APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR GRINDING OF MATERIALS SUCH AS METAL COMPRISING A HANDLING SYSTEM ADAPTED TO AUTOMATICALLY EXCHANGE AND DRESS TOOLS

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/962,255, filed Jan. 17, 2020 the content of the entirety of which is explicitly incorporated herein by reference and relied upon to define features for which protection may be sought hereby as it is believed that the entirety thereof contributes to solving the technical problem underlying the invention, some features that may be mentioned hereunder being of particular importance.

IDENTIFICATION OF PARTIES CONCERNED

The Applicant of the present intellectual property matter is L. Kellenberger & Co. AG of Switzerland. The inventor(s) of the invention described in this patent documentation are GSCHWEND, Bernhard of Switzerland, EGETER, Michael of Switzerland and DOSSENA, Fabrizio of Switzerland. At the time of filing, John B. Moetteli and the firm Da Vinci Partners LLC of Switzerland represent the Applicant.

COPYRIGHT & LEGAL NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The Applicant has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. Further, no references to third party patents or articles made herein is to be construed as an admission that the present invention is not entitled to antedate such material by virtue of prior invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is in the field of automatic finishing machines such as machining, polishing and grinding machines, in particular circular finishing machines which are capable to finishing an inside surface. Such finishing machines of the state of the art comprise typically a machine bed, two linear axes on that machine bed, and one rotational axis below the tool holder, for which limited rotational motion is allowed.

Considerable interactions are required between Quality Control (QC) and/or tooling setups and grinding tools in order to have the grinding tools treated, measured, cleaned or dressed in order to properly grind a workpiece. Existing solutions exist where the interaction between QC and/or tooling setups and grinding tools are such that additional handling systems are required and collision with other objects within a working area is possible.

Therefore, what is needed is an improved way of automating interaction between the QC and/or tooling setups (in any combination) and the grinding tools are required, which simplifies the kinematics of the QC and/or tooling setups and reduces or avoids the possibility of collision. This is also the case for general interactions like movements between machine elements on the tool side with machine elements on the workpiece side or with their surrounding elements.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A safer industrial finishing machine offering collision free kinematics has a machine bed; a rotatable indexer capable of a swing of from zero to about 225 degrees (−45° . . . +180°), optionally combined with a linear indexer (110) which is in turn mounted to the machine bed; a workpiece holder mounted on a work head and at least two QC and/or tooling setups (maintenance, dressing, cleaning, etc.) mounted to the rotatable indexer such that the QC and/or tooling setups rotate around the indexing axis in a fixed relationship to other dressing arrangements and to the axis of the workpiece holder and a finishing tool mounted to the machine bed so as to finish a workpiece mounted in the workpiece holder. In this configuration in which the QC and/or tooling setups physically cannot collide with the workpiece (because they are fixed with respect to each other), the finishing machine offers kinematics free of collision risk when dressing or changing out tools.

A further object of the invention is to provide a maximum number of dynamic movements or configurations, the use of up to 4 spindles, and a unique finishing head configuration with a fixed measuring probe.

The present invention provides the advantages that the risk of collision is reduced by means of using two units, one which is a linear indexer combined with rotatable indexer, the other which is a combined linear indexer with a turret. On one unit of the linear indexer combined with a rotatable indexer, the workpiece holder and at least one QC and/or tooling setup, preferably at least two QC and/or tooling setups are mounted in a fixed relationship. On the other unit, at least one grinding tool, and optionally at least one measurement setup, is mounted. This configuration provides a maximum number of dynamic movements or configurations and the possibility to use up to 4 spindles. The measuring probe mounted next to at least one grinding tool on the combined linear and rotatable indexer and turret allows an integral measurement because it's ready at all times and essentially in position for operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The attached drawings represent, by way of example, different embodiments of the subject of the invention.

FIG. 1 shows the kinematic arrangement of the circular finishing machine, in particular the two units, one is a combined linear and rotatable indexer, the other is a linear indexer combined with a turret, are shown, whereas the tool and workpiece carriers are not shown.

FIG. 2A shows the kinematic arrangement of the circular finishing machine, in which the two units as well as the tool and workpiece carriers are shown.

