Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Drawings
Drawings have been reviewed and accepted.
Specification
The specification filed on 07/31/24 has been entered. Specification has been reviewed and accepted.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Martens et al. (US20030135296, herein Martens), in view of Cooper et al. (US20060169749, herein Cooper).
Regarding claim 1, Martens teaches A material scheduling method, applied in a first machine, the method comprising: in response to a processing instruction ([0009] The coordination circuitry can thereby use an emulator to control the SMEMA-channel signals in response to signals that the coordination circuitry receives from other line machinery or from one or more other SMEMA-device emulators. The coordination circuitry can also control line machinery in response to SMEMA-channel signals that an emulator has sensed and reported to it over the non-SMEMA communications channel), controlling a first downstream relay of at least one material transmission channel to send a high-level signal to a second machine by closing the first downstream relay, making the second machine close a first upstream relay of the at least one material transmission channel according to the high-level signal (Fig. 3, [0008] an apparatus that receives and transmits the SMEMA signals without necessarily performing any associated board processing. That is, a SMEMA-device emulator will typically send and receive the SMEMA-defined “board-available” and “machine-ready” signals without actually presenting a circuit board or having a state in which it can in some sense process one. But such emulators appear as the upstream and downstream machines to the downstream and upstream machines, respectively, so that, say, the downstream circuit-board-processing machine can be sent a signal different from the signal that the upstream circuit-board-processing machine is actually sending, [0018] As FIG. 2 shows, a SMEMA channel typically is electrically provided as a fourteen-conductor cable. The first two conductors provide a differential signal that indicates whether the downstream machine is ready to receive a new board, while the third and fourth conductors provide a differential signal that indicates whether the upstream machine has a board available to send the downstream machine, [0027] circuit 30 asserts the MR_DRIVE signal and thereby closes a further relay 48. This connects together the MR_OUT and MR_RTN_OUT lines, which are the first two, machine-ready conductors of the upstream SMEMA cable 40 (FIG. 1). That is, it forwards to the pick-and-place machine 12 the optical-inspection station 14's message that it is ready to receive another board), and triggering the second machine to activate a material transmission mode; obtaining material information corresponding to materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel according to a classification signal fed back by the second machine ([0069] the coordination circuitry can infer that a board is being fed to that machine if simultaneous assertion of the board-available and machine-ready signals is followed by de-assertion of the machine-ready signal. When the emulator on the downstream side of the machine then reports its reception of an asserted board-available signal, the coordination circuitry can conclude that the cycle is completed, [0029] FIG. 1, the coordination circuitry 24 bases its control of individual SMEMA-device emulators on information that it obtains from one or more circuit-board-processing machines or other emulators, [0007] an inspection station at one point along the line may detect defects to which a high-level line-coordination system might best respond to by affecting the operation of, say, a pick-and-place machine located several positions upstream of the inspection station. But that pick-and-place machine may not provide an appropriate electrical interface by which it can be commanded to respond in the desired fashion. So the board manufacturer is forced either to make custom modifications to its machines so that they have the needed capabilities or to do without as great a degree of higher-level control as would be preferable); receiving the materials transmitted by the second machine ([0018] adjacent machines thereby so coordinate the operations of their respective conveyors as properly to transfer a board from one machine to the next),
Martens does not teach and controlling a mechanical arm on the first machine to separate the materials from a jig that places the materials; in response to a return signal sent by the second machine, transmitting the jig to the second machine through a jig return channel; in response that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel indicates that the materials are unprocessed, processing the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel.
Cooper teaches and controlling a mechanical arm on the first machine to separate the materials from a jig that places the materials ([0046] a Pick and Place robot picks the filter in the pallet and places it in the spin seal station); in response to a return signal sent by the second machine, transmitting the jig to the second machine through a jig return channel ([0007] The body is placed in a transportable pallet for carriage through the assembly line, [0016] The stations are connected by conveyors for transporting pallets having the filter thereon. Through each workstation and process in the production line, the pallet/filter is transported and transferred by a conveyor system. The conveyor is driven by one gear motor. Conveyor speed is calculated and chosen according to the nominal cycle time of the process. After the final process step is passed, the empty pallet is transferred back to the start of the assembly line by a single-track return conveyor. The conveyor length is adapted to the layout.) ; in response that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel indicates that the materials are unprocessed, processing the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel ([0007] The body is then weighed. If there is insufficient weight, the canister is rejected, at which point it will be removed from the assembly line, emptied, and returned to the line. If, however, the weight is within a prescribed tolerance, the result is recorded in a database associated with the barcode, and the canister continues with the process, [0016] After the final process step is passed, the empty pallet is transferred back to the start of the assembly line by a single-track return conveyor. The conveyor length is adapted to the layout.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Martens’s teaching a communication interface for assembly line monitoring using a pick and place machine with Cooper’s teaching of a pick and play machine separating materials form a jig. The combined teaching provides an expected result of a communication interface for assembly line monitoring using a pick and place machine separating materials from a jig. Therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to improve system quality as shown by Cooper [0005] “recording completion of the manufacturing steps and results of quality assurance testing… system that allows for a certification of manufacturing process with traceable objective quality evidence review”.
