CA1104414A - Electronically controlled engraving machine - Google Patents
Electronically controlled engraving machineInfo
- Publication number
- CA1104414A CA1104414A CA308,950A CA308950A CA1104414A CA 1104414 A CA1104414 A CA 1104414A CA 308950 A CA308950 A CA 308950A CA 1104414 A CA1104414 A CA 1104414A
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- character
- tool
- machine
- processing unit
- central processing
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired
Links
Classifications
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B44—DECORATIVE ARTS
- B44B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR TOOLS FOR ARTISTIC WORK, e.g. FOR SCULPTURING, GUILLOCHING, CARVING, BRANDING, INLAYING
- B44B3/00—Artist's machines or apparatus equipped with tools or work holders moving or able to be controlled substantially two- dimensionally for carving, engraving, or guilloching shallow ornamenting or markings
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B23—MACHINE TOOLS; METAL-WORKING NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- B23Q—DETAILS, COMPONENTS, OR ACCESSORIES FOR MACHINE TOOLS, e.g. ARRANGEMENTS FOR COPYING OR CONTROLLING; MACHINE TOOLS IN GENERAL CHARACTERISED BY THE CONSTRUCTION OF PARTICULAR DETAILS OR COMPONENTS; COMBINATIONS OR ASSOCIATIONS OF METAL-WORKING MACHINES, NOT DIRECTED TO A PARTICULAR RESULT
- B23Q35/00—Control systems or devices for copying directly from a pattern or a master model; Devices for use in copying manually
- B23Q35/02—Copying discrete points from the pattern, e.g. for determining the position of holes to be drilled
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G05—CONTROLLING; REGULATING
- G05B—CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS
- G05B2219/00—Program-control systems
- G05B2219/30—Nc systems
- G05B2219/45—Nc applications
- G05B2219/45212—Etching, engraving, sculpturing, carving
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- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Automation & Control Theory (AREA)
- Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
- Numerical Control (AREA)
- Printers Characterized By Their Purpose (AREA)
- Impact Printers (AREA)
Abstract
ABSTRACT
A marking or engraving machine comprises an intermittently operable tool adapted, when operated by energising means, to produce a mark on a workpiece, translation means adapted to cause relative movement between the tool and the workpiece, and electronic control means controlling the energising means and the translation means. The electronic control means is adapted to control the translation means to cause the tool to follow a predetermined raster pattern over the workpiece surface and to control the energising means to cause the tool to operate intermittently to make marks at such points of its path as will cause the impression of the desired character to be built up from the sum of the separate marks.
A marking or engraving machine comprises an intermittently operable tool adapted, when operated by energising means, to produce a mark on a workpiece, translation means adapted to cause relative movement between the tool and the workpiece, and electronic control means controlling the energising means and the translation means. The electronic control means is adapted to control the translation means to cause the tool to follow a predetermined raster pattern over the workpiece surface and to control the energising means to cause the tool to operate intermittently to make marks at such points of its path as will cause the impression of the desired character to be built up from the sum of the separate marks.
Description
ll~t~14 This invention relates to a marking or engraving machine.
In the past, such machines have included two main types, a manually operated type in which an engraving tool is manually moved on a workpiece to produce the required characters, and a computer controlled type in which the relative motion between an engraving tool and workpiece are computer-controlled to produce a desired character. An example of the latter type is described in U.S. patent 3,857,025.
There are numerous applications where predetermined combinations of alpha~etical or numerical characters are re-quired to ~e engraved on a workpiece, e.g. for the allocation of reference numbers to machine parts. For these types of engrav-ing the manual engravers are slow, labour intensive, prone to error and liable to damage the workpiece, while the computer controlled, cont;nuous engraving type of machine is extremely complex and expensive, and is still liable to damage the work-piece.
The present invention provides a marking or engraving machine in which the formation of characters is carried out automatically, in a manner which ena~les the use of relatively simple electronic control by microprocessor or similar in-tegrated circuitry.
According to the present invention a marking or engraving machine comprises an intermittently operable tool adapted, when operated, to produce a mark on a workpiece, translation means adapted to cause relative movement between the tool and the workpiece, energising means adapted to cause the tool to operate, and electronic control means adapted 3Q to control the translation means to cause the tool to follow a predetermined raster pattern over an area of the surface of the workpiece, and to control the energising means to cause ~, 4~
the tool to operate intermittently to make marks at such points of its path as will cause the impression of the desired character to be built up from the sum of the separate marks.
In a further aspect of the invention there is pro-vided a machine for marking a workpiece with at least one of a plurality of characters each such character comprising a pattern of discrete marks, said machine comprising: an inter-mittently actuatable tool for producing a mark on said work-piece when said tool is actuated, translation means adapted to cause relative movement between the tool and the workpiece, energising means adapted to actuate said tool, and electronic control means for controlling the translation means to cause the tool to follow a predetermined raster pattern over an area of the surface of the workpiece, and for controlling the energising means to cause the tool to be actuated inter-mittently to make said discrete marks at such points of its path as will cause said pattern to be formed, said electronic control means comprising: a central processing unit, a data store in which are stored instructions for controlling said translation means and for controlling the actuation of said tool to produce said characters, and means for selecting from said data store instructions related to a particular character of said plurality o~ characters and for causing said central processing unit to carry out said selected instructions, thereby causing said electronic control means to control said translation means and said energising means so as to cause said selected character to be formed.
