Refrigeration – Liquid contacting discrete commodity – With liquid recirculating means
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-08
2001-10-23
Doerrler, William (Department: 3744)
Refrigeration
Liquid contacting discrete commodity
With liquid recirculating means
C062S064000, C451S450000, C451S007000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06305183
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1.Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for cooling a workpiece in machining such as grinding, dressing, cutting or the like.
2.Description of the Related Art
In machining, especially in grinding, coolant (i.e., grinding fluid) is supplied to a grinding zone between a grinding wheel and a workpiece to cool the machining zone in order to prevent grinding burn and to flush chips from the workpiece.
In the grinding, the coolant carried by high-speed rotation of the grinding wheel generates dynamic pressure at the grinding zone. The dynamic pressure tends to deflect the workpiece having a small diameter so as to decrease accuracy of the grinding, especially roundness of the workpiece is deteriorated. In the case of a workpiece having a recessed portion, e.g., a key way, an oil hole or the like, the recessed portion is possibly deformed after the grinding because the dynamic pressure changes at the recessed portion.
Moreover, the coolant carried by the rotation of the grinding wheel gives additional load to a motor driving the grinding wheel, so that power loss of the motor is increased.
On the other hand, cold-air-grinding is developed to improve working environment. The cold-air-grinding employs air refrigerated at 0° C. or lower instead of the coolant.
FIG. 1
shows one example of the cold-air-grinding including nozzles
30
and
31
. The nozzle
30
supplies cold air to a grinding zone P between a grinding wheel G and a workpiece W, thus reduces temperature in the workpiece W. The nozzle
31
feeds lubricating oil to the grinding zone P to prevent friction in the grinding zone P.
However, cooling effect of the cold-air-grinding is insufficient compared with the grinding using the coolant because thermal capacity of the cold air is smaller than one of the coolant.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved apparatus and a method for cooling a workpiece to reduce quantities of fluids used in machining with securing sufficient cooling effect.
Briefly, this and other objects of this invention as hereinafter will become more readily apparent as having been attained broadly by a cooling apparatus including a lubricating fluid tank, a lubricating fluid nozzle, a lubricating fluid regulating device, a cooling fluid tank, a cooling fluid nozzle and a cooling fluid regulating device.
The lubricating fluid tank stores lubricating fluid.
The lubricating fluid nozzle connects with the lubricating fluid tank for supplying the lubricating fluid to machining zone between a tool and a workpiece.
The lubricating fluid regulating device manually or automatically regulates a flow rate of the lubricating fluid supplied to the lubricating fluid nozzle within a range of flow rates of the lubricating fluid.
The cooling fluid tank stores cooling fluid.
The cooling fluid nozzle connects with the cooling fluid tank to supply the cooling fluid to the workpiece.
The cooling fluid regulating device manually or automatically regulates a flow rate of the cooling fluid supplied to the cooling fluid nozzle within a range of flow rates of the cooling fluid while the lubricating fluid nozzle supplies the lubricating fluid within the range of flow rates of the lubricating fluid.
The cooling fluid nozzle supplies the cooling fluid to the workpiece to directly cool the workpiece so as to the cooling effect is enhanced. The lubricating fluid nozzle feeds the lubricating fluid to the machining zone to prevent frictional heat generated in the machining zone from raising temperature of the workpiece. Since an appropriate amount of the lubricating fluid within the range helps the cooling effect of the cooling fluid, a quantity of the cooling fluid is reduced within the minimum range of the cooling fluid. A consumption of the lubricating fluid is much smaller than that of the cooling fluid. Therefore, a total amount of the fluids is extremely reduced.
The range of flow rates of the lubricating fluid has an upper limit that is preferably approximately 100.0 cm
3
/h or smaller in 1.0 mm of a contacting length in the machining zone.
The range of flow rates of the cooling fluid has an upper limit that is preferably approximately 500.0 cm
3
/min or smaller in 1.0 mm of a contacting length in the machining zone.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5494134 (1996-02-01), McConkey
patent: 5681209 (1997-10-01), Naumann et al.
patent: 5730643 (1998-03-01), Bartlett
patent: 5768927 (1998-06-01), Kajiwara et al.
patent: 5833523 (1998-11-01), Hykes
patent: 6083084 (2000-07-01), Yokogawa et al.
patent: 52-124294 (1977-10-01), None
patent: 58-4356 (1983-01-01), None
patent: 59-176749 (1984-11-01), None
patent: 61-146467 (1986-07-01), None
patent: 01-164061 (1989-11-01), None
patent: 10-86036 (1998-07-01), None
Mukai Ryohei
Suzuki Hirohide
Tamashima Hideki
Doerrler William
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Toyoda Koki Kabushiki Kaisha
LandOfFree
Apparatus and method for cooling workpiece does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Apparatus and method for cooling workpiece, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Apparatus and method for cooling workpiece will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2612939