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The material scheduling method as recited in claim 1, wherein obtaining material information corresponding to materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel according to the classification signal fed back by the second machine (Martens, [0069] the coordination circuitry can infer that a board is being fed to that machine if simultaneous assertion of the board-available and machine-ready signals is followed by de-assertion of the machine-ready signal. When the emulator on the downstream side of the machine then reports its reception of an asserted board-available signal, the coordination circuitry can conclude that the cycle is completed, [0029] FIG. 1, the coordination circuitry 24 bases its control of individual SMEMA-device emulators on information that it obtains from one or more circuit-board-processing machines or other emulators, [0007] an inspection station at one point along the line may detect defects to which a high-level line-coordination system might best respond to by affecting the operation of, say, a pick-and-place machine located several positions upstream of the inspection station. But that pick-and-place machine may not provide an appropriate electrical interface by which it can be commanded to respond in the desired fashion. So the board manufacturer is forced either to make custom modifications to its machines so that they have the needed capabilities or to do without as great a degree of higher-level control as would be preferable), comprises: in response that the classification signal is a high-level signal output by a second upstream relay of the at least one material transmission channel corresponding to the second machine determining that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel indicates that the materials are unprocessed; or in response that the classification signal is a high-level signal output by a third upstream relay of the at least one material transmission channel corresponding to the second machine, determining that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel indicates that the materials are processed and qualified; or in response that the classification signal is a high-level signal output by a fourth upstream relay of the at least one material transmission channel corresponding to the second machine, determining that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel indicates that the materials are processed and unqualified (Fig. 5 [0056] In the case of a board that has failed its inspection, a message having the illustrated format would include a <NONCONFORMANCE> element, including a constituent, <SYMPTOM> element that describes a symptom of the failure. The <SYMPTOM> element would include an identifying label for the missing or improperly placed component, it may indicate that the failure was a visual-inspection failure, as opposed to, say, an electrical-shorts-test failure, and it could also include a failure message that the board-processing machine produced to describe the failure. A <DEFECT> element may also be included in the <NONCONFORMANCE> element to indicate what type of defect is associated with that symptom. , [0065] As was mentioned before, control could be performed in response to, say, the optical- inspection station 14's output: the turntable would deliver the board to a defective-board bin if it failed that inspection but to the next processing stage, namely, the reflow machine 18, if it passed, [0063] FIG. 3 shows relays used only for sending and receiving the board-available and machine-ready signals, another relay can be provided to connect, say, the first two unused SMEMA lines (i.e., to short FIG. 2's fifth and sixth conductors together), while a further relay could be used to connect, say, the third unused conductor to the shield conductor (i.e., to short FIG. 2's seventh and eighth conductors together)).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The material scheduling method as recited in claim 1, wherein before in response to a return signal sent by the second machine, the method further comprises: after receiving the materials transmitted by the second machine (Martens, [0069] an emulator that simply forwards the board-available and machine-ready messages between its adjacent machines can, by reporting those signals' value to the coordination circuitry, enable that circuitry to determine when the downstream board-processing machine is starting a cycle. That is, the coordination circuitry can infer that a board is being fed to that machine if simultaneous assertion of the board-available and machine-ready signals is followed by de-assertion of the machine-ready signal. When the emulator on the downstream side of the machine then reports its reception of an asserted board-available signal, the coordination circuitry can conclude that the cycle is completed. It can then time operations at other places along the line in response to such cycle timing), disconnecting the first downstream relay corresponding to the at least one material transmission channel ([0026] The third conductor in FIG. 1's downstream SMEMA cable 46 is FIG. 3's MR_IN line, which closed relay 32 connects to another signal line that the control circuit 30 monitors, namely, the MR_SENSE line. To indicate that it is ready to receive another board, the downstream machine, in this case FIG. 1's optical-inspection station 14, closes a relay to connect that MR_IN to a line, MR_RTN_IN, that relay 36 keeps grounded. As a result, current flows through resistor R2 and causes a low voltage level in the MR_IN line and thus in the MR_SENSE line. The control circuit 30 is thus advised that the downstream machine is ready to receive another board), and disconnecting a communication between the first machine and the second machine ([0047] The ENTER SHUTDOWN STATE causes the emulator to assume a different state, one in which it keeps its MR_DRIVE and BA_DRIVE signals unasserted, thereby keeping FIG. 3's relays 44 and 48 open, independently of the values of the signals that it receives from its upstream and downstream SMEMA-channel neighbors. In that state, FIG. 1's emulator 22 would inform the pick-and-place machine 12 that the optical-inspection station 14 is not ready to receive a board, and it would inform the optical-inspection station 14 that the pick-and-place machine 12 has no board available, even if the signals from those two machines indicated just the opposite).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The material scheduling method as recited in claim 3, wherein after disconnecting the first downstream relay corresponding to the at least one material transmission channel and disconnecting a communication between the first machine and the second machine, the method further comprises: in response that the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel are processed and unqualified according to the material information, removing the materials out of the first machine, and re-closing the first downstream relay corresponding to any one of the material transmission channels, and continuing to receive other materials (Martens, [0057] The central controller may in response conclude that, because of the thus-identified defect or possibly an accumulation of similar or related defects, the assembly line should be stopped until, say, one of the pick-and-place machine's component rolls is replaced. If it does, the central controller 56 sends to the host machine 26 a message saying that processing should be stopped at the pick-and-place machine. For this purpose, some of the invention's implementations may employ messages that specify a particular machine or machines that the emulators should specifically be used to halt. But the illustrated embodiment uses only a very simple XML message, listed by FIG. 6, that tells the host machine to perform a shut-down operation, [0058] By simply directing emulator 22 to keep presenting the pick-and-place machine 12 a non-asserted machine-ready signal even though the optical-inspection station 14 is sending it an asserted machine-ready signal, the system can cause the pick-and-place machine 12 to not to accept any further boards for processing until such time as the appropriate corrective action has been taken, [0065] As was mentioned before, control could be performed in response to, say, the optical- inspection station 14's output: the turntable would deliver the board to a defective-board bin if it failed that inspection but to the next processing stage, namely, the reflow machine 18, if it passed) .
