| 摘要 |
1480166 Workpiece clamping; vacuum workholders INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP 9 Sept 1975 [31 Dec 1974] 36954/75 Headings B3B and B3D [Also in Division E2] A workpiece clamp comprises a housing 10 containing a fluidizable bed of particles 14, an opening for receiving the workpiece 20 and a passage 12 to pass fluid into, or withdraw fluid from, the bed, to cause the bed to become either fluidized to allow insertion of the workpiece, or to adopt a substantially solid state to clamp the workpiece. A plate 16, e.g., sintered or having many small holes, supports the bed whilst allowing the fluid to pass therethrough. A membrane (30) (Fig. 2F, not shown) having a central hole to receive the workpiece, may be placed over the top of the bed to assist the build up of a vacuum to clamp the workpiece. Alternatively the top layer of the particles may be of a smaller size than the rest, to fill in the spaces between the larger particles when a vacuum is applied through passage 12. Various configurations of particles are described (Figs. 2A-2F, not shown), and they may be coated with a resilient material to prevent marking a workpiece and to assist in locking together during clamping. An arrangement is described (Fig. 4, not shown) of a matrix of separate clamps connected through control pipes to a computer control means for automatic programme controlling of the workpiece clamping. |
