DE2834376A1 - DEVICE FOR MARKING OR ENGRAVING - Google Patents

Description

Patent Attorneys Dip! .- Ing. Curt Wallach

Dip; - Ing. Günther Koch

~ & ~ "Dipl.-Phys. Dr Tino Haibach

Dipl.-Ing.

D-8000 Munich 2 Kaufingerstraße 8 Telephone (0 89) 24 02 75 Telex 5 29 513 wakai d

Date: ² ^ August 1978

Our reference: l6 338 -

Applicant: Rolls-Royce Limited

65 Buckingham Gate
London SWlE 6AT
England

Designation: device for marking or

engraving

909809/0786

- -er -

The invention relates to a marking or engraving device.

So far, such devices have been built in two genera. In the first type, which was operated manually, an engraving tool is moved manually on a workpiece in order to achieve the print out the desired characters. In the second genre, a computer is used to determine the relative movement between the Engraving tool and the workpiece controls so as to engrave a desired character. An example of such an engraving device of the latter type is in US-PS 38 57 025 described.

Now there are numerous use cases where predetermined Combinations of alphabetic or numeric characters have to be engraved on a workpiece, e.g. to determine the reference numbers of the machine parts. With these types of Marking, the manual marking devices are slow, labor-intensive, prone to errors and damage of the workpiece. However, the computer-controlled, continuous engraving machines are extremely complex and expensive, and still there is a risk of damage of the workpiece.

The invention is based on the object of creating a marking or engraving device in which the characters automatically engraved in such a way that a relatively simple electronic control by a microprocessor or a similar integrated circuit is effected.

According to the invention, the device for engraving or marking has an intermittently operable tool, which attaches a marking to a workpiece when actuated, with shifting devices controlling the relative movement between the workpiece

909803/0786 ./.

control tool and workpiece and an excitation device that Can be effective tool, wherein an electronic control device controls the displacement of the tool, so that this follows a predetermined pattern over an area of the surface of the workpiece, and that the excitation device so is controlled that the tool makes intermittent markings at those points of the path of movement that an impression effect of the desired character in their sum.

The term "screen pattern" is used in the specification to denote a pattern which normally consists of a Series of closely spaced, parallel lines that are closely spaced, causing the tool to pass over all of these points can paint in the surface area of the workpiece where the marking is required to print any characters.

The screen pattern can be designed so that the impression of a character is created at the same time, or the sections can of the character of different characters can be printed out one after the other.

According to one embodiment of the invention, the grid pattern is in such a way that the tool moves in relation to the workpiece over the marking points of a dot matrix of 7x5 units.

The displacement device can have two stepper motors, each of which the tool in relation to the workpiece in one Moved direction perpendicular to the direction of the other stepper motor.

The electronic control circuit can be a central data processing device have, which has access to a permanent data memory in which the operating instructions

909809/0786 ^{# /} *

are stored and which the tool causes to either print out the required characters.

The character to be printed can be selected by a keypad which causes the central data processing system to deliver the corresponding operating instructions from the permanent data memory.

An exemplary embodiment of the invention is described below with reference to the drawing. In the drawing show:

1 shows a schematic side view of a marking or engraving device designed according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the device of Fig. 1; '

Fig. 3 is a block diagram of the device;

Fig. Λ digits produced using a dot matrix.

The marking device according to the invention has a base plate 10, a column 12 carried by this and an arm 14 carried by the column and extending along the column 12. and can be run down.

The arm 14 supports a movable carriage 16, the longitudinal of the arm 14 can be displaced by rotating a lead screw 18, the lead screw being driven by a stepper motor 20 is driven. The carriage 16 carries a second arm 22, which projects downward at right angles to the arm 14, and this

909809/0786

..A

-X -

second arm 22 can be moved relative to the carriage 16 by a second lead screw 24, which is by a second stepping motor 26 is driven. The second arm 22 carries an engraving tool 28 which is designed as a vibrating hammer which is actuated by compressed air supplied via a line 30 which is controlled by a solenoid valve 32 (Fig. 3) will.

On the base plate 10, a workpiece 34 is not shown Clamped means and the engraving tool 28 can be adjusted at any point above the base plate 10, by appropriately rotating the lead screws 18 and 24 by the stepper motors 20 and 26, respectively.

The electromagnet 32 accordingly acts as an excitation member Excitation of the tool 28, while the two stepper motors 20 and 26 together form displacement drives through which the Tool can be moved. In this context one must realize that the tool has shifted in space while the workpiece remains stationary. It is of course also possible to move the workpiece and the tool 28 to be arranged stationary.

