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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to gearing configurations such as
speed-reduction gearing configurations, and, more particularly, to a
system for visualizing, identifying and ordering enclosed worm gearing
configurations.
2. The Prior Art
Although worm gears have been in use for centuries, modern enclosed worm
gear speed reducers were developed during the 1920's and have been in use
ever since--without essential change of design. Such speed reducers
typically are in the form of a parallelepiped (six-sided) housing from
which extend input and output shafts, and on which are affixed one or more
mounts. To meet their specific requirements, purchasers must specify the
locations and orientations of the shafts and mounts with respect to the
housing, as well as criteria of gear box size, gearing power and speed,
and, when applicable, competitive interchange (compatibility with the
associated drives of different manufacturers).
In the past, the specification process has required a technical
comprehension of geometric diagrams, engineering drawings and
trigonometric relationships, by which selections have been made from among
the thousands of possible permutations and combinations of speed reduction
components. In the past also, the specification process has required
excellent skills at visualizing how the gear box should be positioned and
oriented with respect to ceilings, floors, walls, conveyors, etc. A
greatly simplified specification process has long been needed by
engineering and purchasing personnel.
Conventional computers, typically, personal computers, can be programmed
for communication with data bases to implement algorithms by which
relationships among components can be identified, and combinations of
these components can be selected. However, consideration of conventional
computer systems has not led to practical solutions to the problems
indicated above in the selection of gearing configurations, particularly
speed reduction gearing configurations.
THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to enable visualizing, identifying
and ordering speed reduction gearing configurations, particularly enclosed
worm gear configurations, by a system comprising a mechanical display
means and a digital computer means, which cooperate in a novel manner.
The mechanical display means includes sequences of adjustable slide media,
each having at least a stationary base component and a rotatable disk
component of sufficiently large size for convenient visual and manual
access. The base component presents alphanumeric indicia, typically at
90.degree. or 180.degree. intervals. The disk component typically presents
an aspect of a gear box, with an input shaft depicted in one color such as
red, at least an output shaft depicted in another color such as blue, and
optionally one or more mounts depicted in still another color such as
green. The disk component also provides a window by which selected
alphanumeric indicia on the base component are visible. This mechanical
display is used by alternately visually scanning the various sequences and
manually rotating the various disk components until the needed
configuration of input and output shafts and mount, and the needed
orientation are observed. A mechanical identifier in the form of an
alphanumeric indicium representing this configuration and orientation,
thereby, is provided by the base component through the window of the disk
component representing the configuration and orientation which thus have
been isolated.
The digital computer means includes a host computer and a plurality of
dedicated terminals that communicate with the host computer through
telephone lines. The host computer is programmed so that its memory means
contains: a data base system and an expert system. The data base system
contains digital electronic identifiers, which refer to off-the-shelf
assemblages, and off-the shelf components that are available from the
supplier; and the expert system includes arithmetic/logic means for
processing the digital electronic identifiers according to inputs received
from the terminals, and for transmitting output data to the terminals.
This ouput data refers to price, delivery and availability. Each of the
terminals contains a programmed read only memory (PROM) which guides the
terminal user, through a sequence of inquiries, to automatically telephone
the host computer, to transmit input data from the mechanical display to
the host computer, and to display the result data received from the host
computer for confirmation or rejection by the user.
The system of the present invention, in one sense, is a marketing tool that
places in the hands of reduction gearing customers a relatively
inexpensive mechanism, in lieu of the large telephone-book like catalog
that has been required in the past, for specifying reduction gearing
assemblages. The terminal, which is much smaller than the mechanical
display, is too small itself to serve as an aid for visualization and
isolation of a needed gearing configuration. The terminal serves as a user
friendly intermediary between the mechanical display means which is
required for visualization and isolation, and the host computer means
which is required for engineering evaluation.
