Improved Laser Cleaning System

Abstract

An automated cleaning system for cleaning an object, comprising a laser configured to be directed at the object, to remove contaminants from the object; detection system to identify details about the object; rotation apparatus to rotate the object in a cleaning position; and control apparatus to direct the laser at the object in the cleaning position, and operate the laser to clean the object.

Claims

1. An automated cleaning system for cleaning an object, comprising: a laser configured to be directed at the object, to remove contaminants from the object; detection system to identify details about the object; rotation apparatus to rotate the object in a cleaning position; and control apparatus to direct the laser at the object in the cleaning position, and operate the laser to clean the object.

2. An automated cleaning system of claim 1, wherein the detection system includes a vision system including one or more 3D scanning cameras.

3. An automated cleaning system of claim 1, wherein the rotation apparatus is a turntable.

4. An automated cleaning system of claim 1, further including a movement apparatus to move the object into and/or out of the cleaning position.

5. An automated cleaning system of claim 1, wherein the movement apparatus is a handling robot having a holding arm to hold the object, move the object to or from the cleaning position, and then release the object.

6. An automated cleaning system of claim 5, wherein the holding arm has a gripper.

7. An automated cleaning system of claim 1, wherein the control apparatus comprises a cleaning robot configured to move the laser and selectively turn the laser on and off.

8. An automated cleaning system of claim 7, wherein the cleaning robot includes a processor in communication with the detection system, the processor being configured to move the laser in a cleaning pattern over the object, in response to observations made by the detection system.

9. An automated cleaning system of claim 1, further including a housing to provide an isolated space for cleaning of the object.

10. An automated cleaning system of claim 1, further comprising an exhaust system to draw away fumes from the laser during cleaning.

11. An automated cleaning system of claim 1, wherein the laser comprises a lens, and further comprising a lens monitor to detect potential failure of the lens.

12. An automated cleaning system of claim 11, wherein the lens monitor comprises an infrared sensor, to monitor the temperature of the lens.

13. An automated cleaning system of claim 1, wherein the object is a mould and/or mould part for use in manufacturing glass containers.

14. The automated cleaning system of claim 1, wherein the laser has a power output of 200 to 1,000 Watts.

15. A method for automated cleaning of an object, the method including the steps of: carrying the object into an isolated space; moving the object to a cleaning position detecting details of the object; cleaning the object using a laser mounted on a cleaning robot; and carrying the object out of the isolated space.

16. A method of claim 15, wherein the object is carried into and out of the isolated space using a tray.

17. A method of claim 15, wherein the object is placed on a rotation apparatus and rotated during the cleaning.

18. A method of any one of claim 15, wherein the object is a mould and/or mould part for use in manufacturing glass containers.

19. A method for automated cleaning of an object, the method including the steps of: carrying the object into an isolated space; moving the object to a cleaning position; scanning the object using a 3D scanning camera to obtain a 3D profile of the object; cleaning the object using a laser mounted on a control apparatus and optionally rotating the object; and carrying the object out of the isolated space.

20. A method of claim 19, wherein the object is placed on a rotation apparatus and rotated during the cleaning.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS/FIGURES

[0061] In the Figures:

[0062] FIG. 1 shows an orthographic views I to VII of an improved cleaning system according to the invention within a housing shown for convenience with doors open, without roof and side walls to view the internal parts of the system. Detail ‘A’ shows a detail of view V. Detail ‘D’ shows a detail of view I.

[0063] FIG. 2 shows view I (isometric view 1) of FIG. 1.

[0064] FIG. 3 shows view II (isometric view 2) of FIG. 1.

[0065] FIG. 4 shows view III (isometric view 3) of FIG. 1

[0066] FIG. 5 shows view IV (end 1) of FIG. 1. The width of the housing in this view is 2550 cm

[0067] FIG. 6 shows view V (side 1) of FIG. 1. The height of the housing shown in this view of 3050 cm and length is 7506 cm.

[0068] FIG. 7 shows view VI (end 2) of FIG. 1.

[0069] FIG. 8 shows view VII (side 2) of FIG. 1.

[0070] FIG. 9 shows detailed view A of FIG. 6

[0071] FIG. 10 shows details view D of FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0072] Referring to FIG. 1 there is shown views I to VII of a preferred embodiment of the improved laser cleaning system 100 within a housing 200 for convenience with external doors 242 open, without roof and side walls to view the internal parts of the system. FIGS. 2 to 8 correspond to views I to VII respectively. The housing 200 provides an isolated space for cleaning of glass manufacturing moulds 700 or parts thereof. It will be appreciated that the system can also be used for cleaning other similar objects.