Fig. 3 shows in block form the electronic control circuit which is used to control the exciter magnet 32 and also to the displacement drives 20 and 26 to operate. The main part of the control system is run by a central data processing system CPU 36 formed, which is an Intel 8Ο8Ο 8-bit computer according to the embodiment. The memory for the CPU 36 is formed by a permanent memory 38 and a buffer 40 with direct access. The permanent memory 38 consists in turn of three components of an erasable programmable read-only memory of the type Intel B2708 and therein the program commands for the CPU 36 are stored together

909809/0786 /

with work instructions for all characters to be engraved. The direct access cache 40 is in the form an 8 2102 B stage and is used as an operational data memory for the CPU 36.

External instructions are given to the CPU 36 via an encryption level 42, which is supplied to the CPU via an input / output stage 44 and via a programmable peripheral interface stage 46 is connected. The input / output stage 44 acts as a buffer that clears the incompatibilities between the keypad and the CPU isolated, while the programmable peripheral interface stage (PPI) directs the signals and transmits them in different ways Forms if necessary. From the input / output stage 44 one output is taken and one Electromagnet exciter stage 48 supplied to the required Energy to actuate the electromagnet 32 supplies.

A second PPI 50 is used to control the other output from the control system via the motor drive 52 to the stepper motors 20 and 26. The motor drive stage 52 is required to provide the relatively complex control signals for the stepper motors.

The end part of the control system enables the operator to adjust the size of the characters to be engraved and make visible what is being engraved. For this purpose, a visual display unit VDU 54 is provided which is actuated by the VDU control unit 56 and the VDU buffer 58. The buffer 58 is continuously updated by the VDU control unit 56 scanned so that its constants are displayed on the VDU 54 screen.

The overall system works as follows:

909809/0786

As soon as the device is switched on, this instructs Program in the permanent memory 3> 8 the CPU stage 38 that Word "size" to be delivered and this on the display unit VDU 54 to represent. This is done by the fact that the CPU stage fetches a character from a further section of the memory 38 at a time and lets this get to the VDU buffer 58. After the characters have been added to this buffer, the control stage 56 supplies this on a screen of the control stage VDU.

The CPU unit then operates continuously by polling the keypad until one of a predetermined group of meaningful instructions is entered. In the present case, these consist of one of the digits 1 to 9, which represent a certain size of the required character, or the print command (in this case called GO, but using the carriage return / line feed of the normal keypad). If the GO command is carried out by the operator, then the CPU stage switches to "engraving" (as explained below) and the characters are already used in its own buffer memory 40 as instructions as to which character is to be printed out.

Normally, however, one of the digits 1 to 9 is keyed and this causes the CPU stage to interrogate the permanent memory 38 and supplies the relevant instructions to latch 40 so that they can be used to drive motor 52 when the engraving takes place. This instruction determines the number of steps the stepper motors move between each Points of the matrix must be advanced.

After the size instruction is saved, the CPU memory selects the letters "Names?" (or "number") and it happens

909809/0786

a representation on the VDU and then it goes into the loop passed over, which queries the keypad until an instructive answer is given. In this case, in addition to the GO Stejuers signal, which was mentioned above, every sequence of signs and spaces can be entered from the keypad.

Assuming that GO is not pressed, the keys pressed in the keypad that the CPU reads the drawing instructions, which are contained in the buffer 40 are replaced by new instructions which come from the permanent memory J38. The information reaching the CPU from the keypad 42 has the form of an address in memory 38 for the group of Instructions for the characters in question. Just like that Instruction are introduced into the memory 40, the instructions in the VDU memory 58 are repeated and accordingly the selected character is displayed on the VDU screen.

This process repeats itself up to the group of characters that is to be engraved is entered via the keys. the Signs can be monitored on the screen and it is one Deletion option provided, through which the last keyed character can be replaced by a different character.

At this point, as mentioned, the GO button can be pressed to start the engraving process. When the signal from this When the key reaches the CPU stage, this stage operates in accordance with the engraving signal stored in the read-only memory 38.

In order to understand how the CPU stage in this section works to engrave the characters, it is necessary to understand how the Characters are generated and stored in the buffer memory 40. Fig. 4 shows how the characters are formed and it turns out that each character is formed from a matrix of 7x5 squares with some of the squares depressed, and

909809/0786 /

some remain free. It can be seen that using a 7x5 matrix with all alphanumeric characters can be reproduced with a high degree of naturalness.

Therefore, each character can be stored as a structure of 5 words each of which carries 7 bits of information, and the Reproduction can cause the engraving tool to mark the workpiece at predetermined locations on the matrix.

In the embodiment described, the words stored in the memory 40 are each provided with 8 bits and therefore is one bit in a word is superfluous. There is also an additional one to create the spaces between the characters Word added to the 7x5 matrix to add each character to accommodate the adjacent space on an area of 7x7.

