substantial extent the disadvantages described above, in particular thanks to a handling system offering great versatility and great flexibility, in particular to make it possible to manufacture watch movements of different types or calibres, successively on the same line of manufacture or assembly, with the least possible reworking work to move from one type to another. Another object of the invention is to facilitate the handling of movements during manufacture and adjustment operations. In addition, especially in the production of high-end movements, the invention should facilitate the monitoring of the manufacture of each movement through an identification of the movements and operations to which they were subjected.

The invention relates to a support ring for a watch movement, defined by claim 1 of the patent.

According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided a handling and transport system defined by claim 8 of the patent. Thus, each movement is provisionally fixed and housed in a precise spatial position in a standard outer configuration support ring, so that the ring can be manipulated instead of moving throughout the manufacturing process. Therefore, the precise positioning of a plate or a movement carried by it, in any workstation of a production line, both in a manual position in an automatic assembly machine, n It does not need to be done by pressing against surfaces of the plate, because it is enough to do it by pressing against the reference surfaces of the support ring. As it is a standardized form, not dependent on the type of movement, the receptacles (or positions) ensuring the positioning of the ring remain the same to work on the different types of movements. The same is true for gripping tools, as well as for pallets used for transferring and storing movements in production lines. Preferably, most or all of the reference surfaces on one side of the ring are identically reproduced on the other side, so that the ring is reversible and can be placed on the other side. place or upside down in some workstations.

According to yet another aspect of the invention, a support ring defined by claim 1 of the patent further comprises identification means containing data capable of individually identifying said movement and readable by machines. Preferably, these identification means comprise a passive transponder comprising means for recording in a memory information relating to said movement, for example special interventions during manufacture, the results of certain checks or the addition of special components. Thus, the support ring becomes in practice an ancillary part of the movement, containing a sort of individual data sheet of this movement and that can accompany the movement in all operations, including adjustments and controls, that it will undergo until you have to separate it from the ring, for example when you put it in the watch case. In a simpler version, the identification of the movement could be done simply in an optical manner readable by machines, for example by means of a barcode applied to the support ring.

It therefore clearly appears that the invention consists mainly in attaching to each watch movement a multifunctional support ring, which integrates with a new type of transport and handling system, making it possible to simplify and rationalize not only the manufacturing lines of watch movements, but also the handling of offline movements and the monitoring of the interventions and adjustments made individually on each of them.

Other features and advantages of the invention will appear in the description of a presently preferred embodiment, presented below by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Brief description of the drawings

• The figure 1 represents in perspective a support ring according to the invention,
• the figure 2 is a schematic view in axial section of the ring following the line II-II of the figure 1 when this ring supports a watch movement and is further provided with two covers to protect said movement,
• the Figures 3 and 4 are respectively top and bottom views of the support ring of the figure 1 ,
• the Figures 5 to 7 are cross-sectional views along the lines VV, VI-VI and VII-VII respectively of the figure 3 ,
• the figure 8 is a top view of a pallet for receiving the support ring of the figure 1 ,
• the figure 9 is a bottom view of the palette of the figure 8 ,
• the Figures 10, 11 and 12 are views in axial section along the lines XX, XI-XI and XII-XII respectively of the figure 8 , and
• the figure 13 is an enlarged view in axial section along the line XIII-XIII of the figure 8 .

Detailed description of an embodiment

The support ring 1 shown in the Figures 1 to 7 is intended to support the plate 2 of a clockwork movement, more particularly a watch movement 3, which is shown only schematically in the figure 2 . This figure shows that the ring 1 can be provided with an upper cover 4 and a lower cover 5 forming with it a box 6 which contains and protects the movement 3 and is a packaging for transport and storage. Preferably, the two covers 4 and 5 each fit on the periphery of the ring 1 and abut axially against an outer ring 8 of the ring, located about halfway up and remaining accessible from the outside of the box . The lids may be molded parts made of transparent plastics material. Note that the usual crown (not shown), attached to the end of the control rod of the movement 3, can remain outside the box 6 and thus allow to go back and set the time without leaving the movement the box.

The support ring 1 is a molded piece of rigid plastic material, for example POM, ensuring the accuracy and stability of shapes and dimensions. Outside, it preferably has a generally circular shape, allowing to easily rotate the ring about its central axis 10 to put it in the desired orientation in some workstations. The peripheral surface of the belt 8 has a clearance, delimited here by a flat surface 9, to facilitate access to a winding crown of the movement 3. In a movement handling system of watches, the largest sizes do not exceed Usually not 37 to 38 mm, the standard outer diameter of each of the different types of support rings may be of the order of about 50 mm.

