Patent Application
20080035727
The drawings illustrate some preferred embodiments presently contemplated for carrying out the invention.
In the drawings:
As one skilled in the art will fully appreciate, the following description of welding consumables, welding accessories, and welding systems applies equally to the constituents of other high power output systems, such as heating and cutting systems, that utilize similar consumable materials. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that reference to welding wire, shielding gas, flux, welding consumables, welding-type consumables, welders, or welding generally, includes the similar or corresponding concepts and materials of welding, cutting, or heating systems. Thus, description of the consumables, accessories, and other inventory for a welding apparatus illustrates just one environment in which the present invention may be implemented.
Broadly, a preferred embodiment of the present invention relates to a system for storing and conveying inventory of welding-type consumables to welding work zones within a manufacturing facility or similar environment. The consumables are typically delivered to such a facility in bulk shipments or containers. For example, welding filler wire is generally shipped as individual packages loaded on pallets or skids. However, it is appreciated that the present invention is compatible with and/or adaptable to use with a wide variety of welding inventory shipment units and containers, such as pallets, skids, tanks, boxes, trays, bins, carts, barrels, drums, and the like. For these reasons, it is recognized that the present invention may find use in other settings where a large volume of regularly used and replenished production items or raw materials must be inventoried, tracked, stored, and/or distributed to work zones within an industrial environment.
Referring now to
Each work zone 30, 32, 34 is shown containing only welding cells 36, 38, 40 which utilize the same type of consumable. Each welding cell 36, 38, 40 is an area of the manufacturing facility 12 where a certain type of welding operation is conducted as a stage in the overall production process. Thus, each cell 36, 38, 40 may require only one type of welding consumable. A manufacturer who desires the efficiency, reliability, and lower costs per unit of relatively simple implementations can make use of the present invention in an embodiment where only one type of welding consumable, such as inventory 18, is loaded onto each conveyor, such as conveyor 24. In such a case, dock personnel will need less training, the sensors associated with the conveyors need not be as complex, and initial capital investments will be lower than the aforementioned prior art techniques. Thus, the present invention is particularly useful in facilities that use large quantities of one type of welding consumable at individual locations.
However, other implementations and arrangements of tracks 24, 26, 28 within a facility 12 are contemplated. To some extent, the size and shape of a facility, the manner of receiving inventory, and the types of welding processes being performed may dictate which type of track arrangement is most beneficial. For example, it is appreciated that certain welding processes require multiple types of consumables, such as flux, electrode tips, filler wire, or shielding gas, in which case either tracks 24, 26, 28 could be configured to convey more than one type of consumable at once or multiple tracks could convey consumables to the same work zone or welding cell. Also, it is recognized that several work zones or welding cells may all require the same welding-type consumables, in which case one track might facilitate common inventory storage for several welding processes and/or steps in a production process. In other words, one track can service or support multiple welding zones and/or one welding zone can be supported by multiple tracks. Thus, the various options, adaptations, and alternative embodiments of the present invention render it beneficial for use when multiple types of consumable are loaded onto each conveyor, when increased inventory management automation is desired, and when inventory must be conveyed to work zones in other than single file order or first-in first-out order.
In the example shown, track 24 conveys inventory 18 from delivery dock 14 to work zone 30. By organizing and storing welding-type inventory only on tracks, the practice of storing inventory containers on portions of the floor in work zones can be eliminated. In essence, the tracks 24, 26, 28 are the “storage zones” of facility 12. Welding personnel working at cells 34 replenish their supplies of consumables by removing packages or other subunits of the consumable from the inventory shipment units 18 located on track 24. Preferably, inventory 18 is conveyed in a single-file order along track 24 so that only inventory packages from the shipment unit at the unloading end 23 are being used by welding personnel at any given time. In this manner, a first-in first-out inventory order is maintained. Track 28 operates in a similar manner, conveying inventory 22 from dock 16 to work zone 32 for use by welding cells 38. A welding zone 34 may contain one welding cell 40 that requires enough consumable inventory 20 to warrant its own track 26.
Tracks 24 and 26 are equipped with data wires 43 to transmit information from the sensors and detectors (not shown) associated therewith to an information center 42. It is understood, however, that there are a number of ways in which inventory type information could be transmitted from tracks 24, 26, 28 to a central hub or information center 42. For example, track 28 is depicted as wirelessly communicating with information center 42. Information center 42 maintains inventory counts based on information from all the tracks 24, 26, 28 in the facility 12, and may calculate reordering thresholds or generate automatic reorder requests. As will be discussed below, these inventory calculations may alternatively be carried out by the tracks themselves.
