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:
Nov. 19, 2002
Filed:
Dec. 05, 2000
William D. McGlasson, Caledonia, NY (US);
David A. Wright, Victor, NY (US);
Michael W. Roberts, Churchville, NY (US);
Anthony J. Norselli, Rochester, NY (US);
The Gleason Works, Rochester, NY (US);
Abstract
A spindle ( ) for a machine tool comprising a rear spindle portion ( ) and a forward spindle portion ( ) with each of the rear spindle portion and the forward spindle portion being rotatable about the same axis relative to one another. The inventive spindle includes one or more spring elements ( ) extending between the rear spindle portion and the forward spindle portion whereby with the forward spindle portion and the rear spindle portion rotating at a predetermined amount and with the rotation of the forward spindle portion being constrained at that amount, an additional rotation applied to the rear spindle portion results in a deflection of the springs thereby effecting a torque between the forward and the rear spindle portions. The present invention also includes a control method which has as its objective to control the position of, not the torque applied to, one of the spindles, usually the gear member spindle. In this method, the gear member spindle position is controlled relative to the pinion member spindle position by a computer numerical control (CNC). As the pinion member is turned at some speed, the gear member is kept in coordination with the pinion (according to their ratio) by the CNC control. The gear member spindle can be commanded to include additional rotational components which, in effect, advance or retard the gear rotation relative to the pinion.