WO1988001564A1

WO1988001564A1 - System for manipulating and transporting unprocessed compact discs or similar

Info

Publication number: WO1988001564A1
Application number: PCT/EP1987/000474
Authority: WO
Inventors: Wolfgang Born; Friedrich SCHÜLER
Original assignee: D.J. Keil Kg; Interpress Tonträger Gmbh & Co. Kg
Priority date: 1986-08-27
Filing date: 1987-08-22
Publication date: 1988-03-10
Also published as: DE3629045C2; DE3629045A1

Abstract

Two injection presses (1, 2) are connected in series with a metallization installation (16) and two paint tracks (23, 24) by a manipulation and transport system. The unprocessed compact discs (3) made by the two injection presses (1, 2) are fed by two circular plate conveyors (8, 9) and a joint pivoting gripping device (15) alternately to the joint metallization installation (16) and from the latter to the two painting tracks (23, 24). The work cycle is effected in an orderly arrangement of the unprocessed discs (3) so that final sorting is not necessary. As a result of the small amount of space required by the manipulation and transport system which connects in series the manufacturing presses, the production installation requires only a relatively small "clean room".

Description

Handling and conveying device for compact disk blanks or the like.

The invention relates to a handling and conveying device for compact disk blanks or the like. with at least one input handling device, which accepts the compact disk blanks delivered to a dispensing device of an injection molding machine and transfers them to a conveyor device, and with a subsequent metallization device for the compact disk blanks, which is linked to a coating device by a conveyor device .

The digital information and data carriers referred to as compact disks or CD disks, for example sound carriers referred to as compact: disks audio, corresponding image carriers or data carriers referred to as CD-ROM or CD-DRAW, which are intended for optical digital scanning , require a very careful treatment and in particular compliance with the manufacturing, especially in the manufacturing section between the injection molding or transfer molding of the blanks and the application of a protective lacquer coating high purity conditions, since only a few tiny dust particles that get onto the blank would have a significant impact on quality. This manufacturing section must therefore largely take place under clean room conditions.

The compact disk blanks or the like. are manufactured on injection molding machines. Below are also supposed to be. Injection molding machines and automatic presses can be understood. The blanks are removed from the mold of the injection molding machine by means of a handling device and are usually transferred to a transport magazine. In these transport agazines the internal transport takes place to a metallization device in which a metal layer is applied on one side. The input to the metallization device is made using a handling device.

Another or the same handling device removes the blanks processed in this way and places them again in a transport magazine in which the further transport to a painting device takes place. After the painting process, the compact disks are stacked in transport magazines.

In this known workflow, several handling devices are required, which, like the associated transport devices, must be accommodated in the clean room. This requires a very large and therefore expensive clean room. Considerable expenditure on materials and costs is incurred for the provision of the required transport magazines. Since the injection molding machines, the metallization device and the painting device work with different capacities, the compact disk blanks or semi-finished products must be temporarily stored, since further processing can only be carried out in batches.

In another workflow, a handling and conveying device of the type mentioned at the beginning is used. An input handling device takes over the blanks at a delivery device of the injection molding machine and places the blanks on a conveying device that feeds the blanks to the metallization device. In order to make better use of the production capacity of the metallization device, one or more injection molding machines work together with a metallization device. Different information is usually stored on the compact disk blanks coming from the individual injection molding machines. Nevertheless, these blanks are in a disordered order

Metallization device fed and also arrive in a disordered order via another conveyor to the painting device. For this reason, the compact disks must be fed to a reading or identification device after the painting process has ended, which detects the stored information so that sorting is subsequently possible. The equipment and work processes required for this are considerable. A very large and therefore expensive clean room is also required for this workflow.

The object of the invention is therefore to provide a handling and conveying device of the type mentioned at the outset, which makes it possible to chain injection molding machines, metallization devices and painting devices with one another in such a way that, on the one hand, optimum use is made with the smallest possible space requirement the manufacturing capacities of the individual processing machines is made possible, but on the other hand there is no need to read the CD disks after production

Read identification device and then sort it according to different information content. In this context, painting facilities should also include facilities for applying another protective layer or the like. be understood.

