Patent ID: 6029880
Filing Date: 2000-02-29
Classification: B21F

Abstract:
Method of preparing and assembling a plane armature for a concrete product in accordance with a predetermined design drawing indicating assembly points, comprising steps of:providing elements of the armature to be made in accordance with the design drawing;laying out said elements on a work surface having two reference directions;providing a robot with a carriage having at least two degrees of freedom parallel to the reference directions and one degree of freedom in rotation;providing an assembly tool fixed to the carriage of said robot;storing all data of the design drawing including data on said assembly points in memory of said robot;assembling said elements two by two to obtain a plurality of crossover points, said assembling comprising steps of:moving said carriage automatically in accordance with said data so as to move the assembly tool successively to each assembly point on the design drawing;monitoring a surveillance field around a localized working area of said tool by an optical sensor fastened to the tool;correcting the position of the carriage by said robot if the localized working area is offset from an area of crossover between armature elements detected in the surveillance field to eliminate this offset; andassembling said elements by welding using a filler metal.