Patent Grant
12083704
Not Applicable
Appendix A referenced herein is a computer program listing in a text file entitled “VOO2003-15US-computer-program-appendix-A.txt” created on Mar. 31, 2022 and having a 54 kb file size. The computer program code, which exceeds 300 lines, is submitted as a computer program listing appendix through EFS-Web and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
A portion of the material in this patent document may be subject to copyright protection under the copyright laws of the United States and of other countries. The owner of the copyright rights has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the United States Patent and Trademark Office publicly available file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. The copyright owner does not hereby waive any of its rights to have this patent document maintained in secrecy, including without limitation its rights pursuant to 37 C.F.R. § 1.14.
The technology of this disclosure pertains generally to fabricating cabinet doors, passage doors, window frames, and more particularly to processing cabinet door rails.
Cabinet door frames are formed from parts which are referred to as styles and rails. A conventional approach to forming the styles and rails is for a carpenter or other person to manually cut and shape raw stock into finished parts. Machinery also has been developed to reduce the labor and time associated with forming styles and rails, and particularly making cope cuts on the ends of the rails.
For example, Voorwood Precision Machinery, 2350 Barney Street, Anderson, CA 96007, manufactures two types of machines that process cope cuts on the ends of the rails.
One such machine is the Model A2515 double-side cope shaper. The Model A2515 machine makes the cope cuts on both ends of the part at the same time, is hopper fed, capable of high output (e.g., 5000-9000 parts per shift), and ensures that the cope cuts are perpendicular (square) to the long side of the rail. Additionally, the A2515 ensures that the rail is sized to the exact length intended. While the machine is very efficient, all the parts stock in the hopper must be the same length and, therefore, the machine is best suited for mass production of rails of the same length. However, many kitchens have different size cabinet doors, and most cabinet manufacturers fabricate a complete kitchen at a time, which means that a complete set of cabinets for a kitchen can require several different lengths of rails.
The A2515 requires the operator to tell the machine the desired length of the part by use of a touch screen. Once the correct length is keyed in, the machine adjusts to this length and then starts to process the rails at that length. As a result, operators of the machines will spend significant time readjusting and setting up the machine for different rail lengths, which can dramatically decrease the production capability of the machine and make the high cost of the machine less desirable.
Another type of machine is the Model A16 single side cope shaper. Unlike the A2515, the A16 is capable of processing random lengths because it only processes one cope cut on one side of the rail at a time. A drawback of the A16, however, is that the machine is not capable of sizing the part to the correct length, and production is much slower than with an A2515 (e.g., 500-1500 parts per shift).
Therefore, there is a need for a machine that can make both cope cuts in the part as well as accept random lengths of part stock and size the random lengths to the exact rail length intended. No machine exists that can automatically process both cope cuts of finished rails from random lengths of raw stock while sizing and squaring each part.
This disclosure describes a machine that is capable of automatically and consecutively processing random lengths of raw stock into finished cabinet, entry door, or window frame rails. The machine processes both cope cuts at the same time while making sure that both the finished rail is the correct length as a function of the length of the raw stock, and that the cope cuts are perpendicular (square) to the long side of the rail. After the cope cuts are made, the machine dimensions the width of the rail and makes a stick cut along one edge of the rail.
By way of example, and not of limitation, the foregoing is achieved by employing a hopper feed mechanism that allows for random lengths of raw stock to be stacked vertically, staged, measured, and fed into a double coping shaper system for processing. While in the hopper, the length of the very bottom board in the stack is measured. The hopper feed mechanism then clamps the stack of boards above the very bottom board, opens hopper gates beneath the clamped stack, and drops the very bottom board into a double coping shaper system. Once the board is dropped into the double coping shaper system, the hopper gates close and the stack of boards is released, thereby allowing the stack to drop down onto the closed hopper gates and stage the next board (the board on the bottom of the stack) to be dropped into the double coping shaper system once again.
In the embodiment described, the double coping shaper system comprises two shapers: a stationary shaper and a mobile shaper. Additionally, there is a shuttle mechanism on each shaper. These shuttles accept the board from the hopper, clamp the board securely, and then pass the board through the shapers to create the cope cuts. The shuttles on both shapers are electronically timed with servos to move together to create square cope cuts on both ends of the board.
