Radius dressing apparatus

Abstract

A dresser is moved on a pivotal dresser holder arm relative to the pivot axis of the arm by a computer control unit using closed loop servo feedback from a position transducer to successively dress different radii and/or shapes (convex or concave) onto the same or different grinding wheels.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a method for dressing a grinding wheel and, in particular, to a method of radius dressing a grinding wheel.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,310 issued May 17, 1977, to John W. Lovely and Robert N. Hobbs discloses a grinding machine having a wheel dresser with a diamond dresser carried on a pivotal holder arm. The pivotal holder arm is pivotable about a substantially vertical axis to cause the diamond dresser to be moved in a circular arc path against the grinding wheel to dress a circular arc on the working face of the wheel. The diamond dresser is manually adjustable in position on the holder arm to vary the radius of the circular arc path traced by the dresser and thus the radius of the working surface dressed on the wheel.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,677 issued Aug. 5, 1986, to Richard H. Gile and Edward C. Bourgoine describes a wheel dresser for effecting orthogonal dressing of a grinding wheel by a diamond dresser. The diamond dresser is mounted on a pivotal holder similar to that of U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,310. Coarse adjustment of the diamond dresser relative to the pivot line or axis of the holder is effected manually by a set screw that slides a dresser support plate relative to the pivotal holder. Fine adjustment of the diamond dresser relative to the pivot line is provided by a manually turned threaded adjustment screw that deflects a plate carrying the diamond dresser. In this way, the radius of the circular arc path of the dresser can be varied.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,103,668 issued Aug. 1, 1978, to Hiedeo Nishimura et al discloses a rotary dresser wheel carried on a compound slide assembly controlled by an electronic control unit.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,231 issued June 23, 1981, to James Verega illustrates one or more dresser wheels that move along two different axes relative to the grinding wheel under control of the same automatic CNC unit which controls movement of the grinding wheel and table during grinding operations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention contemplates a radius dresser apparatus for dressing or truing a grinding wheel wherein a dresser member is carried on a pivotal holder arm and the dresser is adjustable in position on the pivotal holder arm to vary the position of the dresser member relative to the pivot axis of the holder arm. Adjustment of the dresser position is effected by actuator means on the pivotal holder arm controlled by a control computer using a stored dresser program in combination with dresser feedback position signals. The dresser program is correlated with workparts to be ground with different radius-defined surfaces so as to automatically dress one or more grinding wheels with different radius-defined working surfaces for grinding the workparts.

In a typical working embodiment of the invention, the dresser member is disposed on a slide that is movable on the pivotal holder arm. The slide is moved or translated on the holder by means of a worm/worm wheel drive. The worm is driven in turn by a radius setting motor, such as a servomotor, on the grinding machine and under control of the machine CNC unit. The CNC unit uses a stored dresser program and closed loop dresser position feedback signals from a position transducer associated with the radius setting motor. The output shafts of the radius setting motor and servomotor pivoting the holder arm are nested one inside another and extend through one of the pivot bearings of the holder arm. The output shaft of the radius setting motor terminates in the worm that meshes and drives the worm wheel for dresser position adjustment.

Preferably, the radius setting motor is disposed in a tubular portion of a drive shaft that pivots the dresser holder arm.

The radius dresser apparatus is suitable for automatically dressing a convex or concave radius onto a grinding wheel in accordance with a radius and shape (convex or concave) programmed into the computer numerical control (CNC) of the grinding machine. The CNC unit also controls the motor that pivots the dresser holder arm.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates schematically a grinding machine to which the invention is applicable.

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of the dresser apparatus of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the dresser apparatus of FIG. 2 along lines 3--3.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along lines 4--4 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative control system in accordance with the principles of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a side elevation of another embodiment of the invention having a different motor lay-out for rotating the dresser holder arm and for rotating the worm gear that adjusts the dresser carriage or slide on the holder arm.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along lines 7--7 of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a top plan view of the radius setting motor with the top cover removed.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view taken along lines 9--9 of FIG. 8.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view taken along lines 10--10 of FIG. 9.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring to FIG. 1, the numeral 10 generally designates a one-station electro-mechanical internal grinding machine with a single grinding wheel spindle 12 on a compound slide assembly 14.

The grinding machine 10 includes a conventional bed or base member 16 on which is operatively mounted a conventional workhead 18. The compound slide assembly 14 is also mounted on the base member 16 and includes a longitudinal or Z-axis slide 20 mounted on base 16 and a cross or X-axis slide 22 operatively mounted on Z-axis slide 20. The wheel spindle can be moved simultaneously in the Z-axis and X-axis directions by slides 20 and 22 as is well known.