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The material scheduling method as recited in claim 2, further comprising: when receiving at least two high-level signals of the high-level signal output by the second upstream relay, the high-level signal output by the third upstream relay, and the high-level signal output by the fourth upstream relay of a same material transmission channel at the same time, outputting an early warning message (Martens, [0063] FIG. 3 shows relays used only for sending and receiving the board-available and machine-ready signals, another relay can be provided to connect, say, the first two unused SMEMA lines (i.e., to short FIG. 2's fifth and sixth conductors together), while a further relay could be used to connect, say, the third unused conductor to the shield conductor (i.e., to short FIG. 2's seventh and eighth conductors together), [0064] The OPEN RELAY1 command causes the emulator to assume a state in which a relay connected across the first two unused SMEMA conductors is open, whereas the CLOSE RELAY1 command places the emulator in the state in which that relay is closed. OPEN RELAY2 and CLOSED RELAY2 similarly direct the emulator to open and close an emulator relay that is connected between the third unused SMEMA conductor and the SMEMA shield conductor. In the illustrated embodiment, the emulator provides a hard-wired connection from the upstream cable's “unused” shield to corresponding conductors in the downstream cable, so the illustrated emulator does not treat the upstream and downstream segments of those lines separately, as it does the upstream and downstream board-available and machine-ready lines, [0066] When two-sided boards have completed processing on one side, they are sometimes returned to the same line (which is then loaded with different set-up information) for processing on the other side. For this purpose, a board flipper is employed, typically somewhere upstream of the machines that FIG. 1 shows, and a bar-code reader may precede the board flipper. When the central controller 56 has received the result of the bar-code reader's inspection, it may consult its database and find that the particular board there being reported has already been processed on one side. If so, a “product change” needs to take place in order to set the system up for processing the board's other side. Here again, the system would use the emulators to ensure that the various line machines had been flushed out and set up for the new board side before the board needing opposite-side processing is advanced through the line).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The material scheduling method as recited in claim 2, further comprising: in response that the materials transmitted by a first material transmission channel among a plurality of material transmission channels are unprocessed, and the materials transmitted by a second material transmission channel are processed and qualified according to the material information (Martens, [0066] When the central controller 56 has received the result of the bar-code reader's inspection, it may consult its database and find that the particular board there being reported has already been processed on one side. If so, a “product change” needs to take place in order to set the system up for processing the board's other side. Here again, the system would use the emulators to ensure that the various line machines had been flushed out and set up for the new board side before the board needing opposite-side processing is advanced through the line)
Cooper further processing unprocessed materials and acquiring processed materials; producing products using the processed materials and the processed and qualified materials ([0007] an assembly line for manufacturing filter canisters is disclosed. The assembly process may be performed in series or, for some steps, may be performed in parallel. The process begins with manually combining a filter canister body with a lower retainer element and a fines filter. The body is placed in a transportable pallet for carriage through the assembly line, [0034] The PLCs control the operation of the various stations and provide input to a database as the components are assembled into a final product and tested to ensure quality of the product. Initially, the components that are used to assemble the filter canister are delivered by lot and controlled by lot control numbers.)
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The material scheduling method as recited in claim 2, further comprising: in response that the materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel are processed and qualified according to the material information, producing products using processed and qualified materials (Martens, [0065] As was mentioned before, control could be performed in response to, say, the optical- inspection station 14's output: the turntable would deliver the board to a defective-board bin if it failed that inspection but to the next processing stage, namely, the reflow machine 18, if it passed.)
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The material scheduling method as recited in claim 1, further comprising: in response that any material transmission channel does not receive any materials transmitted by the second machine within a preset time, outputting an early warning prompt (Martens, [0068] it may have been found empirically that some sequence of machines is within the board-processing line tends to encounter difficulties if the number of boards occupying that sequence at a particular time exceeds some predetermined number. By monitoring the outputs the emulators at the beginning and end of the sequence, the coordination circuitry can keep track of how many boards that machine sequence currently contains and, if the number has reached the predetermined number, preventing the machine at the start of the machine sequence from accepting any further boards until a board has left the sequence. It may do this either by controlling the emulator upstream of that machine sequence, or, if the first machine in that sequence has the necessary capability, by communicating directly with that machine over a non-SMEMA channel, [0069] That is, the coordination circuitry can infer that a board is being fed to that machine if simultaneous assertion of the board-available and machine-ready signals is followed by de-assertion of the machine-ready signal. When the emulator on the downstream side of the machine then reports its reception of an asserted board-available signal, the coordination circuitry can conclude that the cycle is completed. It can then time operations at other places along the line in response to such cycle timing, [0056] In the case of a board that has failed its inspection, a message having the illustrated format).
