Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Robot control
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-17
2001-12-11
Cuchlinski, Jr., William A. (Department: 3661)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Robot control
C144S134100, C144S360000, C144S135200, C144S137000, C144S114100, C144S024100, C269S021000, C269S303000, C029S559000, C428S151000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06330492
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to robotic furniture texturing, and more particularly to an apparatus and method of producing a plurality of furniture parts with substantially the same texture markings and to the plurality of furniture parts which have substantially the same texture marks.
2. Description of Related Art
Hand-crafted furniture has a desirable aesthetic appeal with many consumers. Similarly, many consumers find furniture which has picked up characteristic distress marks over time to be very desirable. Modern manufacturing methods produce furniture which does not have the aesthetically appealing surface texture markings such as those produced by hand-crafted methods or by distressing over periods of time.
This has led to manually texturing the surfaces of newly manufactured furniture to give the furniture the appearance of being hand-crafted and/or to impart the desirable appearance of being aged. The manual methods of texturing furniture have many disadvantages. It is time consuming and expensive to texture furniture manually. Furthermore, it is difficult to attain consistent and controllable results. Consequently, the manual methods of texturing furniture have the additional disadvantage of not consistently producing texturing effects which are aesthetically appealing.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a furniture texturing system which produces consistent, controllable and repeatable surface texture features to furniture.
It is another object of this invention to provide a furniture texturing system which produces seemingly random yet aesthetically pleasing patterns of distress marks on various surfaces of pieces of furniture in a consistent, controllable and repeatable manner.
It is another object of this invention to provide a furniture texturing system which produces aesthetically pleasing chattering surface texture features in a consistent, controllable and repeatable manner.
It is another object of this invention to provide a furniture texturing system in which a large variation of furniture surface texture features can be produced with a minimal amount of retooling of manufacturing equipment.
It is another object of this invention to provide furniture texturing tools to be used in a furniture texturing apparatus which produces consistent, controllable and repeatable furniture surface texture features which are aesthetically pleasing.
It is another object of this invention to provide a method of producing aesthetically pleasing surface texture features to furniture in a consistent, controllable and repeatable manner.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a plurality of furniture parts which have substantially the same aesthetically pleasing, consistent, controllable and repeatable surface texture features.
Still another object of this invention is to provide furniture parts with consistent and controllable surface chattering texture marks.
The above and related objects of this invention are realized by providing a programmable furniture texturing robotic system which can be programmed to produce aesthetically pleasing furniture surface textures in a consistent, controllable and repeatable manner. The preferred embodiment of this invention has a programmable robot with a furniture texturing tool unit attached to a tool end of the robot arm. It is desirable for the furniture texturing tool unit to be able to produce a large variety of furniture surface-texture features to minimize the requirement of having to change the furniture texturing tool unit. The furniture texturing robot of this invention has a large number of degrees of freedom and high precision for positioning furniture texturing tools of the furniture texturing tool unit at desired locations. In addition, the furniture texturing robot is capable of moving the furniture texturing tools across the furniture surface in substantially the desired motion.
In a preferred embodiment of this invention, there are two types of furniture texturing tool units. One furniture texturing tool unit is a furniture chattering tool unit which produces a plurality of furniture chattering effects. The other furniture texturing tool unit is a furniture distressing tool unit. Although the preferred embodiment has separate tool units for furniture chattering and furniture distressing, alternative embodiments include furniture texturing tool units which produce both furniture chattering and furniture distressing effects.
The furniture chattering type of surface texturing is produced with a circular saw blade which is dragged across a surface region of the furniture part. As the circular saw blade is dragged across a surface region of the furniture part, it produces crescent shaped undulations which are first shallow, increase to a maximum depth, and then abruptly return to approximately the original surface or shallow depth. These undulations can be produced to be substantially periodic over selectable small or large regions of the surface of a furniture part, or can be made to be aperiodic or random. The controllability of the robot combined with the furniture chattering tool unit of the preferred embodiment, or a combined tool unit of an alternative embodiment, permit the user to produce furniture chatter patterns which cannot reasonably be produced by hand or by other prior art methods.
The furniture distressing tool unit has a plurality of furniture distressing tools. Each of the furniture distressing tools can produce a plurality of furniture distress marks. The robot is programmed such that a large variety of furniture distress marks are produced without the need to change the furniture distressing tool unit. In an alternative embodiment, the furniture distressing tool unit includes a furniture chattering tool.
In the preferred embodiment, the furniture distressing tool unit has four different furniture distressing tools. A distressing router tool is used to produce a plurality of furniture distress marks which includes simulated crooked vein lines, uneven plank cuts and cigarette burn marks. A descalar distressing tool produces a plurality of furniture distress marks which include marks which simulate worm hole marks and rot marks. A distressing rock tool produces a plurality of indentations in the surface of the furniture which simulate rock marks. The hatchet distressing tool produces a plurality of furniture distress marks which include distress marks which simulate hatchet marks and wood split marks. The wood split marks are typically along the edge of a furniture part.
The method of texturing surfaces of furniture according to this invention includes putting a piece of wood, such as a furniture part, onto the table of the programmable furniture texturing robotic system such that it can be held while the user programs the furniture texturing robot to produce a sequence of furniture texture features. Once the user has programmed the robot to perform a sequence of furniture texturing operations which result in aesthetically pleasing furniture texturing features, the program can be used repeatedly to produce substantially the same furniture texture features on a plurality of similar furniture parts. Additional programs can be developed such that a plurality of such programs are available for use at any given time.
Finally, this invention includes furniture in which a plurality of items of furniture have surface texture features which are aesthetically pleasing and give the appearance of being unique. However, a plurality of items of furniture have surface texture features which are substantially the same even though they have the desirable appearance of being unique. This invention also includes furniture parts which have chattering-type surface textures which cannot reasonably be produced by previously known methods and devices.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3756295 (1973-09-01), Halop
patent: 4116248 (1978-09-01), Erwin
patent: 4207936 (1980-06-01), Arbour
patent: 4338052 (1982-07-01), Lockett
patent:
Jones Roger
Wisniewski Joseph
Century Furniture Industries, Inc.
Cuchlinski Jr. William A.
Marc McDieunel
Pillsbury & Winthrop LLP
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