By causing the engraving tool to move relative to the workpiece so that it is all of the squares of the matrix runs through and causes the tool to engrave the workpiece only when one of the squares for a certain character is predetermined, the character is generated in this way. There are two ways to run the tool across the matrix allow. It can run from top to bottom in Y direction, while it moves in the X direction at the end of the line, or it can move back and forth in the X direction as it closes The beginning of each line is shifted in the Y direction. If more than 1 character has to be engraved, then the number will be Reversal steps for the tool are less when the latter system is used. Hence the tool is in the present Case arranged to run across the workpiece in a grid pattern that allows for forward and backward movement has in the X direction and a stepwise transverse movement in the Y direction.

909809/0786 ./.

To do this, the CPU stage scans the line of the character with the last digit entered in memory 40 is and is to be engraved. This is the line Y = I in the illustrated matrix according to FIG. 4. This information is driven along with the number of steps of the motor drive required to advance between points of the matrix, which were stored as a result of the size query, fed to the PPI stage 50 and the motor drive 52. The X drive motor 20 is caused to operate and it takes two steps forward to the square X = 2, Y = 1. At this If the CPU level determines that the bit of the information, relevant to that square requires an impression and the X motor 20 is stopped and becomes the tool actuated by the PPI stage 46, creating the input / output stage 44 becomes effective and also the solenoid drive 48 and a sufficient period of time passes so that the tool 28 can return to its rest position before the motor 20 advances the next step. At the square X = 3, Y = I becomes this process repeats, and so on, until the end of the line of the character, i.e. until in the illustrated embodiment X = 21, Y = 1 is reached.

At this point, the lack of another character for the CPU stage to instruct the Y drive motor 26 causes the tool to move to Y = 2. At the same time, the CPU stage causes the "words" that define the characters in the Form memory 40, are "rotated", i.e. that the last digit becomes the first digit and all other digits accordingly change so that the old, next, last position is now the new, last position. Therefore the CPU stage reads now Y = 2 as the last digit of the stored character and they list them in reverse order to control the motors and tool on that line.

909 8 03/0786

This process is repeated until the entire group of characters is written. At this point the tool will returned to the rest position (X = 1, Y = 1) and because the stored characters 8 "turn" operations are carried out they are now in their original state. The CPU stage then returns to the initial state and starts a new sequence in which the size query appears on the VDU 54 screen. The characters are in memory and if the GO button is pressed, then the engraving process is initiated again, so that the same group of characters can be repeatedly engraved.

It can be seen that by using this particular form of grid pattern, the number of steps of the stepper motor is reduced, but of course it is possible to arrange such that the tool is the Y-axis runs up and down and can be moved transversely to the X-axis is. It is also clear that, as mentioned above, the number of stepper motor stages between each point of the 7x5 matrix determine the size of the stamped character, since the answer to the query "Size?" the total character size in widths Limits are allowed to be set.

Such a 7x5 matrix represents a suitable scalar Matrix for generating alphanumeric characters. However, there is no reason to use other matrix arrangements in order to e.g. to print Cyrillic or Arabic characters.

It is also clear that a pneumatically operated punch tool. 28 represents only one embodiment of a marking tool, and that hydraulically or electrically operated Tools could be used instead. There is also the use of lasers and electron beam devices conceivable. The tool can also move or the work-

909809/0786 · /.

piece, depending on what seems more appropriate.

Because of the shape of simple depressions instead of complete lines, the device according to the invention results in very small ones Stresses in the surface of a workpiece that occur during the Manufacturing highly stressed components could be critical. Different actuation pressures and / or tools can also be used can be used to effect correct imprint on different materials.

Because of the use of a tool (punch 28) which can work over a wide range of depths it is possible to engrave wavy or angled surfaces in a more or less satisfactory manner, depending depending on the degree of the curl or the angle. It is also possible to engrave in a recess.

It is also possible to further develop the device and, for example, to program the CPU 36 so that the air pressure supplied to the punch tool is changed according to the answer to the question about the size. Because the punching tool is conical, larger ones can be required Characters the punching depth can be made larger, resulting in a more visible line thickness of the engraved Character results. It is also possible to use tools that have different end radii so the same To make an impact.

It is also possible to make the arrangement such that the engraving of serial numbers. Number automatically advances one unit when an engraving is completed is. In this way, series of objects can be engraved with minimal effort. Here it is also possible make the machine advance more than one unit, or an alphanumeric character at the end of each numeric To change series.

