IPC분류정보
국가/구분 |
United States(US) Patent
등록
|
국제특허분류(IPC7판) |
|
출원번호 |
US-0639040
(2009-12-16)
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등록번호 |
US-8180480
(2012-05-15)
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발명자
/ 주소 |
- Greenwald, Christopher L.
- Poppe, Martin C.
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출원인 / 주소 |
- Pro-Cut Licensing Company, LLC
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대리인 / 주소 |
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인용정보 |
피인용 횟수 :
1 인용 특허 :
5 |
초록
▼
A system and method for monitoring the contact of tool bits of a lathe with surfaces of a brake disk being machined employs a vibration sensor coupled to the lathe. Signals from the vibration sensor are processed as time-averaged segments that can be grouped within time intervals; a microprocessor e
A system and method for monitoring the contact of tool bits of a lathe with surfaces of a brake disk being machined employs a vibration sensor coupled to the lathe. Signals from the vibration sensor are processed as time-averaged segments that can be grouped within time intervals; a microprocessor employs a qualifying routine to compare the signal level to a background noise threshold value and indicates as “failed” those time periods where the average signal level is not above the background noise threshold. An accumulator records the indications over a number of intervals and compares the result to a standard to make a determination of whether the lathe is likely actively cutting the disk surfaces. To isolate intermittent, high-intensity noises, a consistency routine can check further to see whether individual segments within an interval fall within a range based on the average signal level for that interval.
대표청구항
▼
1. A monitoring system for tracking the contact of tool bits of an on-vehicle brake lathe with surfaces of a brake disk during the turning operation, the brake lathe having a frame, the monitoring system comprising: a microphone which serves as a vibration sensor coupled to the lathe for generating
1. A monitoring system for tracking the contact of tool bits of an on-vehicle brake lathe with surfaces of a brake disk during the turning operation, the brake lathe having a frame, the monitoring system comprising: a microphone which serves as a vibration sensor coupled to the lathe for generating a signal responsive to vibrations that the lathe experiences; a casing having a port therein, said casing attaching to the lathe frame via a mounting surface having an open region therein which forms a chamber when attached to the lathe frame, said microphone being enclosed in said casing and positioned with respect to said port such that said port communicates between said chamber and said microphone; a microprocessor; an addressable memory which communicates with said microprocessor; a microprocessor interface for inputting parameters relating to the operation of the system and for outputting indications as to whether or not the lathe is actively cutting the disk surfaces; a data collection and partitioning module which operates on the signals for a selected time interval T, said data collection and partitioning module operating under the control of said microprocessor and collecting, partitioning, and formatting the signals to provide time-averaged indexed segments suitable for said microprocessor to provide to said addressable memory, the duration of each segment being selected to be consistent with the time of decay of an impact load experienced by the lathe, wherein said data collection and partitioning module groups the segments into time intervals T each consisting of n segments, where n is selected such that the duration of the resulting time interval T is generally greater than the duration of noise caused by advancing a tool bit of the lathe to set a desired depth of cut; a signal qualifying routine for qualifying the segments to compare the signal levels for the segments to a background noise threshold value to determine whether the signal levels are above the background noise threshold value and indicating as “fail” those segments for which the signal level is not above the background noise threshold value, and otherwise indicating as “pass”; a signal consistency routine for analyzing those n incremental segments of a selected time interval T which have been indicated as passing by said signal qualifying routine, said signal consistency routine establishing a control range limited by a range upper limit M that is offset above an average signal level a calculated for the selected time interval T and thereafter comparing the signal level for each of the n segments to the control range to see whether the signal level falls within the control range and operating to retain the indication of “pass” for those segments where the signal level falls within the control range and to change the indication to “fail” for those segments where the signal level falls outside; a digital register that serves as an accumulator; a converter for weighting indications received from said signal consistency routine and presenting weighted signals for the “pass” and “fail” indications to an said accumulator in an acceptable format, wherein said weighting function converts the “pass” and “fail” indications to digital values for storage in said accumulator; and an accumulator evaluator that analyzes the content of said accumulator to make an evaluation of the cutting state of the lathe, said accumulator evaluator being configured such that at least a prescribed number of “pass” signals are required to provide an indication of cutting, wherein said accumulator evaluator compares the value stored in said accumulator to a prescribed cutting standard value and, if reached, provides a cut signal. 