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US 5,285,373 AGranted
Apparatus for controlling the opening and closing of a work clamping mechanism in a numerically controlled machine tool
AssigneeToshiba Kikai Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsChikara Watanabe, Masaaki Mituzono, Hiroshi Ira
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for controlling the opening/closing of a mechanism for clamping a work machined by a numerically controlled machine tool, comprising a driver for the clamping mechanism. The apparatus controls the opening/closing of the clamping mechanism on the basis of measured data on the distance of a main shaft provided in the machine body from the origin position of the machine, measured data on the moving speed of the main shaft, coordinate values of a clamp pawl of the clamping mechanism and data on a region where the clamping mechanism is opened.
Claims14
A clamping apparatus comprising:
- (a) a base structure;
- (b) a plurality of clamping mechanisms for clamping a workpiece on said base structure;
- (c) means for opening and closing said plurality of clamping mechanisms;
- (d) an operating element movable along said base structure in a first direction;
- (e) means for detecting a position of said operating element with respect to a predetermined origin position;
- (f) means for detecting a moving speed of said operating element with respect to said base structure in said first direction;
- (g) each of said plurality of clamping mechanisms being at a predetermined position with respect to said origin and having an unclamped interval extending about said predetermined position along said first direction, said unclamped interval being based on said moving speed of said main shaft and being determined for each of said plurality of clamping mechanisms;
- (h) means for inputting said position of said operating element, said moving speed of said operating element, said position of each of said plurality of clamping mechanisms and said unclamped interval for each of said plurality of clamping mechanisms;
- and
- (i) means, connected to said inputting means, for controlling the opening and closing of said plurality of clamping mechanisms such that each of said clamping mechanisms is opened when said position of said operating element is within said unclamped interval for each of said clamping mechanisms and is closed when said position of said operating element is outside of said unclamped interval for each of said clamping mechanisms.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.