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. 08, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 20, 2000
Leander J. Salzer, Los Almos, NM (US);
Larry R. Foreman, late of Los Alamos, NM (US);
The Regents of the University of California, Los Alamos, NM (US);
Abstract
A locator with a part support is used to hold a part onto the kinematic mount of a tooling machine so that the part can be held in or replaced in exactly the same position relative to the cutting tool for machining different surfaces of the part or for performing different machining operations on the same or different surfaces of the part. The locator has disposed therein a plurality of steel balls placed at equidistant positions around the planar surface of the locator and the kinematic mount has a plurality of magnets which alternate with grooves which accommodate the portions of the steel balls projecting from the locator. The part support holds the part to be machined securely in place in the locator. The locator can be easily detached from the kinematic mount, turned over, and replaced onto the same kinematic mount or another kinematic mount on another tooling machine without removing the part to be machined from the locator so that there is no need to touch or reposition the part within the locator, thereby assuring exact replication of the position of the part in relation to the cutting tool on the tooling machine for each machining operation on the part.