Can my tool changer carousel go faster?

viper · Jan 23, 2008

OK, I hate to bitch about something that works fine but we have other late 90s Haas machines and the TCs run faster. I am curious if there is any way to speed up the carousel in its index of positions? I just wish it was as fast as our turret on the lathe!! Why does it need to stop on every position? Guess I am just stressed with this older machine because it has the old shot pin thing that takes 5 seconds just to figure out where it is, then 10 seconds to find another tool. Just trying to figure out a way to get that carousel motivated!

JP Machining · Jan 23, 2008

The reason it must stop at every posistion is due to it being run by a Geneva Mechanism. There may be a way to speed the motor up some but I am not aware of it.

HuFlungDung · Jan 24, 2008

My 96 VF3 only takes a second or two to orient, always done in half a turn, no noticeable fumbling around. I don't know what would occur to lengthen that interval unless the pin is deformed, or bouncing out of the detente slot.

kustomizer · Jan 26, 2008

The newer ones also have a 2 leged cam to turn the geneva wheel and the older ones have one, I believe it can be updated and then it would go from tool to tool twice as fast. I do not remember all that needs done besides the cam change.

viper · Jan 27, 2008

I am down with that. So I take it the motor just spins and there is a cam that halts movement at each position like some of the older lathe turrets? I will have to see this. I was thinking that motor just stopped and I could drop some hold time parameters or increase motor rpm to speed it up.

I talked with Haas and they talked about increasing power to that motor to speed it a bit but sounded like it would not offer much speed. Just trying to get all I can out of the old dog. Also looking to bump the rpm 500-1000rpm and maybe increase rapids to 800ipm. Every little bit helps. Will have to see if the servos will do it though.

psychomill · Jan 30, 2008

Count your lucky stars you don't have one of their ridiculous "Ferris Wheel" tool carousels like the big ones on their HMCs..... You could go out and get a steak dinner waiting for that one...

viper · Jan 30, 2008

I saw some large production vertical machine on youtube or something the other day. Had the TC wheel right in front of the spindle head which looked a little silly at first but damn was it fast! Made sense to put it there as it was closer to the spindle and TC would make some high speeds look silly. I would say rapids were around 2000ipm. Fun to watch.

JP Machining · Jan 30, 2008

viper, that most likely was a drill/mill machine like a fanuc robodrill or similar.

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