FIG. 2B shows the kinematic arrangement, in particular the combined linear and rotatable indexer in which a spindle work head is affixed to the rotatable indexer which is in turn affixed, optionally via a slide, to the machine table, the spindle workhead having a workpiece holder, and the machine table further accommodating one or more tools for dressing.

FIG. 3A to 3E show the steps of the production process by means of a top view of the moveable elements of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram defining the location of the QC and/or tooling setups with respect to the workpiece holder.

FIG. 5 s a flow chart of the steps of the production process by means of a flow chart.

FIG. 6 is an alternate flow chart showing the steps of the production process.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the Figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, dimensions may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of the invention and its embodiments. Furthermore, when the terms ‘first’, ‘second’, and the like are used herein, their use is intended for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a sequential or chronological order. Moreover, relative terms like ‘front’, ‘back’, ‘top’ and ‘bottom’, and the like in the Description and/or in the claims are not necessarily used for describing exclusive relative position. Those skilled in the art will therefore understand that such terms may be interchangeable with other terms, and that the embodiments described herein are capable of operating in other orientations than those explicitly illustrated or otherwise described.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The following description is not intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way as it is exemplary in nature, serving to describe the best mode of the invention known to the inventors as of the filing date thereof. Consequently, changes may be made in the arrangement and/or function of any of the elements described in the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a collision free kinematic arrangement for a circular finishing machine configured to grind an inside surface and having a finishing tool head 210 (shown in FIG. 2A) mounted on a turret 102 connected to at least one linear indexer 104, as well as a workpiece holder 202 (shown in FIG. 2A) mounted on a rotatable indexer 106 connected to at least one linear indexer 110 (or vice-versa), the linear indexers 104 and 110 (or the rotatable indexers in the case of the alternative arrangement) being mounted on a base or machine bed 112. The kinematic arrangement is free of collision risk for dressing processes and for changing of tools (because the workpiece is moved away from the tool or grinder for dressing given that the workpiece and the QC and/or tooling setup are held in fixed relationship to one another and so can never collide). In other words, in one embodiment, a machine bed structure supports/carries and connects the two sliders which each connect to rotational indexers, which then optionally connect to linear tables, which connect to the workpiece holder and the turret, respectively. In one embodiment, at least two rotation axes are attached to the moving part of each linear axis. The rotating part (the rotating indexer) having each an axis of rotation forming a carrier platform. In sum, the embodiments of the basic design include: (1) bed connected to (“-”) linear axis—rotary axis-workpiece/tool; (2) bed—rotational axis—linear axis—workpiece carrier/tool carrier; and (3) bed—linear axis1—linear axis2—rotational axis—tool carrier (i.e., the workpiece is motionless). Essentially, a rotary axis with large swivel range is disposed below the workpiece carrier.

In more detail, a linear indexer 110 and rotatable indexer 106 are combined and mounted to the machine bed 112. A spindle workhead 206 attached to a workpiece holder 202 and at least two QC and/or tooling setups 211, such as a dressing setup 212, a measuring setup (QC touch probes, optical probes, etc.) 212′, or a cleaning setup 212a, a further dressing setup 212″ are mounted to the combined linear indexer 110 and rotatable indexer 106 such that the QC and/or tooling setup(s) 211 rotates with the workpiece holder 202 (with its axis) in a fixed relationship thereto. At least two QC and/or tooling setups of course is meant to include the possibility of at least two dressing setups 212, 212″ or any combination thereof, including at least one QC setup and at least one tooling setup. A finishing tool 214 or probe 215 is mounted to the finishing tool head 210 which is mounted to the combined linear indexer 104 and turret 102 and these indexers 104 and 102 are mounted to an optional slider and then to the machine bed 112. The finishing tool 214 or probe 215 is positioned so as to finish or probe a workpiece 208 when said workpiece 208 is mounted in the workpiece holder 202.

