METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR GENERATING A CUTTING PLAN OF A COMPLEX GLAZING PRODUCT

Abstract

A method for generating a cutting plan of a complex glazing product including a glass sheet and a layer other than a glass sheet, the method including obtaining a map of the defects of the glass sheet; obtaining at least one other defect map, the defects of the other map not being defects of a glass sheet; each of the maps including, for each of its defects, a position of the defect, a size of the defect, and a criticality level of the defect; generating a cutting plan of the complex glazing product using the maps and a specification taking into account the criticality levels, the cutting plan including a cutting line and being such that none of the cutting lines passes through an exclusion zone of the defect of the glass sheet, wherein a cutting line passes through an exclusion zone of a defect of the other map.

Claims

1. A method for generating a cutting plan of a complex glazing product comprising at least one glass sheet and at least one layer other than a glass sheet, the method comprising: obtaining a map of the defects of said at least one glass sheet; obtaining at least one other defect map, the defects of said at least one other map not being defects of a glass sheet; each of said map and other defect maps comprising, for each of its defects, a position of said defect, a size of said defect, and a criticality level of said defect; generating a cutting plan of said complex glazing product at least using said map and other defect maps and using a specification taking into account said criticality levels, said cutting plan comprising at least one cutting line and being such that none of said cutting lines passes through an exclusion zone of a said defect of said at least one glass sheet, wherein at least one of said cutting lines passes through an exclusion zone of a defect of said other map.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the defects of said at least one other map are: defects of said at least one layer; or defects that appeared during the manufacture of said complex glazing product.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said cutting plan is generated using a map of said complex glazing product, which map is obtained by combining said map of the defects of said at least one glass sheet and said other map, said map comprising, for each defect, an attribute indicating whether the defect is a defect of a glass sheet, a defect of said at least one layer or a defect that appeared during assembly.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, further comprising storing said map of said complex glazing product in memory over a network.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said at least one layer is a thin layer.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein said complex glazing product comprises at least two glass sheets and wherein said at least one layer is an interlayer between the two glass sheets.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, further comprising: cutting a roll to obtain said interlayer; said map of the defects of said interlayer being obtained using a map of the defects of said roll.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, further comprising: reading a unique identifier of said roll; and downloading said map of the defects of the roll from a database indexed by said identifier.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein: reading a unique identifier of said at least one glass sheet; and downloading said map of the defects of said at least one glass sheet from a database indexed by said identifier.

10. The method as claimed in claims 7, wherein said roll comprises locating means able to allow the length of an interlayer unrolled from said roll to be determined and the method comprises: reading said locating means with a view to unrolling the roll so as to cut said interlayer to a defined length; said map of the defects of said interlayer being obtained using the map of the defects of said roll and using said locating means.

11. The method as claimed in claims 7, wherein said roll comprises a marking along a falling edge of said roll, and the method comprises: reading said marking; aligning a coordinate system of said map of the defects of said at least one glass sheet and said map of the defects of said at least one layer using said marking.

12. A system for generating a cutting plan of a complex glazing product comprising at least one glass sheet and at least one layer other than a glass sheet, the system comprising: a module for obtaining a map of the defects of said at least one glass sheet; a module for obtaining at least one other defect map, the defects of said at least one other map not being defects of a glass sheet; each of said maps comprising, for each of its defects of said map, a position of said defect, a size of said defect, and a criticality level of said defect; a module for generating a cutting plan of said complex glazing product at least using said map and said at least one other defect map and using a specification taking into account said criticality levels, said cutting plan comprising at least one cutting line and being such that none of said cutting lines passes through an exclusion zone of a said defect of said at least one glass sheet, wherein said generating module permits at least one of said cutting lines to pass through an exclusion zone of a defect of said other map.

13. A computer program containing instructions for executing the steps of the method for generating a cutting plan as claimed in claim 1 when said program is executed by a computer.

14. A non-transitory storage medium that is readable by a computer, on which is stored a computer program containing instructions for executing the steps of the method for generating a cutting plan as claimed in claim 1.

15. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein said interlayer is made of plastic.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein said plastic is polyvinyl butyral.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0061] Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the description given below, with reference to the appended drawings that illustrate an exemplary embodiment thereof devoid of any limiting character. In the figures:

[0062] FIG. 1 shows a complex glazing product;

[0063] FIGS. 2A to 2D show maps able to be used in particular e bodiments of the invention;

[0064] FIG. 3 shows a roll of the plastic PVB able to be used in one particular embodiment of the invention;

[0065] FIG. 4 shows, in the form of a flowchart, the main steps of a method for generating a cutting plan according to one particular embodiment of the invention; and

[0066] FIG. 5 shows a system for generating a cutting plan according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

[0067] FIG. 1 shows a complex glazing product as meant in the context of the invention. In the example of FIG. 1 this complex glazing product is a laminated glass VF comprising two glass sheets FVi, FVj and an interlayer FI made of the plastic PVB.

[0068] Each glass sheet FV.sub.1 comprises a unique identifier ID.sub.FVI marked on the glass sheet.

[0069] FIG. 2A shows an example of a map C.sub.FV of the defects of a glass sheet of identifier ID.sub.FV. This map C.sub.FV comprises, for each of the defects of the glass sheet, a position POS of the defect in a coordinate system specific to this glass sheet, a size TAILLE of the defect, and a criticality level NC of said defect.

