Patent Application
20200038986
This invention relates to computer numerical control machine tools and more particularly to usability enhancements relating to cutting tools and cutting gratings from grating sheets.
Numerical Control (NC) is the automation of machine tools that are operated by precisely programmed commands encoded on a storage medium, as opposed to controlled manually via hand wheels or levers, or mechanically automated via cams alone. Most NC today is computer (or computerized) numerical control (CNC), in which local and/or remote computers provide the data files for execution by the machine tool(s). CNC systems allow end-to-end component design to highly automated using computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) programs. The programs produce a computer file that is interpreted to extract the commands needed to operate a particular machine via a post processor, and then loaded into the CNC machines for production.
As a particular component might require the use of a number of different tools, e.g. drills, saws, etc., modern machines often combine multiple tools into a single “cell”. In other installations, a number of different machines are used with an external controller and human or robotic operators move the component from machine to machine. In either case, the series of steps needed to produce any part is highly automated and produces a part that closely matches the original CAD design.
This has made CNC based manufacturing a common foundation to many high volume products. Accordingly, the time taken for the CNC machine(s) to execute the sequence of processes becomes a dominant factor in the cost and throughput of a CNC production station and/or CNC production line. However, some structures at present are difficult to process upon CNC machines such as plasma cutters such as gratings cut from a grating sheet or grating sheets. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide enterprises with a means to automate the cutting of grating structures from one or more grating sheets. It would be beneficial for the automation to exploit automated camera based image acquisition and processing to define the position, spacing, orientation, etc. of the grating elements within the one or more grating sheets allowing the positions of grating elements to be cut to be defined from a template of the grating to be provided from the process. Alternatively, it would be beneficial to provide a user of a CNC machine with a means to define a grid overlaying a grating sheet or portion of a grating sheet allowing the grating sheet to be placed without any specific due care to position and/or orientation on the tool bed.
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
It is an object of the present invention to mitigate limitations within the prior art relating to computer numerical control machine tools and more particularly to usability enhancements relating to cutting tools and cutting gratings from grating sheets.
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method comprising:
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method comprising:
acquiring a location of a cut to be made upon a grating element within a grating sheet;
making the cut with a cutter on computer controlled machine tool; wherein
In accordance with an embodiment of the invention there is provided a method comprising:
Other aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art upon review of the following description of specific embodiments of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying figures.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the attached Figures, wherein:
The present invention is directed to computer numerical control machine tools and more particularly to the usability enhancements relating to cutting tools and cutting gratings from grating sheets.
The ensuing description provides representative embodiment(s) only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the disclosure. Rather, the ensuing description of the embodiment(s) will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing an embodiment or embodiments of the invention. It being understood that various changes can be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope as set forth in the appended claims. Accordingly, an embodiment is an example or implementation of the inventions and not the sole implementation. Various appearances of “one embodiment,” “an embodiment” or “some embodiments” do not necessarily all refer to the same embodiments. Although various features of the invention may be described in the context of a single embodiment, the features may also be provided separately or in any suitable combination. Conversely, although the invention may be described herein in the context of separate embodiments for clarity, the invention can also be implemented in a single embodiment or any combination of embodiments.
Reference in the specification to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, “some embodiments” or “other embodiments” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiments is included in at least one embodiment, but not necessarily all embodiments, of the inventions. The phraseology and terminology employed herein is not to be construed as limiting but is for descriptive purpose only. It is to be understood that where the claims or specification refer to “a” or “an” element, such reference is not to be construed as there being only one of that element. It is to be understood that where the specification states that a component feature, structure, or characteristic “may”, “might”, “can” or “could” be included, that particular component, feature, structure, or characteristic is not required to be included.
Reference to terms such as “left”, “right”, “top”, “bottom”, “front” and “back” are intended for use in respect to the orientation of the particular feature, structure, or element within the figures depicting embodiments of the invention. It would be evident that such directional terminology with respect to the actual use of a device has no specific meaning as the device can be employed in a multiplicity of orientations by the user or users. Reference to terms “including”, “comprising”, “consisting” and grammatical variants thereof do not preclude the addition of one or more components, features, steps, integers or groups thereof and that the terms are not to be construed as specifying components, features, steps or integers. Likewise, the phrase “consisting essentially of”, and grammatical variants thereof, when used herein is not to be construed as excluding additional components, steps, features integers or groups thereof but rather that the additional features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof do not materially alter the basic and novel characteristics of the claimed composition, device or method. If the specification or claims refer to “an additional” element, that does not preclude there being more than one of the additional element.
