ULTRA-FLEXIBLE PRODUCTION MANUFACTURING
First Claim
1. A system of manufacturing comprising:
- one or more work cells, where each of said cells performs one or more manufacturing processes on an associated one of one or more workpieces;
one or more mobile transport units (“
MTUs”
) to deliver transportable containers containing said workpieces to and from said work cells, said one or more mobile transport units delivering said containers to said work cells independent of a fixed in place path between said one or more work cells and in a manner such that said workpieces are localized in said work cells; and
a computer system having therein status information for each of said one or more MTUs and using said status information to control each of said one or more MTUs to deliver said transportable containers to and from said one or more work cells.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A manufacturing system has one or more work cells that each performs one or more manufacturing processes. The system also has one or more mobile transport units (“MTUs”) that deliver transportable containers containing workpieces to and from said work cells. The MTUs deliver the containers to the work cells in a manner such that the workpieces are localized in the work cells. The manufacturing system also has a computer system that has status information for each of the one or more MTUs and uses the status information to control each of the one or more MTUs to deliver the transportable containers to and from the one or more work cells.
8 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A system of manufacturing comprising:
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one or more work cells, where each of said cells performs one or more manufacturing processes on an associated one of one or more workpieces; one or more mobile transport units (“
MTUs”
) to deliver transportable containers containing said workpieces to and from said work cells, said one or more mobile transport units delivering said containers to said work cells independent of a fixed in place path between said one or more work cells and in a manner such that said workpieces are localized in said work cells; anda computer system having therein status information for each of said one or more MTUs and using said status information to control each of said one or more MTUs to deliver said transportable containers to and from said one or more work cells. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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Specification