AC progress V2

thetree · Jan 29, 2013

I am considering buying an Agie Charmilles Progress V2. I was wondering if anyone has one and if they like it? The control looks very powerful and having a 60A machine would be great. Any input you can offer would be great. Thanks!

B.Witte · Jan 31, 2013

We got one in 2006 and I love it. It takes a little getting used to( the control), but like you said it is very powerful. If you change wire sizes very much the V guides are great. Very accurate machine.

thetree · Jan 31, 2013

Have you had any service calls on the machine? Do you use that little probe for leveling Z? It seems like a good idea but I am unsure how practical it is for day to day use. I see a potential for time savings if I am not indicating every part on production jobs. We have good fixturing but always have to indicate even if only for piece of mind.

Another concern of mine is the threading. Without having the tube annealer like most of the charmilles machines, it seems like the threader will be inconsistent. I know we are threading through a bigger hole, but I have a hard time believing half hard brass can stay straight enough even through 6" of material to get a good thread without stretching and annealing it. Have you had good luck with it?

Any words of wisdom for someone about to pull the trigger? Anything I should address with the salesmen? Thanks, Dan

B.Witte · Jan 31, 2013

I use the probe as much as possible. It is very accurate. The threading no problem either. I 've threaded just under 10 inches with no problem. Sometimes near the end of a spool the wire will have more of a bend in it, but it is not a major problem. What software do you program with? I use Opticam, used to be Peps. This software puts out very good code for the machine. I used to run a Charmilles 310 and I remember going into the program to edit the Iso program. With the Agie, I never see the Iso program. Hope this helps a little

Matt_W · Feb 1, 2013

We've had ours about a year now, and I love it. Moved from 250hss which was getting towards the end of it's life. Had no threading issues at all and it's incredibly quick compared to the 250 and it's very reliable as well. I cuts on average 50% quicker than our old 250. We program ours using Peps which works really well with it. Load in the script file from peps and you have very little to modify at the control.

thetree · Feb 2, 2013

Can you guys tell me what wire you use? I went to see one of these machines yesterday and the guy showing it to me was saying that there can be some threading issues depending on the wire you use. He was saying that cheaper wires tend to have more memory. Have you seen this?
Also, The place I was at was saying that the "estimated cut times" from the machine are overly fast and unrealistic. I am partially buying this machine based on a time study from agie which was about 25% faster than the sodick on a part I burn a lot. Can anyone speak to this?

B.Witte · Feb 2, 2013

General purpose wire, I use Delta Cut 900. For accuracy, I use Cobra Cut A or Cobra Cut G. I always use coated wires. On the cut times, it depends on the part that you are cutting. If there are a lot of sharp corners, it adds more time. If you are sealed off on the part, the times are pretty close.

Matt_W · Feb 4, 2013

thetree said:
Can you guys tell me what wire you use? I went to see one of these machines yesterday and the guy showing it to me was saying that there can be some threading issues depending on the wire you use. He was saying that cheaper wires tend to have more memory. Have you seen this?
Also, The place I was at was saying that the "estimated cut times" from the machine are overly fast and unrealistic. I am partially buying this machine based on a time study from agie which was about 25% faster than the sodick on a part I burn a lot. Can anyone speak to this?

Most of the time we use Berco brass 800N with no threading issues at all, sometimes use cobra cut a for taper work and that is as good. So can't really comment on cheaper stuff

As B. Witte has mentioned, if your cutting sealed and in straight lines the book speeds quoted are something like, but if your contour has plenty of radii in it, then it can be a bit out.

thetree · Feb 4, 2013

Well I just joined the club. Getting excited to see this thing on my floor. I may end up back on here looking for answers on various things. Thanks for the info guys. -Dan

rbcmetalwork · Feb 4, 2013

We use mostly .010" Cobra Cut A. No threading problems.

Matt_W · Feb 5, 2013

thetree said:
Well I just joined the club. Getting excited to see this thing on my floor. I may end up back on here looking for answers on various things. Thanks for the info guys. -Dan

Enjoy, I really love ours.