Inside, the support ring 1 has a generally horizontal transverse wall 12, pierced with an opening 13 for receiving the plate 2 of a watch movement of a given type. The shape and dimensions of this opening are specially adapted to those of the plate and the movement, in order to position it precisely in the ring 1. In the example shown in the drawings, the plate 2 is circular and a medium gauge, for example 29.6 mm. The opening 13 then having a diameter much smaller than that of the ring 1, it is preferably off-center to be close enough to the periphery of the ring, so that the winding stem of the movement can emerge from the edge of the ring. ring through the clearance created by the surface 9, through a notch 14 formed in a vertical wall section 15. On the contrary, in a support ring intended to receive a movement of relatively large diameter, the opening 13 could be centered. In both cases, the crown of the winding stem can occupy a normalized position vis-à-vis the outer contour of the ring, remaining accessible to the hand of an operator or a machine for reassembly or setting. 'hour.

The precise positioning of the plate 2 in the opening 13 is provided by bearing surfaces, disposed around the periphery of this opening, and prestressing members which press the plate in the direction of these bearing surfaces. The edge of the wall 12 around the opening 13 has a stepped profile which forms a horizontal shoulder 17 and portions 18 to 21 of a cylindrical surface. Three clearances 23 are formed in the edge of the wall 12 and are each surmounted by a flexible hook 24, the base of which is integral with the wall 12. It will be noted that it would be possible in a variant to use a larger number of hooks. for example 4 or 5. In the example illustrated, the free end of each hook 24 has an inclined upper surface 25 ( Fig. 5 ) and a rounded edge 26 above the shoulder 17. Of course, the shape of the hooks 24 could be different, both keeping in sight a shape to optimize the insertion of the movement. At rest, the vertical spacing between the shoulder 17 and the edge 26 of each hook is slightly smaller than the thickness of the plate 2 of the type of movement concerned. Thus, thanks to the elasticity of the hooks 24, the plate 2 can be lowered into the opening 13 of the ring 1 by forcing the hooks to move apart, until the edge of the plate exceeds the free end of each hook and abuts against the horizontal shoulder 17. The profiled edge 26 of each hook 24 then passes on the upper face of the plate 2 and elastically presses the plate in the axial direction against the shoulder 17 with a permanent prestressing force. Thus, the plate held by clipping by means of the hooks 24 is located axially (that is to say in the direction perpendicular to the wall 12 of the ring) positively and accurately in the support ring 1.

The preload exerted by the hooks 24 on the plate 2 is strong enough, preferably, to prevent any axial displacement of the plate in the ring 1 under the effect of current shocks, as well as the usual forces that the plate will support in workstations during assembly operations of the movement 3, for example the thrust exerted by the action of a screwdriver. It also turns the ring upside down without any movement. To remove the movement at the end of the cycle of use of the ring 1, it is possible to use an extractor that elastically separates the hooks 24. This ring is then either discarded or reused with another movement 3 of the same type after replacement or resetting the transponder 50.

In the transverse wall 12 of the ring 1, a radially flexible strip 28 is formed between a portion of the edge of the opening 13 and a hole 29 passing through the wall 12. The shape of this hole is elongated in the example presented here but it could be circular or other as needed. The flexible strip 28 is approximately, but not exactly, opposite the notch 14. In its middle, it has in the opening 13 a radial boss 30 intended to engage in a notch of corresponding shape formed in the edge of the plate 2. For example, the shape of the boss 30 may be that of a spherical cap, while the notch of the plate may have a cylindrical shape having approximately the same radius as the bump 30. However the hump 30 is slightly larger than the depth of said notch. This arrangement fulfills two functions when the plate 2 is put in place in the ring 1. On the one hand, the strip 28 being pushed back by the support of the boss 30 in the notch of the plate 2, it exerts on the plate, by its elasticity, a permanent radial prestressing which applies the edge of the plate against the bearing surfaces 19, 20 and 21. This ensures and maintains a precise position of the plate in its own plane, with respect to the In addition, engagement of the boss 30 against the sides of the notch of the plate 2 defines and positively maintains an angular orientation of the platen in its plane.

In summary, the bearing surfaces 17 to 21 and the boss 30 define a precise spatial position for the plate 2 and the movement 3 in the support ring 1, while the flexible hooks 24 and the flexible band 28 constitute means prestressing elastics which firmly hold the platen and the movement in this position. Of course, to support a movement provided with a plate of non-circular shape, such a support ring would, instead of surfaces 18 to 21 of cylindrical shape, bearing surfaces shaped like the outline of the plate.

