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US 9,308,662 B2Granted
Automatically removing waste material using a strip die when cutting a sheet of material according to a predetermined pattern
AssigneeEsko-Graphics Kongsberg AS
InventorIvar Holm
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cutting and stripping apparatus has a controller and causes a strip die to be prepared with cutouts according to a pre-determined pattern, e.g., on a cutting table and positioned on a stripping station that has a removal tool to remove waste material. After a sheet of material is cut on the same or another cutting table, the sheet is positioned in the stripping station over the female strip die. The removal tool moves to programmed positions in the stripping station and removes pieces of waste material. The final stripped cut sheet is the brought to the out-stack.
Claims17
A cutting and stripping apparatus to make a strip-die, cut a sheet of stock material according to a pre-defined pattern, and to automatically remove waste material using the strip die, the apparatus including:
- a cutting surface having a cutting area on which a sheet of material may be placed;
- a stripping station surface having a stripping area on which a strip die sheet of material may be placed;
- at least one tool holder mechanism operable to controllably move a cutting tool over the cutting area and be able to controllably move a removal tool over the stripping area;
- and
- a controller comprising one or more processors, a connection to the at least one tool cutting mechanism, and one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that are coupled to the one or more processors, the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media having stored therein instructions that when executed by at least one processor of the controller:
- (a) cause the controller to accept a pre-determined material-cutting pattern for cutting a to-be-cut sheet of material into one or more final portions and one or more to-be-removed pieces of waste material, such that the sheet after cutting and removing of the one or more to-be-removed pieces of waste material includes the one or more final portions and one or more voids,
- (b) cause the controller to accept or determine a strip-die cutting pattern for preparing a strip die, the strip-die cutting pattern determined using the pre-determined material-cutting pattern, wherein a strip die prepared according to the strip-die cutting pattern comprises one or more openings and one or more final strip-die portions, with at least one of the one or more final portions of the cut sheet of material having a corresponding final strip-die portion in the prepared strip die, and having a shape, after cutting, that is similar to the shape of the corresponding final strip-die portion;
- (c) cause the cutting tool to cut a sheet of strip-die material that that is positioned on the cutting table surface, and cause removing one or more to-be-removed pieces of waste strip-die material, the cutting and removing preparing a strip die made of the strip-die material according to the strip-die cutting pattern, wherein the prepared strip die is positioned at a strip-die position on the stripping station surface
- (d) cause the cutting tool to cut a to-be-cut sheet of stock material that has been placed on the cutting surface according to the pre-determined material-cutting pattern, resulting in a cut sheet of stock material that includes, in cut form, the one or more final portions and the one or more to-be-removed pieces of waste material;
- (e) cause the cut sheet of stock material to be moved to the stripping station surface positioned over the strip die at a pre-determined position relative to the strip-die position such that the at least one of the one or more final portions of the cut sheet of stock material covers the corresponding final strip-die portion;
- and
- (f) cause the removal tool to remove the one or more to-be-removed pieces of waste material from the cut sheet of stock material.
9 more elements
A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions encoded thereon that when executed by one or more processors of a controller in or coupled to a cutting and stripping apparatus, cause the apparatus to:
- cut a sheet of strip-die material that has been positioned on a cutting-table surface of the apparatus, the cutting being according to a strip-die cutting pattern,
- remove one or more to-be-removed pieces of waste strip-die material to form a strip die according to the strip-die cutting pattern, the formed strip die positioned on a stripping station surface of the apparatus;
- cut a to-be-cut sheet of stock material that is positioned on the cutting table surface, the cutting according to a pre-determined material-cutting pattern, the cutting forming a cut sheet of stock material having one or more final portions and one or more to-be-removed pieces of waste material;
- move the cut sheet of stock material to the stripping station surface positioned over the formed strip die at a pre-determined position relative to the strip-die position;
- and
- remove the one or more to-be-removed pieces of waste material from the cut sheet of stock material,
- wherein the strip-die cutting pattern is determined using the pre-determined material-cutting pattern, such that a to-be-cut sheet of stock material after cutting and removal of the pieces of waste material forms a sheet of stock material that includes the one or more final portions and that has one or more voids,
- wherein the prepared strip die comprises one or more final strip-die portions corresponding to the one or more final portions, and one or more strip-die openings corresponding at least some of the one or more voids;
- wherein at least one of the one or more final portions of stock material has a corresponding final strip-die portion in the prepared strip die, and has a shape, after cutting, that is similar to the shape of the corresponding final strip-die portion;
- and
- wherein each void in the cut sheet of stock material is smaller than the corresponding strip-die opening in the prepared strip die.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.