Machines and machine tools are commonly provided with a series of separate, compounded slide and swivel unit arrangements to provide for multi-axis workslide linear and angular setup or positioning. Such technology corresponds to similar multiple slide/slideway arrangements commonly provided in machine tool devices for feedslide positioning as well. Particularly, very often machines are provided with a base or pedestal upon which a table is fitted for lateral movement along a predetermined axis. Surmounted on that table is generally a second slide or cross-slide provided with a second slideway arrangement for lateral movement along a second axis oriented normal to the first axis.
An example of common multiple slide/slideway arrangements is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,661 (which issued to A. Wasco, Jr. et al.). Wasco et al. show a machine tool comprising a bed having a pair of parallel ways fixed to the face of the bed upon which a slide is mounted for reciprocation along a horizontal path. That slide has an upper face upon which a second set of parallel ways support a second slide which provides reciprocable movement along a path normal to the first horizontal path. Other U.S. patents illustrating similar multiple slide/slideway arrangements include U.S. Pat. No. 2,627,196 (Marsilius), U.S. Pat. No. 3,347,116 (Anderson et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 3,928,943 (Wirz), U.S. Pat. No. 3,937,110 (Renoux), U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,660 (Buckley, et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,197,769 (Smith et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,676 (Sansone), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,311 (Hebbruggen).
Similarly, it is common to provide for multi-axis adjustment of a machine workslide by providing multiple slide/slideway arrangements. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,841,296 (which issued to H. Ota) describes a dressing device having a feeding table slidable on a guide surface as a result of rotative movement of a feedscrew. A traverse table is associated with and surmounts the feeding table in a slidable arrangement including a dovetail groove for movement therealong. U.S. Pat. No. 3,490,430 (which issued to N. Hoglund) illustrates an apparatus incorporating a complicated combination of a plurality of slides utilized to control the movement of a tool for dressing a grinding wheel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,388 (which issued to L. Ivel) and Pat. No. 4,071,015 (which issued to M. Funke) illustrate grinding wheel dressing devices which utilize a combination of slide/slideway structures and guide cam arrangements. Particularly, the Ivel device includes a wheel dressing assembly having a carriage moved along a linear track by a drivescrew setup, while a separate tool slide is moved in a direction transverse to that carriage by a cam and cam follower assembly. The wheel dressing device of Funke includes a cross-slide guided on dovetail ways on the dresser base, and a transversely arranged set of dovetail ways for supporting a diamond bar as it is reciprocated by the cam bar/support interaction.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,549 (which issued to Y. Hata, et al.) discloses a machine tool wherein a pair of tool heads are supported on tool slides powered by feedscrews, and wherein the tool slides are moved in a second, normal direction by a servo motor attached to a second slider mechanism carried upon a separate set of ways. Such multiple-axis workslide and feedslide arrangements require additional space and machine structure to accommodate the piggy-backed or layered arrangement of slides and slideways, and require multiple joints of loading which must be independently supported.
In most modern day machining applications, machine stability and accuracy are critical to achieving superior products, and simplicity, compactness, reliability, and durability of the machine likewise comprise critical characteristics which must be optimized. The need for multiple load-bearing joints characteristic of the multiple tier feedslides and workslides mentioned above, adds complexity to the machine, compromising ease of manufacture, maintenance, design, reliability, stability and durability. In addition to requiring substantial redundant machine structure to support independent load-bearing slide arrangements, these independent mechanisms can further result in cumulative backlash, and more complicated design, manufacture and assembly.
Accordingly, heretofore there has not been available in the industry a relatively simple articulated axis workslide which could provide dependable, stable, multi-directional lateral motion in a mechanism which could be easily adapted to a substantially unlimited array of machine and machine tool applications. Prior art workslide devices required a plurality of separate slides and ways to accomplish omni-directional lateral motion, or utilized compounded slide and swivel units, racks and curved gears to achieve linear and angular positioning, thereby increasing the required complexity and, generally, the size of the machine, while reducing its resulting stability, accuracy, reliability and dependability.