EARLIEST PRIORITY DATE:

This Application claims priority from a patent application filed in India having Patent Application No. 202121045716, filed on October 07, 2021 and titled “A BLOCK CUTTING MACHINE AND A METHOD TO OPERATE THE SAME”

FIELD OF INVENTION

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to cutting of blocks in construction, and more particularly, to a block cutting machine and a method to operate the same.

BACKGROUND

Globally, construction is one of the biggest industries, and most important to support population explosion. But it is also the least automated industry which makes it least productive along with being dull, dirty and dangerous. . In a conventional construction, masonry blocks or bricks which are used for construction is mostly cut manually by hand or by power tools which is time consuming, inaccurate, dangerous, lead to material wastage and the emitted dust (fugitive dust) causes environmental pollution and health hazard to construction workers at the location. In addition, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) has clearly mentioned that dust emitted (fugitive dust) from cutting and griding of such blocks contains silica. This silica can cause silicosis, an irreversible lung disease, and lung cancer. Generally at a construction site and construction worker is exposed to lOx more dust as mentioned buy the safety threshold of OSHA. An average masonry block used in construction is of varied size, for example 60x20x (20,15,10) [LxHxB] in cm and weight around 10-20kg each. Masonry blocks comes in large pallets and are needed to be depalletized and cut before use. Keeping in mind thousands of such blocks are used at construction site, and owing to their large size and weight, it is ergonomically challenging for and human worker to depalletize them and cut them accurately. Along with being repetitive and labor intensive. Further, manual cutting is slow, inaccurate and causes a lot of breaking, chipping and material wastage. In addition, manual cutting is also injuries to the limbs and the dust causes environmental pollution at construction site with eye and breathing hazards, thereby making the conventional approach less reliable less efficient and time consuming.

Hence, there is a need for an improved block cutting machine and a method to operate the same to address the aforementioned issues.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, a block cutting machine is disclosed. The machine includes a block unloading unit comprising a robotic subunit, wherein the robotic subunit is configured to transport one or more blocks between a block storage unit and a destination unit. The machine also includes a cutting unit operatively coupled to the block unloading unit and configured to cut at least one of the one or more blocks for a pre-defined measure, upon receiving an input from an authorized entity, wherein the input is representative of the pe-defined measure. The one or more blocks are placed by the robotic subunit from the block storage unit to the cutting unit. The cutting unit corresponds to the destination unit. The robotic subunit includes a cutting saw at a front end, wherein the cutting saw is configured to cut at least one of the one or more blocks to the pre-defined measure.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure, a method to operate a block cutting machine is disclosed. The method includes transporting one or more blocks between a block storage unit and a destination unit by a robotic subunit of a block unloading unit. The method also includes cutting at least one of the one or more blocks for a predefined measure, upon receiving an input from an authorized entity by a cutting unit, wherein the input is representative of the pe-defined measure. The method further includes cutting at least one of the one or more blocks to the pre-defined measure by a cutting saw of the robotic subunit.

To further clarify the advantages and features of the present disclosure, a more particular description of the disclosure will follow by reference to specific embodiments thereof, which are illustrated in the appended figures. It is to be appreciated that these figures depict only typical embodiments of the disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting in scope. The disclosure will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail with the appended figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The disclosure will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail with the accompanying figures in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of an isometric view of a block cutting machine in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of an exemplary embodiment of a back view of the block cutting machine of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of another exemplary embodiment of a top view of the block cutting machine of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of another exemplary embodiment of a front view of the block cutting machine of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 5 is a flow chart representing steps involved in a method operate a block cutting machine in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and may not have necessarily been drawn to scale. Furthermore, in terms of the construction of the device, one or more components of the device may have been represented in the figures by conventional symbols, and the figures may show only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the figures with details that will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the description herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For the purpose of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now be made to the embodiment illustrated in the figures and specific language will be used to describe them. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the invention is thereby intended. Such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated system, and such further applications of the principles of the invention as would normally occur to those skilled in the art are to be construed as being within the scope of the present invention.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory of the invention and are not intended to be restrictive thereof.

