Tool changing – With means to condition or adjust tool or tool support
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-07
2001-07-24
Briggs, William (Department: 3722)
Tool changing
With means to condition or adjust tool or tool support
C408S061000, C409S134000, C409S137000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06264590
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a tool holder unit for chuck heads.
The invention relates in particular to a tool holder unit for chuck mounting heads in automatic machine tools, machining centers and robotized systems, such as borers, routers, reamers and the like, able to perform dry machining with chip removal on unworked or semi-finished parts such as, for example, dies, moulds, electrodes, metal sheeting and structural parts of complex elements in general for the automotive, aeronautical and mechanical engineering industries in general, to which the present description refers, but without restricting the scope of the inventive concept.
Automatic machine tools of the type described above basically comprise main working modules supported by gantry mounting structures or uprights both of which may be mobile and which are usually equipped with an arm designed to support at one end of it, called “wrist”, a chuck mounting head. The chuck in turn mounts the tool holder and the tool.
The supporting arm is therefore capable of motion in space along the three linear axes of a parallel kinematic reference system. The gantry structures and the uprights of any given machine tool can move along these axes thanks to the prismatic guides and ball screws with which the gantry structures or uprights themselves are equipped. In addition, the chuck mounting head is joined to the end of the supporting arm by a sleeve and can therefore turn about three axes of rotation so that it and the corresponding tool holder mounted on it can perform any straight-line or angular movement in space.
These machine tools are also equipped with magazines which contain a plurality of tools and the corresponding tool holders which the above mentioned arm can access at any time during the machining cycle in order to change the tool holders whenever a different tool is required to perform a different machine operation.
One of the main shortcomings of machines of this kind is due to the fact that, during operations such as routing, boring and reaming, and especially in the case of dry machining operations, the cutting tools create an enormous quantity of waste material in the form of relatively fine chips, dust and gases which, on escaping to the atmosphere, can be extremely dangerous for those working near the machines. This is especially true if the parts being machined are made, for example, of carbon fiber, graphite, plastic fiber or chalk, whose machining waste has a very high content of pollutants.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a tool holder unit that overcomes the above mentioned drawback by effectively solving the problem of environmental pollution in the room or rooms where the tools work, while remaining easy to change and automatically connectable to the chuck mounting head.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention provides a tool holder unit for chuck mounting heads used in machining where chips are removed from the worked part and waste material consequently produced, said tool holder unit comprising: a tool holder spindle having a first end which connects with the chuck mounting head and a second end on which a tool is mounted; and an extraction device associated to the tool holder spindle and comprising at least one first pipe having at least one first end located in an area close to the tool and a second end equipped with connection means designed to connect the first pipe to corresponding second connection means associated to the chuck mounting head and connected to means for producing a flow of fluid at a defined pressure along the first pipe so as to remove from the area close to the tool the waste material produced by machining.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3828649 (1974-08-01), Lecailtel
patent: 4037982 (1977-07-01), Clement
patent: 4563115 (1986-01-01), Abe et al.
patent: 4652190 (1987-03-01), Corsi
patent: 4957148 (1990-09-01), Shoda
patent: 4981403 (1991-01-01), Katayama
patent: 5632579 (1997-05-01), Susnjara
patent: 5791842 (1998-08-01), Sugata
patent: 4313658 (1994-06-01), None
Briggs William
Jobs S.p.A.
Pillsbury & Winthrop LLP
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