The workhead 18 may be of any suitable conventional structure and includes a chucking fixture 30 for holding a workpiece. The chucking fixture 30 may be of the centerless type and rotated by a motor 33 and pulley 34 on the workhead 18.

As shown in FIG. 1, a grinding wheel 40 is operatively held in the spindle 12 which is rotated by motor 41. By movement of the Z-axis and X-axis slides 20 and 22, the grinding wheel 40 can be moved to and from the workpiece held in chucking fixture 30 and into contact with the workpiece; e.g., into contact with an inner bore, to grind same as is known.

The grinding wheel 40 is also movable by the Z-axis and X-axis slides 20 and 22 to and from the dresser apparatus 50 located laterally toward the side of the base member 16. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the dresser 50 includes a support base 52 fixed in position on the base member so that the grinding wheel 40 is brought to and from the dresser apparatus 50 to effect dressing thereof. The dresser will be described in greater detail hereinbelow.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the control system employed to control movements of the Z-axis and X-axis slides 20 and 22 as well as pivoting of the dresser holder arm and translation of the dresser member to be described below. The numeral 62 generally designates a control computer which is programmed to control all machine functions and interlocks. Such functions include lubrication status, safety interlocks, motor status and operation control station information. The control computer 6 may be any suitable digital computer or microprocessor. The control computer 62 has stored the positions and rates for all the axis moves for the various sequences which may include a grind cycle, dress cycle and so forth. The control computer 62 sends servo drive signals to the servo drive means 66 and 68 for controlling the servo motors 70,72 with respect to the respective Z-axis and X-axis slides to cause the grinding wheel to move in the desired wheel contour path. The servo drive means 66,68 take feedback from the tachometers 76,78 respectively. The numerals 80,82 designate either resolvers, encoders or "INDUCTOSYN" transducers and they provide feed back signals to the control computer 62 in closed servo loop manner, with the tachometers closing inner loops. Reference numerals 80 and 82 could also be laser interferometers or other linear displacement transducers, such as magnetic or optical scales.

A suitable control computer 62 is available on the market from Intel Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif. 95054 and sold under the name of "INTEL" (a trademark) 86/05 Single Board Computer. The servo drive means 66,68 may be any suitable servo drive means as, for example, a servo drive available on the market from Hyper Loop, Inc. of 7459 W. 79 St., Bridgeview, Ill. 60455 under the trademark "HYAMP". The HYAMP servo drive is a single phase, full wave, bi-directional SCR servo drive for D.C. motors and it provides D.C. drive power for precise speed control and regulation over a wide speed range. Another suitable servo drive designated as Size 50 is available from General Electric Co., 685 West Rio Rd., Charlottsville, Va. 22906. More preferred servo drive means is available from Inland Industrial Drives Div., Kollmorgen Corp., 201 Rock Road, Radford, Va.; model SP/R-X-1152.

The servo motors 70,72 may be any suitable D.C. servo motor. Suitable D.C. servo motors of this type are available from Torque Systems Inc., 225 Crescent St., Waltham, Mass. 02154 under the trademark "SNAPPER" and identified as frame sizes 3435 and 5115. A larger motor of this type is also available from the H.K. Porter Co., 301 Porter St., Pittsburgh, Pa. 15219. More preferred D.C. servo motors are available from Inland Industrial Drives Div. referred to in the preceding paragraph.

The tachometers 76,78 can be part of the D.C. servo motors. The resolvers, encoders or INDUCTOSYN transducer 80,82 are commercially available items and may be any suitable conventional position feedback devices available on the market. Resolvers of this type are available from the Clifton Precision Company of Clifton Heights, Pa. 19018. INDUCTOSYN precision linear and rotary position transducers are available from Farrand Controls, a division of Farrand Industries, Inc., 99 Wall St., Valhalla, N.Y. 10595. A suitable optical shaft angle encoder designated as Model No. DRC-35 is available from Dynamics Research Corp., 60 Concord St., Wilmington Mass. 01887.

The Z-axis and X-axis slides 20,22 are driven and controlled by the control system described above by a conventional ball screw (not shown), Acme screw or other screw means rotated by servo motors 70,72 as explained in U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,612 issued Dec. 6, 1983 of common assignee, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The operation of such a grinding machine 10 in the grinding mode under control of a control computer is described in detail in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,419,612 incorporated herein by reference hereinabove.

In the wheel dressing mode, the Z-axis and X-axis slides 20,22 are sequenced by the control system described hereinabove to convey the grinding wheel 40 to the dresser apparatus 50 located adjacent the side of the machine on base member 16.