Regarding claim 9, Martens teaches A machine comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory storage medium that stores a plurality of instructions, which when executed by the processor, causing the processor to: in response to a processing instruction ([0009] The coordination circuitry can thereby use an emulator to control the SMEMA-channel signals in response to signals that the coordination circuitry receives from other line machinery or from one or more other SMEMA-device emulators. The coordination circuitry can also control line machinery in response to SMEMA-channel signals that an emulator has sensed and reported to it over the non-SMEMA communications channel), control a first downstream relay of at least one material transmission channel to send a high-level signal to a second machine by closing the first downstream relay, make the second machine close a first upstream relay of the at least one material transmission channel according to the high-level signal (Fig. 3, [0008] an apparatus that receives and transmits the SMEMA signals without necessarily performing any associated board processing. That is, a SMEMA-device emulator will typically send and receive the SMEMA-defined “board-available” and “machine-ready” signals without actually presenting a circuit board or having a state in which it can in some sense process one. But such emulators appear as the upstream and downstream machines to the downstream and upstream machines, respectively, so that, say, the downstream circuit-board-processing machine can be sent a signal different from the signal that the upstream circuit-board-processing machine is actually sending, [0018] As FIG. 2 shows, a SMEMA channel typically is electrically provided as a fourteen-conductor cable. The first two conductors provide a differential signal that indicates whether the downstream machine is ready to receive a new board, while the third and fourth conductors provide a differential signal that indicates whether the upstream machine has a board available to send the downstream machine, [0027] circuit 30 asserts the MR_DRIVE signal and thereby closes a further relay 48. This connects together the MR_OUT and MR_RTN_OUT lines, which are the first two, machine-ready conductors of the upstream SMEMA cable 40 (FIG. 1). That is, it forwards to the pick-and-place machine 12 the optical-inspection station 14's message that it is ready to receive another board), and trigger the second machine to activate a material transmission mode; obtain material information corresponding to materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel according to a classification signal fed back by the second machine ([0069] the coordination circuitry can infer that a board is being fed to that machine if simultaneous assertion of the board-available and machine-ready signals is followed by de-assertion of the machine-ready signal. When the emulator on the downstream side of the machine then reports its reception of an asserted board-available signal, the coordination circuitry can conclude that the cycle is completed, [0029] FIG. 1, the coordination circuitry 24 bases its control of individual SMEMA-device emulators on information that it obtains from one or more circuit-board-processing machines or other emulators, [0007] an inspection station at one point along the line may detect defects to which a high-level line-coordination system might best respond to by affecting the operation of, say, a pick-and-place machine located several positions upstream of the inspection station. But that pick-and-place machine may not provide an appropriate electrical interface by which it can be commanded to respond in the desired fashion. So the board manufacturer is forced either to make custom modifications to its machines so that they have the needed capabilities or to do without as great a degree of higher-level control as would be preferable); receive the materials transmitted by the second machine ([0018] adjacent machines thereby so coordinate the operations of their respective conveyors as properly to transfer a board from one machine to the next),
Martens does not teach and control a mechanical arm on the first machine to separate the materials from a jig that places the materials; in response to a return signal sent by the second machine, transmit the jig to the second machine through a jig return channel; in response that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel indicates that the materials are unprocessed, process the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel.
Cooper teaches and control a mechanical arm on the first machine to separate the materials from a jig that places the materials ([0046] a Pick and Place robot picks the filter in the pallet and places it in the spin seal station); in response to a return signal sent by the second machine, transmit the jig to the second machine through a jig return channel ([0007] The body is placed in a transportable pallet for carriage through the assembly line, [0016] The stations are connected by conveyors for transporting pallets having the filter thereon. Through each workstation and process in the production line, the pallet/filter is transported and transferred by a conveyor system. The conveyor is driven by one gear motor. Conveyor speed is calculated and chosen according to the nominal cycle time of the process. After the final process step is passed, the empty pallet is transferred back to the start of the assembly line by a single-track return conveyor. The conveyor length is adapted to the layout); in response that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel indicates that the materials are unprocessed, process the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel ([0007] The body is then weighed. If there is insufficient weight, the canister is rejected, at which point it will be removed from the assembly line, emptied, and returned to the line. If, however, the weight is within a prescribed tolerance, the result is recorded in a database associated with the barcode, and the canister continues with the process, [0016] After the final process step is passed, the empty pallet is transferred back to the start of the assembly line by a single-track return conveyor. The conveyor length is adapted to the layout.)