Beneficially, an operator can load random lengths of raw stock into a hopper and the machine will automatically output properly dimensioned rails with cope cuts at both ends and a stick cut along an edge between the ends, entirely without the need for an operator to change the length of the raw stock or needing to use a pre-downloaded cut list.
Further aspects of the technology described herein will be brought out in the following portions of the specification, wherein the detailed description is for the purpose of fully disclosing preferred embodiments of the technology without placing limitations thereon.
The technology described herein will be more fully understood by reference to the following drawings which are for illustrative purposes only:
Cabinet door frames commonly are formed from parts which are referred to as rails 10 and styles 12 as illustrated in
Notably, the apparatus consecutively and automatically dimensions random lengths of boards to the final intended lengths without requiring operator input or use of a pre-downloaded cut list. The discussion that follows will focus on this aspect of the apparatus and describe a process and components for achieving that result. For clarity, not all the components of a complete machine may be shown or described. However, from the description herein, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate how to construct and operate a complete machine or portions thereof that perform the functions described in this disclosure.
Reference number 106 denotes the board prior to processing, reference number 106a denotes the board after it has been dimensioned to its intended length and both cope cuts have been made, and reference number 106b denotes the board after it has been dimensioned to its intended width and the stick cut has been made. The arrows 106c, 106d, and 106e in both figures show the feed path of the board during processing.
While the preferred embodiment includes a hopper assembly as a feed mechanism for repetitive high-throughput processing of a stack of boards, another embodiment of the apparatus could omit the hopper assembly and instead use a staging platform or the like where the operator would load one board at a time. Accordingly, whenever the terms or phrases “hopper”, “hopper assembly”, “a hopper configured for receiving and staging a stack of random lengths of boards”, or equivalent, is used in this disclosure or the claims, the terms or phrases should be considered as encompassing any mechanism that can feed a single random length board or a stack of random length boards into the shuttle and shaper assemblies.
Prior to being released from the hopper assembly, the length of the next board in the stack to be processed (i.e., the bottom-most board) is measured. This measurement is made using, for example, a laser and a sonic sensor positioned in the hopper assembly. Once the length of the board is measured, the apparatus rounds the measured length to a selected nearest increment and automatically processes the board to the desired length. Since most dimensions for cabinet doors use tape measure increments, the selected nearest increment to which the length is rounded is a tape measure increment of, for example, 1/16″, ⅛″, ¼″, etc. Note also that the lengths of the unprocessed boards in the hopper are intentionally longer than the intended length, preferably by about 1/16″ on each end. This intentional oversizing of ⅛″ (2× 1/16″) is referred to as a “clean-up cut”. Accordingly, the finished length of the processed rail 106a is based on the length of the board 106 prior to being processed. A programmable controller in the apparatus determines how much to shorten the length of the board and controls operation of the mobile shuttle and shaper assembly 110 to dimension the board 106 to its intended length.
In other words, the operator can program the controller to use a particular increment to be used for rounding to the final length to the nearest tape measure increment. The clean-up cut amount is not programmable by the operator, and is instead set up mechanically. The clean-up cut can be changed to the desired dimension for such cut. Also, note that the clean-up cut amount and the tape measure increment are not related. For example, a common clean-up cut amount is 1/16″. However, the tape measure increment could be 1/16″, ⅛″, ¼″, etc., and would be the same as the clean-up cut only if a 1/16″ tape measure increment was chosen. To further clarify, the clean-up cut may be, but does not need to be, the same as the tape measure increment. By way of further example, suppose that the controller has been configured for the apparatus to process raw stock that is oversized by ⅛″ (for a 1/16″ clean-up cut) and to use a ¼″ tape measure increment. Then, to determine the desired length, if the controller measures a board that is 20.005″ for example, the controller will subtract the amount of the clean-up cut (⅛″ or 0.125″), equaling 19.880″. The controller will then round up or down to a length which is closest to the tape measure increment. In this example, the machine would round down to 19.75″.
