Patent ID: 8245609

Claim:
A reporting system for an on-vehicle disk brake lathe which can be affixed with respect to a disk brake to be resurfaced, the on-vehicle disk brake lathe having, a cutting head assembly that supports a pair of tool bits for machining surfaces of the brake disk and which allows an operator to adjust the positions of the tool bits relative to the surfaces of the brake disk, a feed mechanism for moving the cutting head assembly so as to cause the tool bits to traverse the surfaces of the brake disk, a thickness monitor responsive to the positions of the tool bits to provide thickness signals which can be correlated to disk thickness after resurfacing, a contact sensor detecting contact between the tool bits and the disk and generating a contact signal responsive to the state of contact; the system comprising: a microprocessor; an operator interface communicating with said microprocessor, said operating interface having, an operator input interface allowing an operator to cause information to be inputted to said microprocessor, including information identifying the vehicle and wheel position for the brake disk being serviced and at least a minimum thickness specification for the brake disk, and a display for presenting selected information generated by the system to the operator; an addressable temporary memory communicating with said microprocessor for storing the vehicle and wheel position identified by the operator and for storing data generated during the machining process; a thickness signal monitor responsive to the thickness signals for providing a disk thickness value for storage in said addressable temporary memory; a thickness comparison routine which sends an “insufficient thickness” flag to said temporary memory when the current thickness value fails to meet the inputted minimum thickness specification and sends a warning notice to said operator interface for presentation to the operator when the “insufficient thickness” flag is set; a signal continuity checker for processing contact signals generated by the contact sensor to provide time-averaged continuity signals; a cutting operation evaluator for analyzing the time-averaged continuity signals from said continuity checker to determine when a completed cutting operation has occurred and supplying a “cut completed” flag to said microprocessor to indicate such; and an archiving routine activated by the operator subject to said microprocessor granting permission after said cutting operation evaluator has set the “cut completed” flag, said archiving routine causing data from said temporary memory to be provided to an addressable report database, said addressable report database storing data including the selected vehicle and wheel position, the thickness value, and an unique cutting operation identifier generated by the archiving routine.