mfogg@druwa.ATT.COM (Richard-Fogg) (10/17/90)
I am seeking mechanical specifications for a gantry based robotic system. The intended use is shape digitization (vehicles, furniture, architectural bits) and reproduction (molds, actual bits). Specifically, has anyone out there actually done the machine work required to build an accurate gantry system. Hopefully there is a way around using old milling machine ways. We are hoping to cast the main pieces out of a stable urethane/metalic matrix which is bonded to stainless, and then in a feat of "and then a miracle occurs" be able to machine the stainless to an accurate flat shape. Some say that a great degree of accuracy isn't really necessary, just a big table of all positions and where they actually are (kind of a big servo correction table). What we hope to end up with is a room sized (8 m. x 4 m. x 4 m.) gantry to which we can attach either digitizing arms, or cutting and removing arms (water jet, milling head, saw, knife, carbide blaster, fiberglass chopper gun). Regards, Mark Richard-Fogg, principal designer