While the inner members 13 and 17 to 30 of the support ring 1 are specially configured and dimensioned to fit the shape and dimensions of a given gauge, the configuration and outer dimensions of the ring 1 are standardized, in that they will be the same for the various types of support rings to be used, for different calibers, in the same handling system and transport movements. It is first of radially prominent outer belt 8, having above and below two flat surfaces 32 and 33, perpendicular to the axis 10 of the ring, and a cylindrical surface 34 centered on the axis 10 These surfaces constitute reference surfaces by which the ring 1 can lean against a receptacle (or pose) to be supported and positioned in space, in particular in a workstation of a production line. The cylindrical surface 34 makes it possible to ensure precise centering of the ring, but the symmetry of rotation of the periphery of the ring allows it to pivot about its axis 10 if it is necessary to change the orientation. some movement. Indeed, other reference surfaces are provided to define the angular orientation of the ring. On the one hand, a curved or V-shaped notch 36 is formed in the peripheral surface 34 of the belt 8 to serve as an optical and mechanical marker for orienting at least approximately the ring 1. On the other hand, to ensure precise angular orientation in the plane of the ring, there is provided a pair of diametrically opposed vertical notches 37 on the underside of the ring and a pair of identical notches 38 on the top, one or the other pair being used according to whether the ring is placed at the place or upside down. Each of the notches 37, 38 is formed in a vertical wall section 40 of the ring 1 and has a slightly radially flared shape so as to fit easily onto a correspondingly shaped guide member in a work station, swiveling the ring slightly if necessary to correct its orientation. The slightly inclined sides of the two notches of each pair thus constitute reference surfaces 42 and 43 ( Fig. 7 ) for the orientation of a transverse reference axis 39 of the ring 1.

Of course, other surfaces of the ring 1 may be used as references, for example the upper face and the lower face of the wall 12 for the axial positioning of the ring or tools, and the peripheral wall sections 15, 40 and 52 for lateral and / or axial positioning. In particular, the faces upper 44 and lower 45 of these peripheral walls are respectively located in the same radial planes, these walls all having the same height which is standardized. This can be set at a value of the order of 10 mm in order to exceed the usual maximum thickness of a watch movement without additional module. Thus, one or the other of the horizontal faces 44 and 45 of the support ring 1 can be placed on a table without the movement coming into contact with the table.

On both sides of the support ring 1, large lateral openings such as 46a to 46d ( Fig. 6 ) are formed between the side walls 15, 40 and 52 to clear the view of the operators on the movement 3 and facilitate access of the tools and parts to be mounted on the movement.

Since the movement 3 can remain attached to the support ring 1 throughout its assembly phase and also beyond, an advantageous development of the present invention consists in equipping the ring with identification means, to identify individually the movement 3 mounted on this ring. Preferably, these means can be read by machines and can also record certain particular data concerning the movement, especially about the operations or controls that it has undergone. In the example represented here, it is a non-contact electronic means, in the form of an encapsulated transponder 50 (see FIG. Fig. 1 ), fixed in a hole 51 of a side wall section 52 of each support ring. The position of the hole 51 is part of the standardized external configuration of the different types of rings of the system according to the invention, so that the transponder always takes place as close as possible to the antennas communicating with it.

The transponder 50 may be a passive RFID transponder, made for example as described in the patent publications EP 1052595 and EP 1770603 and having a memory 54 which contains at least one identity number that can be used to individually identify the movement 3. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to read and / or record in the memory or memories of the transponder 50, information by RF transmission while the support ring 1 provided with the transponder 50 and the movement 3 is in a station equipped with an antenna, either on an assembly line or in a storage area , or at a control or dispatch station. These read / write operations can also be done when the ring 1 is in the box 6 represented in the figure 2 . Consequently, the information contained in the memory 54 of the transponder can accompany the watch movement 3 and be exploited all along its path during manufacture and the later stages, until it is necessary to separate the movement 3 of its support ring 1 to mount it in the watch case.

The Figures 8 to 13 represent an embodiment of a pallet 60 for supporting and transport individually the different types of support rings such as the ring 1 described above, in a transport and handling system according to the invention. In this example, it is a rigid plastic molded piece similar to that of the ring 1. In principle, all the pallets 60 of one of the systems according to the invention are similar, but one can also operate such a system with different types of pallets for particular reasons, provided that all the pallets are the same size and can receive the different types of support rings.