A “portable electronic device” (PED) as used herein and throughout this disclosure, refers to a wireless device used for communications and other applications that requires a battery or other independent form of energy for power. This includes devices, but is not limited to, such as a cellular telephone, smartphone, personal digital assistant (PDA), portable computer, pager, portable multimedia player, portable gaming console, laptop computer, tablet computer, a wearable device and an electronic reader.
A “fixed electronic device” (FED) as used herein and throughout this disclosure, refers to a wireless and/or wired device used for communications and other applications that requires connection to a fixed interface to obtain power. This includes, but is not limited to, a laptop computer, a personal computer, a computer server, a kiosk, a gaming console, a digital set-top box, an analog set-top box, an Internet enabled appliance, an Internet enabled television, and a multimedia player.
A “server” as used herein, and throughout this disclosure, refers to one or more physical computers co-located and/or geographically distributed running one or more services as a host to users of other computers, PEDs, FEDs, etc. to serve the client needs of these other users. This includes, but is not limited to, a database server, file server, mail server, print server, web server, gaming server, or virtual environment server.
An “application” (commonly referred to as an “app”) as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a “software application”, an element of a “software suite”, a computer program designed to allow an individual to perform an activity, a computer program designed to allow an electronic device to perform an activity, and a computer program designed to communicate with local and/or remote electronic devices. An application thus differs from an operating system (which runs a computer), a utility (which performs maintenance or general-purpose chores), and a programming tools (with which computer programs are created). Generally, within the following description with respect to embodiments of the invention an application is generally presented in respect of software permanently and/or temporarily installed upon a PED and/or FED.
An “enterprise” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a provider of a service and/or a product to a user, customer, or consumer. This includes, but is not limited to, a retail outlet, a store, a market, an online marketplace, a manufacturer, an online retailer, a charity, a utility, and a service provider. Such enterprises may be directly owned and controlled by a company or may be owned and operated by a franchisee under the direction and management of a franchiser.
A “third party” or “third party provider” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, a so-called “arm's length” provider of a service and/or a product to an enterprise and/or individual and/or group of individuals and/or a device comprising a microprocessor wherein the consumer and/or customer engages the third party but the actual service and/or product that they are interested in and/or purchase and/or receive is provided through an enterprise and/or service provider.
A “user” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, an individual or group of individuals. This includes, but is not limited to, private individuals, employees of organizations and/or enterprises, members of community organizations, members of charity organizations, men and women. In its broadest sense the user may further include, but not be limited to, software systems, mechanical systems, robotic systems, android systems, etc. that may be characterised by an ability to exploit one or more embodiments of the invention. A user may be associated with biometric data which may be, but not limited to, monitored, acquired, stored, transmitted, processed and analysed either locally or remotely to the user. A user may also be associated through one or more accounts and/or profiles with one or more of a service provider, third party provider, enterprise, social network, social media etc. via a dashboard, web service, website, software plug-in, software application, and graphical user interface (GUI).
“User information” as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, user behavior information and/or user profile information. It may also include a user's biometric information, an estimation of the user's biometric information, or a projection/prediction of a user's biometric information derived from current and/or historical biometric information.
“Electronic content” (also referred to as “content” or “digital content”) as used herein may refer to, but is not limited to, any type of content that exists in the form of digital data as stored, transmitted, received and/or converted wherein one or more of these steps may be analog although generally these steps will be digital. Forms of digital content include, but are not limited to, information that is digitally broadcast, streamed or contained in discrete files. Viewed narrowly, types of digital content include popular media types such as MP3, JPG, AVI, TIFF, AAC, TXT, RTF, HTML, XML, XHTML, PDF, XLS, SVG, WMA, MP4, FLV, and PPT, for example, as well as others, see for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_formats. Within a broader approach digital content mat include any type of digital information, e.g. digitally updated weather forecast, a GPS map, an eBook, a photograph, a video, a Vine™, a blog posting, a Facebook™ posting, a Twitter™ tweet, online TV, etc. The digital content may be any digital data that is at least one of generated, selected, created, modified, and transmitted in response to a user request, said request may be a query, a search, a trigger, an alarm, and a message for example.
