US 7,181,310 B2Granted

Automatic tool layout apparatus and method

AssigneesHong Fu Jin Precision Ind. (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.

InventorsKuo Jung Huang, Chung-Shan Cheng, Zejun Dai, XiaoBing Gao, Jin Song Li, ZhiHui Wang, Wei Shao, Shengzhong Yi

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Abstract

An apparatus (2) for automatically laying out punching tools on a turret is used in a computer-aided manufacturing system for sheet-metal punching. The system includes a server (1), a database (3), and client computers (7). The apparatus resides in the server, and is used for receiving drawings from the client computers to obtain information on workpieces, selecting punching tools in accordance with sizes and shapes of each type of drawing entity of the workpieces and in accordance with materials of the workpieces and machining allowances set by users, selecting a corresponding tool station on the turret for each of the selected punching tools in accordance with a type of the turret and specifications of the selected punching tool, mounting each punching tool on the corresponding tool station, selecting an optimum manufacturing path for each punching tool, and recording punching tool layout information. A related method is also provided.

Claims20

Dependent claims

An automatic tool layout apparatus, comprising:

a drawing processing module for receiving one or more drawings from one or more client computers, and for obtaining information on workpieces from the drawings;
a condition maintaining module for calculating exact conditions according to sizes and shapes of each type of drawing entity of the workpieces, and for calculating inexact conditions according to materials of the workpieces and machining allowances set by users;
a matching module for selecting punching tools for each type of drawing entity according to the exact conditions or the inexact conditions of the type of drawing entity;
a searching module for searching for punching tool information in a database according to the exact conditions or the inexact conditions of the type of drawing entity when no punching tool on a corresponding turret matches the type of drawing entity;
and
a tool layout module for selecting a corresponding tool station on the turret for each selected punching tool according to a type of the turret and specifications of the punching tool, mounting the punching tool in the corresponding tool station on the turret, and selecting an optimum manufacturing path for the punching tool.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 10/894,603Filed 19 Jul 2004
Priority: TW 92119709 A18 Jul 2003
Published: US 2005/0015223 A120 Jan 2005
Granted: 20 Feb 2007
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification9 codes

G05B 19/4097
Numerical control [NC], i.e. automatically operating machines, in particular machine tools, e.g. in a manufacturing environment, so as to…
G05B 2219/32422
Operator till task planning: tool management and database management
G05B 2219/35005
Nc in input of data, input till input file format: sheet metal cad
G05B 2219/36354
Nc in input of data, input key till input tape: select from table with machining type and corresponding tools