Patent Publication Number: US-7900335-B2

Title: Method and system for profiling and manufacturing curved arches

Description:
The application claims priority from previously filed U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/804,103, titled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROFILING AND MANUFACTURING CURVED ARCHES” on Jun. 7, 2006 by Ed Vaes. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     Method, system and apparatus for profiling and manufacturing curved arches. 
     BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY 
     A system and method for profiling and manufacturing curved arches includes cutting out the outer dimensions of individual curved sections from sheet material, each curved section including an outer radius, an inner radius, a top surface, a bottom surface, a male end and a corresponding female end. Assembling together the individual curved sections by joining interferingly end to end male ends with female ends to form an assembled curved section. Milling a profile into the top surface of the assembled curved section thereby resulting in an assembled curved section with a profiled top surface. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a top plan view of a curved section. 
         FIG. 2  is a top schematic perspective view of a curved section. 
         FIG. 3  is a top plan view of an assembled arch. 
         FIG. 4  is a top schematic perspective view of an arch being assembled. 
         FIG. 5  is a top perspective view of an assembled arch. 
         FIG. 6  is a top schematic perspective view of an arch being profiled. 
         FIG. 7  is a top plan view of a curved section. 
         FIG. 8  is a top perspective view of a curved section. 
         FIG. 9  is a top plan view of an arch. 
         FIG. 10  is a top schematic perspective view of an arch being assembled. 
         FIG. 11  is a top perspective view of an assembled arch. 
         FIG. 12  is a top plan view of a CNC milling machine having a piece of sheet material placed thereon having milled hinged pockets and locating holes in strategic locations. 
         FIG. 13  is a top plan view of a CNC milling machine having sheet material placed thereon showing cut out of curved sections defined on the sheet material. 
         FIG. 14  is a top perspective schematic view of sheet material being removed from CNC milling lathe with curved sections being removed from the sheet material. 
         FIG. 15  is a bottom plan view of a curved section. 
         FIG. 16  is a bottom plan view of two curved sections joined together. 
         FIG. 17  is a top schematic perspective view of two curved sections being joined together. 
         FIG. 18  is a bottom schematic perspective view of two curved sections joined together with an interference connection. 
         FIG. 19  is a schematic perspective view of an arched section being flipped from the bottom surface facing upward to the top surface facing upward. 
         FIG. 20  is a top perspective view of two curved sections joined together with the top surface facing upwardly. 
         FIG. 21  is a top schematic perspective view of an assembled arch section being profiled. 
         FIG. 22  depicts schematically the curved arch section being turned back onto its bottom surface facing upwardly. 
         FIG. 23  schematically depicts the bottom surface of the arch section being painted. 
         FIG. 24  shows the curved section being placed into a fixture for subsequent precision cutting. 
         FIG. 25  shows the arch section mounted into a fixture with a waste end having been precision cut off at a precision cut end. 
         FIG. 26  shows an arched curved section being mounted into a fixture, together with a cut off saw. 
         FIG. 27  is a top schematic perspective view of the hinge. 
         FIG. 28  is a bottom schematic perspective view of the hinge. 
         FIG. 29  is a side schematic perspective view of the hinge partially folded. 
         FIG. 30  is a top schematic perspective view of two curved sections hinged together. 
         FIG. 31  is a side schematic plan view of two curved sections folded together. 
         FIG. 32  is a side schematic elevational view of two curved sections folded together. 
         FIG. 33  is a side schematic elevational view of a curved section in an unfolded position. 
         FIG. 34  is a bottom plan view of four curved sections joined together at hinged connections and an interference connection in the center. 
         FIG. 35  is a side elevational view of two curved sections in the fold position. 
         FIG. 36  is a side schematic perspective view of two curved sections hinged together in the folded position. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       FIGS. 1 through 5  show a first embodiment of the method and system and apparatus for profiling curved arches which includes curved sections  102  having a female end  106  and a male end  104  which are interconnected together with an interference connection  108  as shown in  FIGS. 1 through 5 . Individual curved sections  102  are milled from planar material and male end  104  and female end  106  respectively are milled into the ends so that the male end  104  will fit interferingly together with female end  106  to provide for a connection between two curved sections  102  which can be taken apart. Each curved section has a top surface  112 , a bottom surface  114 , an outer radius  117  and an inner radius  119 . 
       FIG. 4  shows four curved sections  102  being assembled together by placing together female ends  106  with male ends  104  to produce an assembled curved section  111  as shown in  FIG. 5 . 
       FIGS. 7 through 11  shows an alternate embodiment namely, differently styled female end  106  and male end  104  which also can be used. A person skilled in the art will note that various different geometries for male end  104  and female end  106  can be successfully used in order to interferingly join together two curved sections  102  end to end to form an assembled curved section  111  as shown for example in  FIGS. 5 and 11 . The ends are not necessarily male and female in nature. The ends may also have male and female components on each end as is the case with a dovetail type connection. The ends may be joined by urging together the curved pieces in a plane perpendicular to the sheet material as shown in the figures but may also be joined by urging together the curved sections in a plane parallel to the sheet material such as a tongue and groove type connection. 