A “machine tool” (tool) as used herein, and throughout this disclosure, refers to a machine for shaping or machining or assembling metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, drilling, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformation in conjunction with welding, brazing and other forms of material joining. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping which may be fixed or removable/changeable. Machine tools generally have some means of constraining the workpiece and/or providing a guided movement of the parts of the machine and workpiece. Thus, the relative movement between the workpiece and the cutting tool (which is called the toolpath) is controlled or constrained by the machine to at least some extent. Some machine tools may work on a single piece part at a time whilst others may work on multiple piece parts or generate multiple piece parts from a single piece of starting stock material. Some machine tools may only provide a single process, e.g. drilling, whilst other tools such as milling machines may provide multiple processes. Such machine tools may include, but not be limited to, drill presses, lathes, screw machines, milling machines, shears, saws, planers, grinding machines, electrical discharge machining, plasma cutters, laser cutters, laser engravers, grinders, electrical discharge welders, shot peening, and water jet cutters/surface machining.
A “profile” as used herein, and throughout this disclosure, refers to a computer and/or microprocessor readable data file comprising data relating to settings and/or limits and/or sequence for a machine tool or other item of manufacturing equipment.
A “grating” or “grating sheet” as used herein, and throughout this disclosure, refers to an element or sheet formed from a regularly spaced collection of essentially identical, parallel, elongated elements. Such gratings typically consist of two sets of elongated elements, within a second set being usually perpendicular to the first. Where the two sets are perpendicular, this is also known as a grid or a mesh. Typically, such gratings are employed in providing infrastructure elements such as decks on bridges, footbridges, catwalks, etc. and in such applications are formed from steel, stainless steel, galvanized steel, etc. Typically, a grating sheet is 4 feet (approximately 122 cm) or 2 feet (approximately 61 cm) wide by 8 feet (approximately 244 cm) panel which is cut to the desired shape. Due to the periodic nature of the sets of perpendicular elongated elements continuous processing via plasma cutting, for example, is not feasible.
Referring to
Within the cell associated with first AP 110A the first group of users 100A may employ a variety of PEDs including for example, laptop computer 155, portable gaming console 135, tablet computer 140, smartphone 150, cellular telephone 145 as well as portable multimedia player 130. Within the cell associated with second AP 110B are the second group of users 100B which may employ a variety of FEDs including for example gaming console 125, personal computer 115 and wireless/Internet enabled television 120 as well as cable modem 105. First and second cellular APs 195A and 195B respectively provide, for example, cellular GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) telephony services as well as 3G and 4G evolved services with enhanced data transport support. Second cellular AP 195B provides coverage in the exemplary embodiment to first and second user groups 100A and 100B. Alternatively the first and second user groups 100A and 100B may be geographically disparate and access the network 100 through multiple APs, not shown for clarity, distributed geographically by the network operator or operators. First cellular AP 195A as show provides coverage to first user group 100A and environment 170, which comprises second user group 100B as well as first user group 100A. Accordingly, the first and second user groups 100A and 100B may according to their particular communications interfaces communicate to the network 100 through one or more wireless communications standards such as, for example, IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, UMTS, GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, GPRS, ITU-R 5.138, ITU-R 5.150, ITU-R 5.280, and IMT-1000. It would be evident to one skilled in the art that many portable and fixed electronic devices may support multiple wireless protocols simultaneously, such that for example a user may employ GSM services such as telephony and SMS and Wi-Fi/WiMAX data transmission, VOIP and Internet access. Accordingly, portable electronic devices within first user group 100A may form associations either through standards such as IEEE 802.15 and Bluetooth as well in an ad-hoc manner.