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The machine as recited in claim 9, wherein the plurality of instructions are further configured to cause the processor to ([0021] implemented in a single computer appropriately programmed for that purpose, [0061] the host machine may use the XML channel to ask that the central controller draw the necessary inference from information in a central database, [0051] Host machine 26 will have been programmed to understand the inspection machine's communications, and it may additionally include software for making appropriate decisions in response ): in response that the classification signal is a high-level signal output by a second upstream relay of the at least one material transmission channel corresponding to the second machine (Martens, [0069] the coordination circuitry can infer that a board is being fed to that machine if simultaneous assertion of the board-available and machine-ready signals is followed by de-assertion of the machine-ready signal. When the emulator on the downstream side of the machine then reports its reception of an asserted board-available signal, the coordination circuitry can conclude that the cycle is completed, [0029] FIG. 1, the coordination circuitry 24 bases its control of individual SMEMA-device emulators on information that it obtains from one or more circuit-board-processing machines or other emulators, [0007] an inspection station at one point along the line may detect defects to which a high-level line-coordination system might best respond to by affecting the operation of, say, a pick-and-place machine located several positions upstream of the inspection station. But that pick-and-place machine may not provide an appropriate electrical interface by which it can be commanded to respond in the desired fashion. So the board manufacturer is forced either to make custom modifications to its machines so that they have the needed capabilities or to do without as great a degree of higher-level control as would be preferable), determine that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel indicates that the materials are unprocessed; or in response that the classification signal is a high-level signal output by a third upstream relay of the at least one material transmission channel corresponding to the second machine, determine that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel indicates that the materials are processed and qualified; or in response that the classification signal is a high-level signal output by a fourth upstream relay of the at least one material transmission channel corresponding to the second machine, determine that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel indicates that the materials are processed and unqualified (Fig. 5 [0056] In the case of a board that has failed its inspection, a message having the illustrated format would include a <NONCONFORMANCE> element, including a constituent, <SYMPTOM> element that describes a symptom of the failure. The <SYMPTOM> element would include an identifying label for the missing or improperly placed component, it may indicate that the failure was a visual-inspection failure, as opposed to, say, an electrical-shorts-test failure, and it could also include a failure message that the board-processing machine produced to describe the failure. A <DEFECT> element may also be included in the <NONCONFORMANCE> element to indicate what type of defect is associated with that symptom. , [0065] As was mentioned before, control could be performed in response to, say, the optical- inspection station 14's output: the turntable would deliver the board to a defective-board bin if it failed that inspection but to the next processing stage, namely, the reflow machine 18, if it passed, [0063] FIG. 3 shows relays used only for sending and receiving the board-available and machine-ready signals, another relay can be provided to connect, say, the first two unused SMEMA lines (i.e., to short FIG. 2's fifth and sixth conductors together), while a further relay could be used to connect, say, the third unused conductor to the shield conductor (i.e., to short FIG. 2's seventh and eighth conductors together)).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The machine as recited in claim 9, wherein the plurality of instructions are further configured to cause the processor to: after receiving the materials transmitted by the second machine (Martens, [0069] an emulator that simply forwards the board-available and machine-ready messages between its adjacent machines can, by reporting those signals' value to the coordination circuitry, enable that circuitry to determine when the downstream board-processing machine is starting a cycle. That is, the coordination circuitry can infer that a board is being fed to that machine if simultaneous assertion of the board-available and machine-ready signals is followed by de-assertion of the machine-ready signal. When the emulator on the downstream side of the machine then reports its reception of an asserted board-available signal, the coordination circuitry can conclude that the cycle is completed. It can then time operations at other places along the line in response to such cycle timing), disconnect the first downstream relay corresponding to the at least one material transmission channel ([0026] The third conductor in FIG. 1's downstream SMEMA cable 46 is FIG. 3's MR_IN line, which closed relay 32 connects to another signal line that the control circuit 30 monitors, namely, the MR_SENSE line. To indicate that it is ready to receive another board, the downstream machine, in this case FIG. 1's optical-inspection station 14, closes a relay to connect that MR_IN to a line, MR_RTN_IN, that relay 36 keeps grounded. As a result, current flows through resistor R2 and causes a low voltage level in the MR_IN line and thus in the MR_SENSE line. The control circuit 30 is thus advised that the downstream machine is ready to receive another board), and disconnect a communication between the first machine and the second machine ([0047] The ENTER SHUTDOWN STATE causes the emulator to assume a different state, one in which it keeps its MR_DRIVE and BA_DRIVE signals unasserted, thereby keeping FIG. 3's relays 44 and 48 open, independently of the values of the signals that it receives from its upstream and downstream SMEMA-channel neighbors. In that state, FIG. 1's emulator 22 would inform the pick-and-place machine 12 that the optical-inspection station 14 is not ready to receive a board, and it would inform the optical-inspection station 14 that the pick-and-place machine 12 has no board available, even if the signals from those two machines indicated just the opposite).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The machine as recited in claim 11, wherein the plurality of instructions are further configured to cause the processor to: in response that the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel are processed and unqualified according to the material information, remove the materials out of the first machine, and re-close the first downstream relay corresponding to any one of the material transmission channels, and continue to receive other materials (Martens, [0057] The central controller may in response conclude that, because of the thus-identified defect or possibly an accumulation of similar or related defects, the assembly line should be stopped until, say, one of the pick-and-place machine's component rolls is replaced. If it does, the central controller 56 sends to the host machine 26 a message saying that processing should be stopped at the pick-and-place machine. For this purpose, some of the invention's implementations may employ messages that specify a particular machine or machines that the emulators should specifically be used to halt. But the illustrated embodiment uses only a very simple XML message, listed by FIG. 6, that tells the host machine to perform a shut-down operation, [0058] By simply directing emulator 22 to keep presenting the pick-and-place machine 12 a non-asserted machine-ready signal even though the optical-inspection station 14 is sending it an asserted machine-ready signal, the system can cause the pick-and-place machine 12 to not to accept any further boards for processing until such time as the appropriate corrective action has been taken, [0065] As was mentioned before, control could be performed in response to, say, the optical- inspection station 14's output: the turntable would deliver the board to a defective-board bin if it failed that inspection but to the next processing stage, namely, the reflow machine 18, if it passed).