909809/0786

Blank page

Claims (1)

Patent Attorneys D i ρ !. -1 η g. Curt W a Π a cn Dip! - Ing. Günther Koch Dipl.-Phys. Dr Tino Haibach Dipl.-Ing. Rainer Feldkamp D-8000 Munich 2 ■ Kaufingerstraße 8 - Telephone (0 89) 24 02 75 · Telex 5 29 513 wakai d Date: Aug 4, 1978 Our reference: 16 3J58 - Claims Device for marking or engraving, with a tool which is attached to a workpiece Attaches marking, with a displacement device that allows a relative movement between the tool and workpiece causes and with an excitation device that puts the tool into action, and with an electronic control for the displacement device and the excitation device, characterized in that the tool (28) intermittently by a Exciter in front of the device (32). can be actuated, and that the electronic control device (36, 38, 40, 42) the displacement device (20,26) controls in such a way that the tool (28) is caused to a predetermined Grid pattern opposite the workpiece (34) to follow, and that the excitation device (32) is controlled so that the tool (28) intermittently Makes markings at those points of the movement path, on which the impression of the desired character is built up from the sum of separate markings. 2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the screen pattern is such that one character at a time is pushed in. 9898Q9 / Q786 O O O / "3 * 7 Ο 3. Apparatus according to claim I ₁ £> QQ-HQ / O characterized in that the grid is arranged such that the Impression of parts of different characters happens consecutively. H. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that each character is formed by markings which the tool creates at predetermined points in a 7x5 dot matrix. 5. Apparatus according to claim 1,
characterized in that the displacement device comprises two stepping motors (20, 26), each of which generates a relative movement between the tool and the workpiece in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the other motor. 6. Apparatus according to claim 1,
characterized in that the tool is a power-operated graver (28). 7. Apparatus according to claim 1,
characterized in that the electronic control device comprises a central data processing stage (36) which has access to a permanent data memory (38) in which the operating instructions are stored which are required to cause the tool (28) to print its repertoire of characters . 909809/0788 ■ ζ 8. Apparatus according to claim 7, characterized in that that a keypad (42) is provided on which the characters that are to be printed, can be called up by pressing a key, and that the keypad (42) is the central data processing stage (36) causes the respective work instructions retrieved from the permanent data memory (38). 9. Apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that that a buffer (4'O) is provided, and that the central data processing stage (36) Work instructions for the selected character from the permanent data store (38) to the buffer (40) transmits after the character has been keyed in the keypad. 10. The device according to claim 9, characterized in that that a visual display device (54) is provided on which the keys are touched .being represented. 11. The device according to claim 10, characterized in that that a further buffer (58) is assigned to the visual representation stage (54) that the central data processing stage (36) this further buffer (58) the details of the selected characters transmits, and that the display stage (54) continuously with a scan of this further buffer (58) is fed and represents the content. 909809/0786 - If - 12. The device according to claim 9, characterized in that that pressing a key button (GO) of the keypad (42) causes the central Treatment stage (36) is followed by an "engraving" process, the displacement device (20, 26) and controlling the engraving device (28) to perform the marking. 13. The device according to claim 12, characterized in that that each character is stored in the form of a plurality of words, each of which has a plurality of bits and each word represents a column of a dot matrix, and that the central data processing stage (36) scans each character by scanning the last digits of the words that then the words are rotated so that the last digit becomes the first, and that the new digit last digit is scanned and that this process is repeated until the complete Character is scanned. 14. Device according to claim 13 * characterized in that the central data processing stage (36) uses each of these last digit scans to obtain the To instruct displacement device (20,26) and to instruct the excitation device (32) and to off to exclude a line of the grid pattern so that this line of the series last positions of the saved Corresponds to the character impression. 90 9 8 03/0786 -p- 15. The device according to claim 8, £ 9 WH ν / ν characterized in that the central data processing stage (36) from the keypad (42) contains an encrypted "size" signal and the encrypted Sign the shifting device (20,26) like this offset that the relative movement between tool (28) and workpiece (3-4) between the points of the dot matrix is changed so that the total size of the printed characters differs will. 16. The device according to claim I5,
characterized in that the displacement device has two stepper motors (20,26) and in that the keyed "size" character is used to cause the central data processing stage (36) to determine the number of stages by which the motors (20, 26) advance between each point of the grid. 17. The device according to claim I5,
characterized in that the central data processing stage (36) is also used to use the keyed size symbol to adjust the size of each mark which is imprinted by the tool and which forms part of the imprinted symbol. 18. Device according to claim I7,
characterized in that the tool (28) is a pressurized graver, and in that the central processing stage (36) adjusts the stitch actuation pressure in accordance with the scanned size symbol to change the depth and accordingly the size of the markings. 909809/0786