[0070] In the exemplary embodiment described here, these glass-sheet defect maps are stored in a database BD.sub.CPV indexed by the identifiers of the glass sheets.

[0071] FIG. 3 shows a roll R of the plastic PVB. This roll comprises a unique identifier ID.sub.R and an encoder wheel RC.

[0072] FIG. 2B shows an example of a map C.sub.R of the defects of the roll of identifier ID.sub.R, This map C.sub.R comprises for each of the defects of the roll, a position POS of the defect in a coordinate system specific to this roll, a size TAILLE of the defect, and a criticality level NC of said defect.

[0073] In the exemplary embodiment described here, these roll defect maps are stored in a database BD.sub.R indexed by the identifiers of the rolls.

[0074] FIG. 4 shows, in the form of a flowchart, the main steps of a method for generating a cutting plan of a complex glazing product VF.

[0075] In this example, the method is described with respect to generation of a cutting plan optimized for the laminated glass VF of FIG. 1,

[0076] In the embodiment described here, this method comprises a step E10 of reading the unique identifier ID.sub.FVi, ID.sub.FVj of each of the two glass sheets FVi, FVj and a step E20 of downloading maps C.sub.PVi, C.sub.FVj of the defects of each of these glass sheets from he database BD.sub.CPV using their identifiers.

[0077] In the embodiment described here, the method according to the invention comprises a step E30 of reading the unique identifier ID.sub.R of the roll R and a step E40 of downloading the map CF of the defects of the roll from the database BD.sub.CR.

[0078] In the embodiment described here, to cut (step E60) an interlayer made of the plastic PVB to a size substantially equal to that of the glass sheets FV.sub.i, FV.sub.j, the roll R is unrolled, this having the effect of driving the encoder wheel RC.

[0079] In the embodiment described here, a map C.sub.FI of the defects of the interlayer is obtained in a step E70 using the map C.sub.R of the defects of the roll and information read from the encoder wheel RC (step E50),

[0080] The glass sheets and the interlayer are assembled in a step E75 to form the laminated glass VF.

[0081] At the end of this assembling step, the laminated glass is analyzed and, optionally, a map C.sub.DF of the defects that appeared during the manufacture is created in a step E80.

[0082] This map C.sub.DF comprises, for each of the defects that appeared during the assembly, a position of the defect in a coordinate system specific to the laminated glass VF, a size of the defect, and a criticality level of said defect. An example of such a map is given in FIG. 2C. This map C.sub.DF comprises, for each of the defects that appeared during the assembly, a position POS of the defect in a coordinate system specific to this glass sheet, a size TAILLE of the defect, and a criticality level NC of said defect.

[0083] In the embodiment described here, the method according to the invention comprises a step E90 of generating a map C.sub.VF of the laminated glass VF by combining the map C.sub.PVi, C.sub.FVj of the defects of each of the glass sheets, the map C.sub.FI of the defects of the PVB interlayer and the map C.sub.R of the defects that appeared during the assembly. As known, this step requires an operation of aligning the coordinate systems associated with each of the maps.

[0084] In the embodiment described here, the method according to the invention comprises a step E100 of storing the map C.sub.VF of the complex glazing product (here of the laminated glass VF) in memory in a database BF.sub.VF over the network. An example of such a map is shown in FIG. 2D. This map C.sub.VF comprises, for each of the defects of the glazing product, a position POS of the defect in a coordinate system specific to this glazing product, a size TAILLE of the defect, and a criticality level NC of said defect. It is noteworthy in that it furthermore comprises, for each defect, an attribute ATT indicating whether the defect is a defect of a glass sheet, a defect of the PVB interlayer or a defect that appeared during the assembly. In the embodiment described here, the method according to the invention comprises a step E110 of generating a cutting plan PDD of the complex glazing product VF using the map C.sub.VF of the complex glazing product and using a specification CDC.

[0085] This specification takes into account the criticality levels of each of the defects in order to cut the pieces of laminated glass so as to minimize losses due to poor quality.

[0086] According to the invention, no cutting line of this cutting plan passes through an exclusion zone of a defect of the sheet of a glass sheet. In the embodiment described here, these exclusion zones are circles of 1 cm radius around the defects.

[0087] The method according to the invention is noteworthy in that it permits at least one cutting line of the cutting plan to pass through an exclusion zone of a defect of the PVB interlayer or through an exclusion zone of a defect that appeared during assembly.

[0088] FIG. 5 shows a system SGPD for generating a cutting plan according to the invention. This system comprises a computer ORD comprising a processor 10, a random-access memory 11, a read-only memory 12, and a communication module COM for communicating over an network NET.

[0089] The read-only memory 12 is a medium according to the invention. It stores a computer program PG according to the invention, the instructions of which, when they are executed by the processor 10, implement the steps of the method for generating the cutting plan that were described above with reference to FIG. 4.

[0090] This computer is connected to scanners SC configured in read the identifiers of the glass sheets and of the roll. It is also connected to a camera CAM for detecting any defects that appeared during the manufacture of the complex glazing product.

[0091] The communication module COM allows this computer to download the various defect maps from the databases BDVF (map of the defects of the glass sheets) and BDP (map of the defects of the roll).

[0092] This communication module COM also allows the map C.sub.VF of the complex glazing product to be stored in memory in the database BD.sub.VF.