Measuring and testing – Testing of apparatus
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-15
2001-06-05
Oen, William (Department: 2855)
Measuring and testing
Testing of apparatus
Reexamination Certificate
active
06240793
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to testing systems used during assembly of an article of manufacture, such as a piston of a vehicle engine, and more particularly to an automated apparatus and method for confirming presence of at least one ring within a groove of the article of manufacture by measuring air flow within the groove, during assembly of the article of manufacture.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention will be described for confirming the presence of at least one ring within a groove of a piston of a vehicle engine during assembly of the piston. However, the present invention may be used for confirming the presence of at least one ring within a groove of any type of article of manufacture during assembly of the article of manufacture, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art from the description herein.
Referring to
FIG. 1
, a piston
100
is a common component of a vehicle engine, and the piston
100
typically has several types of rings assembled into grooves on the outside of the piston
100
, as known to one of ordinary skill in the art of vehicle system design. For example, the piston
100
of
FIG. 1
has a first compression ring
102
assembled into a first groove on the piston
100
, a second compression ring
104
assembled into a second groove on the piston
100
, and an oil ring assembly
106
assembled into a third groove on the piston
100
.
FIG. 2
shows an enlarged view of the second compression ring
104
and the oil ring assembly
106
within the dashed box of FIG.
1
. Referring to
FIG. 2
, the second compression ring
104
is one solid ring assembled into the second groove
108
on the piston
100
. The oil ring assembly
106
includes three separates rings assembled into the third groove
110
on the piston
100
. The oil ring assembly
106
includes a first scraper ring
112
, a second scraper ring
114
, and a separator ring
116
disposed between the first scraper ring
112
and the second scraper ring
114
.
These rings
102
,
104
,
112
,
114
, and
116
are typically assembled into the grooves of the piston
110
manually, and an assembly line operator may mistakenly fail to assemble a ring to the piston
100
. During further assembly of the piston and during assembly of the piston into a vehicle engine, the absence of one of the first compression ring
102
or the second compression ring
104
is relatively easy to determine visually. On the other hand, the absence of one of the first scraper ring
112
, the second scraper ring
114
, or the separator ring
116
of the oil ring assembly
106
is relatively hard to determine visually.
However, with the absence of any of these oil rings, the vehicle engine does not run properly. In addition, the absence of any these oil rings as the reason for improper operation of the vehicle engine is harder to determine once the vehicle engine is completely assembled. Furthermore, corrective action for the absence of any of these oil rings may be performed more easily if the absence of any these oil rings is detected during assembly of the piston and before the piston is assembled into the vehicle engine.
In light of the importance of the presence of all of the rings on the piston for proper operation of the vehicle engine, a mechanism is desired for automatically confirming the presence of all of at least one ring within a groove during assembly of the piston.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention is a testing apparatus and method for automatically confirming the presence of all of at least one ring within a groove of an article of manufacture, such as a piston of a vehicle engine, during assembly of the article of manufacture. Generally, the present invention includes a test head having an opening with a first amount of air flow through the opening when the opening is not placed onto the groove of the article of manufacture. This opening of the test head is placed onto the groove of the article of manufacture resulting in a second amount of air flow through the opening. This second amount of air flow depends on the presence of each of the at least one ring within the groove. The present invention further includes a test head air pressure sensor, coupled to the opening of the test head, for measuring the second amount of air flow through the opening. If any of the rings within the groove of the article of manufacture is not present, then the extra space created within the groove by the absence of such a ring results in an increase in this second amount of air flow. A microcontroller, operatively coupled to the test head air pressure sensor, determines the absence of any of the at least one ring within the groove from this second amount of air flow through the opening as measured by the test head air pressure sensor.
In this manner, by using an air pressure sensor and a microcontroller, the absence of any of the at least one ring within the groove of the article of manufacture may be determined automatically during assembly of the article of manufacture. A alarm indication that a ring is not present within the groove of the article of manufacture is provided such that any action for correcting such an undesired situation may be performed during assembly of the article of manufacture.
In addition, the present invention includes calibration and monitoring mechanisms such that the opening of the test head is held on the groove of the article of manufacture with a proper force and to ensure a consistent amount of air flow through the opening of the test head when the test head is not placed onto the groove of the article of manufacture. Such calibration and monitoring mechanisms result in a reliable confirmation of the presence of all of the at least one ring within the groove of the article of manufacture.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be better understood by considering the following detailed description of the invention which is presented with the attached drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4755636 (1988-07-01), Akio
patent: 4755637 (1988-07-01), Turck
patent: 5488860 (1996-02-01), Speck et al.
patent: 5497669 (1996-03-01), Hafner
Choi Monica H.
Honda of America Mfg. Inc.
Oen William
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