maxh
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2005
- Location
- Austin, TX
Mori Seiki parameters? & a couple other Mori ?'s (live tool spindle synchronization)
Q1: Parameters for tool offset page behavior when setting sub spindle side tools
I've asked the applications engineer guy this several times now since we got our new NLX2500SY, and always get a "let me look into it and get back to you." We have a 12 position turret and sub spindle, and when setting tools on the sub spindle side, when you attach the tool presetter it jumps the cursor on the tool offset page to 16 plus whichever turret station you're on. This is the default behavior for machines with 10, 12, and 16 position turrets. For 20 position turrets, it jumps the cursor to a logical 20 plus the turret position.
Since they can configure the control to add either 16 or 20 to the turret position number when placing the cursor on the tool offset page, it sure seems like there's a parameter somewhere for setting this. We have 80 tool offsets and I'd like to organize the turret and assign each offset to a particular spot and side of the turret. The rough idea would be the first 40 on the main spindle side, and the second 40 on the sub spindle side. So it would be handy if attaching the sub spindle tool presetter caused the cursor to go to 40 plus the current station, rather than 16 or 20, but on our machine, even 20 would be preferable. BTW I already applied the parameter changes to allow floating cursor on the offset page so we can scroll to whichever offset we want, but it's a matter of convenience.
So in summary, say there's a tool in position 3 on the turret. If I pull the presetter down on the main spindle side, the cursor jumps to offset 03 on the offset page. With the same turret spot, if I attach the sub spindle side presetter, it jumps to offset 19 (16+3.) I'd rather it jump to 43, or even 23 (which I know is possible via parameters). Does anyone know how?
Q2: General questions on how some of the spindle synchronization functions work, and limits
We have the gear hobbing control option. What this does is allows you to synchronize the rotary tool (live tool) spindle rotation with the main or sub spindle rotation at programmed ratios to allow cutting gear teeth with a hob mounted in a live tool holder (yes I know the limitations, and we're likely to only be using it on some aluminum timing pulleys and such.) Anyways, another control option we don't specifically have is polygon turning, where the live tool and main spindle are synchronized at a ratio that allows a spinning cutter to advance in Z and cut hexes and such rapidly and without switching to C-axis and milling.
This seems like the same thing to me as the gear hobbing, just with a different way of defining the cutting parameters. My questions is two-fold; can I effectively do polygon turning with the gear hobbing G-codes? And how does it work on a control level?
One idea I had was that maybe hobbing puts the main (or sub) spindle into C-axis mode, and so the synchronization is between rotary spindle and C-axis "position", while polygon turning is velocity synchronization between them both acting as spindles.? If that were the case, it would seem I could still do the polygon turning, but would be limited to the main spindle turning at its C-axis maximum feed rate. Anyone know what that is?
Q3. Is it possible to orient the rotary tool (live tool) spindle to any arbitrary angle, and if so, how?
Obviously it can orient to one position at least to keep from breaking the drive tang off during tool changes. Okuma has an option called tool grooving, which (in milling mode) seems to allow you to program a tool path, and rather than spinning the live tool, it will orient it so that the tool cutting edge is always positioned perpendicular to the direction of the path.
Imagine you just milled a pocket in a piece of soft plastic, and would like to chamfer/deburr the top edge, but it's a troublesome material that leaves a stringy burr every time the cutter edge leaves the material. If you put a lathe type tool with a 45 deg. tip into a holder and basically broached the cut along the edges, it would be cleaner (actual past experience on a different machine...) That's the kind of thing I'm getting at with this live tool spindle orientation.
Any other tips/tricks/parameter resources for Mori and the NLX would be appreciated!
Q1: Parameters for tool offset page behavior when setting sub spindle side tools
I've asked the applications engineer guy this several times now since we got our new NLX2500SY, and always get a "let me look into it and get back to you." We have a 12 position turret and sub spindle, and when setting tools on the sub spindle side, when you attach the tool presetter it jumps the cursor on the tool offset page to 16 plus whichever turret station you're on. This is the default behavior for machines with 10, 12, and 16 position turrets. For 20 position turrets, it jumps the cursor to a logical 20 plus the turret position.
Since they can configure the control to add either 16 or 20 to the turret position number when placing the cursor on the tool offset page, it sure seems like there's a parameter somewhere for setting this. We have 80 tool offsets and I'd like to organize the turret and assign each offset to a particular spot and side of the turret. The rough idea would be the first 40 on the main spindle side, and the second 40 on the sub spindle side. So it would be handy if attaching the sub spindle tool presetter caused the cursor to go to 40 plus the current station, rather than 16 or 20, but on our machine, even 20 would be preferable. BTW I already applied the parameter changes to allow floating cursor on the offset page so we can scroll to whichever offset we want, but it's a matter of convenience.
So in summary, say there's a tool in position 3 on the turret. If I pull the presetter down on the main spindle side, the cursor jumps to offset 03 on the offset page. With the same turret spot, if I attach the sub spindle side presetter, it jumps to offset 19 (16+3.) I'd rather it jump to 43, or even 23 (which I know is possible via parameters). Does anyone know how?
Q2: General questions on how some of the spindle synchronization functions work, and limits
We have the gear hobbing control option. What this does is allows you to synchronize the rotary tool (live tool) spindle rotation with the main or sub spindle rotation at programmed ratios to allow cutting gear teeth with a hob mounted in a live tool holder (yes I know the limitations, and we're likely to only be using it on some aluminum timing pulleys and such.) Anyways, another control option we don't specifically have is polygon turning, where the live tool and main spindle are synchronized at a ratio that allows a spinning cutter to advance in Z and cut hexes and such rapidly and without switching to C-axis and milling.
This seems like the same thing to me as the gear hobbing, just with a different way of defining the cutting parameters. My questions is two-fold; can I effectively do polygon turning with the gear hobbing G-codes? And how does it work on a control level?
One idea I had was that maybe hobbing puts the main (or sub) spindle into C-axis mode, and so the synchronization is between rotary spindle and C-axis "position", while polygon turning is velocity synchronization between them both acting as spindles.? If that were the case, it would seem I could still do the polygon turning, but would be limited to the main spindle turning at its C-axis maximum feed rate. Anyone know what that is?
Q3. Is it possible to orient the rotary tool (live tool) spindle to any arbitrary angle, and if so, how?
Obviously it can orient to one position at least to keep from breaking the drive tang off during tool changes. Okuma has an option called tool grooving, which (in milling mode) seems to allow you to program a tool path, and rather than spinning the live tool, it will orient it so that the tool cutting edge is always positioned perpendicular to the direction of the path.
Imagine you just milled a pocket in a piece of soft plastic, and would like to chamfer/deburr the top edge, but it's a troublesome material that leaves a stringy burr every time the cutter edge leaves the material. If you put a lathe type tool with a 45 deg. tip into a holder and basically broached the cut along the edges, it would be cleaner (actual past experience on a different machine...) That's the kind of thing I'm getting at with this live tool spindle orientation.
Any other tips/tricks/parameter resources for Mori and the NLX would be appreciated!