Regarding claim 13, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The machine as recited in claim 10, wherein the plurality of instructions are further configured to cause the processor to: when receiving at least two high-level signals of the high-level signal output by the second upstream relay, the high-level signal output by the third upstream relay, and the high-level signal output by the fourth upstream relay of a same material transmission channel at the same time, output an early warning message (Martens, [0063] FIG. 3 shows relays used only for sending and receiving the board-available and machine-ready signals, another relay can be provided to connect, say, the first two unused SMEMA lines (i.e., to short FIG. 2's fifth and sixth conductors together), while a further relay could be used to connect, say, the third unused conductor to the shield conductor (i.e., to short FIG. 2's seventh and eighth conductors together), [0064] The OPEN RELAY1 command causes the emulator to assume a state in which a relay connected across the first two unused SMEMA conductors is open, whereas the CLOSE RELAY1 command places the emulator in the state in which that relay is closed. OPEN RELAY2 and CLOSED RELAY2 similarly direct the emulator to open and close an emulator relay that is connected between the third unused SMEMA conductor and the SMEMA shield conductor. In the illustrated embodiment, the emulator provides a hard-wired connection from the upstream cable's “unused” shield to corresponding conductors in the downstream cable, so the illustrated emulator does not treat the upstream and downstream segments of those lines separately, as it does the upstream and downstream board-available and machine-ready lines, [0066] When two-sided boards have completed processing on one side, they are sometimes returned to the same line (which is then loaded with different set-up information) for processing on the other side. For this purpose, a board flipper is employed, typically somewhere upstream of the machines that FIG. 1 shows, and a bar-code reader may precede the board flipper. When the central controller 56 has received the result of the bar-code reader's inspection, it may consult its database and find that the particular board there being reported has already been processed on one side. If so, a “product change” needs to take place in order to set the system up for processing the board's other side. Here again, the system would use the emulators to ensure that the various line machines had been flushed out and set up for the new board side before the board needing opposite-side processing is advanced through the line).
Regarding claim 14, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The machine as recited in claim 10, wherein the plurality of instructions are further configured to cause the processor to: in response that the materials transmitted by a first material transmission channel among a plurality of material transmission channels are unprocessed, and the materials transmitted by a second material transmission channel are processed and qualified according to the material information (Martens, [0066] When the central controller 56 has received the result of the bar-code reader's inspection, it may consult its database and find that the particular board there being reported has already been processed on one side. If so, a “product change” needs to take place in order to set the system up for processing the board's other side. Here again, the system would use the emulators to ensure that the various line machines had been flushed out and set up for the new board side before the board needing opposite-side processing is advanced through the line)
Cooper further teaches process unprocessed materials and acquire processed materials; produce products using the processed materials and the processed and qualified materials ([0007] an assembly line for manufacturing filter canisters is disclosed. The assembly process may be performed in series or, for some steps, may be performed in parallel. The process begins with manually combining a filter canister body with a lower retainer element and a fines filter. The body is placed in a transportable pallet for carriage through the assembly line, [0034] The PLCs control the operation of the various stations and provide input to a database as the components are assembled into a final product and tested to ensure quality of the product. Initially, the components that are used to assemble the filter canister are delivered by lot and controlled by lot control numbers.)
Regarding claim 15, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The machine as recited in claim 10, wherein the plurality of instructions are further configured to cause the processor to: in response that the materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel are processed and qualified according to the material information, produce products using processed and qualified materials (Martens, [0065] As was mentioned before, control could be performed in response to, say, the optical- inspection station 14's output: the turntable would deliver the board to a defective-board bin if it failed that inspection but to the next processing stage, namely, the reflow machine 18, if it passed.)
Regarding claim 16, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The machine as recited in claim 9, wherein the plurality of instructions are further configured to cause the processor to: in response that any material transmission channel does not receive any materials transmitted by the second machine within a preset time, output an early warning prompt (Martens, [0068] it may have been found empirically that some sequence of machines is within the board-processing line tends to encounter difficulties if the number of boards occupying that sequence at a particular time exceeds some predetermined number. By monitoring the outputs the emulators at the beginning and end of the sequence, the coordination circuitry can keep track of how many boards that machine sequence currently contains and, if the number has reached the predetermined number, preventing the machine at the start of the machine sequence from accepting any further boards until a board has left the sequence. It may do this either by controlling the emulator upstream of that machine sequence, or, if the first machine in that sequence has the necessary capability, by communicating directly with that machine over a non-SMEMA channel, [0069] That is, the coordination circuitry can infer that a board is being fed to that machine if simultaneous assertion of the board-available and machine-ready signals is followed by de-assertion of the machine-ready signal. When the emulator on the downstream side of the machine then reports its reception of an asserted board-available signal, the coordination circuitry can conclude that the cycle is completed. It can then time operations at other places along the line in response to such cycle timing, [0056] In the case of a board that has failed its inspection, a message having the illustrated format).