After the board 106 is measured, the board is released from the hopper assembly 112 and drops onto a shuttle in the stationary shuttle and shaper assembly 108 and a shuttle in the mobile shuttle and shaper assembly 110. The shuttles move the board under the hold-down assemblies which will then move with the shuttle while securing the board, and then through shapers in the assemblies where the length of the board is dimensioned and cope cuts are made to both ends of the board simultaneously by shapers in the assemblies. Additionally, the configuration of the shuttle and shaper assemblies 108, 110 ensures that the cope cuts are perpendicular (square) to the long side of the rail. Additionally, using backer blocks are used on the shuttle to ensure that when the part is cut there is no chip out on the lagging edge of the rail. The shuttles then move the board 106a to a conveyor 114 which routes the rail to the second shaper section 104 that sizes the rail to the desired width and makes the stick cut along the long edge of the rail.
Additionally, and prior to the board being released from the hopper assembly 112, the mobile shuttle and shaper assembly 110 is positioned so that the length of the rail can be dimensioned. This position is determined using a reflective sensor that is positioned at the end of the shuttle in the mobile shuttle and shaper assembly 110. The reflective sensor points upward toward the bottom of the stack of boards 106. Before the cope cuts in the board are made, the mobile shuttle and shaper assembly 110 moves into a “ready” position which is a lateral location based on the desired finished length of the very bottom board being staged in the hopper assembly 112. This “repositioning” repeats after every board is processed.
While a board is being processed to the desired length (Board 1), both ends of the board staged in the hopper assembly 112 (to be processed next) (Board 2) are measured. When the shapers finish processing Board 1, and the shuttles are returning to accept Board 2 from the hopper assembly 112, the movable shuttle and shaper assembly 110, using servo control, automatically moves to a location which will be near the edge of Board 2 when it dropped onto the shuttles. This is achieved by use of a laser. From there, the movable shuttle and shaper assembly 110 moves in until the reflective sensor detects the end of the board. Using the sonic sensor to locate one end of Board 2 and the reflective sensor to locate the other end, the machine refers to the servo position when the reflective sensor turns on and a primary measurement is then taken and the desired length is then calculated. The movable shuttle and shaper assembly 110 then moves to a position that will only shorten the board enough to make a clean cut and to land on the next desired tape measure increment. The process then starts over again with Board 3 and continues with Board 4, and so forth.
More specifically, and by way of example, the following actions take place while a board is processed in preparation for the next board to be processed.
Therefore, the apparatus continuously processes random lengths of boards into rails having the intended length and both cope cuts without operator intervention other than stacking boards in the hopper assembly.
As described previously, a programmable controller in the apparatus 100 carries out the foregoing measurement process and operates the apparatus. The controller knows that the bottom-most board in the hopper is “X” length while a board is being processed by the stationary and mobile shuttle and shaper assemblies. Thus, the shaper in the mobile shuttle and shaper assembly 110 can be positioned for the next board to be processed before that board is dropped from the hopper assembly 112. No operator intervention is required for sizing and cutting any length of board that is fed into the hopper assembly 112.
The sensors are used to find the locations of the edge of each end of the board. The controller then calculates the length of the board and compares it with the offset for the finished length in increments of 1/16 inches, e.g., 12 inches, 12 1/16 inches, 12⅛ inches, etc. Accurate sensors are employed so that the error does not exceed 1/16 inches.
Now that the bottom-most board in the stack has dropped, support plates in the hopper close, and cylinders clamping the second to last board retract, dropping the remaining stack of boards to land on the support plates. These clamps ensure the stack drops straight down to help minimize the board migration from the sonic sensor or zero edge.
The mobile shuttle and shaper assembly 110 moves to the right to give the desired cut length. Both shuttle assemblies then move forward together with a master and slave servo to process both cope cuts. The stationary shuttle/shaper and the mobile shuttle/shaper are electronically slaved to each other with an encoder (e.g., 50,000 line encoder) to ensure square cuts.
Appendix A is a computer program listing which presents sample computer program instructions for the programmable controller to operate the apparatus as described above. It will be appreciated that these instructions represent but one example of computer program instructions and that this example does not exclude alternative instructions or logic flow.
