A binary punch marker identifies pipes and welds at joints of pipes, and a system and method fabricate such a binary punch marker. The binary punch marker has information encoded by recesses in the marker for identifying the pipes and welds. The information is encrypted to prevent forgery of metallic assets such as pipes, pipelines, storage tanks, etc. during inspection of the metallic assets.

A system includes a first fixture to support one side of a part and a robot that has a second fixture to support an opposite side of the part with respect to the one side. One of the part sides has a target on a surface that indicates a location for the operation. The system has a sensor to measure the target in 3-dimensional space. A tool performs the operation at the location, and a controller moves the robot to pick up the part from the first fixture using the second fixture. The controller presents the target to the sensor for measuring the x,y,z coordinates and the yaw, pitch and roll of the target. The controller moves the second fixture with the part to the tool based upon the measurement.

A method for forming a stamped component from a blank material with an industrial stamping machine during a stamping process includes measuring a plurality of parameters of the stamping process. The parameters are provided as variables of the stamping process. The method further includes analyzing, by a stamping process model, the plurality of parameters to adjust the stamping process for the blank material, defining, by the stamping process model, a control parameter of the industrial stamping machine for the blank material, and stamping the blank material with the industrial stamping machine based on the defined control parameter to form the stamped component.

Tooling and corresponding tool assembly configurations equipped with exemplary designs of tracking assemblies configured to track information, such as use history, and perform a variety of processing and storage functions relative to the same for more efficient use and maintenance of the tooling over their lifetimes. The tracking assemblies can have retrofit-ready constructions.

There is provided a control system for an apparatus for taking out a molded product, the apparatus performing appropriate operation when a collision occurs while a servo system control section is manually operated. When a collision detection section outputs an operation stop command, a deviation clearing section performs clearing operation to bring deviations in a servo system control section to zero with the servo system control section kept on. Positioning is completed as the deviations are brought to zero, which enables operation to be performed again. When a retracting operation is performed after the operation is stopped, servomotors are operated according to an operation command, which allows smooth retraction from the collision state.

A method of forming an ice resistant surface includes determining, based at least in part on a desired pattern of frost formation, a vertex angle for a ridge that is to be formed on a substrate. The method also includes determining, based at least in part on the desired pattern of frost formation, a vertex height for the ridge that is to be formed on the substrate. The method further includes forming a plurality of ridges on the substrate, where each ridge in the plurality of ridges has the vertex angle and the vertex height.

An accumulated wear amount calculation section calculates a wear amount of a blade edge of a punch and a wear amount of a blade edge of a die when a tool set of the punch and the die has processed a sheet metal once. The accumulated wear amount calculation section calculates an accumulated wear amount of the blade edge of the punch and an accumulated wear amount of the blade edge of the die by accumulating wear amounts of respective times when the tool set has processed the sheet metal multiple times. A tool management information managing section manages a state of the blade edge of each punch and each die by causing a tool management information storage section to store tool management information associating a tool identification code given to each punch and each die with the accumulated wear amounts calculated by the accumulated wear amount calculation section.

The present invention teaches a process of measuring and grinding tools in can/cylindrical body production, allowing reduced production downtime, reduced cost and a predictive tool wear capability, which process allows more accurate stocking of tool inventory by means of tracking individual tools in use and providing advanced diagnostics to the tool room. This includes not just out-of-spec alarms from QA but also predictive alarms regarding cans produced by each tool, in-spec can weights and wall thicknesses, information on tool sizes being used in production, tools in inventory, pulled from inventory and other stock balancing information. The invention further teaches a system of equations for prioritizing grinding to maintain optimum tool inventory levels.

An information processing apparatus is capable of reducing a burden on an operator to process data exchanged between systems. An information processing apparatus processes data including a data structure defining a plurality of machining processes selected from a laser cutting process, a punch cutting process, and a non-cutting process and implemented on a plate workpiece. The data structure includes shape information defining positions of machining lines that serve as targets of the machining processes, and machining information defining a type of each machining process corresponding to each machining line among the machining processes.

A numerical controller controlling punching performs punching according to a machining program, detects a phenomenon that the punching is not normally completed, collects and stores information required for re-execution of a block in which the phenomenon is generated, and restores a machining state at the time of occurrence of the phenomenon and further re-executes the punching by using the information.