The pallet 60 has in plan the general shape of a square with cut corners, that is to say that of an octagon with unequal sides. This shape makes it easier to guide the pallet during transfers, especially along an automated assembly line. Its periphery is formed by a profiled belt 62 at constant height, having at the top an outer rebate 63 and at the bottom a slightly flared rim 64 which, when stacking the pallets 60, fits into the rebate 63 of the sub-pallet. core. The useful height of the belt 62 is preferably of the order of 2 cm, so that movements of watches installed in such pallets by means of their support rings 1 will not be touched if the pallets are stacked. The lower, side and upper faces of the belt are flat and can slide on guides along a production line and in machines. A centering notch 65 extends vertically in the middle of each of the four main sides of the pallet, one of which further includes an off-center notch 66 for detecting whether the pallet is positioned upside down or upside down. The belt 62 has stiffeners 67 and thickenings 68 enabling it to ensure the rigidity of the pallet and to support a transverse inner wall 69 located approximately halfway up the pallet. This wall surrounds a circular central opening 70 intended to removably receive any one of the support rings of the system, in particular the ring 1 described above, at the level of the transverse wall 69. The inner periphery 72 of the opening 70 has a diameter slightly larger than the outer diameter of the ring 1 and has a boss 73 engaging in the outer slot 36 of the ring to maintain its orientation in the pallet. In contrast to the hump 73, a horizontal hole 71 connects the opening 70 to the outside of the pallet to give access to the winding stem of the movement, if any.

Near the cut corners of the square shape of the pallet, the transverse wall 69 has cutouts 74, 75 and 76 which define two pairs of opposed claws 77 and 78 arranged to attach to the belt 8 of the ring 1 leaving These claws are elastic in the radial direction, but relatively rigid in the axial direction, thanks to two arms 79 which are rather thick in the axial direction, but thin in the other directions. As we see in the Figures 10 to 12 each claw 77 has a front surface 80 of cylindrical shape, with an upper flange 81 with inclined sides. Thus, when the ring 1 is forced to enter vertically from the top into the aperture 70 of the pallet or to exit upwardly, its belt 8 bears against the corresponding inclined flank of the flange 81 to elastically push each Similarly, each claw 78 has a front surface 82 lined with a lower rim 83 with inclined sides which holds the belt 8 of the ring on the bottom side of the pallet. Thus, it is possible to turn the palette any time, without the ring 1 and the movement 3 escape.

The elastic claws 77 and 78 of the pallet 60 support the ring 1 with play in the central opening 70, that is to say that the ring 1 and the movement 3 are positioned only approximately in relation to the palette. The same goes for their orientation, defined by the hump 73. However, when the pallet enters a workstation, the ring 1 is positioned sufficiently accurately to be correctly taken by an automatic extractor. Each claw 77, 78 is pierced with a vertical hole 84 which allows an extractor of a machine to separate one or the other pair of claws to extract the ring 1 either upwards or towards the bottom, while the extractor or another element of the machine supports the ring and moves it vertically until it rests against positioning means. These will place and orient the ring 1 in a precise position which determines the position and orientation of the movement 3 in the machine.

One could of course configure the resilient claws 77 and 78 and the belt 8 of the ring 1 so as to be able to enter the ring in the pallet 60 and come out only through the resilience of the claws (clipping). In this case, as in the normal case described above, the fact that the ring 1 and the pallet 60 are both made of relatively slippery plastic material greatly reduces the risk of producing waste by wear during these operations, compared to conventional methods of extracting the metal platen 2 from a plastic support for placing in a machine.

In the example shown here, the pallets 60 are equipped with hooking members that secure them when stacked to form a package can be handled easily. These members comprise, in the lower face of each pallet, four holes 86 in each of which is fixed a metal stud 87, shown schematically in the figure 13 . In the upper face of each pallet, there are four tubular pillars 88 traversed by axial slots to form resilient tongues 89 between which the pin 87 of an upper pallet will fit to be removably retained by clipping.

A person skilled in the art will readily understand that the material described here opens up new perspectives in the design and operation of automated assembly lines for watch movements, especially by the fact that all the organs used to support and / or position the movements in any workstation or control act only on the outer parts to standard configuration of the support rings 1, whatever the type of movements 3. There is no longer need to change these organs in In case of caliber change, it is enough to use a modified software to control the machines. The manufacturing change can be done in a very short time and at little cost. A production line thus equipped is simpler and becomes really versatile.

Another considerable advantage results from the fact that each movement 3 present on the line forms a unit with its support ring 1 equipped with the transponder 50 and, at least during the displacements, with the transport pallet 60. Since the control means of the assembly line can read the identity of this unit at various points of its course, they can individually control its circulation on the line as needed, for example to make it go through a correction loop if a control has detected an anomaly .

