US 5,516,089 AGranted

Adjustable workpiece locating unit

AssigneeGerber Systems Corporation

InventorsDana W. Seniff, James M. Diener

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Abstract

A workpiece locating unit is receivable in a T-slot formed in a workpiece supporting table member and provides a pin or other locating device cooperable with a locating feature on a workpiece to aid in accurately positioning the workpiece on the work supporting surface of the table member. The unit has four corners each providing an abutment surface for engagement with one or the other of two vertical slot surfaces. Two diagonally opposite ones of the abutment surfaces are rigid and the other two diagonally opposite ones of the abutment surfaces are resilient. The resilient abutment surfaces resiliently engage the two vertical surfaces of the slot and urge the unit about a vertical axis to hold the rigid abutment surfaces engaged with the vertical slot surfaces eliminating lateral looseness between the unit and the table member and providing accurate positioning of the locating device of the unit as the unit is moved from one position to another along the length of the slot.

A workpiece holding table member having a planar upwardly facing horizontal work supporting surface and an elongated T-slot with a central axis running parallel to said work supporting surface and having a mouth communicating with said work supporting surface;

in combination with a workpiece locating unit slidably received in said T-slot;
said slot below said mouth having two downwardly facing upper guide surfaces located on opposite sides of said mouth, two vertical guide surfaces each extending downwardly from a respective one of said upper guide surfaces, and an upwardly facing bottom surface extending between said vertical guide surfaces and spaced below said two upper guide surfaces;
said unit including a slide body having a longitudinal axis generally parallel to the central axis of said slot and having two side portions located on opposite sides of said longitudinal axis each of which side portions is received between a respectively associated one of said upper guide surfaces and said bottom surface of said slot, said side portions further each having a rigid abutment surface rigidly fixed relative to the remainder of said slide body and a resilient abutment surface resiliently movable horizontally relative to the remainder of said slide body in the direction toward said longitudinal axis, said two rigid abutment surfaces of said two side portions, when said unit is out of said sloe with no lateral forces applied to said resilient abutment surfaces, being spaced from one another in the direction perpendicular to said longitudinal axis by a distance less than the spacing between said two vertical guide surfaces of said slot and being spaced from one another in the direction of said longitudinal axis, and said two resilient abutment surfaces of said two side portions being spaced from one another in the direction perpendicular to said longitudinal axis by a distance greater than said spacing between said two vertical guide surfaces of said slot and being spaced from one another in the direction of said longitudinal axis so that said two resilient abutment surfaces resiliently engage said two vertical guide surfaces and urge said slide body about a vertical axis causing said rigid abutment surfaces to be held in engagement with said two vertical guide surfaces of said slot, and means carried by said slide body defining a workpiece locating device within the vertically extending zone of said slot mouth.

Abstract

Claims21