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US 9,937,561 B2Granted
Fly-cutting head, system and method, and tooling and sheeting produced therewith
Assignee3M Innovative Properties Company
InventorsAlan B. Campbell, Dale L. Ehnes, Daniel S. Wertz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A fly-cutting system is disclosed, and in particular one that comprises a dynamically-controllable actuator for controlling the position, orientation, or both position and orientation of a cutting element carried by a fly-cutting head. In certain embodiments, the actuator can adjust the position or orientation of a cutting element, or both, hundreds or thousands of times per second, enabling precise control over the shape of features formed by the cutting element in a surface of a workpiece.
Claims8
A fly-cutting apparatus comprising:
- a motorized spindle for supporting and rotating a workpiece according to command signals from a control system;
- a continuously rotatable fly-cutting head, the fly-cutting head being rotatable about an axis of rotation, wherein the fly-cutting head includes:
- a device mounted to an outer radius of the fly-cutting head, wherein the device is adapted to deform or remove material from the workpiece;
- and
- a dynamically-controllable actuator, positioned between the axis of rotation and the device and radially spaced from the axis of rotation that changes a position of the device relative to the fly-cutting head, during a cutting operation in response to the command signals from the control system, such that the device traces a controllable, predetermined cutting path relative to a position and rotation of the workpiece.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.