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US 11,904,403 B2Granted
Position sensing a location pin in a welding electrode
AssigneeNBN Innovations, LLC
InventorTimothy P. Granger
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus includes a housing, a pin, a mechanism and a sensor. The housing is configured to receive a weld head. The pin is configured to move linearly relative to said housing. The mechanism is configured to convert a position of said pin into a displacement. The sensor is configured to generate a value representative of said position of said pin based on said displacement.
Claims18
An apparatus comprising:
- a weld head configured to apply a welding current to weld an object to a fastener;
- a rotary lever biased toward said fastener to directly engage said fastener;
- a position sensor configured to measure a position of said rotary lever;
- an object sensor configured to detect a presence of said object, wherein said detection of said object and said measurement of said position of said rotary lever occur simultaneously;
- and
- a circuit configured to (i) generate a status of said fastener based on said position of said rotary lever and (ii) determine to apply said welding current to weld said fastener to said object based on said status of said fastener and said presence of said object, wherein said status indicates that said fastener is selectively one of a properly oriented fastener, an improperly oriented fastener, and a wrong fastener.
3 more elements
A method for position sensing in a welding electrode, the method comprising:
- biasing a rotary lever toward a fastener to directly engage said fastener, wherein a weld head is configured to apply a welding current to weld an object to said fastener;
- measuring a position of said rotary lever with a position sensor;
- detecting a presence of said object with an object sensor, wherein said detecting of said object and said measuring of said position of said rotary lever occur simultaneously;
- generating in a circuit a status of said fastener based on said position of said rotary lever, wherein said status indicates that said fastener is selectively one of a properly oriented fastener, an improperly oriented fastener, and a wrong fastener;
- and
- determining with said circuit to apply said welding current to weld said fastener to said object based on the status of said fastener and said presence of said object.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.