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US 5,313,402 AGranted
Midway start method in numerical control system
AssigneeOkuma Corporation
InventorKenji Ito
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AssigneeOkuma Corporation
InventorKenji Ito
Estimating the term…
According to this invention method for starting a machining program midway for a numerical control system, an operator simply selects with a cursor key a tool number or a tool offset number of the tool which is to be used for the machining step the operator wishes to execute out of the numbers displayed on the screen and can easily start the machining program from the top block of the desired machining step or the tool command block with the selected tool number or the tool offset number. By selecting the shape of the tool which is to be used for the machining step by means of a cursor key or the like out of the tool shapes displayed on the screen, the operator can start the machining program midway from the top block of which tool number or the tool offset number is designated. When the machining program is to be started from midway according to the method, as the machining path of a step is displayed, the operator can confirm whether the block to start the machining program midway is right or wrong.
A midway start method in a numerical control system wherein a specified block is selected as a midway start block out of the blocks of a machining program to execute the machining program from said selected midway start block, which comprises the steps of extracting a tool command block wherein a tool exchange command is written from said machining program, displaying the tool numbers or tool offset numbers in the unit of said tool command block, selecting a specified tool number or the tool offset number out of said tool numbers or the tool offset numbers, and determining the tool command block wherein said specific tool number or the specific tool offset number is written as said midway start block.
A midway start method in a numerical control system wherein a specified block is selected as a midway start block out of the blocks of a machining program to execute the machining program from said selected midway start block, which comprises the steps of preparing tool drawing data for each tool number or each tool offset number in advance, extracting a tool command block out of said machining program, displaying tool shapes for each of said tool command blocks based on said tool drawing data corresponding to the tool number or the tool offset number designated in said tool command block, selecting a specific tool shape out of said tool shapes, and determining the tool command block wherein the tool number or the tool offset number corresponding to said specific tool shape is written as the midway start block.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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No related US applications are recorded in the indexed filing history.
Numerical control [NC], i.e. automatically operating machines, in particular machine tools, e.g. in a manufacturing environment, so as to…
Nc in input of data, input key till input tape: display part, select, mark element and edit corresponding block
Machine tool, machine tool null till machine tool work handling: rough, coarse and finish, fine machining
Machine tool, machine tool null till machine tool work handling: for fine machining, select tool and offset, block and restart midway
Term ended 1 Dec 2012 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for midway starting a machining program in a numerical control (NC) system, and more particularly, relates to a method for starting the machining process in a unit of a step in the numerical control system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the accompanying drawings:
FIG. 1 is a view to explain the general machining program;
FIG. 2 is a view to show an example of the display screen according to the conventional method;
FIG. 4 is a block diagram to show the first embodiment to realize the midway start method in a numerical control system in correspondence with FIG. 3. The same parts are denoted with the same reference numbers and the explanations thereof are omitted.
A tool command block TLBLK is extracted out of the machining program PRO stored in the machining program memory 4 by means of a tool command block extracting section 13, and the number TLA of blocks from the top block to the tool command block TLBLK is combined with the tool number TLB at the tool command block TLBLK to be sent to a tool shape display section 14 as well as to a midway start block instruction section 10'. Since the tool command blocks exist in a plural number, if the extracted tool command block TLBLK is the Nth tool command block, the number of the blocks from the top block to the tool command block TLBLK becomes "TLA (N)" and the tool number at the tool command block TLBLK becomes "TLB (N)".
As the method to extract the tool command block, there is proposed a method to search a tool change command from the top block of the machining program. The number TLA of blocks from the top block to the tool command block TLBLK may easily be generated by setting the block counter used when the tool change command is searched.