For the fixed relationship between the workpiece (the holder 202/workpiece workhead 206) and the QC and/or tooling setups 211, 212, 212′, 212″ (also shown in FIG. 4 as cleaning, tooling or QC setup 212a, QC, cleaning or tooling setup 212b, and cleaning, tooling or QC setup 212c), the combined axis of rotation of the workpiece, the workpiece holder, and the workpiece workhead remains in a geometrically unchanged position relative to the reference point of the QC and/or tooling setup. In other words, the geometrical position of the reference point of the workpiece remains unchanged in relation to the geometrical position of the reference point of the respective QC and/or tooling setup (this, during rotary movements). Essentially, the workpiece/workpiece holder/workpiece headstock and dresser are rigid with respect to each other when the underlying rotational axis rotates.

In a preferred design, the linear axes 104, 110 are connected to the bed/machine frame 112, while the rotary axes 120, 122 are connected to the moving part of the linear axis-thus not directly to the bed.

The present invention relates to the inventive setup of the machine as well as to the production process, in particular the grinding process, which is possible due to the inventive setup of the machine. The production process is shown in FIGS. 3A to 3E further below.

Before the grinding process starts, the grinding tool 214 (the grinding disk) needs to be dressed. A QC and/or tooling setup 211 is used in order to get, on the one hand, the grinding disk 214 into a desired geometrical shape, and on the other hand, to get the grinding disk 214 sharpened and/or cleaned.

Thanks to the layout of the invention, the process of dressing the grinding tool 214 and as well as the process of workpiece changing entails advantages compared to existing solutions.

Unlike the circular finishing machines of the prior art, the present invention provides a rotational axis 120 provided by the rotatable indexer 106, this rotatable indexer 106 being arranged below the workpiece holder 202, in such a way that the workpiece holder 202 and each QC and/or tooling setup 211 are positioned on circular paths, each circular path having its center substantially on the rotational axis 120. The rotatable indexer 106 is rotatable through a large pivot range (larger than 180 degrees) such as, for example, 0-180°, 0-360°, or is rotatable without any angular limitation. In a typical embodiment, the indexer 106 rotates through 225°. Referring now to FIGS. 2A and 2B, in one embodiment, the working area of the circular finishing machine is shown in FIG. 2A, whereas FIG. 2B shows a close-up view of a part of that working area. The first embodiment (as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B) is placed in that working area. On the illustration as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, a machine table 204 is affixed to the rotatable indexer 106. On the machine table 204, a spindle workhead 206 is affixed, the spindle workhead 206 has a workpiece holder 202. The machine table 204 accommodates further one or more, preferably at least two tools for dressing 212. The preferably at least two QC and/or tooling setups 211 are preferably located on one and/or the other side of the workpiece holder 202, on one or both sides of the spindle workhead 206. Thus, at least two QC and/or tooling setups 211 are located either on one or on the other side of the axis of the spindle workhead 206. In a further embodiment, at least two QC and/or tooling setups 211 are located on each side of the workpiece holder 202, on one or both sides of the spindle workhead 206. Optionally, the spindle workhead 206 is affixed to the machine table 204 via a slide 222. Other equipment for the manufacturing sequence on the table like measurement equipment (touch and optical, etc.) and reference marks (e.g., reference marks used to perform calibration steps, in order to calibrate probes) (see FIG. 2B) may be added.

Now referring to FIGS. 3A to 3E. These figures are top views of the elements as shown in FIG. 2B. By means of FIGS. 3A to 3E, the process of dressing the grinding tool and as well as the process of tool changing is shown.

In a first process step, as shown in FIG. 3A and as an alternative in FIG. 3B (where the workpiece changer 216 is in an alternate workpiece change position), the rotatable indexer 106 (not visible) positions the machine table 204 is in a position, such that the workpiece holder 202, which is affixed to the rotatable indexer 106 which, in one embodiment, is mounted on that machine table, is positioned to be easily accessible from outside the working area. In that position, the workpieces 208 can be easily unloaded and loaded, preferably unloaded and loaded by a loading equipment 216, such as an automated handling system, alternatively loaded by hand.