The term 'raster pattern' is used in this specification ` to refer to a pattern, normally comprising a series of closely 3~ spaced parallel lines, which will enable the tool to pass over all those points on the area of the workpiece at which marks may be required to be made for the production of any of the 11~4~
characters required to be impxessed.
The raster pattern may be such as to effect the impression of one character at a time, or it may be such as to impress portions of different characters in sequence.
In one embodiment the raster pattern is such that the tool moves with respect to the workpiece over the significant points of a dot matrix of 7 x 5 units.
The translation means may comprise two stepping motors, each being adapted to move the tool with respect to the workpiece in one direction at right angles to the direction of the other stepping motor.
The electronic control means may include a central processing unit having access to a permanent data store in which are stored the operating instructions which w~ll cause the tool to impress any of the required characters.
The character to be impressed may be chosen by a keyboard which instructs the central processing unit to use the appropriate operating instructions from the permanent data store.
The invention will now be particularly described, merely by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:-Figure l is a side elevation of a marking or engraving machine in accordance with the invention, Figure 2 is a plan view of the machine, Figure 3 is a schematic circuit diagram of the apparatus, and Figure 4 illustrates how characters are formed using dot matrices.
The marking machine comprises basically a base lO, a supporting column 12 mounted on the base and an arm 14 which is mounted on the supporting column 12. The arm 14 can be - . ~ , - - - - - - - . - ......... . .
~1~P4~
raised and lowered along the supporting column 12.
Mounted on the arm 14 is a movable carriage 16 which can be moved a~ong the arm 14 by the rotation of a leadscrew 18, the leadscrew being rotated by a stepping motor 20. The carriage 16 supports a second arm 22 extending at right angles to the arm 14, and the second arm 22 can be moved relative to the carriage 16 by a second leadscrew 24 which is rotated by a second stepping motor 26. The second arm 22 supports an engraving tool 28 which is a vibro-peener operated by air along a duct 30 and controlled by a solenoid operated air valve 32 (see Figure 3).
A workpiece 34 is clamped to the base 10 by means not shown, and it will be seen that the engraving tool 28 can be positioned anywhere over the base 10 by suitable rotation of the leadscrews 18 and 24 by the stepping motors 20 and 26 respectively.
The solenoid 32 thus acts as energizing means for the engraving tool 28 while the two stepping motors 20 and 26 togeth0r form translating means for the tool. It should be noted that in this instance the tool is moved physically and the workpiece maintained stationary, but of course it is entirely posslble to move the workpiece and leave the tool 28 stationary.
Figure 3 shows in block form the electronic control system used to control the energising solenoid 32 and the translating means 20 and 26. The main operative part of the control system is the central processing unit or CPU 36 which in the present case is an Intel 8080 8-bit device.
Memory for the CPU 36 is provided in the form of a permanent memory 38 and a temporary, random access memory 40. In fact the permanent memory 38 is made up of three components of erasable, programmable read-only memory of the Intel B2708 type, and in it are stored the program commands for the CPU
11~4q-1~
36 together with the operating instructions for all the characters required to be produced.
The temporary random access memory 40 takes the form of 8 2102 B units and is used as operational data storage for the CPU.
External instructions to the CPU are introduced by a keyboard unit 42 which communicates with the CPU through an input/output board 44 and a programmable peripheral interface 46. The input~output board 44 acts as a buffer which isolates the incompatibilities between the keyboard and the CPU, while the programmable peripheral interface ~PPI) carries out the routing of signals and their translation into different forms as necessary. From the input~output board 44 an output is taken to a solenoid drive unit 48 which provides the necessary power to actuate the energizing solenoid 32.
A second PPI 50 is used to provide the other control output from the control system, by way of the motor drive unit 52 to the stepping motors 20 and 26. It will be understood that the motor drive unit ~2 is required to provide the relatively complex control signals for the stepping motors.
The final part of the control system enables the operator to verify the characters to be engraved and their size, and to visualise what is to be engraved. For this purpose a visual display unit or VDU 54 is operated by a VDU controller 56 and a VDV random access memory 58. The random access memory 58 is continually scanned by the VDU controller 56 so that its constants are displayed on the screen of the vnu 54.
Operation of the system overall is as follows. As soon as the equipment is switched on the program in the per-manent memory 38 instructs the CPU 36 to take the word SIZE?and display this on the VDU 54. This is done by the CPU select-ing one character at a time from another section of the memory 11~4~14 38 and passing this to the VDU random access memory 58. ~nce the characters are in thls memory the controller 56 writes them onto the screen of the VDU 54.
The CPU is then put into a continuous loop mode, in which it interrogates the keyboard until it obtains one of a predetermined set of meaningful instructions. In the pxesent instance these comprise one of the numbers 1-9 representing a particular size of character required, or the command to print (called GO in this instance, but using the carriage return/line feed of the normal keyboard~. If the GO command is made by the operator, the CPU will jump to the 'engrave' sequence of operations (set out below~, using the characters already in its own random access memory 40 as its instruction for which characters to print.
Normally however, one of the numbers 1-9 will be keyed, and this will cause the CPU to consult the permanent memory 38 and pass the relevant instructions to the random access memory 40 ready to be used by the motor drive unit 52 when engraving takes place. In fact this instruction will determine the number of steps by which the stepper motors must advance between signi~icant points on the matrix to be moved over (see below).
Once the 'SIZE' instruction has been stored, the CPU
selects the letters 'NAME?' (or 'NUMBERI) to be displayed on the VDU, and then goes into a loop in which it interrogates the keyboard un~il it receives the meaningful reply. In this case, beside the GO command referred to above, any sequence of characters and spaces may be entered from the keyboard.
Assumin~ that the GO is not depressed, the characters keyed on the board cause the CPU to replace the character instructions held in its random access memory 40 with new instructions taken from the permanent memory 38. In effect, the information reaching the CPU from the keyboard 42 takes the form of an address within store 38 for the set of instructions for the character involved. As well as loading the instructions into the memory 40, the lnstructions are repeated in the VDU
memory 58 and hence the character chosen is displayed on the VDU screen.
The process is repeated until the set of characters to be engraved has been keyed in. The characters may be in-spected on the screen, and an 'erase' facility may be included, by which the last character keyed may be replaced by a different character.
At this stage, or as mentioned abo~e, at a previous stage, the 'GO~ key may be pressed to initiate the engraving routine. When the signal from this key reaches the CPU it causes the CPU to act in accordance ~ith an 'engrave' sub-routine stored in the read only memory 38, In order to understand how the CPU operates under this routine to engrave the characters, it is necessary to understand how the characters are formed and stored in the random access memory 40. Figure 4 shows how the characters are formed and it will be seen that each character is formed on a matrix of seven by five squares, some of the s~uares containing in-dentations and some being vacant. It will be appreciated that using the 7 x 5 matrix, all alpha numeric characters may be depicted with a good degree of fidelity.
Therefore, any one character may be stored as an assembly of five words each having seven bits of information, and may be reproduced by causing an engraving tool to mark the workpiece at predetermined locations of the matrix.
3Q In the embodiment described, the words stored in the memory 40 are each of 8 bits, therefore one bit in each word is always $pare~ Also, to provide the spaces between 4~ ~ 4 the characters, an additional two blank words are added to the 7 x 5 matrix to make each character plus its adjacent spaced into 7 x 7 area.
By causing the engraving tool to move relative to the workpiece so that it traverses all the squares of the matrix and causing the tool to mark the workpiece only when it is at one of the squares predetermined for a particular character, the character is therefore formed~ There are two ways in which the tool may be arranged to traverse the matrix, it may travel up and down the Y direction while advancing at the end of ; each line in the X direction, or it may travel along the X
direction and back, while advancing at the end of each line in the Y direction. Clearly, if more than one character is to be engraved, the number of reversals of direction of the tool will be lower if the latter system is used. Therefore in the present instance the tool is arranged to move over the workpiece in a 'raster' pattern which includes backward and forward motion in the X direction and step traverse in the Y direction.
In order to carry this out, the CPU initially scans the least significant digit line of the charact~rs stored in the memory 40 which are to be engraved. This is the line Y = 1 in the~illustrated matrix of Figure 4. ~t passes this infor-mation, together with the number of steps of motor drive required between points of the matrix which is stored as the result of the SIZE? ~nterrogation, to PPI 50 and motor drive board 52.
The X-drive motor 20 will be caused to operate, making two for-ward traverses to the square X = 2, Y = 1~ At this point the CPU recognizes that the 'bit' of information relevant to this square requires an indentation to be made, it stops the X motor 20, actuates the tool through the PPI 46, input/output board 44 and solenoid drive 48 and allows a sufficient ~nterval of t~me for the tool 28 to regain its xest position before allowing the motor 2Q to take its next step. At the square X - 3 Y = 1 this process is repeated, and so on until the end of the line of characters (in the illustrated case, X = 21, Y = 1) is reached.
At this point the absence of further characters causes the CPU to instruct the Y drive motor 26 to operate to move the tool to the Y = 2 line. At the same time the CPU causes the 'words' which form the definition of the characters in the memory 40 to be 'rotatedl; that is, the least significant ~-digit is made the most significant digit and all the other -digits correspondingly, so that the old next least significant digit now becomes the new least significant digit. Therefore, the CPU is now reading the Y = 2 line as the least significant digits of the s~ored characters, and it reads them in reverse order to instruct the motors and tool to inscribe this line.
This process is repeated until the complete set of characters has been inscribed. ~t this stage the tool is returned to its rest position (X = 1, Y = 1~, and because the stored characters have had eight 'rotate' operations carried out on them they are back to their original state. The CPU will then return to its original state and will start a new sequence by causing the SIZE? request to appear on the VDU 54. It should be noted that the characters are retained in the memory 40 and if the GO key is depressed, the engrave routine will be initi-ated a~ain so that the same set of characters may be repeatedly engraved.
It will ~e seen that using this particular form of 'raster' pattern the number of reversals of the stepper motor is reduced, but clearly it would be possible to arrange for the tool to moVe up and down the ~ axis and to trayerse the X axis. It will also be seen that, as mentioned above, the number of stepper motor steps between each point of the 7 x 5 - - , . -`4q14 matrix will determine the s~ze of the figure engraved, hence the response to the SIZE? query enables the overall character size to be varied considerably.
Although the 7 x 5 matrix represents a convenient scale of matrix to produce alphanumeric characters, there is of course no basic reason why different matrices should not be used to produce e.g. Cyrillic or Arabic characters.
It should also be understood that the pnuematically operated punch 28 is only one of a wide variety of marking tools that could be used; hydraulically or electrically operated punches could be substituted, or lasers or electron beam devices. Also the tool itself may move, or the workpiece, or both if desired.
It will be seen that because it forms a simple in-dentation rather than a complete line, the device described produces very little stress in the surface of a workpiece, which may be a critical factor in the marking of highly stressed components. Also different actuating pressures and/or tools could be used to ensure the correct impression on a variety of materials.
It 5hould also be realized that because of its use of a tool (the punch 28~ which will operate satisfactorily over a range of depths, it is possible to mark undulating or angled surfaces in a more or less satisfactory manner, depending on the degree of undulation or angles. It is also possible to mark into a recess.
It is possible to add more sophistication to the device described above by, for instance, programming the CPU 36 to vary the pressure of air supplied to the punch in accordance with the response to the SIZE? ~uery. In this way, because the working tip of the punch is conical, a greater size of individual impressions may be made if a larger size character ., - 10 -11(~4~
is requested, thus giving a more suitable apparent line thickness in the engraved characters. It is also possible to use tools having different end radii to achieve the same effect.
It would also be possible to arrange that when a serial number is to be engraved, the number automatically progresses by one each time an engraving is made, thus enabling a series of objects to be marked with very little operator effort. This may also be extended to allo~ the machine to progress by more than one number at a time, or to arrange that an alphanumeric prefix be progressed at the end of each numerical series.
. -- 11 -- .
.
In the past, such machines have included two main types, a manually operated type in which an engraving tool is manually moved on a workpiece to produce the required characters, and a computer controlled type in which the relative motion between an engraving tool and workpiece are computer-controlled to produce a desired character. An example of the latter type is described in U.S. patent 3,857,025.
There are numerous applications where predetermined combinations of alpha~etical or numerical characters are re-quired to ~e engraved on a workpiece, e.g. for the allocation of reference numbers to machine parts. For these types of engrav-ing the manual engravers are slow, labour intensive, prone to error and liable to damage the workpiece, while the computer controlled, cont;nuous engraving type of machine is extremely complex and expensive, and is still liable to damage the work-piece.
The present invention provides a marking or engraving machine in which the formation of characters is carried out automatically, in a manner which ena~les the use of relatively simple electronic control by microprocessor or similar in-tegrated circuitry.
According to the present invention a marking or engraving machine comprises an intermittently operable tool adapted, when operated, to produce a mark on a workpiece, translation means adapted to cause relative movement between the tool and the workpiece, energising means adapted to cause the tool to operate, and electronic control means adapted 3Q to control the translation means to cause the tool to follow a predetermined raster pattern over an area of the surface of the workpiece, and to control the energising means to cause ~, 4~
the tool to operate intermittently to make marks at such points of its path as will cause the impression of the desired character to be built up from the sum of the separate marks.
In a further aspect of the invention there is pro-vided a machine for marking a workpiece with at least one of a plurality of characters each such character comprising a pattern of discrete marks, said machine comprising: an inter-mittently actuatable tool for producing a mark on said work-piece when said tool is actuated, translation means adapted to cause relative movement between the tool and the workpiece, energising means adapted to actuate said tool, and electronic control means for controlling the translation means to cause the tool to follow a predetermined raster pattern over an area of the surface of the workpiece, and for controlling the energising means to cause the tool to be actuated inter-mittently to make said discrete marks at such points of its path as will cause said pattern to be formed, said electronic control means comprising: a central processing unit, a data store in which are stored instructions for controlling said translation means and for controlling the actuation of said tool to produce said characters, and means for selecting from said data store instructions related to a particular character of said plurality o~ characters and for causing said central processing unit to carry out said selected instructions, thereby causing said electronic control means to control said translation means and said energising means so as to cause said selected character to be formed.
The term 'raster pattern' is used in this specification ` to refer to a pattern, normally comprising a series of closely 3~ spaced parallel lines, which will enable the tool to pass over all those points on the area of the workpiece at which marks may be required to be made for the production of any of the 11~4~
characters required to be impxessed.
The raster pattern may be such as to effect the impression of one character at a time, or it may be such as to impress portions of different characters in sequence.
In one embodiment the raster pattern is such that the tool moves with respect to the workpiece over the significant points of a dot matrix of 7 x 5 units.
The translation means may comprise two stepping motors, each being adapted to move the tool with respect to the workpiece in one direction at right angles to the direction of the other stepping motor.
The electronic control means may include a central processing unit having access to a permanent data store in which are stored the operating instructions which w~ll cause the tool to impress any of the required characters.
The character to be impressed may be chosen by a keyboard which instructs the central processing unit to use the appropriate operating instructions from the permanent data store.
The invention will now be particularly described, merely by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:-Figure l is a side elevation of a marking or engraving machine in accordance with the invention, Figure 2 is a plan view of the machine, Figure 3 is a schematic circuit diagram of the apparatus, and Figure 4 illustrates how characters are formed using dot matrices.
The marking machine comprises basically a base lO, a supporting column 12 mounted on the base and an arm 14 which is mounted on the supporting column 12. The arm 14 can be - . ~ , - - - - - - - . - ......... . .
~1~P4~
raised and lowered along the supporting column 12.
Mounted on the arm 14 is a movable carriage 16 which can be moved a~ong the arm 14 by the rotation of a leadscrew 18, the leadscrew being rotated by a stepping motor 20. The carriage 16 supports a second arm 22 extending at right angles to the arm 14, and the second arm 22 can be moved relative to the carriage 16 by a second leadscrew 24 which is rotated by a second stepping motor 26. The second arm 22 supports an engraving tool 28 which is a vibro-peener operated by air along a duct 30 and controlled by a solenoid operated air valve 32 (see Figure 3).
A workpiece 34 is clamped to the base 10 by means not shown, and it will be seen that the engraving tool 28 can be positioned anywhere over the base 10 by suitable rotation of the leadscrews 18 and 24 by the stepping motors 20 and 26 respectively.
The solenoid 32 thus acts as energizing means for the engraving tool 28 while the two stepping motors 20 and 26 togeth0r form translating means for the tool. It should be noted that in this instance the tool is moved physically and the workpiece maintained stationary, but of course it is entirely posslble to move the workpiece and leave the tool 28 stationary.
Figure 3 shows in block form the electronic control system used to control the energising solenoid 32 and the translating means 20 and 26. The main operative part of the control system is the central processing unit or CPU 36 which in the present case is an Intel 8080 8-bit device.
Memory for the CPU 36 is provided in the form of a permanent memory 38 and a temporary, random access memory 40. In fact the permanent memory 38 is made up of three components of erasable, programmable read-only memory of the Intel B2708 type, and in it are stored the program commands for the CPU
11~4q-1~
36 together with the operating instructions for all the characters required to be produced.
The temporary random access memory 40 takes the form of 8 2102 B units and is used as operational data storage for the CPU.
External instructions to the CPU are introduced by a keyboard unit 42 which communicates with the CPU through an input/output board 44 and a programmable peripheral interface 46. The input~output board 44 acts as a buffer which isolates the incompatibilities between the keyboard and the CPU, while the programmable peripheral interface ~PPI) carries out the routing of signals and their translation into different forms as necessary. From the input~output board 44 an output is taken to a solenoid drive unit 48 which provides the necessary power to actuate the energizing solenoid 32.
A second PPI 50 is used to provide the other control output from the control system, by way of the motor drive unit 52 to the stepping motors 20 and 26. It will be understood that the motor drive unit ~2 is required to provide the relatively complex control signals for the stepping motors.
The final part of the control system enables the operator to verify the characters to be engraved and their size, and to visualise what is to be engraved. For this purpose a visual display unit or VDU 54 is operated by a VDU controller 56 and a VDV random access memory 58. The random access memory 58 is continually scanned by the VDU controller 56 so that its constants are displayed on the screen of the vnu 54.
Operation of the system overall is as follows. As soon as the equipment is switched on the program in the per-manent memory 38 instructs the CPU 36 to take the word SIZE?and display this on the VDU 54. This is done by the CPU select-ing one character at a time from another section of the memory 11~4~14 38 and passing this to the VDU random access memory 58. ~nce the characters are in thls memory the controller 56 writes them onto the screen of the VDU 54.
The CPU is then put into a continuous loop mode, in which it interrogates the keyboard until it obtains one of a predetermined set of meaningful instructions. In the pxesent instance these comprise one of the numbers 1-9 representing a particular size of character required, or the command to print (called GO in this instance, but using the carriage return/line feed of the normal keyboard~. If the GO command is made by the operator, the CPU will jump to the 'engrave' sequence of operations (set out below~, using the characters already in its own random access memory 40 as its instruction for which characters to print.
Normally however, one of the numbers 1-9 will be keyed, and this will cause the CPU to consult the permanent memory 38 and pass the relevant instructions to the random access memory 40 ready to be used by the motor drive unit 52 when engraving takes place. In fact this instruction will determine the number of steps by which the stepper motors must advance between signi~icant points on the matrix to be moved over (see below).
Once the 'SIZE' instruction has been stored, the CPU
selects the letters 'NAME?' (or 'NUMBERI) to be displayed on the VDU, and then goes into a loop in which it interrogates the keyboard un~il it receives the meaningful reply. In this case, beside the GO command referred to above, any sequence of characters and spaces may be entered from the keyboard.
Assumin~ that the GO is not depressed, the characters keyed on the board cause the CPU to replace the character instructions held in its random access memory 40 with new instructions taken from the permanent memory 38. In effect, the information reaching the CPU from the keyboard 42 takes the form of an address within store 38 for the set of instructions for the character involved. As well as loading the instructions into the memory 40, the lnstructions are repeated in the VDU
memory 58 and hence the character chosen is displayed on the VDU screen.
The process is repeated until the set of characters to be engraved has been keyed in. The characters may be in-spected on the screen, and an 'erase' facility may be included, by which the last character keyed may be replaced by a different character.
At this stage, or as mentioned abo~e, at a previous stage, the 'GO~ key may be pressed to initiate the engraving routine. When the signal from this key reaches the CPU it causes the CPU to act in accordance ~ith an 'engrave' sub-routine stored in the read only memory 38, In order to understand how the CPU operates under this routine to engrave the characters, it is necessary to understand how the characters are formed and stored in the random access memory 40. Figure 4 shows how the characters are formed and it will be seen that each character is formed on a matrix of seven by five squares, some of the s~uares containing in-dentations and some being vacant. It will be appreciated that using the 7 x 5 matrix, all alpha numeric characters may be depicted with a good degree of fidelity.
Therefore, any one character may be stored as an assembly of five words each having seven bits of information, and may be reproduced by causing an engraving tool to mark the workpiece at predetermined locations of the matrix.
3Q In the embodiment described, the words stored in the memory 40 are each of 8 bits, therefore one bit in each word is always $pare~ Also, to provide the spaces between 4~ ~ 4 the characters, an additional two blank words are added to the 7 x 5 matrix to make each character plus its adjacent spaced into 7 x 7 area.
By causing the engraving tool to move relative to the workpiece so that it traverses all the squares of the matrix and causing the tool to mark the workpiece only when it is at one of the squares predetermined for a particular character, the character is therefore formed~ There are two ways in which the tool may be arranged to traverse the matrix, it may travel up and down the Y direction while advancing at the end of ; each line in the X direction, or it may travel along the X
direction and back, while advancing at the end of each line in the Y direction. Clearly, if more than one character is to be engraved, the number of reversals of direction of the tool will be lower if the latter system is used. Therefore in the present instance the tool is arranged to move over the workpiece in a 'raster' pattern which includes backward and forward motion in the X direction and step traverse in the Y direction.
In order to carry this out, the CPU initially scans the least significant digit line of the charact~rs stored in the memory 40 which are to be engraved. This is the line Y = 1 in the~illustrated matrix of Figure 4. ~t passes this infor-mation, together with the number of steps of motor drive required between points of the matrix which is stored as the result of the SIZE? ~nterrogation, to PPI 50 and motor drive board 52.
The X-drive motor 20 will be caused to operate, making two for-ward traverses to the square X = 2, Y = 1~ At this point the CPU recognizes that the 'bit' of information relevant to this square requires an indentation to be made, it stops the X motor 20, actuates the tool through the PPI 46, input/output board 44 and solenoid drive 48 and allows a sufficient ~nterval of t~me for the tool 28 to regain its xest position before allowing the motor 2Q to take its next step. At the square X - 3 Y = 1 this process is repeated, and so on until the end of the line of characters (in the illustrated case, X = 21, Y = 1) is reached.
At this point the absence of further characters causes the CPU to instruct the Y drive motor 26 to operate to move the tool to the Y = 2 line. At the same time the CPU causes the 'words' which form the definition of the characters in the memory 40 to be 'rotatedl; that is, the least significant ~-digit is made the most significant digit and all the other -digits correspondingly, so that the old next least significant digit now becomes the new least significant digit. Therefore, the CPU is now reading the Y = 2 line as the least significant digits of the s~ored characters, and it reads them in reverse order to instruct the motors and tool to inscribe this line.
This process is repeated until the complete set of characters has been inscribed. ~t this stage the tool is returned to its rest position (X = 1, Y = 1~, and because the stored characters have had eight 'rotate' operations carried out on them they are back to their original state. The CPU will then return to its original state and will start a new sequence by causing the SIZE? request to appear on the VDU 54. It should be noted that the characters are retained in the memory 40 and if the GO key is depressed, the engrave routine will be initi-ated a~ain so that the same set of characters may be repeatedly engraved.
It will ~e seen that using this particular form of 'raster' pattern the number of reversals of the stepper motor is reduced, but clearly it would be possible to arrange for the tool to moVe up and down the ~ axis and to trayerse the X axis. It will also be seen that, as mentioned above, the number of stepper motor steps between each point of the 7 x 5 - - , . -`4q14 matrix will determine the s~ze of the figure engraved, hence the response to the SIZE? query enables the overall character size to be varied considerably.
Although the 7 x 5 matrix represents a convenient scale of matrix to produce alphanumeric characters, there is of course no basic reason why different matrices should not be used to produce e.g. Cyrillic or Arabic characters.
It should also be understood that the pnuematically operated punch 28 is only one of a wide variety of marking tools that could be used; hydraulically or electrically operated punches could be substituted, or lasers or electron beam devices. Also the tool itself may move, or the workpiece, or both if desired.
It will be seen that because it forms a simple in-dentation rather than a complete line, the device described produces very little stress in the surface of a workpiece, which may be a critical factor in the marking of highly stressed components. Also different actuating pressures and/or tools could be used to ensure the correct impression on a variety of materials.
It 5hould also be realized that because of its use of a tool (the punch 28~ which will operate satisfactorily over a range of depths, it is possible to mark undulating or angled surfaces in a more or less satisfactory manner, depending on the degree of undulation or angles. It is also possible to mark into a recess.
It is possible to add more sophistication to the device described above by, for instance, programming the CPU 36 to vary the pressure of air supplied to the punch in accordance with the response to the SIZE? ~uery. In this way, because the working tip of the punch is conical, a greater size of individual impressions may be made if a larger size character ., - 10 -11(~4~
is requested, thus giving a more suitable apparent line thickness in the engraved characters. It is also possible to use tools having different end radii to achieve the same effect.
It would also be possible to arrange that when a serial number is to be engraved, the number automatically progresses by one each time an engraving is made, thus enabling a series of objects to be marked with very little operator effort. This may also be extended to allo~ the machine to progress by more than one number at a time, or to arrange that an alphanumeric prefix be progressed at the end of each numerical series.
. -- 11 -- .
.
Claims (17)
OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:
1. A machine for marking a workpiece with at least one of a plurality of characters each such character comprising a pattern of discrete marks, said machine comprising:
an intermittently actuatable tool for producing a mark on said workpiece when said tool is actuated, translation means adapted to cause relative movement between the tool and the workpiece, energizing means adapted to actuate said tool, and electronic control means for controlling the translation means to cause the tool to follow a predetermined raster pattern over an area of the surface of the workpiece, and for control-ling the energizing means to cause the tool to be actuated intermittently to make said discrete marks at such points of its path as will cause said pattern to be formed, said electronic control means comprising:
a central processing unit, a data store in which are stored instructions for controlling said translation means and for controlling the actuation of said tool to produce said characters, and means for selecting from said data store instructions related to a particular character of said plurality of char-acters and for causing said central processing unit to carry out said selected instructions, thereby causing said electronic control means to control said translation means and said energizing means so as to cause said selected character to be formed.
an intermittently actuatable tool for producing a mark on said workpiece when said tool is actuated, translation means adapted to cause relative movement between the tool and the workpiece, energizing means adapted to actuate said tool, and electronic control means for controlling the translation means to cause the tool to follow a predetermined raster pattern over an area of the surface of the workpiece, and for control-ling the energizing means to cause the tool to be actuated intermittently to make said discrete marks at such points of its path as will cause said pattern to be formed, said electronic control means comprising:
a central processing unit, a data store in which are stored instructions for controlling said translation means and for controlling the actuation of said tool to produce said characters, and means for selecting from said data store instructions related to a particular character of said plurality of char-acters and for causing said central processing unit to carry out said selected instructions, thereby causing said electronic control means to control said translation means and said energizing means so as to cause said selected character to be formed.
2. A machine as claimed in claim 1 and in which the raster pattern is such as to effect the impression of char-acters one at a time.
3. A machine as claimed in claim 1 and in which the raster pattern is such as to effect the impression of portions of different characters in sequence.
4. A machine as claimed in claim 1 and in which each character is formed by marks made by the tool at predetermined points of a 7 x 5 dot matrix.
5. A machine as claimed in claim 1 and in which the translation means comprises two stepping motors, each being adapted to produce relative motion between the tool and the workpiece in one direction at right angles to the direc-tion of motion produced by the other motor.
6. A machine as claimed in claim 1 and in which the tool is a power operated punch.
7. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein said means for selecting includes a keyboard on which the selected character to be impressed may be keyed, the keyboard being adapted to cause the central processing unit to use the operating instructions appropriate to the chosen character which are held in the permanent data store.
8. A machine as claimed in claim 7 further including a first random access memory, the central processing unit being adapted to transfer operating instructions for the selected character from the data store to the first random access memory after the character has been keyed on the key-board.
9. A machine as claimed in claim 8 further including a visual display unit on which the selected character keyed on the keyboard is displayed.
10. A machine as claimed in claim 9 further comprising a second random access memory associated with the visual display unit, the central processing unit being continually provided with a scan of the second random access memory so that it displays its contents.
11. A machine as claimed in claim 8 and in which the keyboard is adapted, on the keying of a coded key, to cause the central processing unit to follow an 'engrave' sub-routine in which it scans the selected letters stored in its first random access memory and instructs the translation means therefrom.
12. A machine as claimed in claim 11 and in which each character is stored as a plurality of words each comprising a plurality of bits, each word representing one column of a dot matrix of rows and columns, and the central processing unit is adapted to cause each character to be scanned by scanning the least significant digits of the word, rotating the words so that the least significant digits become the most signific-ant digits and repeating this process until the complete character has been scanned.
13. A machine as claimed in claim 12 and in which the central processing unit is adapted to use each scan of the least significant digits to instruct the translation means and the energizing means to carry out one line of its raster pattern so that this line corresponds to the row of least significant digits of the stored character impression.
14. A machine as claimed in claim 7 and in which the central processing unit is adapted to receive from the key-board a keyed 'size' character and to use the keyed character to instruct the translation means to set the amount of relative movement between the tool and the workpiece between significant points of the raster pattern and hence the overall size of the impressed character.
15. A machine as claimed in claim 14 and in which the-translating means comprises a pair of stepper motors and the keyed 'size' character is used by the central processing unit to determine the number of steps advanced by the motors between each point of the raster pattern.
16. A machine as claimed in claim 14 and in which the central processing unit is also adapted to use the keyed 'size' character to determine the size of the marks made by the tool which together make up the impressed character.
17. A machine as claimed in claim 16 and in which the tool is a fluid pressure operated punch and the central pro-cessing unit is adapted to vary this pressure in accordance with the keyed 'size' character to vary the depth and thus the size of the mark.
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| GB34299/77 | 1977-08-16 | ||
| GB3429977 | 1977-08-16 |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1104414A true CA1104414A (en) | 1981-07-07 |
Family
ID=10363894
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA308,950A Expired CA1104414A (en) | 1977-08-16 | 1978-08-09 | Electronically controlled engraving machine |
Country Status (11)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| JP (1) | JPS5444930A (en) |
| AU (1) | AU522733B2 (en) |
| BR (1) | BR7805259A (en) |
| CA (1) | CA1104414A (en) |
| CH (1) | CH625451A5 (en) |
| DE (1) | DE2834376A1 (en) |
| DK (1) | DK360178A (en) |
| ES (1) | ES472559A1 (en) |
| FR (1) | FR2400438B1 (en) |
| IT (1) | IT1097673B (en) |
| SE (1) | SE7808582L (en) |
Families Citing this family (6)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IT1182226B (en) * | 1985-05-24 | 1987-09-30 | Grandi Servizi Spa | PROCEDURE AND EQUIPMENT TO AFFECT AN INDELEBLE MARK ON SURFACES, FLAT OR SLIGHTLY CURVED, IN PARTICULAR, OF MOTOR VEHICLES OR SIMILAR |
| DE3534920A1 (en) * | 1985-09-30 | 1987-05-21 | Rodenstock Optik G | Device for engraving workpieces, in particular spectacle lenses |
| DE29518137U1 (en) * | 1995-11-15 | 1996-11-14 | Brandstetter, Heinz Peter, Wien | Needle embossing device with an electromagnetically moved mechanical embossing tool |
| DE10257178A1 (en) * | 2002-12-05 | 2004-06-17 | Markator Manfred Borries Gmbh | marking |
| FR2886884B1 (en) * | 2005-06-08 | 2007-08-24 | Technifor Soc Par Actions Simp | MARKING DEVICE HAVING AN IMPROVED TRAINING MECHANISM |
| CN103496007B (en) * | 2013-10-22 | 2016-03-02 | 临海市金浪五金塑料制品厂（普通合伙） | Fingerboard puncher |
Family Cites Families (7)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CH239070A (en) * | 1943-05-01 | 1945-09-15 | Revisions Treuhand & Verwaltun | Engraving machine. |
| US3479452A (en) * | 1966-12-19 | 1969-11-18 | Fairchild Camera Instr Co | Machine for producing engraving plates for stereoscopic reproductions |
| US3857025A (en) * | 1971-05-07 | 1974-12-24 | Remington Arms Co Inc | Numerically controlled engraving machine system |
| DE2143571A1 (en) * | 1971-08-31 | 1973-03-15 | Siemens Ag | INKJET WRITING DEVICE, WITH A WRITING HEAD MOVABLE IN LINE DIRECTION |
| GB1439216A (en) * | 1972-10-24 | 1976-06-16 | Oki Electric Ind Co Ltd | Ink-jet printers |
| US3787884A (en) * | 1973-01-08 | 1974-01-22 | Ibm | Ink jet printer |
| FR2291031A1 (en) * | 1974-11-12 | 1976-06-11 | Houston Eng Res | Lettering machine used on packing cases - fitted with probe for electronic control of printing head movements during printing |
-
1978
- 1978-08-03 IT IT26449/78A patent/IT1097673B/en active
- 1978-08-04 DE DE19782834376 patent/DE2834376A1/en not_active Withdrawn
- 1978-08-07 FR FR7823247A patent/FR2400438B1/en not_active Expired
- 1978-08-08 AU AU38731/78A patent/AU522733B2/en not_active Expired
- 1978-08-09 CA CA308,950A patent/CA1104414A/en not_active Expired
- 1978-08-11 SE SE7808582A patent/SE7808582L/en unknown
- 1978-08-14 ES ES472559A patent/ES472559A1/en not_active Expired
- 1978-08-15 BR BR7805259A patent/BR7805259A/en unknown
- 1978-08-15 DK DK360178A patent/DK360178A/en unknown
- 1978-08-15 CH CH867678A patent/CH625451A5/en not_active IP Right Cessation
- 1978-08-15 JP JP9944778A patent/JPS5444930A/en active Pending
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| FR2400438A1 (en) | 1979-03-16 |
| ES472559A1 (en) | 1979-02-16 |
| DE2834376A1 (en) | 1979-03-01 |
| IT7826449A0 (en) | 1978-08-03 |
| AU522733B2 (en) | 1982-06-24 |
| SE7808582L (en) | 1979-02-17 |
| DK360178A (en) | 1979-02-17 |
| FR2400438B1 (en) | 1986-08-14 |
| AU3873178A (en) | 1980-02-14 |
| IT1097673B (en) | 1985-08-31 |
| JPS5444930A (en) | 1979-04-09 |
| BR7805259A (en) | 1979-05-08 |
| CH625451A5 (en) | 1981-09-30 |
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| MKEX | Expiry |