Optical Lens Carrier Flow for High-Throughput Automated Machining
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing lens processing systems are inefficient and lack optimal throughput, as they rely on large conveyor systems that do not allow for precise and cost-effective processing of spectacle lenses.
Innovation Solution
A system with multiple, independently operating processing devices and a transport system that uses carriers equipped with information carriers for automated processing, including a picking device, return conveyor devices, and separate circuits for transport carriers and block pieces, enabling optimized and automated processing flows.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a belt-like conveyor system with temperature-controlled water bath is used for deblocking, then the lenses can be processed through a complete deblocking and cleaning sequence, but the system becomes relatively large and does not allow for optimal throughput
Solution Approach 1:
The system is divided into multiple independent processing devices (deblocking device, cleaning devices, drying device) that can operate in parallel. Each device handles a specific processing step, allowing lenses to be processed through different stages simultaneously, thereby increasing throughput without requiring a single large complex system.
Solution Approach 2:
The conveyor system is designed as a multi-level structure with lenses being conveyed on carriers through different vertical and horizontal levels. This spatial arrangement allows multiple processing lines to coexist in a compact footprint, reducing the overall system size while maintaining high throughput capacity.
2Productivity
If multiple processing devices operate independently in a processing line, then throughput can be increased, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The transport carriers are designed as universal components that can be used across all processing devices in the line. Each carrier is equipped with an information carrier that tracks the lens throughout the processing sequence, allowing the same carrier type to move lenses through blocking, processing, deblocking, cleaning, and drying stages without requiring device-specific carriers.
Solution Approach 2:
Information carriers on the transport carriers provide real-time data about the processing status of each lens. This feedback mechanism allows the control system to automatically coordinate the independent processing devices, ensuring that each lens receives the appropriate processing steps in sequence without manual intervention, thereby managing system complexity through automation.
3Extent of automation
If transport carriers are returned to the blocking device after processing, then automated process flow is enabled, but additional return conveyor devices are required
Solution Approach 1:
The return conveyor devices are integrated into the existing conveyor system architecture. The same conveyor infrastructure that transports lenses from the blocking device to processing devices is used to return carriers after processing. This merging of forward and return transport functions into a unified circular flow reduces the number of separate devices needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The transport carriers continuously circulate through the system in a closed loop, moving from the blocking device through processing, deblocking, cleaning, and drying, then returning to the blocking device. This continuous circulation eliminates idle time and the need for separate return transport mechanisms, as the carriers are always in productive use moving through the processing sequence.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to an installation and a method for machining optical lenses in which transport carriers and block pieces are conveyed back after use to a picking device or blocker device, and the lens carriers are populated with blocked and deblocked lenses by a machine, in order to obtain an automated and optimised method sequence.