Patent ID: 11946141
Assignee: HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P.
Field: Surface technology, coating (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC B  C | IPC C

Claim 10:
11. An apparatus comprising:
a chemical vapor processing chamber to treat articles with surface-smoothing chemical vapor;
an article loading chamber to receive the articles pending treatment by the chemical vapor processing chamber and to provide access to the articles finished treatment by the chemical vapor processing chamber;
an automated conveyor to place the articles into the chemical vapor processing chamber and to retrieve the articles from the chemical vapor processing chamber;
an air lock to seal the article loading chamber from the chemical vapor processing chamber when the automated conveyor is inactive; and
a controller to track time spent by the articles in the chemical vapor processing chamber and to cause the automated conveyor to retrieve the finished articles from the chemical vapor processing chamber according to a chemical vapor treatment schedule,
wherein the air lock comprises a pneumatic seal controllable by the controller to inflate to seal the chemical vapor processing chamber from the article loading chamber.