       FIG. 6  shows a top perspective view of an assembled curved section  111  being profiled with a profiling tool  116 . In practice, an assembled curved section can be fed through a profiling machine which has a profiling tool  116  which will mill a profiled top surface  110  into top surface  112  of assembled curved section  111 . The interference connection  108  holding together the four curved sections  102  is sufficiently rigid and strong enough in order for the assembled curved section  111  to pass through the profiling machine, wherein the profiling tool  116  will mill a profiled top surface  110  onto the assembled curve section  111 . 
     A person skilled in the art will recognize that there is always a certain amount of waste associated with putting a continuous piece of material through a profiling machine. Particularly near the end there are snipes which are sections of material which are not uniformly milled due to the lack of proper support of the assembled curved section  111  as it enters the end portion of the profiling machine. 
     Therefore, it is advantageous to assemble together multiple curved sections  102  to form a longer assembled curved section  111  as depicted in  FIG. 5  in order to minimize waste. The other option would be to profile individually each curved section  102  which would create significantly more waste at each end of curved section  102 , since there would be a snipe at each end which would have to be discarded. Therefore by assembling multiple curved sections  102  together and then profiling the amount of snipe waste is minimized. 
       FIG. 12  and following show the manufacturing steps required in order to produce the curved arches. 
       FIG. 12  shows a sheet material  122  which can be plywood, MDF (medium density fiber board), solid wood, plastic, foam or any other type of sheet material suitable for making curved arch sections. Sheet material  122  is placed onto table top  121  of a CNC milling machine  120 . Initially hinged pockets  124  and locating holes  126  are milled out of the sheet material  122  in strategic locations. Next as shown in  FIG. 13 , the outer dimensions of each individual curved section  102  is cut and milled through the sheet material  122  so that they can be removed as shown in  FIG. 14  from the sheet material  122 . In this manner, curved sections  102  having a top surface  112  and bottom surface  114  which are generally flat and planar is produced together with male ends  104  and female ends  106  which can be interferingly placed together to produce an interference connection  108  when two ends are connected together.  FIGS. 15 and 16  shows the bottom surface  114  of the curved section  102 , the reader will note that there is a hinge pocket  124 , together with locating holes  126  located approximate each female end  106  and male end  104 . The hinged pockets  124  and locating holes  126  are included in the bottom surface  114  in order to optionally be able to subsequently precision cut the ends for placement of a hinge into hinged pocket  124 . 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 19 to 23  the assembled curved section  111  is rotated so that the top surface  112  is oriented upwardly. The assembled curved section  111  is then fed through a profiling machine which has a profiling tool  116  for milling a profile into top surface  112  resulting in a profiled top surface  110 . The interference connection  108  holding together the four curved sections  102  is sufficiently rigid and strong enough in order for the assembled curved section  111  to pass through the profiling machine, wherein the profiling tool  116  will mill a profiled top surface  110  onto the assembled curve section  111 . 
     Optionally the assembled curved section  111  is turned over to expose bottom surface  114 . The entire bottom surface  114  may be painted or just specific areas  140  such as the hinge pockets as shown in  FIG. 23 . 
     The finished assembled curved section may be constructed with hinged joints  170  as well as interference joints  108  as shown in  FIG. 34 . In the case when hinged joints are used the assembled curved section  111  is disassembled and the ends to be hinged together are precision cut as depicted in  FIGS. 24 to 26 . The curved sections are then reassembled as shown in  FIGS. 27 to 36 . 
     Precision cutting is now described. Referring now to  FIGS. 24 and 25 , a curved section  102  is shown in  FIG. 24  being placed onto locating pins  150  of cut off fixture  142 . Curved section  102  is moved into position, such that the locating holes  126  register with the locating pins  150  in order to put curved section  102  into a locked position  152  as shown in  FIG. 25 . The fixture  142  is best viewed in  FIG. 26  and is connected to a cut off saw  190 . In locked position  152 , curved section  102  can be precision cut along precision cut end  144 , thereby cutting off waste end  147 . The ends of curved section  102  are cut off, for example if one wishes to hinge together two curved sections as show in  FIG. 30 . In  FIG. 30  two curved sections which have been precision cut are hingeably attached together by adhesively bonding or in any other manner attaching the hinge  160  into hinge pockets  124 . In this manner two adjacent curved sections  102  can be hingeably attached together using a hinge  160 . The two curved sections  102  can be folded together into the folded position which is shown as  168  in  FIG. 31  or  35  or the unfolded position in  FIG. 33  or  34  shown as unfolded position  180 . Hinge  160  creates hinge connection  170 . Hinge  160  includes a hinge line  166 , a right side  162  and a left side  164  of the hinge.  FIG. 31  shows two curved sections  102  in the folded position as also in  FIG. 32 . 
       FIG. 34  schematically depicts four curved sections connected together having an interference connection  108  in the center and two hinged connections  170  on either side. In this manner, the interference connection  108  can be disconnected and the two hinged connections can then be folded one on top of the other to provide for a very compact product for shipping.