The dresser apparatus 50 includes a dresser housing 100 on dresser base 52, FIG. 3. Mounted pivotably on housing 100 is a pivotal or rotatable C-shaped dresser holder arm 102. Dresser arm 102 is pivotably mounted by bottom and top spherical pivot balls or bearings 104,106 so that the dresser arm can be rotated angularly to dress or true a particular convex or concave radius onto a grinding wheel.

Lower ball 104 rests in cup-shaped cylindrical ball seat 110 on base 52. Ball seat 110 is held in position by collar 112 affixed to the base 52 by suitable means. An o-ring seal 114 is provided between the ball seat 110 and pivotal holder arm 102.

Upper ball 106 rests in cup-shaped cylindrical ball seat 120 supported in position from upper housing plate 122 by an annular diaphragm spring 124. As shown, the inner circumference of the spring 124 is clamped fixedly between a threaded collar 126 on the seat 120 and an annular shoulder 128 on the seat 120. The outer circumference of spring 124 is affixed to upper housing plate 122 by ring 129 and shim 129a and suitable screws not shown.

Upper housing plate 122 is affixed to vertically extending upper housing tube 130. Housing tube 130 is closed off at its upper end by tube cover plate 132. On tube cover plate 132, a secondary upper housing 134 is affixed and encloses a dresser arm rotation motor 140. Motor 140 preferably is a TTR-2041-XXXX-D-400 motor purchased from previously mentioned Inland Industrial Drives Division of Kollmorgen Corp.

Dresser arm rotation motor 140 includes an output shaft 142 coupled as by pin 144 to tubular shaft 146 comprised of top plate 146atube 146band bottom plate 146c. Rotation of output shaft 142 thus causes rotation of tubular shaft 146.

Tubular shaft 146 also includes a lower cylindrical sleeve extension 146d journaled in axially spaced apart anti-friction bearings 150,152. As is apparent, bearings 150,152 are disposed between sleeve extension 146d and the inner cylindrical wall of upper housing tube 130.

Sleeve extension 146d is fixedly fastened to bottom plate 146c by any suitable means such as machine screws.

Bottom plate 146c and extension 146d include an axially extending hole 156 extending along the longitudinal axis of the motor output shaft 142. A hollow cylindrical stub shaft 160 is affixed to extension 146d and depends therefrom along the longitudinal axis of the output shaft 142. The lower end of stub shaft 160 is affixed in a coupling 162 comprising upper coupling collar 162a lower coupling collar 162b and stiff coupling bellows 162c affixed between the coupling collars. Affixed in the lower coupling collar 162b is a second hollow stub shaft 164 that extends along the aforesaid longitudinal axis (i.e., is coaxial therewith) through a bore 106a in pivot ball 106 and a bore 166 in the pivot dresser holder arm 102. The end of the stub shaft 160 is affixed in bore 166 by press fit or other suitable means so that rotation of output shaft 142 of dresser rotation motor 140 causes the holder arm 102 to rotate.

As shown best in FIG. 3, a radius setting motor 170 is enclosed within the tubular shaft 146 and is supported by bottom plate 146c thereof. The motor 170 preferably is a 1442-007 motor purchased from Harowe Servo Controls, Inc., Westtown Road, West Chester, Pa. 19380.

The radius setting motor 170 includes an output shaft 172 that extends through hollow stub shaft 160, coupling 162 and stub shaft 164. Output shaft 172 is connected at its lower end to a worm gear 174 rotatably supported on the holder arm 102 by a pair of preloaded worm support cylindrical annular bearings 176,178 in a support frame 180 affixed on the arm 102.

Support frame 180 includes a bottom plate 180a, front plate 180b, rear plate 180c and central support block 180d therebetween. As shown best in FIG. 3, central support block 180d includes a cylindrical bore receiving bearings 176,178 and a retaining collar 182 is fastened to block 180d by multiple machine screws 184 to retain the bearings in position. Block 180d is provided with an axially extending bore 180e in which the worm gear 174 is received with clearance for rotation therein. A cylindrical annular anti-friction bearing 186 rotatably supports the lower end of the worm gear in bore 180e as shown in FIG. 3.

A dresser carriage or slide 200 is slidably supported on the block 180d and includes a first side guide rail member 202 and second side guide rail member 204 extending parallel to one another on the support frame 180.

Second side rail member 204 includes a tapered surface 204a that abuts a similar tapered surface on a side wedge member 206. Wedge member 206 is biased to the right in FIG. 3 against side rail member 204 by one or more, preferably multiple, coil springs 210 received in bore 180f in block 180d.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a plurality of balls 212,214 are disposed on opposite sides of dresser carriage member 220 between the respective side guide rail members 204,206. The balls 212,214 are contained by a U-shaped cage 221. The balls 212,214 are preloaded by biasing springs 210 biasing side wedge member 206 against side rail member 204 as shown. As a result, lateral play of dresser carriage member 220 transverse to the direction of dresser slide movement on the support block is virtually eliminated.