One main thing our apprentice learnt in the first week was if you have a security clearance in the machine events for slug removal, make sure it is higher than the security clearance in your program. Only had it installed 4 days and had to get service out after a bump!

thetree · Feb 5, 2013

So the machine tried to go DOWN for slug removal? Sometimes you just wish they had a little more common sense. Did you do any damage to the machine? One of the things I liked about the machine was the collision protection they are so proud of. I didn't think you could really damage it like that.

Matt_W · Feb 5, 2013

thetree said:
So the machine tried to go DOWN for slug removal? Sometimes you just wish they had a little more common sense. Did you do any damage to the machine? One of the things I liked about the machine was the collision protection they are so proud of. I didn't think you could really damage it like that.

Yeah, he'd set a security clearance to miss some clamping but the value he had set in the events was lower than this, so as you say when it came to tag removal, the head went down in to the clamp. It did a bit of damage but luckily not too much. Didn't make a week after install before we had to call service in, that has to be some sort of record.

thetree · Feb 5, 2013

What about the lower flush cup. I understand that if your part is hanging low enough, you can catch the edge of that steel ring and rip the rubber out of it. Have you guys done this? I think I may just make some plastic ones right away. I am also training an apprentice right now, and his clamping skills aren't the best. I would hate to go through those expensive looking flush cups.
Is the collision protection adjustable? They are saying that it is sensitive enough to not break a wine glass. I have a hard time believing it can destroy that lower flush cup. So whats the deal?

Matt_W · Feb 7, 2013

thetree said:
What about the lower flush cup. I understand that if your part is hanging low enough, you can catch the edge of that steel ring and rip the rubber out of it. Have you guys done this? I think I may just make some plastic ones right away. I am also training an apprentice right now, and his clamping skills aren't the best. I would hate to go through those expensive looking flush cups.
Is the collision protection adjustable? They are saying that it is sensitive enough to not break a wine glass. I have a hard time believing it can destroy that lower flush cup. So whats the deal?

Didn't know it had collision protection, found out about some shear pins in the head after the above mentioned bump, designed to save major damage to the head. Other that than that didn't know of anything.

I make sure that the apprentices don't have any clamping below Z zero, so there is no chance of any collisions with clamping. I know on our old Agie they did some plastic nozzles that were at a similar height to the top of the lower arm. I'll have a look and see if they do any for the progress.

agieman · Feb 13, 2013

Hi Dan, you are thinking about the Charmilles side of the family cut 20 cut 200 440 240 machines. The progress has no real collision protection when compared to the Charmilles. The 3d pick up is the balls. several operators i know use it all the time, so much so that you cannot find an indicator next to the machines. It takes a while to reach that state of trust but you WILL get there.. Try telling a toolmaker not to indicate a part and the looks you get are priceless. lol The generator loves plain brass wire and it's good enough for most jobs and alot cheaper. Delta cut 900 is about the same as brass if you want to use a coated wire. No need to make a plastic lowered nozzle the machines come with one. One question is why are you using half hard wire? This machine likes hard and you can do up to 20 degrees of taper with the hard wire. the threader works fine and in terms of speed it blows away any machine that anneals the wire. 8 seconds to thread. yes 8 seconds! and cutting the wire is even faster. Lastly, welcome to the family. I'm sure we will talk, if i can help in any way let me know. Oh, you may want to look into uptime it extends the warranty and includes PM service calls. You bought an awesome machine. Oh and Matt Remember machine events on on a Global level. At least crashes are easy to repair on this machine.

Matt_W · Feb 14, 2013

agieman said:
Oh and Matt Remember machine events on on a Global level. At least crashes are easy to repair on this machine.

Yep that is where he'd put the security clearance on the slug removal.

mootrix · Mar 21, 2013

i'm a bit confused because on my agie classic, the head automatically goes up 15 mm everytime it comes to tag removal. i'm guessing its different for other models or did mines just come with them settings? and why even mess with events in the first place? if i try to put a minus value in security setting in piece editor it doesnt let me. (im guessing progress has same software as classic right).

thetree · Mar 22, 2013

I am unsure about your control, and I have not had my training on the vision yet, but I believe this setting is found in "machine level events".

Matt_W · Mar 26, 2013

thetree said:
I am unsure about your control, and I have not had my training on the vision yet, but I believe this setting is found in "machine level events".

That's correct it is in events at machine level

AC progress V2

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