Western Gear Corporation

Other

Robert F Obear

Bruno A Rist

David E Olson

Allen E Peirce

An environmentally sealed, EMI suppressed shock/vibration protected microcomputer workstation is provided by a sealed enclosure of stainless steel having a lower base portion for containing a dampened, spring suspension platform carrying the CPU and electronics, and an upper hood portion for housing the CRT which is removably held in place by a unique arrangement of support pins that cooperatively seat in quick release brackets affixed to the enclosure's interior walls. A front panel of the base portion mounts a stainless steel tactile dome keyboard retained and sealed about its perimeter within a stainless steel casement that in turn is welded to the stainless steel walls of the base portion. The enclosure further includes a labyrinth cable seal assembly for entry of standard flexible cables without need for special fittings, a magnetic disk drive port having a removable marine-type circular compression seal closure, and a fluid port for circulation of coolant to an internal fluid-to-air heat exchanger for removing heat build-up from the interior of the housing.

Environment protected industrial microcomputer

An elongated metal workpiece such as a slab or billet is moved longitudinally beneath a grinding head by a reciprocating carriage mounted on an elongated track. The carriage receives a billet from a charging table, reciprocates the billet beneath the grinding head for a plurality of grinding passes, and then delivers the finished billet to a discharge table. The grinder head includes a rotating grinding wheel mounted at the end of a first arm which is pivotally secured to one end of a pivotally mounted second arm. The vertical position of the grinding wheel, and hence the downward force exerted by the grinding wheel on the billet, is principally determined by the angular position and torque, respectively, of the first arm while the horizontal position of the grinding wheel transverse to the longitudinal axis of the billet is principally determined by the angular position of the second arm. Grinding wheel vibration is limited by clamping the second arm to a massive, rigid foundation during each grinding pass thereby limiting the movement of the grinding head to a single degree of freedom. The grinding head and carriage are instrumented with transducers for measuring such parameters as grinding wheel driving torque and speed, carriage position and speed, and grinding wheel position to automatically remove a surface layer having a preselected thickness in accordance with a manually selected value representing desired thickness and the energy required to remove a unit volume of billet material at a given rate under specific operating conditions.

Workpiece conditioning grinder system

An elongated metal workpiece such as a slab or billet is moved longitudinally beneath a grinding head by a reciprocating carriage mounted on an elongated track. The carriage receives a billet from a charging table, reciprocates the billet beneath the grinding head for a plurality of grinding passes, and then delivers the finished billet to a discharge table. The grinder head includes a rotating grinding wheel mounted at the end of a first arm which is pivotally secured to one end of a pivotally mounted second arm. The vertical position of the grinding wheel, and hence the downward force exerted by the grinding wheel on the billet, is principally determined by the angular position and torque, respectively, of the first arm while the horizontal position of the grinding wheel transverse to the longitudinal axis of the billet is principally determined by the angular position of the second arm. Grinding wheel vibration is limited by clamping the second arm to a massive, rigid foundation during each grinding pass thereby limiting the movement of the grinding head to a single degree of freedom. The grinding head and carriage are instrumented with transducers for measuring such parameters as grinding wheel driving torque and speed, carriage position and speed, and grinding wheel position to automatically remove a surface layer having a preselected thickness in accordance with a manually selected value representing desired thickness and the energy required to remove a unit volume of billet material at a given rate under specific conditions.

A rotary cutting blade control system which automatically varies the feed rate to maintain a constant material removal rate. The system senses the current in an electric motor driving the cutting blade and automatically adjusts the feed rate to maintain the motor current constant. The system adjusts a hydraulic valve in the hydraulic system operating the blade support to move the blade in or out whenever the current deviates from a standard which is set by the operator. The control system also includes a circuit for detecting when the load on the blade has dropped below a preset level indicating that the blade has completed the cut and automatically commands the hydraulic system to return the blade to a start position. An additional control circuit operating in conjunction with the no-load sensing circuit automatically produces a command to stop the blade close to the work piece to save time and motion when multiple cuts are being performed. This circuit operates by establishing a reference level indicating the position of the blade at the start of a cut.

Rotary cutting blade control system

A unique method and apparatus for making a score cut on a metal object with a previously used abrasive cutting wheel, worn down from a new, larger diameter wheel to allow use of worn cutting wheels and to improve the ratio of cross-sectional area of metal material cut to cross-sectional area of wheel used. Another feature is the use of a hydraulic bearing for reducing friction between the object rotating chuck stands and the track on which the stands are moved by simultaneously flushing the abrasive particles from the track. In one embodiment, the flushing material is recycled to replenish the coolant reservoir fluid loss through evaporation.

Growing community of inventors

Everett, WA, United States of America

Robert F Obear