Also connected to the network 100 are Social Networks (SOCNETS) 165, first manufacturer 170A, e.g. Linamar™; second manufacturer 170B, e.g. Magna™; steel fabricator 170C, e.g. Supreme Group™; manufacturing solutions provider 170D, e.g. Mayville Engineering Corp.; machine tool manufacturer 175A, e.g. Inovatech Engineering; and online chat/discussion/bulletin board/forum 175B, e.g. Welding Design and Fabrication (http://weldingweb.com/); as well as first and second servers 190A and 190B which together with others, not shown for clarity. Accordingly, a user employing one or more MTSAPs may interact with one or more such providers, enterprises, service providers, retailers, third parties etc. and other users. First and second servers 190A and 190B may host according to embodiments of the inventions multiple services associated with a provider of adult device systems, applications, and platforms (MTSAPs); a provider of a SOCNET or Social Media (SOME) exploiting MTSAP features; a provider of a SOCNET and/or SOME not exploiting MTSAP features; a provider of services to PEDS and/or FEDS; a provider of one or more aspects of wired and/or wireless communications; an Enterprise 160 exploiting MTSAP features; license databases; content databases; image databases; content libraries; customer databases; websites; and software applications for download to or access by FEDs and/or PEDs exploiting and/or hosting MTSAP features. First and second primary content servers 190A and 190B may also host for example other Internet services such as a search engine, financial services, third party applications and other Internet based services.
Accordingly, a user may exploit a PED and/or FED within an Enterprise 160, for example, and access one of the first or second primary content servers 190A and 190B respectively to perform an operation such as accessing/downloading an application which provides MTSAP features according to embodiments of the invention; execute an application already installed providing MTSAP features; execute a web based application providing MTSAP features; or access content. Similarly, a user may undertake such actions or others exploiting embodiments of the invention exploiting a PED or FED within first and second user groups 100A and 100B respectively via one of first and second cellular APs 195A and 195B respectively and first Wi-Fi nodes 110A.
Now referring to
The MASHUB 204 includes one or more processors 210 and a memory 212 coupled to processor(s) 210. AP 206 also includes one or more processors 211 and a memory 213 coupled to processor(s) 210. A non-exhaustive list of examples for any of processors 210 and 211 includes a central processing unit (CPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), a reduced instruction set computer (RISC), a complex instruction set computer (CISC) and the like. Furthermore, any of processors 210 and 211 may be part of application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or may be a part of application specific standard products (ASSPs). A non-exhaustive list of examples for memories 212 and 213 includes any combination of the following semiconductor devices such as registers, latches, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory devices, non-volatile random access memory devices (NVRAM), SDRAM, DRAM, double data rate (DDR) memory devices, SRAM, universal serial bus (USB) removable memory, and the like.
MASHUB 204 may include an audio input element 214, for example a microphone, and an audio output element 216, for example, a speaker, coupled to any of processors 210. MASHUB 204 may include a video input element 218, for example, a video camera or camera, and a video output element 220, for example an LCD display, coupled to any of processors 210. MASHUB 204 also includes a keyboard 215 and touchpad 217 which may for example be a physical keyboard and touchpad allowing the user to enter content or select functions within one of more applications 222. Alternatively, the keyboard 215 and touchpad 217 may be predetermined regions of a touch sensitive element forming part of the display within the MASHUB 204. The one or more applications 222 that are typically stored in memory 212 and are executable by any combination of processors 210. MASHUB 204 also includes accelerometer 260 providing three-dimensional motion input to the process 210 and GPS 262 which provides geographical location information to processor 210.
MASHUB 204 includes a protocol stack 224 and AP 206 includes a communication stack 225. Within system 200 protocol stack 224 is shown as IEEE 802.11 protocol stack but alternatively may exploit other protocol stacks such as an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) multimedia protocol stack for example. Likewise, AP stack 225 exploits a protocol stack but is not expanded for clarity. Elements of protocol stack 224 and AP stack 225 may be implemented in any combination of software, firmware and/or hardware. Protocol stack 224 includes an IEEE 802.11-compatible PHY module 226 that is coupled to one or more Tx/Rx & Antenna Circuits 228, an IEEE 802.11-compatible MAC module 230 coupled to an IEEE 802.2-compatible LLC module 232. Protocol stack 224 includes a network layer IP module 234, a transport layer User Datagram Protocol (UDP) module 236 and a transport layer Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) module 238. Protocol stack 224 also includes a session layer Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP) module 240, a Session Announcement Protocol (SAP) module 242, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) module 244 and a Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) module 246. Protocol stack 224 includes a presentation layer media negotiation module 248, a call control module 250, one or more audio codecs 252 and one or more video codecs 254. Applications 222 may be able to create maintain and/or terminate communication sessions with any of devices 207 by way of AP 206.
