Patent ID: 6091999
Filing Date: 2000-07-18
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
An apparatus for producing electronic data representations of an object comprising:a data gathering station;a material removal station; anda shuttle providing relative movement of the object between said stations along a path defined by an x-axis;wherein said data gathering station comprises:an image data acquisition device for successively acquiring images of the object after removal of a predetermined contour; andan electronic device operatively associated with said image data acquisition device for receiving and storing said images;wherein said material removal station comprises:a tool constructed and arranged to remove a predetermined contour of material from the object; anda drive mechanism constructed and arranged to provide relative movement between the tool and the object, a component of the movement being along a z-axis which is perpendicular to said x-axis, such that the tool can be moved into and out of relative material removing engagement with said object;wherein said shuttle comprises:a table for holding the object;a drive mechanism constructed and arranged to provide relative movement between said table and the tool along said x-axis such that the object and the tool are moved in material removal alignment for removing a predetermined contour of material from the object and in imaging alignment to said image data acquisition device after removal of a predetermined contour; andposition determining apparatus operatively arranged to determine the relative locations of the object and the tool along the x-axis and to actuate the image data acquisition device at predetermined positions of the object relative to the tool and comprising a linear encoder with a scale and a sensor and a computer, the scale having predetermined linear increments, the sensor being constructed and arranged to send signals to the computer in response to the relative movement between the sensor and the scale, the computer being programmed to determine the position of the scale relative to the sensor in response to the signals received from the sensor, the scale and sensor being operatively associated with each other such that the position of the object relative to the tool along the x-axis is incrementally determined by the computer.