This object is achieved in that two injection molding machines are each assigned a separate rotary table conveyor to which the input handling device transfers the compact disk blanks in a first table pivot position, that the compact disk blanks in a second table pivot position from a common one Swiveling gripping device alternately transferred to the common metallization device and handed over by this to the two * rotary table conveyors in the second table position, and that an output handling device between a third table swiveling position and the entrance to one of two separate painting lines, a painting device can be moved.

The space requirement of the two rotary table conveyors with the associated handling devices is very small; the connected manufacturing facilities can be set up close together and thus in a clean room of relatively small size, for example encapsulated. Since several injection molding machines only supply one metallization device, the production capacity of the metallization device, which is higher than that of an injection molding machine, is optimally used. Although the blanks of two

Injection molding machines come, there is an orderly delivery to the metallization device and an orderly Removal, so that the different blanks are fed to the two separate painting lines of the painting device without the need for a sorting process. From there, the CD disks can be placed in a magazine without sorting; Confusion of information content is excluded.

Since the blanks are conveyed within the interlinking system with optimal utilization of the production performance of the individual processing devices without intermediate stacking, relatively expensive transport magazines made of aluminum or plastic are eliminated. Even when one of the two injection molding machines is interrupted, for example for the purpose of maintenance or retrofitting or in the event of a fault, the handling and conveying device according to the invention can continue to be operated. Because of the relatively small space requirement, a substantially smaller clean room, possibly encapsulation, can be provided for the entire production process, which results in considerable cost savings both in the construction of the clean room and in terms of the running maintenance costs.

Advantageous refinements of the inventive concept are the subject of dependent claims.

The invention is based on one

Exemplary embodiment explained, which is shown in the drawing. It shows:

1 is a simplified top view of a handling and conveying device for compact disk blanks,

2 is an enlarged partial view in the direction of arrow II in Fig. 1, Fig. 3 shows a simplified section along the line III-ril in Fig. 2 and

Fig. 4 in a simplified plan view of the handling and conveying device according to Fig. 1, the passage eg of the compact disk blanks.

In Fig. 1, two injection molding machines 1, 2 are only partially indicated, on which compact disk blanks (CD blanks) 3 are produced. The blanks 3 each arrive via a delivery device 4, 5, for example an oblique guide 4 with two mutually open channels (FIG. 2), to an input handling device 6 or 7, which is shown in detail in FIGS. 2 and 3 and which will be described in more detail later.

The input handling device 6 or 7 places the blanks 3 on an adjacent rotary table conveyor 8 or 9 in a first table pivot position 10 or 11. The two rotary table conveyors 8, 9 set up adjacent to one another are cyclically advanced in the direction of the arrows 12, so that the blanks reach a second table pivot position 13 or 14. The blanks 3 are deposited there by a swiveling gripping device 15, which is jointly assigned to the two rotary table conveyors 8, 9, and at the entrance to a metallization device 16, which is only partially indicated in FIG. 1.

The Schwenkgrei device 15 has a rotatable about a vertical axis rotary table 17 which carries three grippers 18 on its circumference at equal intervals, each of which is designed to grip a blank 3. In operation, the turntable 17 performs reciprocating rotary movements in the direction of the arrow 19. The swiveling gripping device 15 conveys blanks 3 alternately from the rotary table conveyor 8 and - 1 -

from the rotary table conveyor 9 to the metallization device 16. Likewise, the swivel gripping device 15 takes over a metallized blank 3 from the metallization device 16 with each conveying cycle and places it in the table swivel position 13 or 14 on the respective other rotary table conveyor 8 or 9. Before and after the gripping function or the dispensing function, the turntable 17 additionally performs a lifting movement. From there, the blank, which has already been metallized, moves into a third table pivot position 19 or 20 when the rotary table conveyor 8 or 9 is switched on. There, the blank is taken over by grippers 21 or suction grippers of an output handling device 22 and in each case on a painting line 23 or 24 of a painting device 25 fed, wherein the grippers 21 also perform an additional lifting movement. In the painting device 25, the blanks receive a coating of paint and are then taken up in transport magazines (not shown). »