Referring now to
With respect to the arrangements of sensors and detectors discussed previously, there are a number of sensor and detector types that may be used to acquire the same data or similar data to achieve the same purposes, as will be described below. Each inventory unit 52 is shown with a barcode label 56 affixed thereon so that a barcode reader 58 can scan each inventory unit 52 for identification and characteristic information. This information can include the type of consumable contained in the unit 52, the type of subunits or packages 54 in which the consumable is shipped, control numbers, serial numbers, lot numbers, vendor or manufacturer numbers, date codes, wire compositions, wire diameters, draw characteristics of wire, gas volumes or pressures, flux characteristics, temperature information, compatible welding equipment and accessories, appropriate or common uses of the inventory, and the like. The information may be transferred immediately to an information center 42, or may be recorded by a separate processing unit (not shown) of the track 44 itself. Alternatively, the reader 58 may have memory storage and processing capabilities, or the processing unit may be incorporated with the reader 58.
Track 44 also includes a series of horizontal counters or inventory unit sensors 60 which determine the presence of inventory 52 loaded on the track 44. Unit sensors 60 are used to maintain a count of how many inventory units 52 are on the track 44, to continuously monitor the positions of inventory units 52, and to determine when and which of the units 52 might be removed from the track 44 before reaching the unloading end 48. Unit sensors 60 are shown as optical or infrared sensors, which are disposed across from one another in pairs on opposite sides (not visible) of track 44 to detect the presence of units 52 by emitting a detection signal when an inventory object intervenes between the sensors 60. However, it is understood that other sensors may detect inventory units in varying ways, such as by measuring the weight on track 44 or by detecting when mechanical arms or levers are depressed as inventory units pass by on track 44. Thus, track 44 may manage an electronic queue of the inventory units 52 thereon by identifying the order in which the inventory units 52 are loaded onto the track, and which units 52 are removed from the track. Also, though unit sensors 60 are shown as spaced along the length of track 44, the function of unit sensors 60—to detect units 52—may also be achieved by a single sensor 60 which extends along the entire length of track 44.
Similarly, track 44 is displayed having end package detectors or subunit sensors 62. When a pallet reaches the unloading end 48 of track 44, packages are removed from pallets as needed for welding processes in the various cells of one or more work zones. However, to maintain a more accurate inventory count, it is often desirable for manufacturers to know not only how many inventory shipment units are on-hand, but also how many individual inventory packages or subunits remain on the shipment unit at the unloading end 48 of track 44. As shown, subunit sensors 62 may be optical or infrared sensors similar to unit sensors 60, though other sensor types are appreciated. Furthermore, it will be appreciated that the position, number, and orientation of sensors 62 may be varied depending upon the typical shipment unit type, shape, or other such constraints for better detection of which packages 54 are being removed, the approximate number of remaining packages 54, and other desired measurements.
In embodiments where all inventory units 52 are the same type (e.g. pallets) and only one type of consumable is loaded thereon, maintaining a queue of which inventory units 52 are located in which positions on track 44 is optional. Instead, a simple count of the number of inventory units 52 on track 44 could suffice for inventory monitoring purposes, especially in embodiments in which the track does not permit incorrect inventory types to be loaded thereon. Thus, if a unit was removed from the track before it reached the unloading end, efficient inventory management might only require knowing that the number of pallets was reduced rather than which particular pallet was removed, since the pallets are uniform. If a track permitted any type of inventory to be loaded thereon, and monitored which and where the wrong pallets were, then a queue may be desirable. In such an embodiment, each time a unit is loaded onto the track, a record might be made and stored in a queue, as will be further described below.
Referring now to
The track surface 70 is shown as supported by weight sensors 84. These may be compression transducers 84, suspension-type weight sensors, or other suitable means for measuring the weight of inventory 74. Regardless, weight sensors 84 function in one or both of two respects. First, weight sensors 84 may be used independently to determine the presence of an inventory unit 74 at particular positions along the length of track 64, and thus functioning in a similar manner to the horizontal unit detectors 60 of
Referring now to
As mentioned above, a single unit detector 112 may be employed to detect the presences and position of inventory objects on track 88. Unit detector 112 is shown as an optical or infrared sensor extending along the length of track 88, though other known methods for detecting the presence of inventory or other intervening objects may be employed. Finally, a weight sensor arrangement 114 is positioned under the unloading end only of track 88 to monitor the remaining consumable inventory subunits 98 per shipment unit 96. That is, the system is able to read the shipment weight and weight-per-subunit of each inventory unit 96 from the barcode or wireless information obtained from RFID reader or barcode scanner 108, and can then calculate the remaining subunits 98 of the last inventory unit 96 from the weight differential.
