Patent ID: 9439277
Filing Date: 2016-09-06
CPC Classification: B05B,B23K,C23C,H05H

Claim Text:
1. A method for depositing hardfacing material on at least one surface of a tooth of a rolling cutter, comprising: providing a pre-heating apparatus; pre-heating a rolling cutter with the pre-heating apparatus; providing a vertically oriented plasma transfer arc torch secured to a positioner having controllable movement in a vertical plane; securing the rolling cutter to a chuck mounted on an articulated arm of a robot; positioning a surface of a tooth of the rolling cutter in a substantially perpendicular relationship beneath the torch; moving the rolling cutter with the articulated arm of the robot in a plane beneath the torch in a manner providing a target path on the surface of the tooth, the target path beginning near a crest portion of the tooth and ending near a base portion of the tooth, the target path forming a first waveform about a centerline of the surface of the tooth, the target path having a plurality of tooth traversing portions substantially parallel to the crest portion of the tooth, the target path having a plurality of step paths interconnecting the plurality of tooth traversing portions, the step paths of the plurality of step paths being located at opposite edges of the surface of the tooth in an alternating fashion between subsequent tooth traversing portions of the plurality of tooth traversing portions, each step path of the plurality of step paths being parallel with the edge of the surface of the tooth at which each step path is located; oscillating the torch linearly on a horizontal axis while moving the rolling cutter with the articulated arm of the robot in the plane beneath the oscillating torch so as to impose a second torch waveform onto the first waveform on the surface of the tooth, wherein a midpoint of the torch oscillation substantially follows the target path, the second torch waveform having an amplitude such that the second torch waveform on adjacent tooth traversing portions overlaps; rotating the rolling cutter with the articulated arm of the robot in the plane beneath the torch and about the z-axis of the midpoint of the torch oscillation while the midpoint of torch oscillation follows each tooth traversing portion of the plurality of tooth traversing portions, such that: depositing a hardfacing material on the surface of the tooth of the rolling cutter with the torch at least along the second waveform between step paths while performing the moving the rolling cutter with the articulated arm of the robot in the plane beneath the torch, in the manner providing the target path, while performing the oscillating the torch linearly on the horizontal axis and while performing the rotating the rolling cutter with the articulated arm of the robot to provide a pattern of overlapping deposited hardfacing material; and continuously heating a localized region of the rolling cutter to which hardfacing material is to be applied with a second torch of the pre-heating apparatus while depositing the hardfacing material.