The described passage of the blanks containing different titles coming from the two injection molding machines 1 and 2 is shown differently in FIG. 4 with solid or dashed lines. The solid lines indicate the path of a blank coming from the injection molding machine 1 via the rotary table conveyor 8 to the metallization device 16 and from there via the rotary table conveyor 9 to the painting line 24. The path of the blanks coming from the injection molding machine 2 is indicated by dashed lines, which is via the rotary table conveyor 9 to

Metallization device 16 and from there via the rotary table conveyor 8 to the painting line 23. If the operation of one of the injection molding machines 1 or 2 is interrupted, the conveying process of the other injection molding machine in each case can be continued unchanged in the manner described and shown in FIG. 4, the swivel gripping device 15 executing a rotary movement instead of a reversing movement.

2 and 3 details of the input handling device 6 and 7 are shown. The blank 3 is received between mutually movable jaws 26 of a gripper 27 which can be pivoted about a horizontal pivot axis 28. A pinion 29, for example, can be used as a pivot drive, which meshes with a toothed rack 30 which is driven by a pressure medium-actuated cylinder 31.

In the uninterrupted production process described, the blanks 3 are pivoted only to one side (to the right in FIG. 3) and placed on the rotary table conveyor 8, the pivoting movement of which is effected, for example, by an electric motor 32, as is only indicated schematically in FIG. 3 . If intermediate storage of the blanks 3 is desired, for example due to a fault in one of the downstream machines or units, the gripper 27 is controlled so that it swivels to the opposite side (to the left in FIG. 3) and the blanks 3 to a stacking device 33 emits intermediate layers between the individual blanks with a swivel gripper 34 in order to avoid touching the highly sensitive information pages of the blanks 3. It goes without saying that a corresponding stacking device 35 with a swivel gripper 36 is also provided on the other input handling device 7, which is constructed in the same way as in FIGS. 2 and 3 described. If necessary, the blanks 3 can be individually removed from the stacking device 33 or 35 by the gripper 27 and placed in the pivoting position 10 or 11 on the rotary table conveyor 8 or 9 in order to be fed to the further production process.

As shown in Fig. 1, the two rotary table conveyors 8, 9 and the two painting lines 23, 24 are assigned a common exit handling device 22. The two grippers 21 extend in the opposite direction from a common vertical pivot axis.

Instead of the two injection molding machines described, more injection molding machines can also be used, each of which is then assigned a separate rotary table conveyor.

Claims

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P a t e n t a n s r u c h e

1, handling and conveying device for compact disk blanks or the like. with at least one input handling device, which accepts the compact disk blanks delivered to a dispensing device of an injection molding machine and transfers them to a conveyor device, and with a subsequent one

Metallization device for the compact disk blanks, which is linked to a coating device by a conveying device, characterized in that two injection molding machines (1, 2) are each assigned a separate rotary table conveyor (8, 9) to which the input handling device (6 , 7) the compact disk blanks (3) in a first table swivel position (10, 11) transfers that the compact disk blanks (3) in a second table swivel position (13, 14) from a common swivel gripping device (15) alternately taken over, transferred to the common metallization device (16) and from this transferred back to the two rotary table conveyors (8, 9) in the second table position (13, 14), and that an output handling device (22) between a third table pivot position ( 1, 20) and the entrance of one of two separate painting lines (23, 24) of a painting device 25) can be moved.

2. Handling and conveying device according to claim 1, characterized in that the common swivel gripping device (15) has three grippers (18) distributed on the circumference of a rotary table (17).

3. Handling and conveying device according to claim 1, characterized in that the output handling device (22) is assigned to both rotary table conveyors (8, 9) and two painting lines (23, 24) and two grippers (which extend in opposite directions from a common swivel axis) 21).

4. Handling and conveying device according to claim 1, characterized in that each of the two input handling devices (6, 7) has a between a vertical position and at least a first horizontal position gripper (27) which the first table pivot position ( 10, 11) of the assigned rotary table conveyor (8, 9).

5. Handling and conveying device according to claim 4, characterized in that the gripper (27) each of the two input handling devices (6, 7) from the vertical position optionally in one of the first table pivot position (10, 11) opposite second horizontal position is pivotable, in which a stacking or unstacking device (33, 35) is arranged.