Note that the reflective sensor 308 that is used to position the mobile shuttle and shaper assembly can be seen in
Referring again to
The power feed belt assembly 138 in the second shaping section can be seen in the upper portion of the figure on one side of the board. The edge guide assembly 140 can be seen in the lower portion of the figure on the opposite side of the board. Two handles 314, 316 can be seen on the edge guide assembly, which are used to adjust the position of the edge guide assembly for the desired final width of the board. The handles just unlock the edge guide assembly 140. Lead screws and a mechanical position indicator are used to adjust the position of the edge guide prior to being locked by the handles 314, 316. The edge guide assembly makes contact with the same long edge of that rail that was in contact with the backer blocks during the coping process. The power feed wheel assembly transports the board into a shaper in the second shaping section 104 that will shape the opposite side of the board so that the width of the board is the desired width and so that the shaped side is parallel to the side against the edge guide assembly. The result is that all corners of the board will be square, and all sides of the board will be parallel. The shaper will also make a stick cut 16, in the edge of the board on the side of the board opposite the edge guide assembly, as shown in
It will be appreciated that the programmable controller with its associated computer program instructions are necessarily connected to the mechanical portions of the apparatus for operation.
A final detail of
Embodiments of the presented technology may be described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations of methods and systems according to embodiments of the technology, and/or procedures, algorithms, steps, operations, formulae, or other computational depictions, which may also be implemented as computer program products. In this regard, each block or step of a flowchart, and combinations of blocks (and/or steps) in a flowchart, as well as any procedure, algorithm, step, operation, formula, or computational depiction can be implemented by various means, such as hardware, firmware, and/or software including one or more computer program instructions embodied in computer-readable program code. As will be appreciated, any such computer program instructions may be executed by one or more computer processors, including without limitation a general purpose computer or special purpose computer, or other programmable processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the computer program instructions which execute on the computer processor(s) or other programmable processing apparatus create means for implementing the function(s) specified.
Accordingly, blocks of the flowcharts, and procedures, algorithms, steps, operations, formulae, or computational depictions described herein support combinations of means for performing the specified function(s), combinations of steps for performing the specified function(s), and computer program instructions, such as embodied in computer-readable program code logic means, for performing the specified function(s). It will also be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations, as well as any procedures, algorithms, steps, operations, formulae, or computational depictions and combinations thereof described herein, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform the specified function(s) or step(s), or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer-readable program code.
Furthermore, these computer program instructions, such as embodied in computer-readable program code, may also be stored in one or more computer-readable memory or memory devices that can direct a computer processor or other programmable processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory or memory devices produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the block(s) of the flowchart(s). The computer program instructions may also be executed by a computer processor or other programmable processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer processor or other programmable processing apparatus to produce a computer-implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer processor or other programmable processing apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the block(s) of the flowchart(s), procedure (s) algorithm(s), step(s), operation(s), formula(e), or computational depiction(s).
It will further be appreciated that the terms “programming” or “program executable” as used herein refer to one or more instructions that can be executed by one or more computer processors to perform one or more functions as described herein. The instructions can be embodied in software, in firmware, or in a combination of software and firmware. The instructions can be stored local to the device in non-transitory media or can be stored remotely such as on a server, or all or a portion of the instructions can be stored locally and remotely. Instructions stored remotely can be downloaded (pushed) to the device by user initiation, or automatically based on one or more factors.
It will further be appreciated that as used herein, that the terms controller, processor, hardware processor, computer processor, central processing unit (CPU), and computer are used synonymously to denote a device capable of executing the instructions and communicating with input/output interfaces and/or peripheral devices, and that the terms controller, processor, hardware processor, computer processor, CPU, and computer are intended to encompass single or multiple devices, single core and multicore devices, and variations thereof.
Improvements and variations of the current implementation include, but are not limited to:
From the description herein, it will be appreciated that the present disclosure encompasses multiple implementations of the technology which include, but are not limited to, the following:
As used herein, term “implementation” is intended to include, without limitation, embodiments, examples, or other forms of practicing the technology described herein.
As used herein, the singular terms “a,” “an,” and “the” may include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Reference to an object in the singular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless explicitly so stated, but rather “one or more.”
Phrasing constructs, such as “A, B and/or C”, within the present disclosure describe where either A, B, or C can be present, or any combination of items A, B and C. Phrasing constructs indicating, such as “at least one of” followed by listing a group of elements, indicates that at least one of these group elements is present, which includes any possible combination of the listed elements as applicable.
