Patent ID: 8905109

Claim:
An apparatus for bonding at least two substrates to each other, comprising: a plurality of substrate bonding machines arranged adjacent to one another; an input transporter extending adjacent to the plurality of substrate bonding machines which is operative to deliver the substrates to each of the substrate bonding machines; an onloading station for supplying substrates to the input transporter; an output transporter extending adjacent to the plurality of substrate bonding machines which is operative to receive bonded substrates from each of the substrate bonding machines; and an offloading station which receives bonded substrates from the output transporter, wherein the input transporter comprises a first input transport device adjacent to a first substrate bonding machine and a second input transport device adjacent to a second substrate bonding machine, wherein the first input transport device are configured to transport the substrates located on it to the second input transport device, wherein the first and second transport devices each includes a conveyor mechanism coupled to a vertical positioning table, the vertical positioning table being operative to move the conveyor mechanism to different heights the first and second input transport devices being operable to transport the substrates along a conveying axis, and wherein the first and second input transport devices overlap each other along the conveying axis at a common region, and one of the first and second input transport devices is operable to effect a motion relative to the respective other of the first and second input transport devices to transfer the substrates at the common region from the first input transport device to the second input transport device.