Manufacturing Tray with Customized Inlays for Processing Different Types of Articles of Manufacture

Abstract

A manufacturing tray for imprinting custom content onto different articles of manufacture includes a tray base and frame, and a plurality of interchangeable different customized inlays for holding different types of articles of manufacture. Each tray includes an identifier which may be associated with a custom processing job for instructing the imprinting system which of a plurality of available pre-treatment, post-treatment, and imprinting processes to perform.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A manufacturing tray system for processing in a manufacturing system of different types of articles of manufacture, comprising:
 a tray base configured to interface with a conveyance system for transport through the manufacturing system;   a first interchangeable tray inlay supported by said tray base, and arranged to hold an article of manufacture;   a tray identifier associate with processing information corresponding to the tray and to the article of manufacture, the processing information being indicative of one or more processes to be performed by the manufacturing system, the processing information indicating the article of manufacture held by the tray should be processed according to at least one of the group consisting of: a printing process, a wetting agent application process, a cleaning process, an ionization wash process, a plasma treatment process, a tray height adjustment process, and a curing process.   
     
     
         2 . The manufacturing tray system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a second interchangeable tray inlay arranged to hold at least one different type of article of manufacture.   
     
     
         3 . The manufacturing tray system of  claim 2 , wherein the manufacturing tray system is reconfigurable to process a different type of article of manufacture by removing the first interchangeable tray inlay from the tray base, placing the second interchangeable tray inlay on the tray base for support thereon, the second interchangeable tray inlay configured to hold the different type of article of manufacture, loading the second interchangeable tray inlay with the different type of article of manufacture, and associating processing information specific to the article of manufacture held by the second interchangeable tray inlay with the tray identifier. 
     
     
         4 . The manufacturing tray system of  claim 1 , wherein the first tray inlay is configured to hold a plurality of articles of manufacture in respective positions on the first tray inlay, the first tray inlay comprising corresponding position identifiers associated with the respective positions on the first tray inlay, and each position identifier is further associated with corresponding individual print content for printing onto the respective individual article of manufacture loaded in the corresponding position of the first tray inlay.