System for management of cutting machines

A cutting machine management network system, comprising:

• a variable number of instrumented cutting machines, each cutting machine including a processor with a virtual machine component that scans instrumentation on the cutting machine and maintains status information representative of the status of the instrumentation;
• a database server that maintains a database of descriptive information describing the instrumented cutting machines and that is responsive to queries;
• a machine monitor networked to each instrumented cutting machine, the machine monitor including a processor with a machine monitor component that scans the virtual machine components and maintains a status array including the status information from each virtual machine component;
• a web server for processing requests from distributed clients and serving hypertext documents;
• a dynamic content server for interpreting dynamic content markup documents including code segments, said dynamic content server querying the database server to retrieve the descriptive information, retrieving the status array from the machine monitor, and generating hypertext documents in response to requests from the distributed clients and internal interpretation of said code segments, wherein said hypertext documents include differing user interaction elements and displayed information depending on the content of the descriptive information and the status array.

A cutting machine management network system, comprising:

• a plurality of replaceable cutting elements for shaping workpieces;
• a variable number of cutting machines in which a cutting element may be installed to shape workpieces, each cutting machine associated with a processor having a virtual machine component that scans at least cutting element status on the cutting machine and maintains status information representative of the status of the cutting elements;
• a database server that maintains a database of information describing a plurality of instrumented cutting machines, that stores usage information for each cutting element, and that is responsive to queries;
• a machine monitor networked to each cutting machine, the machine monitor including a processor with a machine monitor component that scans the virtual machine components, maintains a status array including the cutting element status from each virtual machine component, and generates said usage information depending on the status array;
• a user interface serving component for communicating with the database server and the machine monitor, for serving interactive user interface elements containing the cutting element usage information;
• and
• at least one user interface interpreting component for displaying the user interface elements.

A cutting machine management network system, comprising:

• an internet protocol network;
• a plurality of instrumented cutting machines;
• a plurality of machine-representative processors, each having a processor unit and at least one programmed component interpreted by the processor unit, each programmed component representing one of the instrumented cutting machines and communicating with instrumentation on the represented instrumented cutting machine, each programmed component having an addressable identity within the internet protocol network corresponding to the represented instrumented cutting machine;
• at least one interface displaying station that receives local input of user access level information from a user that identifies an access level of the user, transmits within the internet protocol network requests that differ according to said user access level information and that request information descriptive of the represented instrumented cutting machines, and displays interfaces received from the internet protocol network;
• a dynamic content server that receives said information descriptive of the represented instrumented cutting machines from the programmed components via the internet protocol network, and that serves, via the internet protocol network, privileged information to the interface displaying stations, said privileged information being a portion of said information descriptive of the represented instrumented cutting machines, the content of said portion depending on the content of the user access level information.

A system for monitoring of cutting machines, comprising:

• an internet protocol network;
• a plurality of instrumented cutting machines;
• a plurality of machine-representative processors, each having a processor unit and at least one programmed component interpreted by the processor unit, each programmed component representing an instrumented cutting machine and communicating with instrumentation on the represented instrumented cutting machine, each programmed component having an addressable identity on the internet protocol network corresponding to the represented instrumented cutting machine;
• a database serving component that (i) communicates within the internet protocol network with the programmed components and that (ii) records and reads descriptive data including an alarm table specifying alarm conditions of said instrumentation of said plurality of instrumented cutting machines;
• an alarm checking component, having access to the internet protocol network, that evaluates when the alarm conditions of the instrumentation of said plurality of cutting machines are satisfied;
• a user interface serving component that (i) communicates with the database serving component within the internet protocol network, that (ii) serves, within the internet protocol network, an interface containing an alert indicator when an alarm condition is satisfied according to the alarm checking component;
• and
• at least one interface displaying station that receives the interface containing the alert indicator from the internet protocol network and displays the interface containing the alert indicator.

A system for monitoring of cutting machines, comprising:

• an internet protocol network;
• a plurality of instrumented cutting machines including instrumentation that detect alarm conditions of consumable material levels, said consumable material levels including at least one of a fluid level and a raw material level;
• a plurality of machine-representative processors, each having a processor unit and at least one programmed component interpreted by the processor unit, each programmed component representing an instrumented cutting machine and communicating with instrumentation on the represented instrumented cutting machine, each programmed component having an addressable identity on the internet protocol network corresponding to the represented instrumented cutting machine;
• a consumable monitoring system that communicates, within the internet protocol network, with a machine monitoring component, said consumable monitoring system including an alarm checking component that evaluates when the alarm conditions of the consumable material levels of the instrumentation of said plurality of instrumented cutting machines are satisfied;
• and
• an alert display instruction serving component, having access to the internet protocol network, that (i) communicates, within the internet protocol network, with the alarm checking component and that (ii) serves, within the internet protocol network, an alert display instruction when an alarm condition is satisfied;
• and
• at least one interface displaying station that receives, from the internet protocol network, the alert display instruction and that displays a consumable status alert indicator corresponding to the alert display instruction.

