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Rack transport control apparatus for a manufacturing line

  • US 5,373,451 A
  • Filed: 03/16/1993
  • Issued: 12/13/1994
  • Est. Priority Date: 03/17/1992
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for controlling transport of racks in a manufacturing line which includes a series of processes and has buffers associated with the respective processes for temporarily keeping racks carrying semimanufactured articles to be transported to the respective processes, the apparatus comprising:

  • a host computer having a memory, and being in communication with the processes and with the buffers;

    a carry-out request table stored in said memory for recording rack carry-out requests from the processes; and

    said host computer including request monitoring means for monitoring the carry-out request table, the request monitoring means operating in response to detection of a carry-out request to output a transport command to transport a rack corresponding to the carry-out request to a next process only when the number of racks kept in buffer associated with a second next process of said rack is smaller than a predetermined value.

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