July 18--Prima North America Inc. announced that its Laserdyne Systems Division will continue to promote a patented feature of its multi-axis laser systems under the trademark "AutoNormal" following negotiations with Fanuc Robotics North America Inc., who also has been using the name to identify features for certain of its products.
Described as a friendly resolution to the issue by both companies, Fanuc said that it will discontinue its use of the AutoNormal name to describe a similar feature in Fanuc products.
According to Laserdyne, AutoNormal is an important patented operating feature of its multi-axis laser systems. The latest application of this technology will be announced later in 2005 when the company plans to introduce a new laser system employing the AutoNormal feature.
Originally developed in 1992, AutoNormal automatically determines the orientation of a surface and adjusts the machine axes so that the laser beam can be perpendicular (normal) or at any user-programmable angle to the workpiece. In seconds, this process measures the location of three points on a surface using one of the non-contact sensors integrated into the system and calculates the plane and normal vector of the surface. Spacing of these points is user programmable, making the feature useful for sensing a wide range of surface radii and a practical addition to a cutting or drilling program.
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