Regarding claim 17, Martens teaches A non-transitory storage medium, which stores instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a machine ([0021] implemented in a single computer appropriately programmed for that purpose, [0061] the host machine may use the XML channel to ask that the central controller draw the necessary inference from information in a central database, [0051] Host machine 26 will have been programmed to understand the inspection machine's communications, and it may additionally include software for making appropriate decisions in response ), causes the least one processor to implement a material scheduling method, the material scheduling method comprising: in response to a processing instruction ([0009] The coordination circuitry can thereby use an emulator to control the SMEMA-channel signals in response to signals that the coordination circuitry receives from other line machinery or from one or more other SMEMA-device emulators. The coordination circuitry can also control line machinery in response to SMEMA-channel signals that an emulator has sensed and reported to it over the non-SMEMA communications channel), controlling a first downstream relay of at least one material transmission channel to send a high-level signal to a second machine by closing the first downstream relay, making the second machine close a first upstream relay of the at least one material transmission channel according to the high-level signal (Fig. 3, [0008] an apparatus that receives and transmits the SMEMA signals without necessarily performing any associated board processing. That is, a SMEMA-device emulator will typically send and receive the SMEMA-defined “board-available” and “machine-ready” signals without actually presenting a circuit board or having a state in which it can in some sense process one. But such emulators appear as the upstream and downstream machines to the downstream and upstream machines, respectively, so that, say, the downstream circuit-board-processing machine can be sent a signal different from the signal that the upstream circuit-board-processing machine is actually sending, [0018] As FIG. 2 shows, a SMEMA channel typically is electrically provided as a fourteen-conductor cable. The first two conductors provide a differential signal that indicates whether the downstream machine is ready to receive a new board, while the third and fourth conductors provide a differential signal that indicates whether the upstream machine has a board available to send the downstream machine, [0027] circuit 30 asserts the MR_DRIVE signal and thereby closes a further relay 48. This connects together the MR_OUT and MR_RTN_OUT lines, which are the first two, machine-ready conductors of the upstream SMEMA cable 40 (FIG. 1). That is, it forwards to the pick-and-place machine 12 the optical-inspection station 14's message that it is ready to receive another board), and triggering the second machine to activate a material transmission mode; obtaining material information corresponding to materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel according to a classification signal fed back by the second machine ([0069] the coordination circuitry can infer that a board is being fed to that machine if simultaneous assertion of the board-available and machine-ready signals is followed by de-assertion of the machine-ready signal. When the emulator on the downstream side of the machine then reports its reception of an asserted board-available signal, the coordination circuitry can conclude that the cycle is completed, [0029] FIG. 1, the coordination circuitry 24 bases its control of individual SMEMA-device emulators on information that it obtains from one or more circuit-board-processing machines or other emulators, [0007] an inspection station at one point along the line may detect defects to which a high-level line-coordination system might best respond to by affecting the operation of, say, a pick-and-place machine located several positions upstream of the inspection station. But that pick-and-place machine may not provide an appropriate electrical interface by which it can be commanded to respond in the desired fashion. So the board manufacturer is forced either to make custom modifications to its machines so that they have the needed capabilities or to do without as great a degree of higher-level control as would be preferable); receiving the materials transmitted by the second machine ([0018] adjacent machines thereby so coordinate the operations of their respective conveyors as properly to transfer a board from one machine to the next),
Martens does not teach and controlling a mechanical arm on the first machine to separate the materials from a jig that places the materials; in response to a return signal sent by the second machine, transmitting the jig to the second machine through a jig return channel; in response that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel indicates that the materials are unprocessed, processing the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel.
Cooper teaches and controlling a mechanical arm on the first machine to separate the materials from a jig that places the materials ([0046] a Pick and Place robot picks the filter in the pallet and places it in the spin seal station); in response to a return signal sent by the second machine, transmitting the jig to the second machine through a jig return channel ([0007] The body is placed in a transportable pallet for carriage through the assembly line, [0016] The stations are connected by conveyors for transporting pallets having the filter thereon. Through each workstation and process in the production line, the pallet/filter is transported and transferred by a conveyor system. The conveyor is driven by one gear motor. Conveyor speed is calculated and chosen according to the nominal cycle time of the process. After the final process step is passed, the empty pallet is transferred back to the start of the assembly line by a single-track return conveyor. The conveyor length is adapted to the layout); in response that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel indicates that the materials are unprocessed, processing the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel ([0007] The body is then weighed. If there is insufficient weight, the canister is rejected, at which point it will be removed from the assembly line, emptied, and returned to the line. If, however, the weight is within a prescribed tolerance, the result is recorded in a database associated with the barcode, and the canister continues with the process, [0016] After the final process step is passed, the empty pallet is transferred back to the start of the assembly line by a single-track return conveyor. The conveyor length is adapted to the layout).