2. The monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the control range is further defined by a range lower limit m that is offset below the average signal level a. 3. A monitoring system for tracking the contact of tool bits of an on-vehicle brake lathe with surfaces of a brake disk during the turning operation, the monitoring system comprising: a vibration sensor coupled to the lathe for generating a signal responsive to vibrations that the lathe experiences; a microprocessor; an addressable memory which communicates with said microprocessor; a microprocessor interface for inputting parameters relating to the operation of the system and for outputting indications as to whether or not the lathe is actively cutting the disk surfaces; a data collection and partitioning module which operates on the signals for a selected time interval T, said data collection and partitioning module operating under the control of said microprocessor and collecting, partitioning, and formatting the signals to provide time-averaged indexed segments suitable for said microprocessor to provide to said addressable memory, the duration of each segment being selected to be consistent with the time of decay of an impact load experienced by the lathe; wherein said data collection and partitioning module groups the segments into time intervals T each consisting of n segments, where n is selected such that the duration of the resulting time interval T is generally greater than the duration of noise caused by advancing a tool bit of the lathe to set a desired depth of cut; a signal qualifying routine for qualifying the segments to compare the signal levels for the segments to a background noise threshold value to determine whether the signal levels are above the background noise threshold value and indicating as “fail” those segments for which the signal level is not above the background noise threshold value, and otherwise indicating as “pass”; a signal consistency routine for analyzing those n incremental segments of a selected time interval T which have been indicated as passing by said signal qualifying routine, said signal consistency routine establishing a control range limited by a range upper limit M that is offset above an average signal level a calculated for the selected time interval T and thereafter comparing the signal level for each of the n segments to the control range to see whether the signal level falls within the control range and operating to retain the indication of “pass” for those segments where the signal level falls within the control range and to change the indication to “fail” for those segments where the signal level falls outside; a digital register that serves as an accumulator; a converter for weighting indications received from said signal consistency routine and presenting weighted signals for the “pass” and “fail” indications to said accumulator in an acceptable format, wherein said weighting function converts the “pass” and “fail” indications to digital values for storage in said accumulator; and an accumulator evaluator that analyzes the content of said accumulator to make an evaluation of the cutting state of the lathe, said accumulator evaluator being configured such that at least a prescribed number of “pass” signals are required to provide an indication of cutting; wherein said accumulator evaluator compares the value stored in said accumulator to a prescribed cutting standard value and, if reached, provides a cut signal. 4. The monitoring system of claim 3 wherein the control range is further defined by a range lower limit m that is offset below the average signal level a. 5. The monitoring system of claim 4 wherein, when said signal qualifying routine qualifies the segments as a group within the interval T to which they belong, said signal qualifying routine comparing the average signal level a for the time interval T to the background noise threshold and, if it finds that the average a is less than the background noise threshold, all n segments are indicated as failing. 6. The monitoring system of claim 5 wherein said signal consistency routine operates to set the range upper limit M such that the range upper limit M is defined by S(a) where S is an upper limit scaling function constrained such that the value of S(a) does not to exceed 1.35*a and does not fall below 1.25*a, and further wherein said signal consistency routine operates to set a range lower limit m of the control range, the range lower limit m being defined by s(a) where s is a lower limit scaling function constrained such that the value of s(a) does not to fall below 0.65*a or exceed 0.75*a. 7. The monitoring system of claim 6 wherein the range upper limit M and the range lower limit m are each further offset from the average signal level a by an offset amount δ which is at least about 70% and no more than about 90% of the typical average signal level for an especially quiet cut. 8. The monitoring system of claim 4 wherein said signal consistency routine operates to set the range upper limit M such that the range upper limit M is defined by S(a) where S is an upper limit scaling function constrained such that the value of S(a) does not to exceed 1.35*a and does not fall below 1.25*a, and further wherein said signal consistency routine operates to set a range lower limit m of the control range, the range lower limit m being defined by s(a) where s is a lower limit scaling function constrained such that the value of s(a) does not to fall below 0.65*a or exceed 0.75*a. 9. The monitoring system of claim 8 wherein the range upper limit M and the range lower limit m are each further offset from the average signal level a by an offset amount δ which is at least about 70% and no more than about 90% of the typical average signal level for an especially quiet cut. 10. The tool bit monitoring system of claim 9 wherein said accumulator evaluator operates to compare the content of said accumulator to predefined upper and lower cutting indication limits, wherein the predefined upper cutting indication limit is set such that it can be reached only after a predetermined number of intervals, said accumulator evaluator reporting, an indication of “cutting” if the content of said accumulator is greater than the upper cutting indication limit, andan indication of “not cutting” if the content of said accumulator is less than the lower cutting indication limit. 