The manner in which systems of the present invention operate to process incoming inventory, determine current inventory amounts, calculate inventory reorder thresholds, determine the proper or improper location of particular shipment units, and other functionalities, will be described now with reference to
With reference to
Once the contents of an inventory unit are known, the system validates 124 whether the inventory unit is the right type of inventory for the work zone or zones to which the track leads. The validation determinations may be carried out by an information center, a processing unit of the track, or by the data readers or scanners themselves. Regardless, an operator may designate or pre-select a number of inventory types which will be in use in a work zone to which the track leads. The designated welding inventory types are then stored as corresponding acceptable type codes in memory for comparison to the current unit's type code. Alternatively, the weight of a loaded unit may be measured against the known weight of inventory units corresponding to welding processes being carried out in a work zone to which the track leads, or other suitable means may be employed for validating the inventory type. If the inventory unit is not the correct type for any welding zone 128 which the track services, an alert or warning is indicated to the user and the unit is not conveyed to the zone or zones 130. Instead, the unit is removed from the track and brought to the proper track 131. In this regard, the tracks may include warning units including display messages, warning lights, or means for transmitting error codes or messages to operators. Once a warning is indicated, an operator then removes the inventory unit and loads it onto the appropriate track 118. If the inventory type is correct for the welding zone or zones to which the track leads 126, then the system creates and stores a data record in either an on-board track memory or in system memory containing the data read from the unit 132. The unit is considered to be processed at this point, and the facility's inventory totals stored in system memory are updated to reflect the contents of the inventory unit 134 via a communication means such as data lines or wireless transmissions, as discussed above.
Once an inventory unit has been conveyed to the unloading end of a track, welding personnel from the corresponding work zone or zones will begin to unload individual packages or subunits from the inventory unit for use in welding processes occurring in their cells. As the number of remaining subunits decreases, inventory subunit detectors apprise the system of the remaining subunits 138. If the inventory unit included more than one type of welding inventory, the system will use the relative location information for each type of inventory from the barcode or RFID scan in conjunction with the package or subunit scanner to determine which types of inventory are being removed. The system continuously or periodically updates inventory totals for the track and/or the entire facility to reflect this data 140. The sensors of the unloading end of the track may be configured to automatically trigger an inventory reevaluation when one or a specified number of subunits/packages are removed from the inventory unit at the unloading end of the track. Alternatively, the system may simply use a continuous monitoring to detect changes in the remaining inventory subunits at the unloading end of a track. By monitoring the removal of subunits or packages, the inventory totals for a facility will be more precise than if only inventory units or pallets were monitored. Yet, the inventory totals will also not be overly precise, as in the case of monitoring the linear feet of welding wire consumed at each welding process. Finally, when an inventory unit has been emptied, its record is deleted from the system memory 142. When a record is deleted, the system may take note of the time the unit was emptied, the time it took for the unit to be emptied, the day it was emptied, the processes and jobs being performed while it was being emptied, the time of year, etc., for purposes of calculating when new orders may be needed in the future.
Referring now to
While the unit is on the track, the system monitors its position in the queue relative to the other units on the track. The unit detectors 60, 84, or 112 of
Once a unit reaches the unloading end of the track, subunit sensors monitor how many subunits remain on the unit 168 as welding personnel remove subunits for consumption in welding processes. As in the embodiment of
Referring now to
The manner in which the system determines whether a reorder is needed 178 will vary on a case by case basis according to each facility's needs, consumption rates, budgets, receiving and storage capabilities, and other factors. While the description herein of one embodiment of a reordering procedure contains several steps and takes multiple variables into account, it is appreciated that many of these steps and considerations are optional or that others may be necessary. In each embodiment, however, the system will utilize current inventory counts maintained in memory for each type of inventory. In addition, some systems may take into account shipments in transit and/or shipping units on-hand which have not yet been processed by the tracks when determining whether additional orders are required.
