US 11,465,369 B2 · Closed loop heat staking device and method

Abstract

A novel spring-loaded device utilizes a linear or rotary measuring sensor to measure distance and control heat using a PID loop or other type of control loop feedback program. The power of the heating element is controlled by a program, which takes distance from the target into consideration when determining output power. For example, if the target distance is 10 mm away the algorithm will apply 100% power until reaching 9 mm, at which point it will lower power to 90%. When the distance is 5 mm from the target, the power level will be 50%, and so on and so forth. The closed loop nature of the system will reduce power automatically using pulse width modulation (PWM) of the input power. This will allow modulation of the power to the heating element on the fly.

Claims9

Dependent claims

A method for plastic heat staking, which comprises the steps of:

(a) determining a distance between a heating tip (12) of a boss heat forming device (10) in its home position and a surface of a part (42) containing a boss (46) to be heated;
(b) placing the boss containing part in a fixture (38) with an upper part (44) containing an alignment feature (48) through which the boss penetrates and extends above the upper part;
(c) heating the heating tip of the boss heat forming device tip at full power in the boss heat forming device home position;
(d) moving the heating tip of the boss heat forming device towards the boss while a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller (54) decreases the power applied to the heating tip proportionally based on a distance between the heating tip and the surface of the boss containing part;
and
(e) ceasing applying power to the heating tip when the determined distance is reached by the heating tip.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Closed loop heat staking device and method

Life of this patent

Closed loop heat staking device and method

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims9