US Patent: 3,744,124
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| Machine Tool Retrieval and Interchange System
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Patentee:
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| Louis T. Gardner (exact or similar names) - Cincinnati, Hamilton County, OH |
| Manufacturer: |
| Not known to have been produced |
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Patent Dates:
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| Applied: |
Sep. 12, 1969 |
| Granted: |
Jul. 10, 1973 |
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Joel Havens
"Vintage Machinery" entry for R. K. Le Blond Machine Tool Co.
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Description: |
| Abstract:
A machine tool including, a rotatable turret having oppositely disposed tool holders for alternatively positioning one of the tool holders in an active or cutting position relative to a workpiece and the other of the tool holders in an inactive or idle position, a magazine having a plurality of tool holding devices successively movable past a tool interchange station, tool transfer means for transferring tools between the magazine and the inactive turret tool holder, and means for retrieving a desired tool from the magazine. The retrieving means includes a stationary memory bank mounted independent of the magazine tool holding devices. The memory bank has a memory element allocated to each of the magazine tool holding devices which is susceptive of storing the arbitrary identifier of a tool positioned in the magazine tool holder to which it is allocated, and an accessing circuit for successively accessing the magazine tool holder memory elements as the tool holders to which they are respectively allocated successively move past the interchange station. A comparison circuit successively compares the identifiers stored in the successively accessed memory elements with the identifier of a desired tool, producing an output when the identifier of the desired tool is located at the interchange station. The contents of the memory elements allocated to the magazine tool storage devices, as well as certain additional memory elements allocated to the turret tool holders, are updated when a tool is transferred between the magazine and the inactive turret tool holder or between the active and inactive turret tool holders.
Claim:
For use in combination with a machine tool having tools assigned identifiers for retrieval purposes, the tool retrieval system comprising: a plurality of tool holders sequentially movable past a reference station, a memory bank having a plurality of memory elements which are stationary and independently mounted relative to said movable tool holders, each of said memory elements being allocated to a different one of said tool holders for storing therein the arbitrary identifier assigned to a tool held by the tool holder to which said memory element is allocated, reading means for reading said memory elements, means for synchronizing the reading of said memory elements and said sequential movement of said tool holders, and means responsive to said reading means to develop an output in response to reading a memory element containing the identifier of a desired tool for locating said desired tool at said reference station. |
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