Other objects of the present invention will in part be obvious and will in
part appear hereinafter.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the present
invention, reference is made the accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a partly pictorial, block diagram of the digital computer system
of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a view of one of the mechanical slide media of the present
invention;
FIG. 3 is a view of another of the mechanical media of the present
invention;
FIG. 4 is the initial part of a flow chart or pseudo code showing steps of
the operation of the digital computer system of the present invention;
FIG. 5 is one leg of the final part of the flow chart of FIG. 4, showing
other steps of the operation of the digital computer system of the present
invention;
FIG. 6 is the other leg of the final part of the flow chart of FIG. 4,
showing further steps of the operation of the digital computer system of
the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a top plan view of a terminal of the type shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 8 is a side view of the terminal of FIG. 7;
FIG. 9 is an upper end view of the terminal of FIG. 7;
FIG. 10 is an enlarged view of the connector elements of the terminal of
FIG. 7;
FIG. 11 is a block diagram of the terminal of FIG. 7;
FIG. 12 shows one presentation of the mechanical display of the system of
the present invention;
FIG. 13 shows another presentation of the mechanical display of the system
of the present invention;
FIG. 14 shows still another presentation of the mechanical display of the
system of the present invention; and
FIG. 15 shows still another presentation of the mechanical display of the
system of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
INTRODUCTION
The specific purpose of the illustrated system is to enable a purchaser,
i.e. designer, manufacturer, distributor, etc., to specify enclosed worm
gear speed reduction configurations being ordered from a supplier. Any
selected single reduction or double reduction worm gear speed reducer
requires specification of such ratings as input and output shaft
revolutions per minute, horsepower, torque, drive ratio, input and output
shaft locations, mounting locations, lubricants, dimensions, gear type,
gear ratio, coupling bore code, assembly type, reaction rod, service
factors that constitute criteria for variations and fluctuations in power
sources, operating conditions and loads, etc. Furthermore, as a practical
matter, the maximum feasible reduction for any pair of gears is 60:1.
Coupling two gear reducers in series can provide a gear reduction of
3600:1. Double reduction speed reducers require all of the specifications
of single reduction speed reducers, plus specifications of inter-stage
connections.
It is estimated that in the case of one supplier, approximately 3 million
permutations and combinations of its product line can be assembled from
standard off-the-shelf components. The system now to be described in
detail grossly simplifies the selection process. This system comprises the
digital computer means shown in FIGS. 1 and 4-11, and the mechanical
display means shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 12-15.
As shown in FIG. 1, the digital computer system includes a host computer
30, and a plurality of dedicated terminals, three of which are shown at
32, 34 and 36. The host computer is located at the supplier's plant or
other designated central site, where its data base can be kept up to date.
The terminals are located at remote customer sites at which they are
connected through telephone lines for accessing the host computer. It will
be observed that each of the terminals is smaller than a telephone set
(typically a telephone set of the type sold under the trademark MERLIN by
AT&T) to which it is connected so that it is incapable of presenting the
expansive array of visual media that is presented by the mechanical
display. As shown, however, each of the terminals readily presents
alphanumeric information and provides manual access.
THE HOST COMPUTER AND THE TERMINALS
With reference to FIGS. 1, 4, 5 and 6, manually pressing the ON key of one
of terminals 32, 34 . . . 36 causes presentation of a series of menus by
which the user can specify the equipment he wishes to order. The first
menu, as at 44, enables the user to preselect a catalog item number known
to him as representing a specified off-the-shelf gear reduction unit. The
next two menus, as at 46 and 48, enable the user to specify, respectively:
a competitive catalog number for interchange, if any; and speed reduction
parameters, such as ratio, base, torque, load, etc., as well as an
alphanumeric identifier derived by using the mechanical visual display of
FIGS. 2, 3 and 12-15 in a manner to be described below. On entry of this
information, the associated telephone dials the host computer 30 at the
central site. The host computer includes a basic input/output interface
39, a data base sub-system 40, and an selection sub-system 41. Menus 44,
46 and 48 and the data base to which they refer are stored in random
access memories which are contained by data base system 40. The outputs of
these random access memories are coordinated as at 52 by an selection
system 41, which, as indicated above, includes an arithmetic/logic unit,
by which identifiers of stock items are selected. The preselected data at
44 and the expert system data at 52 are converted to translator data as at
54, where they are divided into stock data as at 56 and made-to-order data
as at 58.
Stock data, as in FIG. 5, is compared with finished goods inventory data as
at 60 and finished goods pricing data as at 62 to provide stock price and
delivery data as at 64, for transmission back to the calling terminal.
Made-to-order data, as in FIG. 6, is processed as at 66 to generate
machine recognizable nomenclature identifiers, which in turn are applied
as at 68 to produce pseudo assembly bill data. If no nomenclature data is
recognized as at 66, then new manufacturing data is generated as at 70.
The pseudo assembly bill data as at 68 are subjected to pricing and
inventory processing as follows. For pricing, pseudo assembly bill data
identifiers are compared to pricing identifiers to produce pseudo modular
price identifiers as at 72. During inventory processing, the pseudo
assembly bill identifiers are compared with component inventory
identifiers as at 74, which in turn are compared with factory requirements
identifiers as at 76. The pseudo modular price identifiers as at 72 and
the factory requirements identifiers as at 76 are coordinated to provide
made-to-order price and delivery identifiers as at 78 for transmission
back to the calling terminal If the resulting information presented at the
calling terminal is acceptable to the user, he is prompted by the touch
screen to enter the order information by touching an indicated portion of
the touch screen, in consequence of which the terminal calls the host
computer to register the order.