Typically, applications 222 may activate any of the SAP, SIP, RTSP, media negotiation and call control modules for that purpose. Typically, information may propagate from the SAP, SIP, RTSP, media negotiation and call control modules to PHY module 226 through TCP module 238, IP module 234, LLC module 232 and MAC module 230. It would be apparent to one skilled in the art that elements of the MASHUB 204 may also be implemented within the AP 206 including but not limited to one or more elements of the protocol stack 224, including for example an IEEE 802.11-compatible PHY module, an IEEE 802.11-compatible MAC module, and an IEEE 802.2-compatible LLC module 232. The AP 206 may additionally include a network layer IP module, a transport layer User Datagram Protocol (UDP) module and a transport layer Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) module as well as a session layer Real Time Transport Protocol (RTP) module, a Session Announcement Protocol (SAP) module, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) module and a Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) module, media negotiation module, and a call control module. Portable and fixed MASHUBs represented by MASHUB 204 may include one or more additional wireless or wired interfaces in addition to the depicted IEEE 802.11 interface which may be selected from the group comprising IEEE 802.15, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, UMTS, GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, GPRS, ITU-R 5.138, ITU-R 5.150, ITU-R 5.280, IMT-1000, DSL, Dial-Up, DOCSIS, Ethernet, G.hn, ISDN, MoCA, PON, and Power line communication (PLC).
Also depicted is Machine Tool (MACTO) 270 which is coupled to the MASHUB 204 through a wireless interface between Antenna 272 and Tx/Rx & Antenna Circuits 228 wherein the MASHUB 204 may support, for example, a national wireless standard such as GSM together with one or more local and/or personal area wireless protocols such as IEEE 802.11 a/b/g WiFi, IEEE 802.16 WiMAX, and IEEE 802.15 Bluetooth for example. The Antenna 272 is connected to Processor 274 and therein to Memory 276, Drivers 278, and Features 280. Accordingly, the MACTO 270 may operate as standalone device with factory installed control routines accessed through an interface on the MACTO 270, not shown for clarity, or through an application in execution upon the MASHUB 204. Subsequently, as described below one or more of these control routines may be modified, amended, deleted etc. whilst other new control routines may be created, acquired, installed etc.
Accordingly, it would be evident to one skilled the art that the MACTO 270 with associated MASHUB 204 may accordingly download original software and/or revisions for a variety of functions supported by the drivers 278 and/or features 280. In some embodiments of the invention the functions may not be implemented within the original as sold MACTO 270 and are only activated through a software/firmware revision and/or upgrade either discretely or in combination with a subscription or subscription upgrade for example. Whilst the MASHUB 204, MACTO 270 and AP 206 are depicted exploiting wireless communications it would be evident that in other embodiments of the invention one or more of these wireless communication paths may be replaced with a wired connection or a non-wireless but unwired connection such as an optical link for example or not implemented and communications are through the AP 206 for example between MACTO 270 and MASHUB 204 or even via the network 100.
Now referring to
Now referring to second schematic 300B then:
Accordingly, the operator stations 340 and 3050 in first and second schematics 300A and 300B (hereinafter operator station), acting for example as MACTO 270 with optional communications to a central machine shop system, e.g. MASHUB 204, or acting a MASHUB 204 in a stand-alone configuration provides the required control settings to the computer controlled elements of the plasma cutting machine tool system such as robot (not shown for clarity), plasma cutting tool, and plate table for example. These may be selected from a menu of control setting profiles defined, for example, by product name/product serial number etc. stored upon the operator station or alternatively the operator station retrieves the control setting profile from a remote system such as MASHUB 204. Accordingly, when the operator triggers execution of a machine tool profile (MACPRO) that defines the control settings of the plasma cutting system, in this instance although it would be evident that the MACTO 270 may be any other machine tool accepting computer numerical control (CNC) etc., together with the motion sequence of the robot and plate table as well as in other instances cross-transfer 320, infeed/outfeed conveyors 350, profile table 3050, etc.
