General Electric Company

Other

James E Randolph, Sr

R David Hemmerle

John G Frezza

The hand support device comprises a structure mounted to a bathroom wall over the commode or urinal. The support device comprises a generally flat base portion and a horizontally extending adjustable post mechanism attached to the base portion. Adjustable post mechanism is mounted between a palm contact substrate and a brace. The post mechanism includes a hollow horizontal tube having a horizontal rod adjustably disposed within the tube. The tube is formed with a plurality of apertures of a diameter for selectively receiving a spring-loaded pin formed on a surface of the rod to establish a plurality of hand support positions. One end of the adjustment rod contains a ball bearing embedded within a brace partially in the base plate thereby allowing the post to pivot about a vertical and horizontal axis.

Hand support apparatus over a commode or urinal

The invention provides a system and method for automatically, accurately, and repeatable aligning computer numerically controlled (CNC) movable machine components with respect to their respective degrees of freedom of motion. One embodiment of the invention, particularly useful for maintenance purposes, provides a programmable CNC programmer that uses a spindle mounted probe to measure at least two different positions of a point on a movable machine component to evaluate the geometric condition of the component with respect to a degree of freedom of motion of the component and issue alignment instructions to the machine operator. One embodiment provides the invention in a CNC computer program on a programmable media having a programmed set of instructions. The preferred embodiment uses the controller control the CNC machine's operation and spindle movement, perform the machine components' maintenance evaluation, and issue instructions for aligning the components in a consistent manner.

Automated maintenance system for computer numerically controlled machines

The present invention provides a system and method to accurately provide three-dimensional rotary tool point compensation by evaluating a CNC machining center's geometric condition with respect to a trunnioned spindle mechanism of the machining center as it applies to the degrees of freedom of motion that affect the rotary tool point positioning of a cutting tool mounted in a tool holder of the spindle mechanism. The present invention evaluates the geometric condition of the trunnioned spindle mechanism by positioning the tool point in contact with a reference point or datum and recording a first coordinate position, then rotating the spindle mechanism 90.degree. about a trunnion axis and positioning the tool point in contact with the same reference point a second time. A second coordinate location is recorded when the tool point contacts the reference point the second time. The rotary tool point offsets are then determined from the two recorded coordinate locations and the coordinates of the tool point may be appropriately automatically compensated for the offsets during a machining operation.

Comprehensive three-dimensional rotary tool point compensation

The invention provides a system, method, and computer program for automatically evaluating the linear displacement and inclination of the centerline of a piece of hardware to be machined on a computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine relative to an axis of rotation of the machine about which the hardware will be rotated. The invention also provides a compensation for correcting for any hardware axis misalignment.

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Wilmington, NC, United States of America

James E Randolph, Sr