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Educate me on gantry loading on turning centers

Captdave

Titanium
Joined
Sep 24, 2006
Location
Atlanta, GA
Gantry loading parts has sparked some interest so just looking for some basic info at this point. We have a Mazak QT-8 turning 6" x 1.5" 6061 slugs for the past couple of years, op 1 face, bore, turn op 2, flip part and face and chamfer. Op 1 is 45 seconds, op 2 is 25 seconds. After 8 hours in the Georgia heat it makes for on tired operator.

After watching some YouTube videos I'm curious about a couple of things.

Most videos show smaller diameter slugs maybe 3" or less but I'm sure there are loaders that can handle 6" material but how big of machine would be common for a 6" chuck on the gantry?

With the short cycle time it appears the loader may not be able to keep up with the machine, is there a general rule of thumb to use to estimate load/unload times?

What are some of the pros/cons when considering gantries?
 
Dave,

The place I used to work for had a Mazak Multiplex (twin spindle/twin turret machine) with gantry loader. The loader worked well and was easy to program and use. The gantry had a handheld pendant to teach the robot's positions, which was easy, and had canned cycle load/unload routines. You use M-codes in the Mazatrol program to call the robot.

You can program the machine to probe a tool to check for wear, and the machine can automatically compensate for the wear. And set tool counts that pause the machine so you can change an insert or such.

Sounds like for what you're doing a gantry-equipped machine would be the ticket. Even if the load/unload was a few seconds more, at the end of the day you will have as many or more parts than if you hand loaded. And all you got to do is load the stock, and take the finished parts from the stock table.

Greg
 








 
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