11. The tool bit monitoring system of claim 10 wherein the digital values provided by said weighting routine are integer values set to be: +1 for each segment indicated as passed, and −1 for each segment indicated as failed, and further wherein an upper cap and a lower cap are set on the content of said accumulator to maintain responsiveness. 12. A method for monitoring a lathe when operating in a noisy environment to make a determination of whether time-dependent vibration signals generated by a sensor coupled to the lathe are indicative of the lathe actively cutting or not actively cutting a brake disk, the method comprising the steps of: processing the vibration signals into indexed time-averaged segments falling within a time interval; establishing a threshold value for the environmental noise; comparing the signal level for the segments against the threshold value of the environment noise and providing a “fail” indication when the signal level is not above the threshold value and otherwise providing a “pass” indication; calculating an average signal level a for all the segments in the time interval; establishing a control range that includes at least a range upper limit M that is offset above the calculated average signal level a; comparing the signal level for each of the segments to the control range to see whether the signal level falls within the control range, and retaining the indication of “pass” for those segments where the signal level falls within the control range and changing the indication to “fail” for those segments where the signal level falls outside the control range; cumulatively recording the “pass” and “fail” indications after said step of comparing the signal level to the control range; and evaluating the cumulative “pass” and “fail” indications by comparing against a prescribed standard. 13. The method of claim 12 for use with lathes that are subject to experiencing high-amplitude noise bursts wherein the range upper limit M is provided by applying a scaling factor S to the average signal level a so as to provide a control range R that excludes the noise bursts. 14. The method of claim 13 wherein the scaling function of the average signal level a that determines the separation of the control range R is subject to adjustment so as to establish a minimum offset. 15. The method of claim 14 wherein said step of comparing the signal level for the segments against the threshold value of the environment noise further comprises: calculating an average signal level for all the segments in the interval;comparing the resulting average signal level to the threshold value of the environment noise; andif the average signal level is not above the threshold value, providing a “fail” indication for all segments within the interval and if the average signal level is above the threshold value, providing a “pass” indication for all segments within the interval. 16. The monitoring system of claim 2 wherein, when said signal qualifying routine qualifies the segments as a group within the interval T to which they belong, said signal qualifying routine comparing the average signal level a for the time interval T to the background noise threshold and, if it finds that the average a is less than the background noise threshold, all n segments are indicated as failing. 17. The monitoring system of claim 16 wherein said signal consistency routine operates to set the range upper limit M such that the range upper limit M is defined by S(a) where S is an upper limit scaling function constrained such that the value of S(a) does not to exceed 1.35*a and does not fall below 1.25*a, and further wherein said signal consistency routine operates to set a range lower limit m of the control range, the range lower limit m being defined by s(a) where s is a lower limit scaling function constrained such that the value of s(a) does not to fall below 0.65*a or exceed 0.75*a. 18. The monitoring system of claim 17 wherein the range upper limit M and the range lower limit m are each further offset from the average signal level a by an offset amount δ which is at least about 70% and no more than about 90% of the typical average signal level for an especially quiet cut. 19. The monitoring system of claim 2 wherein said signal consistency routine operates to set the range upper limit M such that the range upper limit M is defined by S(a) where S is an upper limit scaling function constrained such that the value of S(a) does not to exceed 1.35*a and does not fall below 1.25*a, and further wherein said signal consistency routine operates to set a range lower limit m of the control range, the range lower limit m being defined by s(a) where s is a lower limit scaling function constrained such that the value of s(a) does not to fall below 0.65*a or exceed 0.75*a. 20. The monitoring system of claim 19 wherein the range upper limit M and the range lower limit m are each further offset from the average signal level a by an offset amount δ which is at least about 70% and no more than about 90% of the typical average signal level for an especially quiet cut. 21. The tool bit monitoring system of claim 20 wherein said accumulator evaluator operates to compare the content of said accumulator to predefined upper and lower cutting indication limits, wherein the predefined upper cutting indication limit is set such that it can be reached only after a predetermined number of intervals, said accumulator evaluator reporting, an indication of “cutting” if the content of said accumulator is greater than the upper cutting indication limit, and an indication of “not cutting” if the content of said accumulator is less than the lower cutting indication limit. 22. The tool bit monitoring system of claim 19 wherein the digital values provided by said weighting routine are integer values set to be: +1 for each segment indicated as passed, and −1 for each segment indicated as failed, and further wherein an upper cap and a lower cap are set on the content of said accumulator to maintain responsiveness.
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