In a second process step, as shown in FIG. 3C, the rotating axis 106 (not visible) positions the machine table 204 in a position, such that one of the setups 211 is positioned towards one of the grinding tools 214. The one QC and/or tooling setup 211 which is directed towards the one grinding tool 214 can now be used to dress that one grinding tool 214. In order to get one of the other QC and/or tooling setups 211 positioned towards the one grinding tool 214, the rotating axis 106 (not visible) must position the machine table 204 in another position such that one of the other QC and/or tooling setups 211 is positioned towards the one grinding tool 214. Once the dressing of the one grinding tools 214 is completed, either another grinding tool can be dressed, or the next process step initiated.

In a third process step, as shown in FIG. 3D, the rotatable indexer 106 positions the machine table 204 in a position, such that the workpiece 208 is positioned towards one of the grinding tools 214. In that position, the workpiece 208 can be grinded at the inner or outer diameter by one or more of the grinding tools 214. For the sake of clarity, in order to show the grinding inside the workpiece 208, the workpiece 208 is shown in FIG. 3D in a sectional view. Possible is also a measuring step with one or more measuring devices (e.g., touch probes) 215.

In a fourth process step, as shown in FIG. 3E, the rotatable indexer 106 positions the machine table 204 in a position, such that the processed/grinded workpiece 208 can be, optionally automatically, measured by suitable measurement equipment 220. Depending the result(s) of the measurement, the workpiece 208 can be processed again according to the third process step as described above. FIG. 3E also shows also an optional measuring operation on the grinding tool 214 by a measuring device 213. This step allows to check the grinding wheel and to measure its actual dimensions.

Referring now to FIG. 4, more than one QC and/or tooling setup 211 (three such setups are shown in the figure) are located on either the left or right side (counterclockwise or clockwise direction to 180 degrees) of the workpiece holder 102 or on both the left and right side. Still further, it should be understood that two or more workpiece holders 202′ may each hold a separate workpiece 208. Note that the embodiment of FIGS. 3A to 3E (and any embodiment shown herein for that matter) should also be considered in its mirror image across a plane between the rotatable indexer 106 and the turret 102.

In one embodiment in which two or more dressing arrangements 211 are located in the plus swivel range (null position: workpiece axis parallel to the tool axis or to the linear axis which is carrying the tool), where the plus swiveling range >100°/>120°/>135°/>150° is provided for swiveling of the QC and/or tooling setups. There may be two or more dressers/stations in the minus swivel range, where the minus swivel range >75°/>90°/>120° is provided for swiveling of the QC and/or tooling setups and the workpiece.

In the embodiment in which two or more QC and/or tooling setups (in any combination) are located in the plus or minus swiveling range, in the arrangement of the dressers/stations (statically on the rotating part of the swivel axis) with an angle difference of: >15°/>20°/>22°/>25°/>30°/>45°/>60° around the center of rotation of the swivel axis. A large angle difference results in good accessibility to the QC and/or tooling setups and to the workpiece.

The measurement equipment 220 may, optionally, be mounted on the turret 102, parallel to or in place of one of the grinding tools (alternatively measuring probes 215).

Referring now to FIG. 5, a method 400 of using the finishing machine 101 includes several steps. In a first step 402, the finishing machine 101 rotates the first rotatable indexer 106 to receive a workpiece 208 in a workpiece holder 202, optionally via an automated workpiece charger 216 or is charged by hand. In a second step 404, the workpiece 208 is charged and clamped in place in the workpiece holder 202. In a third step 406, the first rotatable indexer 106 is moved to a work position such that the workpiece 208 may be ground by a grinding tool 214. In a fourth step 410, the workpiece 208 is ground. In a fifth step 412, the workpiece holder 202 is rotated on the rotatable indexer 106 to an inspection position for inspection or, alternatively, rotating a QC and/or tooling setup 211 on the rotatable indexer 106 to dress a grinder (the tool used for inspection may also be used for calibration of a touch probe 215.) Before and/or after dressing, the tool (the grinding wheel) can still be measured by a measuring tool (see FIG. 2B in which the measuring tool is located between the dressers 212, 212″). A QC and/or tooling setup 211 (one or more) is located in a fixed relationship with respect to the workpiece holder 202 axis, within a range of 180 degrees to either side (right or left) of the workpiece holder 202. In a sixth step 414, the finishing machine 101 alternates between machining, grinding, dressing, and/or inspecting (the inspection of the workpiece 208 may either be performed by means of measuring devices 215 mounted on the finishing tool head 210, or, alternatively, by means of measuring equipment 220 mounted directly on the machine bed 112), as required, in order to obtain a target form on the workpiece. In a seventh step 416, once the target form is obtained, the finishing machine rotates the workpiece holder 202 to a discharge position and discharges the workpiece. An optional step may be performed between the aforementioned sixth 414 and seventh step 416, in which the workpiece 208 may be cleaned and/or labelled.