As shown in FIGS. 7 through 11, a preferred terminal for the system of the
present invention is a hand held unit of the type manufactured by Kiel
Corporation, Amherst, N.H. under the trade designation VP2TT. This
terminal, which is capable of being held in the palm of the hand, includes
only a very few keys, in the illustrated embodiment, an ON/OFF key 80 and
a contrast key 82. The major portion of the face of the unit presents a
touch responsive display 84, including a lower liquid crystal screen 86
and an upper touch screen 88, which are superposed. As shown, liquid
crystal stratum 86 has a so-called supertwist composition. The active area
has a matrix of 120.times.96 pixels corresponding to 12 lines of 20 to 30
proportionately spaced characters. Touch screen 88 is composed of glass
and provides 8 by 6, or 48, touch responsive positions, each in the form
of a pair of touch terminals that are shorted by finger contact in a
manner well know in the art.
The electronic system of terminal 32, as shown in FIG. 11, includes a
microprocessor 90 which controls an erasable programmable memory 92
(EPROM) and a random access memory 94. (RAM) Terminal 32 communicates
through a modem interface 96 and an acoustic interface 98. In the
illustrated embodiment, details of the components of the terminal are as
follows. Microprocessor 90, which is sold by Intel under the trade
designation 80c31, runs at 11 MHZ. This 8 bit controller is fabricated in
CMOS technology and includes a low power standby mode to conserve the
battery The Microprocessor 90 contains a built-in serial port with
programmable baud rates, used for serial communications with the modem and
the acoustic interfaces. Memories 92 and 94 respectively include 64k bytes
of CMOS EPROM and 32K bytes of static RAM. The operating system uses 10K
of EPROM and 2K of RAM, which leaves the user with a maximum of 54K of
EPROM and 30K of RAM. Acoustic interface 98 is a bi-directional
communications interface supporting the following four signals:
XMT--Transmit data (to the host computer);
RCD--Receive data (from the host computer);
DTR--Data terminal ready (for transmission or reception); and
GND--Signal ground
Interface pin descriptions are as follows with reference to FIG. 10.
Pin #1: AR=Acoustic interface receiving input. Input range is 0 to 4.5
Volts. This pin is used as external power source input.
Pin #2: XMT=Transmit output. Output levels are approximately -10 V & 5 V.
The host computer input for this pin should have high impedance.
Pin #3: GND=For safety and proper operation, ground should be connected to
this pin.
Pin #4: AT=Acoustic interface transmitting ouput. The output level of this
pin is less than 9 db to comply FCC regulations.
Pin #5: RCD=Receive data input. Input voltage applied to this pin should
not exceed +5 V.
Pin #6: DTR=Data transmit ready (+5 v).
Pin #9: RING=Connects to standard telephone "RING".
Pin #10: TIP=Connects to standard telephone "TIP"
Pin #7, 8, 11, 12: Unused.
When the ON/OFF key is depressed, the terminal starts to execute software
instructions. The unit shuts itself off after 5 minutes of inactivity.
There is no hard-wired OFF switch, but an OFF switch can be displayed on
the touch screen.
THE MECHANICAL DISPLAY
In the illustrated embodiment of the mechanical display, there are four
arrays of circular slide media 99, 101, 103, 105, each array consisting of
two groups of nine media each. Each group of nine media is supported on a
stiff card, the edge of which is provided with three punched holes 107 for
reception of the rings of a loose leaf binder. In other words, each group
of nine media is hinged at its edge so as to constitute one of a pair of
pages of a notebook or other booklet. When the booklet is opened, two
associated groups of nine circular slide media each are presented in a
manner that will be described more fully below.
One of the slide media is shown in FIG. 2 as including a base 100 and a
rotatable disk 102. Disk 102 can be rotated manually about a central
ferrule 104 which pivotally connects base 100 and disk 102. Disk 102 is
provided with a notch 106 that serves as a window to reveal selected
alphanumeric indicia 108 which are printed at spaced intervals on base 100
under the periphery of disk 102. On disk 102 is imprinted a two
dimensional orthogonal or perspective view 110 of a parallelepiped-shaped
gear box. Depicted in this view are: an input shaft 112, which is colored
red, extending from one face; an output shaft 114, which is colored blue,
extending from another face; and a mount 116, which is colored green,
affixed to further face. The arrangement is such that manual rotation of
disk 102 to one of four positions at 0.degree., 90.degree., 180.degree.
and 270.degree. causes the display of an indicium 108, which serves as a
mechanical identifier that corresponds to an electronic identifier in the
digital computer system.