However, they all when being processed to form an infrastructure deployment such as depicted in
Accordingly, the inventors have established a process for a plasma based robot cutting system allowing multiple sheets to be placed and processed in a single operation ensuring alignment of the multiple sheets wherein the robot cutting system performs sequential cutting processes upon the grating based upon knowledge of the deployed grating and the desired template to be cut. For example, considering
Within an embodiment of the invention the cutting machine tool (CU-MACTO) the grating sheets 710 to 730, from which the cut grating sheets 910 to 930 are formed, may be defined to the CU-MACTO through a database of stored grating sheets which defines for each grating sheet data including, but not limited to, the long axis element pitch, short axis pitch, long axis element geometry and dimensions, short axis element geometry and dimensions, material, etc. Accordingly, the CU-MACTO may exploit a camera and image processing to define the geometry and alignment of a grating sheet placed upon a tool bed of the CU-MACTO for processing.
Optionally, the CU-MATCO may exploit image processing to align multiple acquired images so that the images are at an appropriate resolution for defining grating elements within the one or more grating sheets. Optionally, rather than acquiring a full image of the grating sheets(s) to align the template to the process may be modified to capture an image or images of the grating sheet, apply image processing to define grating elements, process to define the appropriate cuts to be made relative to the grating sheet/template and make these before moving to another portion of the grating sheet.
Accordingly, a user may, such as described within U.S. Provisional 62/536,700 entitled “Usability Enhancements for CNC Tools” filed 25 Jul. 2017 and U.S. Formal “Direct Client Initiated CNC Tool Setting” filed Mar. 6, 2017 the entire contents of both being herein incorporated by reference, may align and position a template for a grating to be cut with respect to the grating sheet. Accordingly, the CU-MACTO may then based upon the template, the specification of the grating sheet, and the orientation of the grating sheet define the intersection points of the template with respect to the grating sheet which represent the grating elements that require cutting in order to separate the grating element defined by the template from the grating sheet.
Alternatively, within an embodiment of the invention the CU-MACTO may exploit the template based upon the alignment provided by the user and proceed to traverse the template from a starting point wherein the presence of a long axis or short axis element is defined through a camera and image processing and knowledge of the distance traversed, image acquired, and grating sheet design employed to define whether the axis element encountered is a long axis or short axis element such that the appropriate cutting routine may be employed, as the short axis elements may be circular rods whilst the long axis elements rectangular bars.
Accordingly, as depicted in
Alternatively, within other embodiments of the invention a user of a CU-MACTO may orientate and align a grating grid to a physical grating upon the tool bed of the CU-MACTO. Such an embodiment being depicted in respect of
However, it is evident that the grating template when aligned to the four corners does not align completely to acquired grating image. Accordingly, the user proceeds to further modify the grating template as depicted within
Alternatively, within another embodiment of the invention the CU-MATCO may measure the grating sheet and spacing of long and short axis elements in order to define a grid based upon the actual grating sheet/CU-MATCO system so that any non-linearity in the CU-MATCO or grating sheet. The measurements of the grating sheet may be performed using a camera and image processing upon the CU-MATCO discretely or in combination with force/contact detection of a sensing arm, plasma torch, etc. of the CU-MATCO. Based upon the images and processing of the images a plurality of sets of data may be established. Each set of data defining a grating element within a grating sheet. A set of data may include one or more of the following for the grating element, a first end position, a second end position, a length, and an angular orientation. The set of data may also include information derived in respect to a specification of the grating sheet based upon a selection made by the user, wherein such data may include material composition, grating element dimensions, and grating geometry for example.
