Patent ID: 9623466
Date: 2017-04-18
CPC Classifications: B21D,G05B

Claim:
1. A method of bending a workpiece using a bending apparatus, an image-capturing device and a processor, the method comprising: bending a portion of the workpiece so as to form a curved portion of the workpiece, said curved portion of the workpiece having a curvature and a first longitudinal periphery, the first longitudinal periphery being the inside curved edge of the workpiece; capturing an image of said first longitudinal periphery of said curved portion of the workpiece with the image-capturing device; outputting said image to the processor; identifying through the processor a plurality of measuring points which are spaced-apart along said first longitudinal periphery of the curved portion of the workpiece; and determining through the processor a first estimated curvature based on said measuring points, retaining those one or more measuring points that fit along the first estimated curvature within a first pre-set tolerance, retaining one or more measuring points that are positioned to overlay a portion of the image showing the workpiece and retaining one or more measuring points that are positioned between the portion of the image showing the workpiece and the first estimated curvature, determining through the processor a second estimated curvature based on said measuring points so retained, retaining one or more measuring points that fit along the second estimated curvature within a second pre-set tolerance that is smaller than the first pre-set tolerance, retaining one or more measuring points that are positioned to overlay the portion of the image showing the workpiece and retaining one or more measuring points that are positioned between the portion of the image showing the workpiece and the second estimated curvature, disregarding all other measuring points and using at least some of the measuring points so retained to determine the curvature of the curved portion of the workpiece.