Another of the slide media is shown in FIG. 3 as including a base 118, a
lower opaque disk 120, and an upper disk transparent 122. Upper disk 122
is smaller in diameter than lower disk 120. Both disks can be rotated
manually about a central ferrule 124 which pivotally connects base 118,
lower disk 120 and upper disk 122. Disk 120 is provided with a notch 126
that serves as a window to reveal selected alphanumeric indicia 128 which
are printed at spaced intervals on base 118 under the periphery of lower
disk 120. On lower disk 120 is imprinted a two dimensional orthogonal or
perspective view 130 of a parallelepiped-shaped gear box. Depicted on this
view are: an output shaft 132, which is colored blue, extending from one
face; and a mount 134, which is colored green, affixed to another face. On
disk 122 is imprinted a two dimensional view 136 of an auxiliary gear box.
An output of gear box 136 and an input of gear box 130 are understood to
be operatively interconnected. Depicted in connection with auxiliary gear
box 136 are alternative input shafts 138, 140. Upper disk 122 is provided
with two openings at 142, 144, which serve as windows to reveal selected
alphanumeric indicia which are printed at spaced intervals on lower disk
120. The arrangement is such that: manual rotation of lower disk 120 to
one of four positions at 0.degree., 90.degree., 180.degree. and
270.degree. with respect to base 118 causes the display of an indicium
128, which serves as a mechanical identifier that corresponds to an
electronic identifier in the digital computer system; and manual rotation
of upper disk 122 to one of four positions at 0.degree., 90.degree.,
180.degree. and 270.degree. with respect to lower disk 120 causes the
display of indicia printed on lower disk 120 and registered with openings
142, 144. These indicia serve as mechanical identifiers that correspond to
electronic identifiers in the digital computer system.
The mechanical display 99 of FIG. 12 shows three rows and six columns of
single-reduction speed reducers, of the type shown in FIG. 2, that depict
a first set of permutations and combinations of input and output shafts,
and mounts at a first set of faces of a six-sided gear box. In any given
row, the locations of the input and output shafts remain constant, but the
locations of the mounts vary. The arrangement is such that the user, by
manipulating the disks, immediately and easily can see which of the
permutations and combinations meet his needs and can note the mechanical
identifier that corresponds to his selection.
The mechanical display 101 of FIG. 13 shows three rows and six columns of
single-reduction speed reducers, of the type shown in FIG. 2, that depict
a second set of permutations and combinations of input and output shafts,
and mounts at a second set of faces of a six sided gear box. In any given
row, the locations of the input and output shafts generally remain
constant, but the locations of the mounts vary. The arrangement is such
that the user, by manipulating the disks, immediately and easily, can see
which of the permutations and combinations meet his needs and can note the
mechanical identifiers, on the base and on the lower disk, that correspond
to his selection.
The mechanical display 103 of FIG. 14 shows three rows and six columns of
double-reduction speed reducers, of the type shown in FIG. 3, that depict
a set of permutations and combinations of primary gear box and secondary
gear box relationships, and a third set of permutations and combinations
of input and output shafts, and mounts at a set of faces of the primary
and secondary gear boxes. The arrangement is such that the user, by
manipulating the lower and upper disks, immediately and easily can see
which of the permutations and combinations meet his needs and can note the
mechanical identifier that corresponds to his selection.
The mechanical display 105 of FIG. 15 shows three rows and six columns of
double-reduction speed reducers, of the type shown in FIG. 2, that depict
a set of permutations and combinations of input and output shafts, and
mounts at a set of faces of primary and secondary gear boxes that are in
fixed relationships. The arrangement is such that the user, by
manipulating the disks, immediately and easily can see which of the
permutations and combinations meet his needs and can note the mechanical
identifier that corresponds to his selection.
OPERATION
In operation, a user of the system of the present invention, presses the
ON/OFF button of the terminal which is connected to his telephone. The
terminal displays a sequence of inquiries to which the user must respond
by touching the touch screen. At some point, under prompting by the
terminal, the user observes the mechanical display and manipulates the
disks to isolate the mechanical identifier of the speed reducer that he
requires. When an alphanumeric key pad is presented by the terminal, the
user inputs the mechanical identifier, which is converted by the terminal
to an electronic identifier. The terminal makes the call, and transmits
the indicated information to the host computer. The host computer
processes the electronic identifier and transmits back, to the terminal,
order data referring to pricing, availability and delivery. The user then,
by touching the touch screen, can indicate acceptance of the order data,
thereby automatically calling the host computer and placing the order. If
the user does not indicate acceptance of the order data, the inquiry, in
effect, is cancelled.
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