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:
Oct. 02, 2001
Filed:
Jul. 07, 1998
Michael George Pierse, Bedford, GB;
Unova U.K. Limited, Aylesbury, GB;
Abstract
A machine tool has a carriage, has a workpiece carriage for carrying a workpiece from which material is removed by a tool carried by a tool carriage. A two-axis scale is attached to one of the carriages, and cooperates with a reading head attached to the other carriage. The output from the reading head is processed by signaling processing means to provide an indication of the position and/or movement of the carriages relative to each other and for generating positional data about one or both of the carriages to assist in controlling their movement in order to perform a machine operation. By directly measuring the relative positions of the two carriages, problems arising from, for example, distortions of the machine frame on which the carriages are mounted are at least mitigated. A preferred embodiment of the machine incorporates a second reading head attached to one carriage and incorporating the scale on another carriage so that the outputs from the two reading heads can be used to determine whether there has been any relative angular displacement of the paths followed by the carriages. There is also provided a method of determining the linear movement of one of the carriages relative to the other, and the machining process achieved using the machine tool.