Dresser carriage member 220 includes an extension 220a that supports a preloaded nut 222 fixed in position on extension 220a. Nut 222 is preloaded by spring 224 between itself and extension 220a having a threaded inner bore to threadably receive the threaded end of drive screw 230. As shown best in FIG. 4, drive screw 230 carries antibacklash worm wheel 232 which is affixed to the drive screw 230 by pin 235. The other end of the drive screw 230 is rotatably supported by a pair of preloaded screw support bearings 238,240 on block 180d.

Thus, when worm gear 174 is incrementally rotated by radius setting motor 170, the worm wheel 232 rotates and drives carriage drive screw 230 to rotate relative to the drive nut 222 on the dresser carriage extension 220a. As a result, dresser carriage member 220 is caused to slide one direction or the other on support block 180d on holder arm 102 depending upon direction of drive screw rotation.

Dresser carriage member 220 also includes depending extension 220b on which a diamond dresser 250 having conical tip 252 is carried and is adjustable in position relative to the pivot axis or line P of the dresser holder arm 102 by sliding of the dresser carriage member 220 on support block 180dthrough the worm/worm wheel drive as actuated by radius setting motor 170.

When dresser holder arm 102 is pivoted about axis P by dresser rotation motor 140, the dresser tip 252 will be moved in circular arc path the radius of which and shape of which (convex or concave) will depend on the position of the dresser tip 252 relative to pivot axis P.

Dresser rotation motor 140 is a commercially available servo motor that is used in association with a resolver 182 and tachometer 204 that interface with servo drive means 206 through control computer 62 which may be of the known commercially available types described hereinabove, FIG. 5. Servo motor 140 receives servo signals from servo drive means 206. The control computer 62 interfaces with the servo drive means 206 and has input and stored the rein control information to provide a desired dresser holder arm pivotal motion about pivot axis P to dress a grinding wheel W having a radius defined working surface S of particular circumferential dimension. Control computer 62 uses the stored control information in combination with servo loop feed back from resolver 182 to control pivotal or incremental rotation of dresser holder arm 102 during dressing of the working face of the grinding wheel to provide the desired partial circumference for the radius-defined working surface.

Control computer 62 also has input and stored therein control information to position the dresser carriage member 220 and dresser tip 252 at a desired position relative to pivot axis P for a particular dimension (radius) and shape of working surface on the grinding wheel W. The dresser tip 252 can be moved automatically by the control computer 62 in accordance with a stored dresser program correlated with a stored workpart program for effecting grinding of different radius-defined surfaces on the same workpart or on different workparts. The operator of the grinding machine would not be required to manually reset the position of the dresser tip 252 as in the past.

To this end, the radius setting motor 170 is a servo motor that includes a tachometer 259 and an encoder or resolver 260 as a dresser feed back position transducer interfacing with servo drive means 262 through control computer 62. Control computer 62 uses the stored dresser control information in combination with servo loop feedback from resolver 260 to control and to adjust the position of the dresser tip 252 on arm 102 relative to pivot axis P so as to dress the same or different grinding wheels with working surfaces defined by different radii. The dressed grinding wheel is of course used to grind the different radius defined surfaces on the same or different workparts. Servo motor 170, servo drive means 262 and encoder 260 can be of the commercially available type described above.

With computer control of the radius setting motor 170 and thus of the position of dresser tip 252 relative to the pivot axis P, a first set of multiple workparts to be successively ground with a certain radius and shape of grinding wheel can be ground followed by a second set of multiple workparts to be successively ground by a wheel with a different radius and/or shape. The dresser tip 252 would be automatically positioned in accordance with a dresser program in the computer control to dress the first wheel radius/shape for the first set of workparts and then repositioned to dress the second wheel radius/shape for the second set of workparts and so on for other workparts to be ground.

FIGS. 6-10 illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention wherein like features are represented by like reference numerals primed. The primary difference between the embodiment of FIGS. 6-10 and that described hereinabove relates to the location and drive mechanism for the dresser arm rotation motor 140' and radius setting motor 170'.

As shown best in FIGS. 6 and 7, dresser arm rotation motor 140' is mounted on plate 123' and depends therefrom. Plate 123' is mounted from housing 130'. The motor 140' drives a pulley 141' that in turn drives a collar 143' on sleeve extension 146d ' of tubular shaft 146' through a belt 147'. In this way, the coupling 162' is rotated to rotate dresser holder arm 102' as described hereinabove.