Note that the finishing machine 101 is typically a numerically controlled machine tool which uses a CPU which executes a grinding process program, and so can move components of the finishing machine automatically, or an operator can direct the movements of the components as is known in the art.

Referring now to FIG. 6, a general interpretation of a manufacturing sequence is laid out. In a first step 502, the finishing machines is in an initial setup configuration. In a second step 504, a workpiece is charged and fixed in the workpiece holder. In a third step 506, the finishing machine is in an operation mode. The operation mode may alternatively be called manufacturing mode. During the operation/manufacturing mode, a sequence of sub-steps may be executed. These sub-steps are described in the next paragraph. Once the operation/manufacturing mode is completed, the finishing machine enters a fourth step 510. In that fourth step 510, the workpiece is discharged.

Describing now the sub-steps of the third step 506 of FIG. 6. In a first sub-step 512, an Auxiliary Operation is performed. In a second sub-step 514, a Main Operation is performed. In a third sub-step 516, optionally, a further Auxiliary Operation is performed. In a fourth sub-step 520, optionally, a further Main Operation is performed. In a fifth sub-step 522, optionally, one or several Auxiliary Operations and or Main Operations are performed. In sub-step 524, optionally, another Auxiliary Operation is performed. List 526 provides examples of Auxiliary Operations. List 530 provides examples for Main Operations. The Main Operations are done typically on different workpiece zones, each operation with a different tool. A variation of process parameters is possible.

The invention can be summarized by the following feature sets:

• • 1. An industrial finishing machine tool offering good accessibility during the manufacturing sequence, the finishing machine tool having at least:
    • (a) a machine bed (112);
    • (b) a rotatable indexer (106) defining an indexing axis (120) and mounted to the machine bed (112);
    • (c) a workpiece holder (202) and at least two QC and/or tooling setups (211) mounted to the rotatable indexer (106) such that the QC and/or tooling setups (211) rotate with the workpiece holder (202) around the indexing axis (120) in a fixed relationship to each other or other dressing arrangements and to the axis of the workpiece holder, at least two of the at least two QC and/or tooling setups (211) being located on the same side relative to the axis of the workpiece holder (202), and
    • (d) a finishing tool (214) such as a cutting, polishing, or grinding tool mounted to the machine bed (112) so as to finish a workpiece (208) when the workpiece is mounted in the workpiece holder (202),
      • wherein, in this configuration, the finishing machine tool offers kinematics free of collision risk when processing the finishing tool, preferably dressing the finishing tool, or changing out the workpiece.
  • 2. The industrial finishing machine tool of feature set 1, configured to enable a large pivoting angle of the rotatable indexer (106) of more than 100° in both pivoting directions starting from the zero position at which position the workpiece axis is parallel to the tool axis.
  • 3. The industrial finishing machine tool of feature set 1 or 2, further having two or more workpiece holders (202) or spindle work heads (206) mounted on the rotatable indexer (106).
  • 4. The industrial finishing machine tool of any one of feature sets 1 to 3, further having additional QC and/or tooling setups or tooling elements selected from one of the group of setups/elements consisting of touch probes, optical probes, reference marks, and cleaning stations, the setups/elements mounted to the rotatable indexer (106) such that these setups/elements rotate with the workpiece holder (202) in a fixed relationship thereto.
  • 5. The industrial finishing machine tool of any one of feature sets 1 to 4, further having
    • additional tooling elements selected from one of the group of tooling elements consisting of measuring elements (e.g. touch probes), workpiece cleaning devices, workpiece handling devices, and labeling devices mounted to the machine bed (112) or mounted to any machine structure in between the machine bed (112)
  • 6. The industrial finishing machine tool of any of the above feature sets, wherein the rotatable indexer (106) is mounted in a typically circular or oval shaped arrangement around the rotatable indexer (106), whereby the radial mass of the circular or oval shaped arrangement influences the amount of additional tooling elements such that elements on the movable part of the rotatable indexer (106) are provided with good accessibility to these elements.
  • 7. The industrial finishing machine tool of any one of feature sets 1 to 6, wherein the rotatable indexer (106) is mounted on at least one linear indexer (110).
  • 8. The industrial finishing machine tool of feature sets 1 or 7, wherein the machine table (204) of the rotatable indexer (106) contains a slide (222) or an alignment surface (203) with clamping devices (not shown), such that the workpiece holder (202) on it can be configured to be brought into different static positions (217) with respect to the other elements (208, 211, 211′, 211″, 212, 212′, 212″, 222) thereby enabling a flexible positioning of the workpiece holder (202), thus obtaining high flexibility for the set-up of new processes and workpieces, wherein further, for radius grinding, the workpiece is configured to be brought near or to the center of the rotatable indexer for higher radius accuracy through use of just one moving axis.
  • 9. The industrial finishing machine tool of feature set 1 or feature set 7, wherein further, the finishing machine includes:
    • (a) at least one second linear indexer (104) combined and mounted under a turret (102) which combination is mounted to the machine bed (112); and
    • (b) a finishing tool head (210) having at least one finishing tool powered therein mounted to the turret (102).
  • 10. A method of using the industrial finishing tool of any one of feature sets 1 to 9, wherein the method includes the steps of:
    • (a) rotating the rotatable indexer (106) to receive a workpiece in the workpiece holder (202), preferably via an automated workpiece charger (216);
    • (b) charging the workpiece and clamping it in place in the workpiece holder (202);
    • (c) rotating the rotatable indexer (106) to a work position such that the workpiece may be finished by the finishing tool (214);
    • (d) using the finishing tool (214), finishing the workpiece; and
    • (e) once the workpiece obtained a target form, rotating the workpiece holder (202) to a discharge position and discharging the workpiece.
  • 11. The method of feature set 10, further including the following steps:
    • rotating the workpiece holder (202) on the rotatable indexer (106) such that one QC and/or tooling setup (211) on the rotatable indexer (106) can interact with the finishing tool (214), the QC and/or tooling setup (211) being located in a fixed relationship with respect to the workpiece holder (202); and
    • alternating between processes such as machining, grinding, dressing.
  • 12. The method of feature set 10 or feature set 11, including the following additional steps:
    • rotating the workpiece holder (202) on the rotatable indexer (106) to a position such that the workpiece in the workpiece holder (202) can be measured from a measurement device (215 or 220); and
    • alternating between processes such as machining, grinding, dressing, and/or inspecting and/or cleaning, and/or labelling, as required, in order to obtain a target form on the workpiece.
  • 13. The method of feature set 10 or feature set 11, further including the following steps:
    • rotating the workpiece holder (202) on the rotatable indexer (106) such that a measuring device on the rotatable indexer (106) can measure a finishing tool (214) on its spindle, and
    • alternating between processes such as machining, dressing, and/or inspecting/measuring as required, in order to obtain a target form on the tool.

This system and process of the invention entails significant advantages compared to existing solutions.

In one advantage, the risk of collision is reduced by means of using two units, one is a combined linear indexer with rotatable indexer, the other is a combined linear indexer with a turret.

In another advantage, the present invention extends the basic configuration by a further rotary axis with a large swivel angle on the workpiece side. This allows the production sequence to be implemented with very good accessibility between the workpiece, tool, dressers, measuring systems and the workpiece changing system.

In another advantage, the invention simplifies and supports the production sequence in the aspect that fewer and less complex auxiliary axes are required. The additional rotation axis with a large swivel angle opens up a turret or rotary indexing machine functionality. This means that the moving positions of the rotating platform can be oriented towards static positions in its surroundings—the further away from the center of rotation, the more cycle positions are possible. The linear axis below the axis of rotation enables linear movement of all elements on the movable platform.