In buffer stocks of an automated line, managing the inputs and outputs piece by piece with the system according to the invention is easier than to do by groups of pieces in trays or stores as was the custom in the past. state of the art. Above all, it allows to considerably reduce the number of pieces temporarily stored on the line at any time, thus also the size of the storage areas and the space occupied by the line. It also reduces the travel time of the parts and the value of the parts in stock on the line.

At the exit of the production line, the movements 3 fixed in their support ring 1 leave the pallet 60 and can advantageously be protected by covers as shown in FIG. figure 2 , to be transported to other places in the package formed by the box 6. It is thus possible to keep the movement in its support ring for all kinds of subsequent procedures, for example the mounting of additional modules, the installation of the dial and needles, gait adjustment, control by a time laboratory, delivery to another factory, storage etc. All these procedures can use data available in the transponder 50, which continues to accompany and identify the movement 3. They can obviously record additional data that may accompany the movement 3 to the casing.

Although the embodiment described above relates especially to the manufacture of movements for watches, the field of application of the invention also encompasses the manufacture of other watch movements, including larger movements such as those of alarm clocks or clocks, with adequate modifications achievable by a person skilled in the art.

Claims (14)

1. Support ring (1) for handling and transporting a timepiece movement (3), having internal elements arranged for supporting a bottom plate (2) of the movement (3) in a determined position, wherein said internal elements of the support ring include support surfaces (17-21, 30) and prestressing means, the support ring (1) including, on the exterior, reference surfaces (32-34, 42-45) capable of serving as supports for precisely positioning the support ring (1) in space, characterized in that the prestressing means (24, 28) are resilient and arranged to deform elastically by moving apart at the moment when the movement is inserted thereby ensuring precise positioning of the bottom plate (2) of the movement in the ring.
2. Support ring (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that reference surfaces (32, 42, 43, 44) located on one of the faces of the ring are reproduced in identical fashion (33, 42, 43, 45) on the other face.
3. Support ring (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that said support surfaces include, around an opening (13) passing axially through the ring, a horizontal shoulder (17) surrounded by portions of surfaces (18 to 21) arranged to have the shape of the contour of the bottom plate (2) and in that the prestressing means includes resilient catches (24) arranged for dressing the bottom plate against said shoulder (17).
4. Support ring (1) according to claim 3, characterized in that the prestressing means includes a flexible strip (28) arranged along one edge of said opening (13) and having a radial bump (30) arranged to engage in a notch in the edge of the bottom plate (2) in order to orient the movement (3) with respect to the support ring.
5. Support ring (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that it further includes identification means containing data which can be read by machines and which enables said movement (3) to be individually identified.
6. Support ring according to claim 5, characterized in that said identification means includes a passive transponder (50).
7. Support ring according to claim 6, characterized in that the transponder (50) includes means for storing information relating to said movement (3) in a memory (54).
8. System of handling and transporting timepiece movements of various types during manufacture, including various types of support rings (1) according to any of claims 1 to 7, which respectively match the various types of movements (3) and are each arranged to support a bottom plate (2) of a movement in a determined position,
   said system being characterized in that it further includes transport pallets (60) each having an opening (70) arranged for removably receiving any one of the support rings (1), said opening in the pallets (60) and the external contour (8) of the support rings having standard configurations and retaining means for holding the support ring in the pallets.
9. System according to claim 8, characterized in that said standard configurations include:

   a) on each support ring (1), an external, projecting, substantially circular belt, arranged substantially at mid-height on the ring, and

   b) on each pallet, radially mobile claws (77, 78), forming said retaining means and arranged to be fastened to said external belt (8).
10. System according to claim 9, characterized in that said external belt (8) includes a rectangular profile at least on most of the periphery thereof, such that said belt has a cylindrical external surface (34) and two plane surfaces perpendicular to the central axis (10) of the support ring (1).
11. System according to claim 9, characterized in that said standard configurations also include at least one notch (36) on said external belt (8) and, on the pallet (60), a bump (73) arranged for engaging in said notch to maintain the orientation of the support ring (1) in the pallet (60).
12. System according to claim 9, characterized in that the claws (77, 78) of the pallet include holes (84) for engaging control members for actuating said claws.
13. System according to claim 9, characterized in that the claws (77, 78) of the pallet include a first pair of opposite claws (77), arranged for retaining the support ring (1) with radial play and play in one of the axial directions, and a second pair of opposite claws (78) arranged for retaining the support ring with radial play and play in the opposite axial direction, these two pairs of claws being actuatable independently to release the support ring (1) in one or other of the axial directions.
14. System according to any of claim 9 to 13, characterized in that the claws (77, 78) of the pallet are arranged to be mobile due to the radial elasticity thereof.

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