REFERENCE NUMBERS USED IN FIGURES

[0073]

TABLE-US-00001 100 Laser cleaning system 200 Housing 210 Safety guards 220 External loading station/small parts loading station 231 Laser module cabinet(s) 232 Handling robot cabinet(s) 233 Laser cleaning robot cabinet 240 Trolley loading station(s) 241 Part receiving cell guards 242 Doors (external) 243 Access door (internal)/maintenance access door 244 Multi use display 245 HMI screen 300 Handling robot/Part handling robot 310 Part handling arm 320 Part gripper 400 Cleaning robot 410 Control arm 420 Laser cleaning module 430 Cleaning station 440 Fume extraction device 500 Trolley tray 510 trolley 600 Detection devices eg 3D scanning cameras 700 Glass manufacturing moulds/small parts 900 Rotation apparatus 910 part turntable 920 rotating part platform

[0074] The system shown in these figures is described in further detail.

[0075] Within the isolated space, there are a provided a pair of robots—a handling robot 300, and a cleaning robot 400. A tray 500 optionally placed on top of a trolley 510 is provided to carry one or more moulds or parts thereof 700 into and out of the housing 200. In one embodiment, the tray includes at least one rotation apparatus 900 upon which the one or more moulds or parts thereof are placed. In addition, detection devices 600, in this embodiment 3D scanning cameras, are also provided to observe and/or scan the objects within the isolated space.

[0076] Moulds are placed onto a tray to be placed on a trolley or directly onto the trolley then moves into and out of the isolated space through receiving cells or trolley loading station 240 and guided by safety guards 241. The trolley then enters into the system through safety guards 210.

[0077] The handling robot 300 includes a handling arm 310 with a claw or gripper 320 at its end, which is sized appropriately to grasp the mould(s) or parts thereof 700.

[0078] The handling robot 300 includes a processor, which receives data from the 3D scanning cameras 600. The data from the 3D scanning cameras 600 may be received in raw form by the handling robot 300, and analysed to determine the position and/or 3D configuration of the moulds or parts thereof 700. This is detailed further below.

[0079] Alternatively, the data may be externally processed (e.g. by a separate processor associated with the cameras 600) to identify relevant features of the mould within the housing 200, such as its position. This position data can then be transmitted to the robots 300, 400. Once the position of the moulds 700 is determined, the processor of the handling robot 300 can then control the operation of the handling arm 310 and claw 320, to move the moulds 700 for cleaning, as explained below.

[0080] The cleaning robot 400 includes a control arm 410, which has a laser 420 mounted on it. Different types of laser may be used depending on the particular application, but in this embodiment, the laser is preferably a relatively high powered industrial laser in the range of 200 W to 1000 W. In one (non-limiting) embodiment, the laser may be a 1000 W laser operating at approximately 1064 nm wavelength.

[0081] In one aspect, moulds or parts for cleaning are placed on the tray on top of the trolley placed in the receiving cell 240 that enters through the safety guards 210. In this embodiment, a single mould 700 is picked up by the claw or gripper 320 of the handling robot 300, and transferred into a cleaning position within a cleaning station 430 of the cleaning robot 400. The cleaning station includes a rotation apparatus 900 upon which the mould is placed and rotated (this is shown in detail in FIG. 9). In this embodiment, the rotation apparatus is a turntable consisting of a flat surface upon which the mould can be simply placed on top then rotated during the cleaning process. The use of a specific cleaning station 430 ensures that the mould 700 is precisely positioned for cleaning, and ensures that the cleaning robot 400 with the laser cleaning module 420 can clearly identify features of the mould 700 that require cleaning. The cleaning station includes mould detection sensors (not shown), which detect when a mould or mould part is in place and ready for cleaning.

[0082] The cleaning operation, at this stage, may follow a variety of cleaning algorithms depending on the particular object to be cleaned, and the nature of any scale or other contaminants on the surface of the mould or mould part.

[0083] One option is be for the cleaning robot 400 to simply follow a predetermined pattern to ensure the laser is applied to all areas of the mould or parts thereof 700. However, this will usually be inefficient. Accordingly, data from the cameras 600 is preferably used to precisely identify the mould features and the areas of contamination. For example, contaminated areas are frequently of a different colour to the rest of the mould 700. Contamination of moulds 700 also typically occurs more frequently in some areas than in others—for example, around the edges of the mould. The image data from cameras 600 may be analysed to look for colours associated with contamination, and/or shapes within the mould 700 (based on the mould design) that are susceptible to scale build up. This allows contaminated areas to be identified more precisely, for cleaning by the cleaning robot 400. The identification of contaminated areas may be assisted if mould profile data (for the mould 700 to be cleaned) is loaded into the control software for the cleaning robot 400 (and/or handling robot 300), via a user interface. This provides a simpler way to program mould profile data into the control system.

[0084] Once the mould 700 has been cleaned, it is returned to the tray 500 located on the trolley 510 by the handling robot 300. The next mould 700 can then be picked up, moved to the cleaning position, cleaned and returned to the tray 500 located on the trolley 510 as described above.

[0085] Once an entire set of moulds 700 have been cleaned, the trolley carrying the cleaned moulds or mould parts can exit the housing 200 through the safety guard 210.

