Electric discharge machine with contact detector and position detector

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9459610-B2
Application number	US-201114000298-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 11, 2011
Priority date	Apr 11, 2011
Publication date	Oct 4, 2016
Grant date	Oct 4, 2016

Abstract

An electric discharge machine includes at least one of a noncontact-position detection sensor that outputs a detection signal when a distance between a first contact body and a second contact body is equal to a preset residual distance in a noncontact phase and a drive unit that detects a load given on the main spindle, and a main-spindle-drive control unit stops moving of the main spindle in at least either a case where a moving amount of the main spindle since the noncontact-position detection sensor outputs the detection signal exceeds the residual distance or a case where it is determined that an overload is given from a detection result of the drive unit.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An electric discharge machine comprising:
a contact detector to detect contact between a first contact body and a second contact body based on current flowing between the first contact body and the second contact body, the first contact body corresponding to a tool electrode attached to a main spindle or a gauge head attached in place of the tool electrode, the second contact body corresponding to a workpiece or a gauge head attached to the workpiece;
a numerical control device that includes a main-spindle-drive controller to control driving of the main spindle, and that recognizes a positional relation between the tool electrode and the workpiece based on a detection result of the contact detector;
a noncontact-position detector to output a detection signal when a distance between the first contact body and the second contact body is equal to a preset residual distance prior to the contact between the first contact body and the second contact body, and
at least one stop determiner to start monitoring a moving amount of the main spindle when the distance between the first contact body and the second contact body becomes equal to the preset residual distance,
wherein the main-spindle-drive controller stops the main spindle from moving in response to the contact not being detected based on the current flowing between the first contact body and the second contact body, in combination with the monitored moving amount exceeding the preset residual distance.

2. The electric discharge machine according to claim 1 , wherein the main-spindle-drive controller stops the moving of the main spindle in a case where a load detector determines that an overload is given from the detection result of the load detector and the contact detector does not detect the contact between the first contact body and the second contact body.

3. The electric discharge machine according to claim 1 , further comprising a main-spindle-velocity controller that controls a velocity for moving the main spindle, wherein
the main-spindle-velocity controller controls a moving velocity of the main spindle after the noncontact-position detector outputs the detection signal to be lower than a moving velocity of the main spindle before the noncontact-position detector outputs the detection signal.

4. The electric discharge machine according to claim 1 , further comprising an overload-determination-threshold decider to decide an overload determination threshold, which is for determining whether the overload is given from the detection result of the overload detector, according to specification data on at least one of the tool electrode, the workpiece, and the gauge heads.

5. The electric discharge machine according to claim 1 , further comprising a load detector to detect a load placed on the main spindle,
wherein the main-spindle-drive controller stops the main spindle from moving in response to the load detector determining the first contact body is overloaded.

Assignees

• Katougi Hidetaka
• Kurokawa Toshiaki
• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Katougi Hidetaka
• Kurokawa Toshiaki

Classifications

• G05B19/18 Primary

  Numerical control [NC], i.e. automatically operating machines, in particular machine tools, e.g. in a manufacturing environment, so as to execute positioning, movement or co-ordinated operations by means of program data in numerical form (G05B19/418 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B23H7/26

  Apparatus for moving or positioning electrode relatively to workpiece; Mounting of electrode · CPC title

• B23H7/18 Primary

  for maintaining or controlling the desired spacing between electrode and workpiece · CPC title