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US 2007/0156287 A1Published application
Robot system and method for inspecting and repairing casts in smelting processes
OwnerHugo Salamancainventor
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OwnerHugo Salamancainventor
Estimating the term…
At present, the repair of casts as it is done today has the disadvantage of being carried out manually or in a semiautomatic way which means less efficiency in the system and the superficial inspection has the disadvantage of being carried out in many occasions with low levels of vision advanced technology application. Due to the above a robot system and method for the repair and/or inspection of cast surfaces in an automated way have been developed. The robotic system is composed mainly of a robotic manipulator of at least 4 degrees of freedom, and a gripping mechanism which allows to take the repair device from a tool holder rack located at one of its sides, moving it through a defined path to the repair and inspection area, where a repair process will be carried out in a sequential and programmed way to a number of cast faces to be defined. Additionally, the configuration of this system allows to carry out an inspection process of the surfaces in a sequential and programmed way through the use of a vision system by taking from a tool holder rack or carrying an advanced vision system for the inspection of surfaces.
A robot system for the repair and/or inspection of cast surfaces in metal smelting processes comprising an anthropomorphous robotic arm of at least 4 degrees of freedom, one control, communication and programming unit, one gripper adapter, one pneumatic gripper, one pneumatic gripper driving system, one electric supply system, one repair system, one advanced vision system for the inspection of surfaces and a tool holder wherein the anthropomorphous robotic arm of at least 4 degrees of freedom is provided with a pneumatic gripping mechanism which allows in a sequential and programmed way to take, manipulate and release, from a tool holder rack, a repair device and/or an advanced vision system for the inspection of surfaces, in such a way that it moves it through a defined path to the cast surface, in which the repair and inspection process of surfaces in different paths within the work volume of the robot system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.