The terms "comprises", "comprising", or any other variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process or method that comprises a list of steps does not include only those steps but may include other steps not expressly listed or inherent to such a process or method. Similarly, one or more devices or sub-systems or elements or structures or components preceded by "comprises... a" does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of other devices, sub-systems, elements, structures, components, additional devices, additional sub-systems, additional elements, additional structures or additional components. Appearances of the phrase "in an embodiment", "in another embodiment" and similar language throughout this specification may, but not necessarily do, all refer to the same embodiment.

Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this invention belongs. The system, methods, and examples provided herein are only illustrative and not intended to be limiting.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relates to a block cutting machine and a method to operate the same. As used herein, the term ‘block’ may refer to a masonry block which may be used for masonry purpose. FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of an isometric view of a block cutting machine (10) in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The machine (10) includes a block unloading unit (20) which includes a robotic subunit (30). The robotic subunit (30) is configured to transport one or more blocks (70) between a block storage unit (40) and a destination unit (50). As used herein, the term ‘block unloading unit’ may refer to a block depalletizing unit. In one exemplary embodiment, wherein the robotic subunit (30) may correspond to a 3 -axis cartesian coordinate robot comprising 6 degrees of freedom (DOF). In one embodiment, the robotic subunit (30) may include a robotic arm (90) at the front end to which the cutting saw (80) may be attached. In such embodiment, the robotic subunit (30) may correspond to 4 axis, 3 linear + Irotational, + electric vacuum gripper.

The machine (10) also includes a cutting unit (60) operatively coupled to the block unloading unit (20). The cutting unit (60) is configured to cut at least one of the one or more blocks (70) for a pre-defined measure, upon receiving an input from an authorized entity, wherein the input is representative of the pe-defined measure. In one embodiment, the input may be received from one or more sources which may include an internal source, which may be inbuilt within the machine (10), one or more external sources via which the input may be transmitted through a communication medium. In such embodiment, the communication medium may be a wireless communication medium such as a Wi-Fi medium.

The one or more blocks (70) are placed by the robotic subunit (30) from the block storage unit (40) to the cutting unit (60), wherein the cutting unit (60) corresponds to the destination unit (50). More specifically, upon receiving the input from one or more sources, the corresponding one or more blocks (70) are picked up from the block storage unit (40) onto the cutting unit (60) to cut the corresponding blocks (70) into mentioned dimensions and further cut blocks are passed or collected at the destination unit (50).

Furthermore, the robotic subunit (30) includes a cutting saw (80) at a front end. The cutting saw (80) is configured to cut at least one of the one or more blocks (70) to the pre-defined measure. In one exemplary embodiment, the machine (10) may include one or more sensors, which may be operatively coupled to the cutting unit (60). The one or more sensors may be configured to sense one or more dimensions of the corresponding one or more blocks at the cutting unit (60). Furthermore, based on the sensed dimensions, a processor may generate an instruction to the cutting unit (60) to adjust a placement of the cutting saw in order to cut the corresponding block at the instructed dimension.

In such embodiment, each of the one or more blocks (70) may receive an independent instruction representative of the dimensions or a set of block (70) may receive the same set of instructions representative of the dimensions to be cut, wherein the instructions corresponds to the input.

Furthermore, the machine (10) may include a dust collecting unit operatively coupled to the cutting unit (60). The dust collecting unit may be configured to receive and store waste generated during cutting operation of the one or more bricks (70).

In operation, the input or a set of instructions representative of the pre-defined measure of the one or more blocks is transmitted to a computing device operatively coupled to the machine (10). On receiving the input, each of the one or more blocks (70) are picked up from the block storage unit (40) and is placed on the cutting unit (60) by the robotic arm (90) of the robotic subunit (30). Once the block (70) is placed on the cutting unit (60), the cutting saw (80) is used to cut the corresponding bock (70). Further, the blocks (70) which are cut into the pre-defined measure is transmitted to the destination unit (50) via a conveyor (100). Consequently, the dust particles or the left overs which may arise during the cutting process is collected into the dust collecting unit.

