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US 11,537,102 B2Granted
Systems and methods to provide vendor managed inventory with active tracking
AssigneeIllinois Tool Works Inc.
InventorTodd Holverson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a system and method to track the consumption and use period of various consumable and/or durable welding-type products via tracking the consumption and/or use of various other consumable and/or durable welding-type products. The system and method may provide alerts when the use period of a consumable and/or durable welding-type product satisfies a threshold and therefore should be replaced.
Claims19
A system for tracking welding-type products, comprising:
- processing circuitry;
- and
- memory circuitry comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to:
- monitor a first consumed quantity of a welding consumable while a first durable welding product is installed in a first welding system,
- determine a first use period for the first durable welding product based on the first consumed quantity of the welding consumable,
- in response to receiving a first signal indicating an uninstallation of the first durable welding product, record the first use period as an estimated life period of a durable welding product,
- in response to a second signal indicating installation of a second durable welding product in a second welding system, monitor a second consumed quantity of the welding consumable while the second durable welding product is installed,
- determine a second use period for the second durable welding product based on the second consumed quantity of the welding consumable,
- retrieve the estimated life period of the durable welding product,
- compare the second use period to the estimated life period, and in response to the second use period being less than the estimated life period, output a remaining use period via an operator interface, wherein the remaining use period comprises a difference between the estimated life period and the second use period.
7 more elements
A system for tracking welding-type products, comprising:
- processing circuitry;
- and
- memory circuitry comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to:
- identify a number of times one or more first durable welding products are installed or uninstalled,
- determine a use period for a second durable welding product based on the number of times the one or more first durable welding products are installed or uninstalled,
- determine whether the second durable welding product should be replaced based on the use period, and
- in response to determining the second durable welding product should be replaced, signal an alert via an operator interface or prevent the welding-type system from performing a welding-type operation.
4 more elements
A system for tracking welding-type products, comprising:
- processing circuitry;
- and
- memory circuitry comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to:
- monitor a first consumed quantity of a welding consumable while a first durable welding product is installed in a first welding system,
- determine a first use period for the first durable welding product based on the first consumed quantity of the welding consumable,
- in response to receiving a first signal indicating an uninstallation of the first durable welding product, record the first use period as an estimated life period of a durable welding product,
- in response to a second signal indicating installation of a second durable welding product in a second welding system, monitor a second consumed quantity of the welding consumable while the second durable welding product is installed,
- determine a second use period for the second durable welding product based on the second consumed quantity of the welding consumable,
- retrieve the estimated life period of the durable welding product,
- compare the second use period to the estimated life period, and
- in response to the second use period being greater than the estimated life period, signal an alert via an operator interface or prevent the welding-type system from performing a welding-type operation.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.