In another advantage, the work piece axis can be oriented parallel to the linear axis-this allows the work piece or dressing tool in the dressing setup, e.g., to be brought into a measuring device or a work piece or tool changing system.

In another advantage, good accessibility of the elements on the tool side to elements on the work piece side and vice versa. Simpler or cheaper tools can be used. Contact zones can be defined longer, which results in longer tool life and higher product accuracy.

In still another advantage due to the good accessibility, the setups 211 described herein enable the finishing of the workpiece inner diameter with radii on the outer edge (e.g., radius grinding) due to the good accessibility. The large swivel angle of the swivel axes, together with the good accessibility, also enables interpolations between multiple movement axes in order to finish the inner radius of the inner diameter.

In another advantage, high flexibility in universal grinding, since several combinations of tools and dressers are possible. There is enough space on the revolvers because of the large swivel circle.

In another advantage, high accuracy and quality of the workpieces, since fewer «imprecise» auxiliary axes are required.

In another advantage, costs are saved through the elimination of many auxiliary axes.

In still another advantage, measuring on the machine is supported or greatly simplified.

It should be appreciated that the particular implementations shown and herein described are representative of the invention and its best mode and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention in any way.

It should be appreciated that many applications of the present invention may be formulated.

As will be appreciated by skilled artisans, the present invention may be embodied as a system, a device, or a method.

Moreover, the system contemplates the use, sale and/or distribution of any goods, services or information having similar functionality described herein.

The specification and figures should be considered in an illustrative manner, rather than a restrictive one and all modifications described herein are intended to be included within the scope of the invention claimed. Note for example that any embodiment shown herein should also be considered as existing and shown in its mirror image across a plane between the rotatable indexer 106 and the turret 102. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be determined by the appended claims (as they currently exist or as later amended or added, and their legal equivalents) rather than by merely the examples described above. Steps recited in any method or process claims, unless otherwise expressly stated, may be executed in any order and are not limited to the specific order presented in any claim. Further, the elements and/or components recited in apparatus claims may be assembled or otherwise functionally configured in a variety of permutations to produce substantially the same result as the present invention. Consequently, the invention should not be interpreted as being limited to the specific configuration recited in the claims.

Benefits, other advantages and solutions mentioned herein are not to be construed as critical, required or essential features or components of any or all the claims.

As used herein, the terms “comprises”, “comprising”, or variations thereof, are intended to refer to a non-exclusive listing of elements, such that any apparatus, process, method, article, or composition of the invention that comprises a list of elements, that does not include only those elements recited, but may also include other elements such as those described in the instant specification. Unless otherwise explicitly stated, the use of the term “consisting” or “consisting of” or “consisting essentially of” is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to the enumerated elements named thereafter, unless otherwise indicated. Other combinations and/or modifications of the above-described elements, materials or structures used in the practice of the present invention may be varied or adapted by the skilled artisan to other designs without departing from the general principles of the invention.

The patents and articles mentioned above are hereby incorporated by reference herein, unless otherwise noted, to the extent that the same are not inconsistent with this disclosure.

Other characteristics and modes of execution of the invention are described in the appended claims.

Further, the invention should be considered as comprising all possible combinations of every feature described in the instant specification, appended claims, and/or drawing figures which may be considered new, inventive and industrially applicable.

Additional features and functionality of the invention are described in the claims appended hereto and/or in the abstract. Such claims and/or abstract are hereby incorporated in their entirety by reference thereto in this specification and should be considered as part of the application as filed.

Multiple variations and modifications are possible in the embodiments of the invention described here. Although certain illustrative embodiments of the invention have been shown and described here, a wide range of changes, modifications, and substitutions is contemplated in the foregoing disclosure. While the above description contains many specific details, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention, but rather exemplify one or another preferred embodiment thereof. In some instances, some features of the present invention may be employed without a corresponding use of the other features. Accordingly, it is appropriate that the foregoing description be construed broadly and understood as being illustrative only, the spirit and scope of the invention being limited only by the claims which ultimately issue in this application.