Patent Application
20070039153
The present invention generally relates to a method for forming a tool and to a tool and, more particularly, to a laminated tool having superior strength and other highly desirable physical properties due to the use of a new and novel attachment strategy which is employed in the overall tool creation process.
A tool is an entity which is selectively used to create a physical or tangible item, such as a portion of a vehicle. While traditional tools vary in their size and overall geometric configuration, they are typically formed or manufactured from a substantially solid “block” of material. Particularly, the block of material is manually or physically “worked” or machined to form the desired tool by the use of various implements.
While the foregoing traditional approach does produce a tool having a desired size and shape, the process is time-consuming, costly, and prone to error as most of the forming activity is done in a manual fashion.
To overcome some or all of the drawbacks associated with traditional tool forming strategies, a laminated tooling approach is often utilized. Particularly, this approach requires the creation of an intangible or “soft” model of the overall tool (typically formed within software) which is then intangibly sectionalized.
Each of the intangible sectional members are then physically constructed or manifested and sequentially and physically coupled in a manner which allows the coupled sectional members to cooperatively form the desired tool. One approach to realizing this lamination strategy is set forth within U.S. Pat. No. 6,587,742 (“The '742 Patent”) which is assigned to the assignee of this application and which is fully and completely incorporated herein by reference, word for word and paragraph for paragraph. Particularly, each sectional member is constructed and its geometric properties (e.g., its size and shape) depend upon certain measurements which are made of the sectional member to which it is to be attached to and which has been previously and physically constructed.
While these lamination strategies do allow a tool to be cost effectively and accurately created, sometimes the created tools do not have the structural strength or integrity to desirably function over a relatively long period of time and may be prone to damage or failure. These drawbacks are due to the use of the several individual sectional members which are used to create the tool and, more particularly, to the need to couple these members by various connection strategies, which provide varying amounts of structural integrity and strength (e.g., the required coupling may provide a tool having undesirable strength and an undesirable operating life).
There is therefore a need for a new and improved lamination strategy which allows a laminated tool to be selectively created in a manner which allows a laminated tool to be cost effectively created and to have very desirable physical properties which allow the created tool to operatively and desirably function over a relatively long period of time.
It is a first non-limiting object of the present invention to provide a laminated tool which overcomes some or all of the drawbacks associated with tools.
It is a second non-limiting object of the present invention to provide a laminated tool which overcomes some or all of the drawbacks associated with tools and which, by way of example and without limitation, includes desirable physical properties which allow the produced tool to operatively function over a relatively long period of time.
It is a third non-limiting object of the present invention to provide a method for producing a laminated tool which overcomes some or all of the drawbacks associated with conventional tooling strategies and methodologies.
It is a fourth non-limiting object of the present invention to provide a method for producing a laminated tool which overcomes some or all of the drawbacks associated with conventional tooling strategies and methodologies and which, by way of example and without limitation, selectively produces a tool having desirable physical properties and which may be operatively utilized for a relatively long period of time.
According to a first non-limiting aspect of the present invention, a tool is provided and includes a first sectional member having a hole; and a second sectional member which is coupled to said first sectional member; and a welded joint which is formed through said hole which is formed within said first sectional member and which attaches said second sectional member to said first sectional member.
According to a second non-limiting aspect of the present invention, a tool is provided and includes a first sectional member having a protuberance; a second sectional member which includes a cavity having an interior portion which receives the protuberance, thereby coupling the first sectional member to the second sectional member; and a welded joint which is formed within the cavity and which couples the protuberance to the interior portion of the cavity.
According to a third non-limiting aspect of the present invention, a method for forming a tool is provided and includes the steps of creating a first sectional member; measuring at least one parameter of the first sectional member; using the at least one parameter to form a second sectional member; forming an opening within the first sectional member; and forming a welded joint within and through the opening; and causing said welded joint to couple the first sectional member to the second sectional member while residing only within the first and second members.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention, including the subjoined claims, and by reference to the following drawings.
Referring now to
Particularly, as should be known to those of skill in this art, the tool 10 is created by the use of several sectional members, such as sectional members 12, 14, 15, which are softly or intangibly created, physically manifested, and then joined together to cooperatively form the tool 10. One non-limiting example of such a lamination process is found within The '742 Patent.
