Spar Aerospace Limited

Other

Andris P Grant

William John Ballantyne

Ian H Rowe

Mattress borders are manufactured by advancing and severing a strip of border maerial into first relatively short lengths of the border material for forming handles, and second relatively longer lengths of the border material for forming mattress borders, folding and hemming the relatively short lengths to form tubular handles, temporarily storing the formed handles out of the path of advance of the strip of border material, aligning formed handles so that their tubular axes extend laterally across the longer lengths of material at desired handle positions, and serging ends of the handles to edges of the longer lengths of material to form mattress borders with handles. The invention also extends to apparatus for performing this method. The disclosed method and apparatus enable mattress borders complete with handles to be formed from a single strip of material

Mattress border production method and apparatus

An aircraft servicing system comprises four robot arms mounted to the ground so as to form a lane with the base of two of the robot arms delineating one side of the lane and the base of the other two robots delineating the other side of the lane. The robot arms may assume a low position which allows an aircraft's wings to pass over the arms while the aircraft enters the lane between the arms. Thereafter, the arms may be moved so that a nozzle array at the end of each arm may de-ice or wash the aircraft. Subsequently, the arms may again assume a low position to allow the aircraft to leave the lane. Each robot arm has an elongated member connected to the base by a yaw joint, a first arm segment connected to the elongated member by a pitch joint, second arm segment connected to the first arm segment by a pitch joint, and a third arm segment connected to the second arm segment by a telescoping joint. This gives the arm the needed range of motion and provides one degree of redundancy so that the arm has some freedom of movement while the end effector is stationary in free-space. This allows the arm to be reconfigured as necessary, on a dynamic basis, so as to anticipate possible singularities and avoid these. The system has application for servicing other large structures, such as the hull of a dry docked ship.

Robot arm and method of its use

A force moment sensor for interjection in a load path comprises two rings having a common central axis joined by a resilient wall. Three or four tongue-like targets attached to one of the rings and equally spaced about the periphery of the ring project parallel to the central axis and a like number of proximity sensing assemblies attached to the other ring detect the proximity of these targets. These target-sensing assembly pairs allow sensing of forces along the central axis and torques about the two shear axes. Three or four additional tongue-like targets attached to one of the rings and equally spaced about the periphery of the ring project perpendicular to the central axis and a like number of sensing assemblies attached to the other ring detect the proximity of these targets. These target-sensing assembly pairs permit the measuring of forces along the two shear axes and torque about the central axis.

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Toronto, Canada

Andris P Grant