Gear cutting – milling – or planing – Milling – Including means to infeed rotary cutter toward work
Patent
1993-10-05
1996-11-19
Howell, Daniel W.
Gear cutting, milling, or planing
Milling
Including means to infeed rotary cutter toward work
74 8915, 408234, 408236, 409211, 409216, 901 23, 901 29, B23C 112, B25J 910
Patent
active
055755976
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention generally concerns an improved mechanical manipulator and more particularly, though not exclusively, relates to a new concept in machine tooling which enables the restrictions imposed by conventional orthogonal axis machine tools to be comprehensively overcome. While the invention will be described hereinafter with reference to a machine tool embodiment, those possessed of the appropriate skills and imagination will readily appreciate that the invention is capable of wider application.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Apart from the use of computers to control movement increments, machine tools have changed little in their operating principles in the past hundred years. Modern machine tools rely upon the provision of a series of movement axes, stacked one after another, enabling an operator to effect independent movement in each axis. To keep such an arrangement stiff requires heavy and bulky mechanisms which in turn constrains the freedom of available movement. The pinnacle of modern day machine tool technology is the computer numerically controlled (CNC) five-axis mill which enables smoothly flowing curved surfaces to be produced. The cost of such CNC machines is typically of the order of hundreds of thousands of pounds, excluding the cost of essential complex computer aided manufacturing (CAM) software.
Computer aided design (CAD) systems have been developed and are widely used which far outstrip the abilities of machine tool based CAM systems, and there is a recognised need to bridge this gap and enable companies more readily to translate their CAD developments into CAM hardware. The product that hitherto has come closest to satisfying this requirement, at least for model making applications, is the stereolithography (SLA) system developed by 3D Systems Inc. In this SLA system models are "grown" in a vat of photo-polymer by scanning cross-sections with an ultraviolet laser. The technique offers poor initial surface finish, uses a very expensive and specialised material, is very slow, and furthermore is very expensive to install; despite these serious limitations the interest that has been stimulated by the SLA system has led to the development of several equivalent processes utilizing different chemical reactions by major league international industrial corporations. Other high technology proposals reportedly under development include the fusing of plastics beads by the heat of a laser beam and the deposition of plastics from molten droplets. The development of such sophisticatedly complex systems, despite their self-evident disadvantages, is a clear indication that industry has turned its back on the possibility of conventional machine tools being developed to such a level of sophistication as to enable the goal of what might be called desk-top manufacturing to be achieved.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
As mentioned in the foregoing, in modern industry much of the design of new products and components is achieved by CAD systems, but it has been a difficult and expensive route to produce the thus-designed objects directly from the CAD data. The problems have been the limited range of movement of current machine tools and their high cost, their inability to recognise their own workspace to plan complex motion activity, and the technical expertise necessary for users to utilize CAM software. The present invention aims to provide new solutions in all of these areas, and more particularly proposes their embodiment into a part manufacturing peripheral enabling desk-top manufacturing.
According to the present invention in one of its aspects, therefore, there is provided a mechanical movement system wherein means defining a platform base for further manipulative movement is mounted for movement with substantial freedom in translation and rotation by means of a plurality of legs the length and angular orientation whereof is controllably adjustable. In an exemplary embodiment which will be described in detail hereinafter, the platform has three pairs of supportive
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Bailey Ralph P. S.
Leary Jerome J.
Geodetic Technology International Holdings N.V.
Howell Daniel W.
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