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of an exemplary embodiment of a back view of the block cutting machine (10) of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The FIG represents the pallets where multiple blocks (70) are piled up at the block storage unit (40). The robotic arm (90) operated in 6 degrees of freedom between the block storage unit (40) and the cutting unit (60). FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of another exemplary embodiment of a top view of the block cutting machine (10) of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The figure shows the conveyor units (100) which are used for the transmitting of the one or more blocks (70) from one point to another. The placement and displacement of the one or more blocks (70) onto the conveyor unit (60) is achieved by the robotic arm (90).

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of another exemplary embodiment of a front view of the block cutting machine (10) of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The figure represents a view of how the block is cut using the cutting saw (80) to obtain the block of the pre-defined measure. The cutting saw (80) is coupled to one of the robotic arms (90) at the cutting unit (60).

FIG. 5 is a flow chart representing steps involved in a method (110) operate a block cutting machine in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The method (110) includes transporting one or more blocks between a block storage unit and a destination unit by a robotic subunit of a block unloading unit in step 120.

The method (110) also includes cutting at least one of the one or more blocks for a predefined measure, upon receiving an input from an authorized entity by a cutting unit, wherein the input is representative of the pe-defined measure in step 130.

Furthermore, the method (110) includes cutting at least one of the one or more blocks to the pre-defined measure by a cutting saw of the robotic subunit in step 140. In one embodiment, cutting at least one of the one or more blocks may include cutting at least one of the one or more blocks by a robotic arm at the front end to which the cutting saw is attached.

In one exemplary embodiment, cutting at least one of the one or more blocks may include cutting at least one of the one or more blocks by the robotic subunit comprising a 3-axis cartesian coordinate robot comprising 6 degrees of freedom (DOF).

In one embodiment, the method (110) may further include receiving and storing waste generated during cutting operation of the one or more bricks by a dust collecting unit. It should be noted that the elements of FIG. 1, 2,3 and 4 are substantially similar to the elements of FIG. 5. Henceforth, the embodiments of FIG. 1, 2, 3 and 4 holds good for FIG.

5.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure enable the system to cut the blocks automatically which are used for construction purpose. The whole process of placing, displacing, transporting and other operations associated to the blocks and the machine are carried out automatically through the robots and robotic arms. Since the machine does not have the human intervention, the cutting of the block is more precise which makes the machine more reliable, more efficient and less time consuming.

Furthermore, the machine also avoids manual labor for repetitive task for picking heavy load. In addition, debris and dust emitted during cutting is sucked and stored in the chamber below. This saves environment and health hazardous, thereby making the machine ecofriendly. These collected dust and debris can be using with concrete for other activities or as fillers which also saves the raw material. Since the cutting is done by the machine automatically, it is ergonomic as the machine avoids the human interference. Also, cutting becomes faster, accurate and does not cause any breaking, chipping and material wastage. In addition, block cutting via the machine avoids injuries to the limbs of the workers and the avoids dust particles reaching the environment, henceforth avoids environmental pollution at construction site by also avoiding eye and breathing hazards.

While specific language has been used to describe the disclosure, any limitations arising on account of the same are not intended. As would be apparent to a person skilled in the art, various working modifications may be made to the method in order to implement the inventive concept as taught herein.

The figures and the foregoing description give examples of embodiments. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that one or more of the described elements may well be combined into a single functional element. Alternatively, certain elements may be split into multiple functional elements. Elements from one embodiment may be added to another embodiment. For example, the order of processes described herein may be changed and are not limited to the manner described herein. Moreover, the actions of any flow diagram need not be implemented in the order shown; nor do all of the acts need to be necessarily performed. Also, those acts that are not dependent on other acts may be performed in parallel with the other acts. The scope of embodiments is by no means limited by these specific examples.