Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
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A TOOL AND A METHOD FOR CREATING THE TOOL
Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a tool and
to a method for creating a tool and more particularly, to a
laminated tool which may be efficiently created, which has
desirable attributes, and which .reliably and cost
effectively produces items having a desired configuration.
Background of the Invention
A tool is used to selectively create a tangible item
or good having a desired shape, size, and/or having certain
other desired attributes and properties. One tool creation
strategy requires the use of a "block" of steel or another
type of relatively hard material which is selectively
"worked" or formed into a desired tool. While this approach
does allow a tool to be selectively created, it is
relatively time consuming, inefficient, and costly.
. In order to address the drawbacks associated with the
foregoing tool creation strategy, a laminated tool creation
strategy is frequently used and requires the selective
creation of various sectional members or "sections" which
are made to cooperatively form the desired tool. One non-
limiting example of such a lamination strategy is found
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within United States Patent Number 5,031,483 ("the '483
patent") which issued on June 16, 1991 and which is fully
and completely incorporated herein by reference, word for
word and paragraph for paragraph. While this lamination
strategy does allow a tool to be quickly and efficiently
created, it has many drawbacks. By way of example and
without limitation, typical and desired types of tool
steels (which are commonly used to create tooling) may
usually not be available to. be used in an overall
lamination process, due to certain inherent features or
properties that prevent such steels from being efficiently
cut into 'sections or selectively bonded or attached to
other formed sections. Therefore, in many cases,
alternative and undesirable or "inferior" materials must be
used for laminate tool construction, thereby causing the
produced tool to have undesired properties and
characteristics.
While, in many instances, these alternative materials
may perform satisfactorily throughout the life of the
prototype or production tool, in many other instances,
there may be a need for a more robust,~hardened tool steel
surface or a highly polished class "A" type of "working"
surface which is not provided by these alternate materials.
Thus, in these cases, the tool created by use of this
lamination strategy does not generally have the required
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working surface and does not perform in a satisfactory or
desired manner.
Further, the use of a lamination process may itself
actually prevent the creation of such a highly polished
class "A" working surface, since such a working surface is
cooperatively formed by the ,selective coupling of each of
the individual sections and, in many cases, by~ a bonding
material which respectively resides between each adjacently
coupled pair of attached sectional members and which forms
part of the working surface_ Particularly, the absence of
homogeneous material, such as a tool forming type steel,
having desired and homogeneous properties, with which to
form such a working surface, actually prevents the formed
working service from being formed in the desired manner and
ZS prevents the formed working surface from producing a tool
having the desired characteristics.
Further, a prototype tool is often initially built in
order to ensure or verify that the designed tool does, in
fact, produce an item having a desired size, shape or other
configuration, to create design specifications which are
used to produce the final "production .tool", and to
ascertain the need to modify the initial design before the
time and expense of'creating a final production tool is
realized. Using this approach a minimum of two tools are
typically required (i.e., a first or "prototype" tool and a
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second or "production" tool) having a.desired design and
configuration. The use of this first prototype tool
undesirably~increases overall manufacturing/production cost
and the needed or required time to produce a final desired
product.
The present invention overcomes some or all of the
previously delineated drawbacks of tool design and creation
and, by way of example and without limitation, allows for
the creation of a laminated tool which has a relatively
long working life and a desirably finished working surface,
and which obviates the need to initially create and use a
prototype tool as part of an overall process to create a
"finished" or "production" tool, thereby reducing
production cost and decreasing the time needed to design
and produce a desired product.
Summary of the Invention
It is a first non-limiting advantage of the present
invention to provide a tool which ~bvercomes some or all of
the previously. delineated drawbacks of prior laminated
tools.
It is a second non-limiting advantage of the present
invention to provide a method for creating a tool which
overcomes some or all of the previously delineated
drawbacks of prior tool creation methods.
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It is a third non-limiting advantage of the present
invention to provide a laminated tool which hay a
relatively long-working life.
It is a fourth non-limiting advantage of the present
invention to provide a laminated tool,which has a working
surface with a desirable finish.
It is a fifth non-limiting advantage of the present
invention to provide a laminated tool which may be quickly
and efficiently formed.
It is a sixth non-limiting advantage of the present
invention to provide a method by which a prototype tool may
be used to efficiently create a production or "finished"
tool.
According to a first non-limiting aspect of the
present invention, a laminated tool is provided.
Particularly, the laminated tool has a first portion which
is created from a first material; and a tool creation
surface which is formed from a second material.
According to a second, non-limiting aspect of the
present invention, a tool is provided which is made by the
process of creating a first sectional member; creating a
second sectional member; attaching the first sectional
member to the second sectional member; and placing a
relatively thin layer of material upon a working surface of
the second sectional member.
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According to a third non-limiting aspect of the
present~invention, a method is provided for forming a tool
comprising the. steps of forming a first sectional member;
forming a second sectional member; coupling the first
S sectional member to the second sectional member; and
attaching a certain material to one surface of the second
sectional member.
According to a fourth non-limiting aspect of the
present invention, a method for creating a tool is
provided. Particularly, the method includes the steps of
creating a prototype tool having a working surface; and
'depositing material upon the working surface, thereby
forming a tool.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of
the present invention will become apparent to those of
ordinary skill in the art from a reading of the following
detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the
invention and by reference to the following drawings.
Brief Description of the Drawings
Figure 1 is a schematic process diagram of the tool
creation methodology of the preferred embodiment of the
invention.
