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Questions about Agie to all the experts here

ssn721

Plastic
Joined
Apr 27, 2006
Location
Lake Zurich, IL
My company is looking into possibly getting a 4th machine with a small footprint to pick up a lot of the work we are farming out now. I have done research and have been really impressed with the functions of the Agie Classic 2. I have found an offer of one for 40K with less then 1000 hours on it, made in 2000. Seems like a great deal, but one of the main reasons I am thinking of recommending this is because of the AgieSetup 2D/3D pickup system, and from what I have researched very low maintenence on these machines. Just curious if anyone out there had the probe system that they use for part pickup and if it works well and is as useful as it seems to be in the brochure. Any comments, positive or negative about this machine would be helpful. Is it pretty easy to pick up the control system and program. I have run pretty much everything Makino, Fanuc, Charmilles, Mits, Sodick, ELOX. Just curious if the Agie is worth it as I have never run one.
 
Also as an add on, I found out that the probing pickup accessory is not on it, contacted Agie and found out it is about a 12K dollar accessory. So again, just curious if this function is worth it. Does anyone use it a lot? Does it really lessen or eliminate the need to indicate for the most part?
 
ssn,

My interest in Agies began long before I owned one. After knowing a little about them I bought my first one in '89. I have purchased 5 of them now, my latest being an Agie Vertex. I cannot speak for all the other machines out there, but I can tell you that the Agie is extremely reliable. in 17 years I have never had to replace a wire guide. My oldest machine is a '92 model with 33,000 + hours. This machine has not had a failure in over 6 years. If the machines are maintained properly they just go and go and no loss in accuracy. I am very impressed. (especially with the Vertex)

Two of my machines have the probe, but I never use them as I am not into that kind of work. I don't think it would be worth it for you to buy it if it is an add on.

Box end wrench made on my Vertex next to a human hair. The small hex is .005, .010 on the large end.
DSC00106.jpg


The wrench almost gets lost among salt crystals
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TMD
 
Is this the machine at the warehouse in Bensonville. If so nice machine i tried to bye it could not get deal made.I thought to add it on was $9500.00(for the probe). The Agie dealer in Chicago is Hitech, give David a call he could tell you a probe user in the Chicago area.There number is 630-443-7865 tell him Jason at Premier told you to call, David is a good guy and would help out.Who are you dealing with on the Agie.Several dealers are tring to sell this machine i think Jack at Brett Machinery actual owns this machine.I hope this helps you out.
 
Thanks TMD and demo for the tips.
demo: yes this is actually the machine in bensenville, I was talking to Jack and he had called Agie to find out about the probe, saying it was 10K for the parts and 2K for the installation. Agie sems like a good step if the powers that be decide to go with it. Will be different from my other three machines but that is nothing new. I was asking about this probe really though because if it worked how it seemed explained would be great for what I am loking for. Do small form blocks for progressive as a large amount of my work and if I could just slap them in the machine, maybe 5-10 clamped on a setup bar and let the machine do the pick up and run the program without indicating would save me a ton of a time and woudl be a lot of work we could keep in house. Again, thanks for the advice.
 
TMD, very impressive parts there. I am hoping that having a dependable machine can really improve the capabilities of my department. And that is never a bad thing.
 
I just looked at the hour meter on our oldest AGIE. 67,419 erosion hours, we did replace the wire wuides at 55,700 erosion hours. This is a 1987 model and is still holding .0002" tolerance. Just had it tuned up this year, found on weak axis drive board that was about it aside from some very minor issues. For the type of work we do the probe would be a very nice feature, mostly mold and die work. We could justify it on a new machine by the amount of indicationg time we would save in a year. Mark
 
I have run Agie 315's 100D and a Challange. If properly maintained they will run for ever and hold .0002 tol all day long. We use the prob for the z pick up on the challange all the time. we do a lot of work in fixtures like a 3r vice and the prob is very reliable and usefull. Just to show how reliable Agie machines are we sold the 315 and they are still working holding .0002 tol even after 25 years of use.
 
The Agie Classic is basically the same structure as the Vertex. After that, the similarities end. The Classic will not run wire smaller than .004", has no scales, and has Agie's most basic generator technology. Agie will sell Vertex control technology at an additional cost for most machines in their product line, but even so equipped, do not expect the Classic to achieve anything near the example given by TMD. Also note that the part weight capacity changes drastically when submerged. The probing system is a neat feature, but real world applications usually don't call for this. It is utilized most often by those who are producing cutting tools on a rotational axis. The control is quite powerful, and makes some difficult things go quite easily, but simple geometries require all the same steps as the more complicated ones (so don't expect to whip out a program for simple square in a couple of minutes). Manually editing a program is not really an option, as the control runs some sort of script in the background, and the operator never really sees the program which is running, unless extra money is paid for that ability. All in all, it's a very decent little machine, but the real question is whether its abilities can serve your needs.
 
We had an AGIE Service rep come out and go through all 3 of our machines at once. We have since added a Progress V3 with the surface probe talked about above. With the die work we do it works great to get your profiles perpindicular to the flat surfaces. Very easy to run. Mark
 








 
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