Profile characterization
AssigneeQuickmill, Inc.
InventorsDavid C. Piggott, Andy Chik Hung Wong
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method are disclosed for quickly characterizing the profile of a surface of a processed workpiece using a non-contact scanner, such as a laser scanner, in preparation for subsequent machining. The method determines the location of a plurality of features of a processed workpiece on a machine tool, and includes steps of reading a first list of approximate feature locations, defining a scan path based on the first list, scanning a profile of the workpiece along the scan path and calculating an actual location of each feature of the plurality of features based on the profile. The system and method are well suited to determine the location of features such as holes in welder header boxes.
Claims13
A method for characterizing the profile for each of a plurality of holes of a distorted processed workpiece following a processing step capable of distorting the workpiece, the method comprising:
- providing a first list of approximate hole locations derived from a CNC program used for producing the holes of the distorted processed workpiece prior to processing and defining a first scan path;
- relative to the processed workpiece, advancing a laser scanner head on a machine tool along the first scan path to determine two edge locations forming a first chord of a first hole;
- storing values for the edge locations of the first hole;
- determining a first chord length of the first hole;
- comparing the first chord length of the first hole to a predetermined minimum and maximum chord value range and in the event that the first chord length is outside the predetermined minimum and maximum chord value range, incrementally adjusting the scan path accordingly;
- relative to the processed workpiece, advancing a laser scanner head along the first scan path to determine two edge locations forming a first chord of a second hole in succession to the first hole;
- storing values for the edge locations of the second hole;
- determining a first chord length of the second hole;
- comparing the first chord length of the second hole to the predetermined minimum and maximum chord value range and in the event that the first chord length of the second hole is outside the predetermined minimum and maximum chord value ranges, incrementally adjusting the first scan path accordingly;
- relative to the processed workpiece, advancing the laser scanner head on the machine tool along the first scan path to determine two edge locations forming a first chord for each successive hole in the first scan path;
- storing values for the edge locations for each successive hole along the first scan path;
- determining a first chord length of each successive hole in the first scan path;
- relative to the processed workpiece, advancing the scanner head along a second scan path to determine two edge locations forming a second chord of each successive hole in the first list along the second scan path;
- storing values for the edge locations for each successive hole in the second scan path;
- and
- determining a second chord length of each successive hole in the first list in the second scan path;
- with the first and second chord lengths for each hole, characterizing a center for each hole in the first list.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.