References in this disclosure referring to “an embodiment”, “at least one embodiment” or similar embodiment wording indicates that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with a described embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present disclosure. Thus, these various embodiment phrases are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, or to a specific embodiment which differs from all the other embodiments being described. The embodiment phrasing should be construed to mean that the particular features, structures, or characteristics of a given embodiment may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments of the disclosed apparatus, system or method.
As used herein, the term “set” refers to a collection of one or more objects. Thus, for example, a set of objects can include a single object or multiple objects.
Relational terms such as first and second, top and bottom, and the like may be used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions.
The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “has”, “having,” “includes”, “including,” “contains”, “containing” or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. An element proceeded by “comprises . . . a”, “has . . . a”, “includes . . . a”, “contains . . . a” does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of additional identical elements in the process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises, has, includes, contains the element.
As used herein, the terms “approximately”, “approximate”, “substantially”, “essentially”, and “about”, or any other version thereof, are used to describe and account for small variations. When used in conjunction with an event or circumstance, the terms can refer to instances in which the event or circumstance occurs precisely as well as instances in which the event or circumstance occurs to a close approximation. When used in conjunction with a numerical value, the terms can refer to a range of variation of less than or equal to ±10% of that numerical value, such as less than or equal to ±5%, less than or equal to ±4%, less than or equal to ±3%, less than or equal to ±2%, less than or equal to ±1%, less than or equal to ±0.5%, less than or equal to ±0.1%, or less than or equal to ±0.05%. For example, “substantially” aligned can refer to a range of angular variation of less than or equal to ±10°, such as less than or equal to ±5°, less than or equal to ±4°, less than or equal to ±3°, less than or equal to ±2°, less than or equal to 1°, less than or equal to ±0.5°, less than or equal to ±0.1°, or less than or equal to ±0.05°.
Additionally, amounts, ratios, and other numerical values may sometimes be presented herein in a range format. It is to be understood that such range format is used for convenience and brevity and should be understood flexibly to include numerical values explicitly specified as limits of a range, but also to include all individual numerical values or sub-ranges encompassed within that range as if each numerical value and sub-range is explicitly specified. For example, a ratio in the range of about 1 to about 200 should be understood to include the explicitly recited limits of about 1 and about 200, but also to include individual ratios such as about 2, about 3, and about 4, and sub-ranges such as about 10 to about 50, about 20 to about 100, and so forth.
The term “coupled” as used herein is defined as connected, although not necessarily directly and not necessarily mechanically. A device or structure that is “configured” in a certain way is configured in at least that way, but may also be configured in ways that are not listed.
Benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential features or elements of the technology describes herein or any or all the claims.
In addition, in the foregoing disclosure various features may grouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Inventive subject matter can lie in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment.
The abstract of the disclosure is provided to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
It will be appreciated that the practice of some jurisdictions may require deletion of one or more portions of the disclosure after that application is filed. Accordingly the reader should consult the application as filed for the original content of the disclosure. Any deletion of content of the disclosure should not be construed as a disclaimer, forfeiture or dedication to the public of any subject matter of the application as originally filed.
The following claims are hereby incorporated into the disclosure, with each claim standing on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.
Although the description herein contains many details, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure but as merely providing illustrations of some of the presently preferred embodiments. Therefore, it will be appreciated that the scope of the disclosure fully encompasses other embodiments which may become obvious to those skilled in the art.
All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the disclosed embodiments that are known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the present claims. Furthermore, no element, component, or method step in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether the element, component, or method step is explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element herein is to be construed as a “means plus function” element unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase “means for”. No claim element herein is to be construed as a “step plus function” element unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase “step for”.
This application claims priority to, and the benefit of, U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 63/169,999 filed on Apr. 2, 2021, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
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| 10919177 | Boswell | Feb 2021 | B2 |
| 20050054502 | Benyovits | Mar 2005 | A1 |
| 20130019728 | Hanke | Jan 2013 | A1 |
| 20190184513 | Knorr | Jun 2019 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63169999 | Apr 2021 | US |
