Patent ID: 7458143

Claim:
A workpiece positioning system for centering a workpiece on the central axis of a cylindrical bore in a body, the workpiece including a rod, the system comprising: (a) an arbor having a cylindrical exterior surface sized to matingly slide within the cylindrical bore, the arbor having a symmetric reference pin protruding from an end of the arbor; (b) a location determining system for identifying the location of the reference pin in the bore and generating a pin position signal, and for determining the location of the rod when inserted in the bore and generating a rod position signal; and (c) a computer system for receiving the pin position signal and the rod position signal, computing the center of the bore from the pin position signal and computing the location of the center of the rod from the rod position signal, and indicating when the center of the bore and the location of the center of the rod are substantially coincident.