Archiving system with robot handling of data cassettes - cassettes are extracted from locations in indexed carousels by multi-axis robot and moved to read-write unit

摘要

The archiving system allows a large number of data cassettes (22) to be stored in such a way that they are readily retrieved and replaced. The system has a number of carousels (12) that have cassettes stored on shelves in compartments around the surface. The carousels are rotatable around a central axis so that the desired cassettes may be presented in the receiving position (32) for the robot. Located alongside the carousels is a robot handling system that has a carriage (50) moving on rails (46, 48). The gripper (90) is supported on arm assembly that can move vertically on guides (58). The robot extracts a cassette from a selected location and is moved to the read/write unit (72), where cassettes are stacked from the bottom upwards in slots. ADVANTAGE - Automatic handling of cassettes in archiving system.