In one version of the present invention, manufacturers may simply pre-set minimum levels of inventory they wish to maintain on-hand for each type of inventory. When the inventory counts reach this threshold level, the system may either issue an automated order request to the inventory vendor, or may simply notify operators at the facility that more inventory must be ordered. Alternatively, the system may calculate actual or average rates of use for each type of inventory from the date and time information recorded by the tracks as inventory units are used up. Usage rates may also be broken down statistically to depend upon additional variables, such as which types of jobs were being performed when usage rates were high or low, to adjust for fluctuations in consumable demand. Records of the amount of time it has taken vendors to fill and ship orders may also be kept for purposes of order calculation. Thus, the system can calculate threshold reorder values as both inventory amounts and as dates, based upon the current inventory counts and a prediction of the rate at which the inventory will be used.
The comparison of the inventory counts to a present minimum or the calculation of other threshold statistics may occur continuously, or be set for periodic checks, such as daily or weekly. If the system determines that an order is not needed 180, the system will revert to monitoring inventory totals. If the system determines that an order is needed 182, the process of generating an estimated order begins 184. Manufacturers may input storage limitations of the facility and/or warehouses or other desired maximum inventory amounts to serve as a benchmark for inventory order quantities. Otherwise, the system may simply order enough new inventory shipment units to fill the tracks that are near empty or emptying. As shown, the system then submits an estimated order to the manufacturer for approval 186.
In other embodiments, manufacturers may generate their own order estimates manually or by other internal means. In a preferred embodiment, the system reports the inventory information, the threshold value comparisons, or both directly to the appropriate vendor or vendors automatically via an external communication means. In such an automated embodiment, the manufacturer will essentially never have to reorder inventory or materials, yet will also never run out of a required type of inventory. In all embodiments, however, an order is received by a vendor 188 who fills and ships the requested amounts of inventory 190. Preferably, vendors will communicate a notice to the manufacturer or directly to the system when the full order or a partial order has been shipped, so that the system may reflect such inventory as “in transit” 192 for subsequent ordering calculations to avoid duplicative orders. Similarly, when the manufacturer receives the ordered shipment units, they may be temporarily reflected in the system as “on-site” 194 before they are loaded onto the appropriate tracks 196 and processed into inventory counts 198. The processing of inventory units may be done in any of the variations of inventory processing methods discussed with reference to
Accordingly, it has been shown that the present invention provides a flexible and adaptable wireless communication system for welding-type devices. The present invention is particularly useful in locating and maintaining an inventory of welding-type devices, in preventing theft and misplacement of devices, and in organizing maintenance and resource distribution.
Therefore, an inventory management system is provided having a conveyor which is configured to move and store inventory units of welding-type consumables or other materials to at least one work zone. A reader is positioned at the first end of the conveyor to determine type information from welding inventory units as they are loaded onto the conveyor. An inventory unit sensor is arranged to detect the presence of inventory units on the conveyor and an inventory subunit sensor is positioned at the second end of the conveyor to detect the number of inventory subunits remaining on an inventory unit. Data from the reader, the inventory unit sensor, and the inventory subunit sensor is received by an information center. The reader, the inventory unit sensor, or both determine whether the welding inventory units loaded onto the conveyor correspond to welding processes being performed in the at least one work zone.
The present invention also includes an apparatus for maintaining welding consumable inventory which includes at least one storage surface having a loading end in a receiving area and an unloading end in a work zone. The loading end is configured to receive and scan information from welding consumable shipment units and the unloading end is configured to detect the number of remaining subunits of a welding consumable shipment unit. A processing unit is also included that is configured to determine whether the welding consumable shipment units on a storage surface are of the correct type to be used in the work zone, to manage a queue of the welding consumable shipment units on a storage surface, and to calculate at least one inventory amount thereof.
A method for implementing an automated welding inventory system is also provided. The method includes delivering welding consumable bulk shipments to a welding facility, monitoring type information for each bulk shipment loaded onto a conveyor, and monitoring the quantity of each bulk shipment type. Current inventory counts are then maintained for each type of welding consumable received, based on the shipment type information and quantity received. When one or more of the inventory counts is reduced to a threshold amount, an order request is generated for additional welding consumable shipments, which are then delivered to the facility.
The present invention has been described in terms of the preferred embodiment, and it is recognized that equivalents, alternatives, and modifications, aside from those expressly stated, are possible and within the scope of the appending claims.
