Patent ID: 9663247
Date: 2017-05-30
CPC Classifications: B23Q,B25B,B64F,B66C

Claim:
1. A vacuum chuck for transferring a flexible elongate body, the vacuum chuck comprising: an elongate rigid support; a vertically oriented vacuum surface including a plurality of vacuum holes, wherein the vertically oriented vacuum surface extends along a length of the elongate rigid support, is supported by the elongate rigid support, and is configured to contact a vertical surface of the flexible elongate body during transfer of the flexible elongate body by the vacuum chuck; a vacuum manifold in fluid communication with the plurality of vacuum holes and configured to apply a retention vacuum to the plurality of vacuum holes to retain the flexible elongate body on the vertically oriented vacuum surface during transfer of the flexible elongate body by the vacuum chuck; and a skirt seal that extends along a length of the vertically oriented vacuum surface, wherein the skirt seal is sized and located to form a fluid seal with the flexible elongate body; wherein the vertically oriented vacuum surface is a first vertically oriented vacuum surface, and further wherein the vacuum chuck includes a second vertically oriented vacuum surface, wherein the first vertically oriented vacuum surface and the second vertically oriented vacuum surface face away from one another, and further wherein the elongate rigid support extends at least partially between the first vertically oriented vacuum surface and the second vertically oriented vacuum surface; and further wherein the vacuum manifold is a first vacuum manifold, wherein the plurality of vacuum holes is a first plurality of vacuum holes, wherein the first vacuum manifold is in fluid communication with the first plurality of vacuum holes, wherein the retention vacuum is a first retention vacuum, wherein the flexible elongate body is a first flexible elongate body, wherein the second vertically oriented vacuum surface includes a second plurality of vacuum holes, wherein the vacuum chuck includes a second vacuum manifold in fluid communication with the second plurality of vacuum holes and configured to apply a second retention vacuum to the second plurality of vacuum holes to retain a second flexible elongate body on the second vertically oriented vacuum surface during transfer of the second flexible elongate body by the vacuum chuck, and further wherein the vacuum chuck is configured to apply the first retention vacuum to the first plurality of vacuum holes independent from application of the second retention vacuum to the second plurality of vacuum holes.