Radius setting motor 170' is mounted in tubular shaft 146' itself rotatably mounted by bearings 150', 152'. The output shaft 172' of the motor drives worm gear 174' rotatably supported on holder arm 102' as in the above-described embodiment.

Top plate 146a ' supports radius setting motor 170' and its associated tachometer 259' and resolver 260'. Plate 146a' also supports resolver 182' for motor 140' that drives dresser holder arm 102'. Access holes 261' are provided in plate 299'.

As tubular shaft 146' is rotated about the pivot axis of arm 102' by belt 147' to incrementally rotate dresser holder arm 102', gear 182a' affixed on an input shaft 182b' of resolver 182' rotates around the periphery of a fixed gear 300' in planetary fashion', the fixed gear having its longitudinal axis coaxial with the pivot axis and being fixedly attached to plate 299'. Movement of gear 182a' in this manner allows resolver 182' to sense the rotary position of the holder arm 102' for input to computer 62.

The radius setting motor 170', when actuated to rotate shaft 172', also actuates or drives a gear 170a' that is in mesh with driven input gears 259a' and 260a' on shafts of tachometer 259' and resolver 260' so that the speed and rotary position of the shaft 172' can be sensed for the aforementioned control feedback purposes. Of course, the tachometer 259' interfaces with the respective drive means 262 and the resolvers interface with the computer control 62 as shown in FIG. 5.

In FIG. 10 it is apparent that the carriage member 220' includes an extension 220a' that carries a nut 450' with a flange 450a' between a pair of projections 460a' on shaft 460'. Shaft 460' is movably mounted by springs adjacent opposite shaft ends and carries pin 400' between a pair of proximity position sensors 402' in holder 404'. Movement of carriage 220' at its extreme positions causes flange 450a' to contact projections 460a' to in turn move pin 400' relative to the sensors. As shown shaft 460' is spring biased at opposite ends to maintain the shaft in a centered position when flange 450a' is not engaged to projections 460a'. Thus, the limits of allowable travel of the carriage 220' on dresser holder arm 102' can be sensed and input to computer 62 for controlling maximum travel of carriage 220' on arm 102' in the event of incorrect data entry or other malfunction.

Furthermore, different working surface radii and/or shapes on different parts of the same grinding wheel or on different grinding wheels can be dressed automatically in succession by the dresser as automatically repositioned by the computer 62 in accordance with a stored dresser program.

Although certain preferred embodiments of the invention have been described hereinabove and illustrated in the Figures, it is to be understood that modifications and changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method for dressing a radius-defined working surface of a grinding wheel, comprising the steps of:

(a) adjustably mounting a dresser member on a pivotal arm having a pivot axis,

(b) adjusting the position of the dresser member on the arm relative to the pivot axis thereof using a drive mechanism disposed on the pivotal arm and a drive motor operatively connected to the drive mechanism and controlled by a stored wheel dresser computer program that is correlated with workparts to be ground with different radius-defined surfaces by a grinding wheel so as to adjust the position of the dresser member to dress the same or different grinding wheels with working surfaces defined by different radii,

(c) pivoting the arm with the dresser member in an adjusted position on the arm to dress a radius-defined working surface on a grinding wheel, and

(d) repeating steps (b) and (c) to dress a different radius-defined working surface on the same or different grinding wheel without the need to manually reset the position of the dresser member on the pivotal arm.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said adjusting step further comprises positioning the dresser member with a dresser slide mounted on the holder arm.

3. A method for dressing a radius-defined working surface of a grinding wheel, comprising the steps of:

(a) adjustably mounting a dresser member on a support assembly having a pivot axis;

(b) adjusting the position of the dresser member on the support relative to the pivot axis thereof using a drive mechanism disposed on the pivotal support and a drive motor operatively connected to the drive mechanism and controlled by a stored wheel dresser computer program that is correlated with workparts to be ground with different radius-defined surfaces by a grinding wheel so as to adjust the position of the dresser member to dress the same or different grinding wheels with working surfaces defined by different radii;

(c) pivoting the dresser member in an adjusted position on the support to dress a radius-defined working surface on a grinding wheel; and

(d) repeating the adjusting and pivoting steps to dress a different radius-defined working surface on the same or different grinding wheel without the need to manually reset the position of the dresser member on the pivotal support.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the adjusting step further comprises rotating a drive screw mechanism mounted on the support assembly.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising sensing the position of the dresser and generating an electrical signal correllated with the dresser position to further adjust the dresser position in accordance with the stored program.