[0086] In another aspect, mould parts 700 are placed on a tray comprising rotation apparatus (details shown in FIG. 10). The tray is loaded in an external loading station 220. This tray then enters through the safety guards 210 ready for cleaning. In this embodiment, the mould parts are scanned by the 3D scanners 600 to measure the co-ordinates of the mould part including height and width. This data is provided to the processor of the cleaning unit and the parts are cleaned by the cleaning apparatus on the tray whilst being rotated on a platform 900. Once an entire set of mould parts 700 have been cleaned, the tray can exit the system back through the safety guard 210. Details of the small parts cleaning station are shown in FIG. 10.

[0087] The cleaning system 100 according to this embodiment of the present invention can clean a set of moulds or parts in far less time than conventional manual cleaning methods. In addition, cleaning using the present invention appears to result in significantly less erosion of the parent mould material.

[0088] Externally from the isolated space, there is provided cabinets that house controlling units and monitoring units for each of the components within the isolated space, such as the handling robot laser cleaning robot and laser itself. These are shown in FIG. 7 as Laser module cabinet 231, Handling robot cabinet 232, and laser cleaning robot cabinet 233, located within the housing accessible via the external doors 242.

[0089] There is also provided receiving cells for trays 240 and guards 241 for loading the moulds placed on a tray for cleaning into the system and unloading the moulds from trays once cleaned. This is shown in FIG. 5 as Trolley loading station 240.

[0090] There is also provided a small parts loading station to for loading the mould parts directly onto the rotation apparatus on a tray for cleaning into the system and unloading the mould parts from tray once cleaned.

[0091] There is also provided an internal access door 243 for personnel to optionally enter into and out of the system as appropriate.

[0092] There is also provided monitors for operators to monitor the cleaning cycle and the equipment in the isolated space. In FIG. 5 these are shown as Multi-use display 244 and HMI Screen 245.

[0093] Maintenance of the lens on the laser is important. In particular, the lens should be maintained as clean as possible, because contamination can cause cracking of the lens. To help avoid this, an exhaust system may be used to pull contamination and fumes out of the isolated space. In one embodiment, a fume extraction device 440 is placed on the laser cleaning module 420. In particular, an infrared sensor may be used to monitor the temperature of the lens, because the temperature of the lens has a direct relationship to the level of contamination on the lens. In this embodiment, the temperature of the lens is checked at substantially regular intervals, and if the temperature rises above a certain threshold, this mean the lens may be heading for failure. The particular temperature will depend on the type and quality of the lens itself. Alternatively, or in addition, the lens is monitored by scanning the band width of the lens. If outside a nominated range this indicates that the lens is ready for cleaning or replacement. The cleaning process should therefore be temporarily stopped to allow the lens to be cleaned.

[0094] Each mould or mould part may also be individually marked or tagged so they can be tracked as they are cleaned.

[0095] The invention may further be illustrated by the following non-limiting examples:

[0096] Automated Cleaning System with Vision System

[0097] This system uses a 3D infrared or 3D laser camera to scan the moulds. This system includes a 3D camera (Vision system), a handling robot with gripper to pick-up the mould from the loading unloading trays and move the mould around the system. The system can also be used for mould parts. The automated sequence includes the following steps: [0098] a. A handling Robot picks the mould from a tray and moves the mould or part to the scanning area. [0099] b. The vision camera then takes a scan/snapshot of the mould and converts this into x,y,z co-ordinates. [0100] c. This is then sent to the main controller where the information is converted to robot code and stored into memory. [0101] d. The handling Robot then places the mould onto one of two staging tables and this table position is also stored into memory. [0102] e. The laser handling robot then executes a cleaning routine based on this data for each mould (Following this contours).

[0103] Lens Condition Monitoring

[0104] An infrared sensor is used to check the temperature of the lens on the laser optic head which is mounted on a cleaning robot.

[0105] At the end of each cleaning cycle the robot with the laser optic moves to a checking position. When in position the robot outputs a signal to the control system to take a reading from an infrared temperature measuring device. This data is then checked against a set tolerance level allowed for safe operation. The frequency of this checking can be regulated.

[0106] Indicator System

[0107] Once the cleaning cycle is completed, the moulds can be scanned to detect any remaining residue on its surface. This system can also be used for mould parts.

[0108] A projection of light/laser to indicate which mould had not been successfully cleaned.

[0109] Once the operator goes to the unload position the moulds on the tray will have an indicated light to alert the operator of any mould that did not clean correctly.

[0110] This can also be used to indicate to the operator that the moulds are damaged and in need of repair or replacement.

[0111] Small Parts Cleaning [0112] 1. a tray populated with rotating turntables in a grid system is placed in draw or loading station. The centre point of each rotating turntable is known. [0113] 2. The operator will load each position with a small part and close the draw. [0114] 3. The draw is scanned with a 3D scanner to give a height and width of the mould part. This data is then processed and converted into co-ordinates. [0115] 4. This data is then sent to the control apparatus (a laser handling robot). The control apparatus performs a cleaning cycle to clean all mould parts based on the scanned information. [0116] 5. During the cleaning cycle, each part is rotated on the tray as the laser is moved up and down to achieve a total clean of the parts.

[0117] Finally, it is to be understood that various alterations, modifications and/or additions may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention as outlined herein.