Accordingly, referring to
As depicted the process comprises first to eighth steps 1210 to 1280 respectively, the being:
During the steps where the PLATO is moved relative to the grating elements such as establishing the PLATO at the mid-point of the grating element or detecting the edges then motion of the PLATO and monitoring of the plasma voltage is employed to detect changes and the CU-MATCO, to which the PLATO is connected, can then determine an action in response to the detected change. This may be a predetermined change in plasma voltage (or arc voltage) or a predetermined profile/trend within the measured plasma voltage (or arc voltage).
Similarly, at specific points such as first step 1210 and fifth step 1250 a spike in arc voltage may occur at ignition of the plasma so that employing a predetermined dwell allows for any spike in arc voltage to occur and not be included in any decision making process based upon monitoring of the arc voltage. Similarly, at third step 1230 and sixth step 1260 the PLATCO dwells for a predetermined period of time at the point the edge is detected in order to ensure that the PLATCO has cut through the edge of the grating element. Optionally, motion of the PLATCO may be a simple linear motion, a rectangular motion overall, an elliptical motion etc.
It would be evident that where the grating element is circular that the process at third and fourth steps 1230 and 1240 respectively together with the process at fifth and sixth steps 1260 and 1270 respectively may be varied such that as the PLATO detects an initial reduction in arc voltage, as the grating element—PLATO spacing increases then the PLATO executes a predetermined motion of the PLATO relative to a predetermined point established with respect to the grating element, e.g. a rotation. Such a rotation as the PLATO moves from the centre of the grating to the two edges of the grating element being depicted in
Referring to
Within the embodiments of the invention presented above in respect of
Referring to
Accordingly, each of the determined cross-over locations 1610E, 1620E, 1630E, 1640E, 1650E, and 1660E respectively is defined with respect to the acquired and processed image of the respective grating cross-over within the grating or grating sheet. It would be evident to one of skill in the art that the image processing sequence may also be employed on images of the grating sheet or grating acquired without cross-overs in order to define the mid-point of a long axis element or short axis element. Within embodiments of the invention the acquired images 1610A, 1620A, 1630A, 1640A, 1650A and 1660A respectively may be captured individually as the CU-MATCO executes a mapping process to determine cross-over locations or they may be established through an initial image processing applied to acquired images which contain multiple cross-overs. The balance between a large number of individual image acquisitions versus processing a smaller number of acquired images with resulting lower resolution image for each cross-over may be established in dependence upon factors including, but not limited to, target processing time, camera resolution, CU-MATCO processing capabilities, and target cutting accuracy. Alternatively, the individual images may be acquired based upon the CU-MATCO having a grating design already established so that the CU-MATCO may follow the outline of the grating design and establish locations of cross-overs to then define elements and therein the cutting locations.
The established cross-over locations 1610E, 1620E, 1630E, 1640E, 1650E, and 1660E respectively may within embodiments of the invention be employed directly in conjunction with a grating design, such as grating design 810 in
Accordingly, the established cross-over locations 1610E, 1620E, 1630E, 1640E, 1650E, and 1660E respectively may be employed directly or indirectly to define the locations of cutting points of one or more gratings and/or grating sheets in order to implement a grating design, such as grating design 810 in
It would be evident that the references to long axis elements and short axis elements are intended to help the person of ordinary skill in the art reading this specification to visualize the processes and designs of gratings and/or grating sheets processed with CU-MATCOs exploiting embodiments of the invention. However, such references are not absolute as a grating or grating sheet may be square, a regular polygon, irregular etc. Further, whilst embodiments of the invention have been described and depicted with the long axis elements and short axis elements crossing over approximately orthogonally (i.e. at 90°) to each other it would be evident that the cross-over angle may be non-orthogonal with intersection angles such as 30°, 45° etc. All such variations being supported by embodiments of the invention.
The embodiments of the invention presented above in respect of
Within embodiments of the invention standard process libraries may be updated such as described by the inventors within U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/266,404 filed Sep. 15, 2016 entitled “Client Initiated Vendor Verified Tool Setting.”
Within embodiments of the invention the operator may exploit one or more standard templates to define a control file to fit a piece of raw material or alternatively create a control file and then exploit the processes as described with respect to embodiments of the invention to verify/execute them and achieve finished processing with reduced processing time. Such templates may be as described by the inventors within U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/450,189 filed Mar. 6, 2017 entitled “Direct Client Initiated CNC Tool Setting.”
