The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 13, 1986
Filed:
Mar. 22, 1984
John G Bollinger, Madison, WI (US);
John J Zik, Rochester, MI (US);
Neil A Duffie, Madison, WI (US);
Other;
Abstract
An automated welding apparatus (20) supports a work head (30) for motion in at least two dimensions along a seam (24) in a work piece (21). A tactile sensing probe (33) is mounted to the work head (30) to rotate about it and is controlled so that the tip (35) of the probe is in contact with a wall (26) of the seam at a constant force or deflection. The position of the probe (33) as it contacts the seam wall is sampled and stored to establish a data base for the geometry of the seam wall, and the work head (30) is then driven to follow the established data base while the probe (33) precedes it acquiring new data for the seam wall geometry. The work head may include a welding head (31) rotatable about an axis which can be controlled to be directed at a constant angle with respect to a normal to the seam wall.