EP-4178760-B1 - TRANSPORTATION CARRIER FOR AUTOMATED LENS MANUFACTURING PROCESS AND RELATED MANUFACTURING FACILITY

Inventors

• KOERBE, Thomas
• CORMIER, Alexandre
• Lotz, Jan
• ALT, Herger

Dates

Publication Date

20260513

Application Date

20210701

Claims (9)

1. Transportation carrier (T) for automated lens manufacturing in a lens manufacturing facility (MF) comprising at least one block piece (B) or one block piece (B) receiving section (ET2) characterised in that the transportation carrier (T) further comprises an electronic paper display (EPD) configured to display at least an up to date status information (SM) of the manufacturing process of the optical elements carried by the transportation carrier (T) which is intelligible for a human operator without use of a reading device, the electronic paper display (EPD) further comprises a wireless communication module (EPD-10) and a memory (EPD-18) for exchanging and memorizing job information and process information with regard to lenses to be manufactured and the electronic paper display (EPD) is configured to function as a passive RFID tag with its wireless communication module (EPD-10).
2. Transportation carrier (T) according claim 1, wherein the electronic paper display (EPD) is batteryless.
3. Transportation carrier (T) according claim 1 or 2, further comprising a separate RFID tag, where the electronic paper display (EPD) and the separate RFID tag are configured to share a memory (EPD-18).
4. Transportation carrier (T) according to any of claims 1 to 3, where the up to date status information comprises a short message (SM) or a symbol.
5. Transportation carrier (T) according to any of claims 1 to 4, where the electronic paper display (EPD) is also configured to display at least one optical machine readable identification information, in particular a barcode (BC) or a OR-code.
6. Transportation carrier (T) according to any of claims 1 to 5, where the electronic paper display (EPD) is configured to receive and display processing data concerning the lenses to be manufactured.
7. Transportation carrier (T) according to any of claims 1 to 6, where the electronic paper display (EPD) is removable fixed to the transportation carrier (T), in particular by clipping elements.
8. Transportation carrier (T) according to any of claims 1 to 7, the transportation carrier being realized as transportation box (T) according DIN 58763, where the electronic paper display (EPD) is fixed to a side wall of the transportation box (T) having a location foreseen to receive a paper barcode.
9. Manufacturing facility (MF) for manufacturing of optical elements (L) comprising: - several workstations (AS X, X = 1-9) and processing stations (BS X, X=1-6), - a transfer system for conveyance of transportation carriers (T) for optical elements (L) to be processed according to specific job data, - transportation carriers (T) according to any of claims 1 - 8, - a process control system (PS) communicating with the workstations (AS X, X = 1-9) and processing stations (BS X, X=1-6) and controlling the transfer system for conveyance of transportation carriers (T) for optical elements (L) to be processed according to specific job data, wherein the process control system (PS) is further configured to communicate with the electronic paper display (EPD) of the transportation carrier (T) for displaying at least an up-to-date status information of the manufacturing process of the optical elements carried by the transportation carrier (T) which is intelligible for a human operator without use of a reading device.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a transportation carrier, like for example a transportation box, for automated lens manufacturing process and a related manufacturing facility. BACKGROUND AND PRIOR ART US2019/137791 A1 forms the basis for the preamble of claim 1. If in the following, by way of example, reference is made to "optical elements", in particular "spectacle lenses" for workpieces with optically effective surfaces there is to be understood by that not only optical elements of mineral glass, but also optical elements of all other customary materials such as polycarbonate, CR 39, HI index, etc., thus also plastics material. The working or processing stations in production shops or manufacturing facilities for producing individual spectacle lenses from customary materials for example polycarbonate, mineral glass, and CR 39, HI-index, in accordance with a prescription order-also called "job"-are usually automated to a high degree. In that regard, serving within the production as transport means are transportation boxes - also termed prescription boxes or "job trays"-which are transported between the individual stations by way of, for example, transport belts, transverse roller devices for transverse exclusion from the material flow, lifting devices, switches, etc. Such transportation boxes are the subject of, for example, German Standard DIN 58763. As described in, for example, document U.S. Publication No. 2004/0235397 in each instance the right hand and left hand spectacle lenses of a prescription order and optionally the associated precision-grinding tool or polishing tool for the respective spectacle lens can be received in the transportation boxes. In addition, a transportation box of that kind has a compartment for the often written in-house order, generally in paper form. This usually carries a marking in the form of a barcode or the like. On many occasions the transportation boxes themselves are also equipped with so-called "transponders" or "Radio Frequency Identification Devices", (RFID for short), i.e. semiconductor elements for storage and transmission of data with the help of which an identification of the respective prescription order and the instantaneous state of processing of the spectacle lenses is possible. Spectacle lenses of various materials have to be supplied by the transportation boxes to different work stations or machines at which the spectacle lenses are processed by different additives and work materials (for example, polishing media, polishing pads) as well as different process parameters. A major part of this processing of the spectacle lenses takes place on so-called "block pieces" which serve the purpose of holding the spectacle lens blanks during processing in the respective processing machine or processing device. Such block pieces are the subject of, for example, German Standard DIN 58766. According to this Standard, for so-called "blocking" of a spectacle lens blank on such a block piece, the block piece is initially brought into a predetermined position relative to a surface, which is usually protected by use of a film, of the spectacle lens blank. Then, in this position the space between block piece and spectacle lens blank is filled with a molten material, conventionally usually a Wood's metal, also termed "alloy", i.e. a metallic alloy usually based on bismuth. After hardening of the filler material, the block piece represents a mount for processing the spectacle lens blank. In order to avoid the use of heavy metals connected with the afore-described alloy technology, to make handling safer for users and to reduce the loading of the environment in the production of spectacle lenses a technology for alloy-free blocking was developed by the applicant, called "ART" (standing for Alloy Replacement Technology) for short. This ART technology is described in detail in the brochure "Introduction to Alloy-free lens production", Frank Heepen, Product Management Blocking & Deblocking, V5.1LC of 15 Aug. 2015 published by Satisloh GmbH. In summary, ART technology employs a universal, reusable organic block piece and ultraviolet-hardenable adhesive as blocking material for connection of a block piece and a spectacle lens blank instead of alloy and film so as to fix and protect the spectacle lens blanks in every case for so-called "generating", i.e. the preliminary processing of the optically effective surface of the spectacle lens blank for creating the macrogeometry in accordance with prescription, and polishing, thus precision-processing of the optically effective surface to eliminate preliminary-processing tracks and to obtain the desired microgeometry, as well as optionally also subsequent steps for example marking and coating. These block pieces in general have a substantially rotationally symmetrical base body which has on one side a lens fastening surface on which the lens blank can be blocked by use of the blocking material and on the other side a stand