Regarding claim 18, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 17, the material scheduling method further comprising: in response that the classification signal is a high-level signal output by a second upstream relay of the at least one material transmission channel corresponding to the second machine (Martens, [0069] the coordination circuitry can infer that a board is being fed to that machine if simultaneous assertion of the board-available and machine-ready signals is followed by de-assertion of the machine-ready signal. When the emulator on the downstream side of the machine then reports its reception of an asserted board-available signal, the coordination circuitry can conclude that the cycle is completed, [0029] FIG. 1, the coordination circuitry 24 bases its control of individual SMEMA-device emulators on information that it obtains from one or more circuit-board-processing machines or other emulators, [0007] an inspection station at one point along the line may detect defects to which a high-level line-coordination system might best respond to by affecting the operation of, say, a pick-and-place machine located several positions upstream of the inspection station. But that pick-and-place machine may not provide an appropriate electrical interface by which it can be commanded to respond in the desired fashion. So the board manufacturer is forced either to make custom modifications to its machines so that they have the needed capabilities or to do without as great a degree of higher-level control as would be preferable), determining that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel indicates that the materials are unprocessed; or in response that the classification signal is a high-level signal output by a third upstream relay of the at least one material transmission channel corresponding to the second machine, determining that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel indicates that the materials are processed and qualified; or in response that the classification signal is a high-level signal output by a fourth upstream relay of the at least one material transmission channel corresponding to the second machine, determining that the material information corresponding to the materials transmitted by the at least one material transmission channel indicates that the materials are processed and unqualified (Fig. 5 [0056] In the case of a board that has failed its inspection, a message having the illustrated format would include a <NONCONFORMANCE> element, including a constituent, <SYMPTOM> element that describes a symptom of the failure. The <SYMPTOM> element would include an identifying label for the missing or improperly placed component, it may indicate that the failure was a visual-inspection failure, as opposed to, say, an electrical-shorts-test failure, and it could also include a failure message that the board-processing machine produced to describe the failure. A <DEFECT> element may also be included in the <NONCONFORMANCE> element to indicate what type of defect is associated with that symptom. , [0065] As was mentioned before, control could be performed in response to, say, the optical- inspection station 14's output: the turntable would deliver the board to a defective-board bin if it failed that inspection but to the next processing stage, namely, the reflow machine 18, if it passed, [0063] FIG. 3 shows relays used only for sending and receiving the board-available and machine-ready signals, another relay can be provided to connect, say, the first two unused SMEMA lines (i.e., to short FIG. 2's fifth and sixth conductors together), while a further relay could be used to connect, say, the third unused conductor to the shield conductor (i.e., to short FIG. 2's seventh and eighth conductors together)).
Regarding claim 19, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 17, the material scheduling method further comprising: after receiving the materials transmitted by the second machine, disconnecting the first downstream relay corresponding to the at least one material transmission channel, and disconnecting a communication between the first machine and the second machine (Martens, [0057] The central controller may in response conclude that, because of the thus-identified defect or possibly an accumulation of similar or related defects, the assembly line should be stopped until, say, one of the pick-and-place machine's component rolls is replaced. If it does, the central controller 56 sends to the host machine 26 a message saying that processing should be stopped at the pick-and-place machine. For this purpose, some of the invention's implementations may employ messages that specify a particular machine or machines that the emulators should specifically be used to halt. But the illustrated embodiment uses only a very simple XML message, listed by FIG. 6, that tells the host machine to perform a shut-down operation, [0058] By simply directing emulator 22 to keep presenting the pick-and-place machine 12 a non-asserted machine-ready signal even though the optical-inspection station 14 is sending it an asserted machine-ready signal, the system can cause the pick-and-place machine 12 to not to accept any further boards for processing until such time as the appropriate corrective action has been taken, [0065] As was mentioned before, control could be performed in response to, say, the optical- inspection station 14's output: the turntable would deliver the board to a defective-board bin if it failed that inspection but to the next processing stage, namely, the reflow machine 18, if it passed) .
Regarding claim 20, the combination of Martens and Cooper teach The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 19, the material scheduling method further comprising: in response that the materials transmitted by any material transmission channel are processed and unqualified according to the material information, removing the materials out of the first machine, and re-closing the first downstream relay corresponding to any one of the material transmission channels, and continuing to receive other materials (Fig. 5 [0056] In the case of a board that has failed its inspection, a message having the illustrated format would include a <NONCONFORMANCE> element, including a constituent, <SYMPTOM> element that describes a symptom of the failure. The <SYMPTOM> element would include an identifying label for the missing or improperly placed component, it may indicate that the failure was a visual-inspection failure, as opposed to, say, an electrical-shorts-test failure, and it could also include a failure message that the board-processing machine produced to describe the failure. A <DEFECT> element may also be included in the <NONCONFORMANCE> element to indicate what type of defect is associated with that symptom. , [0065] As was mentioned before, control could be performed in response to, say, the optical- inspection station 14's output: the turntable would deliver the board to a defective-board bin if it failed that inspection but to the next processing stage, namely, the reflow machine 18, if it passed, [0063] FIG. 3 shows relays used only for sending and receiving the board-available and machine-ready signals, another relay can be provided to connect, say, the first two unused SMEMA lines (i.e., to short FIG. 2's fifth and sixth conductors together), while a further relay could be used to connect, say, the third unused conductor to the shield conductor (i.e., to short FIG. 2's seventh and eighth conductors together), [0065] As was mentioned before, control could be performed in response to, say, the optical- inspection station 14's output: the turntable would deliver the board to a defective-board bin if it failed that inspection but to the next processing stage, namely, the reflow machine 18, if it passed).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure.
a) Yamada (US20140365595) discloses a communication system controlling data enabling devices based on received confirmation notifications.
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/YVONNE T FOLLANSBEE/
Examiner, Art Unit 2117
/ALICIA M. CHOI/Primary Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2117
Prosecution Insights