A cutting machine management network system, comprising:

• an internet protocol network;
• a plurality of instrumented cutting machines;
• a plurality of machine-representative processors, each having a processor unit and at least one programmed component interpreted by the processor unit, each programmed component representing an instrumented cutting machine and communicating with instrumentation on the represented instrumented cutting machine to obtain status information, each programmed component having an addressable identity on the internet protocol network corresponding to the represented instrumented cutting machine;
• a database server that maintains a database of information describing the instrumented cutting machines, and that stores usage information for each instrumented cutting machine according to said obtained status information;
• and
• a machine monitor networked via the internet protocol network to each machine-representative processor, the machine monitor including a processor with a machine monitor component that receives status information from the machine-representative processors and provides said status information for each instrumented cutting machine to said database server,
• each programmed component being a standalone component, independent of remaining components of said network system, that stores said status information until communication with said machine monitor is permitted.

A cutting machine and cutting element management network system, comprising:

• an internet protocol network;
• a plurality of instrumented cutting machines that each operate together with a selected cutting element from an inventory of a plurality of cutting elements;
• a plurality of machine-representative processors, each having a processor unit and at least one programmed component interpreted by the processor unit, each programmed component representing an instrumented cutting machine and communicating with instrumentation on the represented instrumented cutting machine, each programmed component having an addressable identity on the internet protocol network corresponding to the represented instrumented cutting machine;
• a database server that maintains a database of information describing the instrumented cutting machines;
• and
• a machine monitor networked via the internet protocol network to all of the machine-representative processors, the machine monitor including a processor with a machine monitor component that receives machine status information and cutting element status information from the machine-representative processors and provides said machine status information and cutting element status information for each instrumented cutting machine to said database server,
• said database server storing usage information for each instrumented cutting machine and for each cutting element in said inventory of the plurality of cutting elements according to said received machine status information and said received cutting element status information.

A cutting machine management network system, comprising:

• a local internet protocol network connected to the Internet;
• a plurality of instrumented cutting machines;
• a plurality of machine-representative processors, each having a processor unit and at least one programmed component interpreted by the processor unit that represents an instrumented cutting machine and communicates with instrumentation on the represented instrumented cutting machine, each programmed component having an identity on the local internet protocol network corresponding to the represented instrumented cutting machine;
• a plurality of facility browser stations on said local internet protocol network, each facility browser station including an interface displaying component that receives an interface from the local internet protocol network and displays the interface together with an access level input component that receives input of user access level information from a user at the facility browser station;
• and
• a user interface serving component that (i) associates a selected programmed component that represents a selected instrumented cutting machine with a logged-in facility browser station on said local internet protocol network and that (ii) serves to said logged-in facility browser station, within the internet protocol network, an interface containing information representative of said selected programmed component that represents a selected instrumented cutting machine,
• said local internet protocol network receiving requests for extra-facility on-line information relating to said selected instrumented cutting machine from said logged-in facility browser station and forwarding the extra-facility request for on-line information to a designated station on the Internet.

A method for managing cutting machines in a network system, comprising:

• representing an instrumented cutting machine by at least one programmed component interpreted by a processor unit, each programmed component having an addressable identity within an internet protocol network corresponding to the represented instrumented cutting machine;
• communicating between instrumentation on a represented instrumented cutting machine and said at least one programmed component;
• receiving, at a dynamic content server, information descriptive of the cutting machines from the programmed components via the internet protocol network;
• receiving, at an interface displaying station, local input of user access level information from a user that identifies an access level of the user;
• transmitting from the interface displaying station, within the internet protocol network, requests that differ according to said user access level information and that request information descriptive of the represented cutting machines;
• serving, from the dynamic content server, and via the internet protocol network, privileged information to the interface displaying stations, said privileged information being a portion of said information descriptive of the represented cutting machines, the content of said portion depending on the content of the user access level information;
• and
• displaying, at the interface displaying station, interfaces received from the internet protocol network.