According to the teachings of the present invention, a laser welding assembly, such as laser welding assembly 20, is used to effectuate the connection of the various physically manifested sectional members, such as members 12, 14, 15, which form the tool 10. It should be realized, at the outset, that the present invention is not limited to any particular type of tool or to any particular type of laser welding assembly. Rather, the teachings of the present invention are-generally applicable to a wide range of tools and may utilize a wide range of laser welding assemblies, including but not limited to those which are shown in
The laser welding assembly 20 includes a source of electrical power 22 (which may comprise a power supply portion which is adapted to be selectively coupled to a source of electrical power), and a controller assembly 24 which is operable under stored program control and which is physically and operatively coupled to the power source 22 by the bus 26. The laser welding assembly 20 further includes a movement assembly 28 which is physically and operatively coupled to the controller 24 by the use of bus 30 and which, in one non-limiting embodiment, may comprise one or more “servo-type” motors which cooperatively and selectively provide movement in a plurality of degrees of freedom. The laser welding assembly 20 further includes a laser application head assembly 40 which is physically and controllably coupled to the controller 24 by the bus 42 and to the movement assembly 28 by the member 44. The laser application head 40 comprises, at least in part, a laser energy generation assembly which is adapted to selectively emit laser energy 50.
In operation, the controller 24 is made to selectively receive the required movement patterns to operatively position the assembly 40 in a manner which allows the sectional members, such as sectional members 12, 14, 15 to be desirably coupled and connected by the laser energy 50 which is emitted from the laser head assembly 40. Such movement patterns are typically communicated to the controller assembly 24 by a user of the assembly 20 and subsequently made to storably reside within the controller assembly 24. Further, the received movement patterns include energy generation commands, created by the user, which specify the required energy generation at certain locations of the head assembly 40 within the desired and specified movement patterns.
The controller assembly 24 then moves the assembly 28, by the use of commands which are placed upon the bus 30 and in accordance with the stored movement patterns. The movement assembly 28 then moves, in accordance with the received commands, and such movement is imparted to the head assembly 40 by the use of member 44. Energy 50 is selectively emitted from the head assembly 40 upon receipt of commands which are created by the controller 24 and communicated to the head 40 by the use of bus 42. In this manner, the laser emission head assembly 40 is selectively moved and selectively emits energy 50 in a manner which allows the tool 10 to be created by the use of various sectional members, such as sectional members 12, 14, 15 (e.g., in a manner which allows laser welded joints to be created within the created tool 10).
Particularly, the selectively emitted laser energy 50 is used to create laser weld type joints between two adjacent sectional members, such as sectional members 12, 14, 15. Various types of joints may be created, however, as will be seen below, the efficacy of these different joints dramatically varies. It will be realized that while the following discussion describes the selective creation of laser type welded joints between adjacent sectional members 12, 14, that the discussion is equally applicable to substantially similar joints which may be selectively created between each pair of adjacent type sectional members which are used to cooperatively create the tool 10. Further, it should be realized that these various sectional members which cooperatively form the tool 10 may also be coupled by other additional techniques or strategies (e.g., by use of a bounding material) in addition to the use of laser welded joints. Further, it should be appreciated that the overall number and placement of such joint may vary, as desired, within the created tool.
Referring now to
Although this first approach does allow the adjacent sectional members 12, 14 to be physically joined by the use of the selectively emitted energy 50, the protrusion of the created welded joint 58, through the openings 52, 54, causes the next adjacent member 15 to be required to have a slot or recess portion 60 which receives the protruding portion 62 of the welded joint 58. Such a recess 60 is, of course, undesirable since it structurally weakens the sectional member 15 and as the number of such protruding welded joints 58 increases within the tool 10, the number of such recesses 60 concomitantly increases and the structural integrity of the tool 10 decreases, thereby making the created tool 10 prone to failure while having a rather limited working life.
A second approach or strategy, as best shown in
A third approach, which is best shown in
In yet another non-limiting embodiment of the invention, an air knife 140 is used to prevent weld spatter from attaching to the plate surface by use of a stream fair. Additionally, air knife 140 may be used to trim any and all protruding welded joints which protrude from the surface of a sectional member, such as welded joint 200 from sectional member 12.
It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the exact construction or embodiments which are delineated above, but that various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and the scope of the inventions as are delineated in the following claims. It should be further understood that the energy 50 may comprise non-laser type energy (e.g., ultrasonic type energy). It should be further appreciated that this energy provides for less structural distortion in the assembled tool than previous joining techniques and strategies.