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Detailed Description of the Preferred Eaebodiment of the
Invention
Referring now to Figure 1, there is shown a process
schematic diagram 10 which illustrates the tool creation
methodology of the preferred embodiment of the invention.
Particularly, tool creation methodology 10 includes a
first step 12 in which various sectional members, such as
sectional members 14, 16, are created, according to the
geometric requirements of the desired tool which is to be
i0 produced by the methodology 10.
As should be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in
the art, the manner in which each such sectional member,
such as members 14, 16, are created is dependent upon the
particular lamination tool creation strategy which is
employed by a user of the invention and by the requirements
of the tool which is to be created. It should be realized
by those of ordinary skill in the art, that the present
invention is not limited to a particular type of laminated
tool creation strategy or for use with a particular type of
tool. For example, the sections, such as sections 14, 16,
may be created in accordance with the teachings of the '483
patent, with the teachings of the "prior art" which is
described within the '483 patent, or with any other
lamination tool creation process, including those
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proprietary process which have been developed by the
Applicant.
Step 13 follows step 12 and, in this step 13, th'e
created sectional members, such as members 14, 16, are
5-- selectively coupled or bonded together. Step 18 follows
step 13 and, in this step 18, the created and then coupled
or bonded sectional members, such as members ~14-, 16
cooperatively form an unfinished tool 20 having an
unfinished working or item creation surface 22.
Particularly, in one non-limiting embodiment, each of the
sections, such as sectional members 14, 16, are first
created and then desirably coupled (by use of a bonding
material or other mechanical attachment member) to form a
desired unfinished or prototype tool. Alternatively, each
sectional member, once formed, is promptly attached to
another sectional member, thereby sequentially "building
up" a tool which is formed by the methodology 10. At the
conclusion of the process step 18, a laminate tool 20 is
formed. It should be noted that fihe term "laminate tool"
has a very specific meaning in the tooling art and within
this Application. Particularly, the term "laminate tool"
means a tool with a working surface 22 or a working surface
which is formed by several dissimilar types of materials
(e.g., a bonding agent and the material used to form the
sectional members, such as members 14, 16). Further, it
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should be appreciated that tool 20 comprises a "prototype
tool" and that the term "prototype tool" also means or
refers to any tool which has a relatively short "working
life" (e. g., the time in which the tool may form items
having a desired size, shape, or other attributes). It
should.be appreciated that the sectional members, such as~
sectional members 14, 16, may be formed from such materials
as various steels, aluminums, and/or copper or from
substantially any other material which is desired by the
user .
After the tool 20 is.formed, step 18 is followed by
step 24 in which a second material 30 is deposited upon the
unfinished working surface 22. Particularly, this second
material 30 may selectively comprise nickel, titanium, D-2,
S-7, H-13, or P-20 tool steels or other materials including
various other relatively hard steels acceptable .for
tooling. Moreover, these materials, such as material 30,
may be applied to the working surface 22 by a variety of
deposition or material application techniques. By way of
example and~without limitations, a liquid store 32 of the
second material 30 may be physically .transferred 37 from
the liquid store 32 to create a new surface 36 over surface
22. Particularly, a user of the methodology of the
invention, selectively "sprays" the surface 22 with the
second material 30 until a relatively thin layer of the
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second material 30 substantially covers the surface 22
creating a new surface 36. In the most preferred embodiment
of~the invention, the second material 30 is applied until
it is deposited upon the surface 22 to about a thickness of
about .0005 inches to about-one quarter of an inch (about
.0127 millimeters to about 6.35 millimeters). However, it
should be appreciated that the thickness may vary as
desired and that, in other non-limiting embodiments, the
thickness of the deposited material 30 may not be uniform
upon the surface 22. For example and without limitation,
certain second materials 30, such as nickel may have a
thickness which is about .0005 inches to about .002 inches
(about .0127 millimeters to about .051 millimeters).
In one non-limiting embodiment, thermal transfer from
15~ surface 36 into tool 26 andlor other heat sink rapidly
cools surface 36. The rapid cooling causes the deposited
material 30 to form a "fine grain structure" without the
need for subsequent heat treating. Alternatively, the tool
2 6 may be cooled before the material 30 is applied to it,
thereby increasing the thermal gradient between the newly
applied surface 36 and the tool 26 to more rapidly cool the
applied material 30. Alternatively, the material 30 may be
applied by a laser. deposition process or by any ether
available process, including, but not limited to plating.
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Step 24 may be followed by an additional step (not
shown) of machining the surface, formed by the homogeneous
and selectively deposited material 30, should the
applied/deposited material 30 not have the desired
thickness or a desired finish. The methodology 10 ends with
step 29 in which a "finished tool" 31 is created.
Hence, it should be appreciated that the foregoing
methodology 10 also allows a prototype tool 20 to be
quickly and efficiently modified to create a production
l0 type tool 31, thereby reducing overall production costs and
that the foregoing process or methodology 10 further allows
a finished tool 31 to be formed from a "laminated tool"
(e. g., a tool which is created by the use of a lamination
process) while having a desired finished surface 36 which
i5 allows the finished tool 31 to have a relatively long
working life while producing tangible items having a
desired size, shape, and other attributes.
It is. to be understood that the invention is not
limited to the exact construction and method which has been
20 illustrated and discussed above, but that various changes
and modifications may be made without departing from 'the
spirit and the scope of the inventions as are delineated in
the following claims.
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