Toyoda Van Moppes Ltd.

Hiroyasu Shimizu

Kazuhiko Sugita

Sadao Sakakibara

Kodo Kobayashi

A superabrasive grain setting apparatus for arranging superabrasive grains on a surface of a manufacturing mold used in manufacturing a grinding tool includes a grip and raising mechanism for gripping the mold in a horizontal state and for turning the mold to a vertical state. A six-axis control robot is composed of a base arm mechanism with three controlled axes and a wrist unit with three controlled axes attached to the base arm mechanism. A superabrasive grain supply device has a grain storage for storing the superabrasive grains and a grain separation mechanism for separating the superabrasive grains in the grain storage one by one to a suction position. A suction nozzle is detachably mounted on an endmost arm of the robot and provided with a bent nose portion for drawing a grain of superabrasive to a nozzle end thereof at the suction position.

Superabrasive grain setting apparatus

In a superabrasive grain setting method, a two-dimensionally developed coordinate preparation step is taken, wherein a non-cylindrical area of a mounting surface where a tangential line to the mounting surface in a plane including the axis of the manufacturing mold crosses with the axis of a manufacturing mold is developed into a circular-arc belt-like surface, and a plurality of mounting points are set on the circular-arc belt-like surface in a grid pattern in dependence on mounting positions for superabrasive grains. Then, a rectification step is taken, wherein the grid pattern of the mounting points is rectified in predetermined angular ranges so that the mounting points do not make consecutive point lines in the circumferential direction of the circular-arc belt-like surface. A mounting step is thereafter taken of mounting the superabrasive grains on the mounting surface of the manufacturing mold based on the grid pattern rectified at the rectification step.

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Okazaki, Japan

Hiroyasu Shimizu