Laser workpiece position and presence inspector and machine control governor

Abstract From the Canadian patent

Mounted adjacent and in alignment with workpiece supporting portion of a workpiece-shape-altering machine such as, the lower die of a stamping press is a laser beam source, the, outgoing beam from which passes through a beam splitter which divides the entering beam. One of the two emergent beams from the beam-splitter is a workpiece position-inspecting beam which passes in a grazing direction across one portion of the top of a workpiece resting upon the lower die for subsequent stamping by the upper die of the press. This beam continues onward to a mirror which reflects it in a grazing direction back across another portion of the top of the workpiece to a workpiece position detector. …