Western Gear Machinery Co.

John P Veale

A conditioner grinder having a workpiece carried by a car that reciprocates adjacent a grinding wheel. The grinding wheel is supported for movement in a direction both normal to the surface to be ground and transversely across the surface to be ground. Movement of the grinding wheel in both of these directiond is through conventional hydraulic actuators. The hydraulic actuator indexing the grinding wheel transversely across the workpiece contains a pair of pressure sensors that measure the differential pressure across the piston of the actuator. The differential pressure signal is subtracted from a position error indicative of the difference between the actual position of the grinding wheel and the desired transverse position of the grinding wheel. In the event that the position error exceeds a predetermined value, a pressure command added to the position error increases or decreases linearly with time toward the position error, thereby providing a steady-state error signal to cancel the signal resulting from a differential pressure across the piston under steady-state conditions.

Pressure-compensated hydraulic positioning system

A control system for a workpiece conditioner grinder that compensates for bowing or curvature of the workpiece. The curvature of the workpiece is initially determined by recording a set of grinding wheel position measurements when the grinding wheel is contacting the upper surface of the workpiece. These measurements are used to calculate offsets from a fixed plane of reference, and the offsets are summed with vertical grinding wheel position command signals generated while the grinding wheel is grinding the sides of the workpiece. The vertical position of the grinding wheel is thus modified by the offset in order to cause the grinding wheel to remove material in a longitudinally extending strip having a curvature conforming to the curvature of the workpiece. Alternatively, the offset signal may be generated in real time and summed with the vertical position command signal.

Workpiece profile-following control system for conditioning grinders

A conditioner grinder having a workpiece carried by a car that reciprocates adjacent a grinding wheel. The grinding wheel is supported for movement in a direction both normal to the surface to be ground and transversely across the surface to be ground. Movement of the grinding wheel in both of these directions is through conventional hydraulic actuators. The hydraulic actuator indexing the grinding wheel transversely across the workpiece contains a pair of pressure sensors that measure the differential pressure across the piston of the actuator. The differential pressure signal is subtracted from a position error indicative of the difference between the actual position of the grinding wheel and the desired transverse position of the grinding wheel. In the event that the position error exceeds a predetermined value, a pressure command added to the position error increases or decreases linearly with time toward the position error, thereby providing a steady-state error signal to cancel the signal resulting from a differential pressure across the piston under steady-state conditions.

Growing community of inventors

Snohomish County, WA, United States of America

John P Veale