Specific details are given in the above description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it is understood that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits may be shown in block diagrams in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments.
Implementation of the techniques, blocks, steps and means described above may be done in various ways. For example, these techniques, blocks, steps and means may be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. For a hardware implementation, the processing units may be implemented within one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed to perform the functions described above and/or a combination thereof. Databases as referred to herein may also refer to digital repositories of content or other digitally stored content within a collection which may be indexed or non-indexed.
Also, it is noted that the embodiments may be described as a process which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be rearranged. A process is terminated when its operations are completed, but could have additional steps not included in the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the function to the calling function or the main function.
Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software, scripting languages, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages and/or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware, scripting language and/or microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may be stored in a machine readable medium, such as a storage medium. A code segment or machine-executable instruction may represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a script, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures and/or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters and/or memory content. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.
For a firmware and/or software implementation, the methodologies may be implemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. Any machine-readable medium tangibly embodying instructions may be used in implementing the methodologies described herein. For example, software codes may be stored in a memory. Memory may be implemented within the processor or external to the processor and may vary in implementation where the memory is employed in storing software codes for subsequent execution to that when the memory is employed in executing the software codes. As used herein the term “memory” refers to any type of long term, short term, volatile, nonvolatile, or other storage medium and is not to be limited to any particular type of memory or number of memories, or type of media upon which memory is stored.
Moreover, as disclosed herein, the term “storage medium” may represent one or more devices for storing data, including read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic RAM, core memory, magnetic disk storage mediums, optical storage mediums, flash memory devices and/or other machine readable mediums for storing information. The term “machine-readable medium” includes, but is not limited to portable or fixed storage devices, optical storage devices, wireless channels and/or various other mediums capable of storing, containing or carrying instruction(s) and/or data.
The methodologies described herein are, in one or more embodiments, performable by a machine which includes one or more processors that accept code segments containing instructions. For any of the methods described herein, when the instructions are executed by the machine, the machine performs the method. Any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine are included. Thus, a typical machine may be exemplified by a typical processing system that includes one or more processors. Each processor may include one or more of a CPU, a graphics-processing unit, and a programmable DSP unit. The processing system further may include a memory subsystem including main RAM and/or a static RAM, and/or ROM. A bus subsystem may be included for communicating between the components. If the processing system requires a display, such a display may be included, e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD). If manual data entry is required, the processing system also includes an input device such as one or more of an alphanumeric input unit such as a keyboard, a pointing control device such as a mouse, and so forth.
The memory includes machine-readable code segments (e.g. software or software code) including instructions for performing, when executed by the processing system, one of more of the methods described herein. The software may reside entirely in the memory, or may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the RAM and/or within the processor during execution thereof by the computer system. Thus, the memory and the processor also constitute a system comprising machine-readable code.
In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone device or may be connected, e.g., networked to other machines, in a networked deployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer or distributed network environment. The machine may be, for example, a computer, a server, a cluster of servers, a cluster of computers, a web appliance, a distributed computing environment, a cloud computing environment, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. The term “machine” may also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.
The foregoing disclosure of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many variations and modifications of the embodiments described herein will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the above disclosure. The scope of the invention is to be defined only by the claims appended hereto, and by their equivalents.
Further, in describing representative embodiments of the present invention, the specification may have presented the method and/or process of the present invention as a particular sequence of steps. However, to the extent that the method or process does not rely on the particular order of steps set forth herein, the method or process should not be limited to the particular sequence of steps described. As one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate, other sequences of steps may be possible. Therefore, the particular order of the steps set forth in the specification should not be construed as limitations on the claims. In addition, the claims directed to the method and/or process of the present invention should not be limited to the performance of their steps in the order written, and one skilled in the art can readily appreciate that the sequences may be varied and still remain within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
This application claims the benefit of priority from U.S. Provisional patent application 62/713,618 filed Aug. 2, 2018 entitled “Methods and Processes for CNC Tool Based Grating Processing”, the entire contents of which being incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62713618 | Aug 2018 | US |
