HAAS Super Mini Mill 2 Tool changer crash

good afternoon all
I have a 2011 Haas super mini mill 2.

I was experiencing issues with turret rotation faults where the tool in position sensor seemed to be experiencing intermittent problems. It seems as if coolant had run down inside of the inductive sensor. Due to the lead time on a new sensor and work needing to be done I swapped the tool 1 sensor and the tool in position sensor. My reasoning behind this was the tool 1 sensor is used on startup to reference the carousel and I assume it is used if I call tool 1 so I thought use the sensor that is not faulty for the tool in position check. By the way the sensors have different part numbers but they are identical according to the spares guy.

All of this worked well until recently when I had a turret rotate fault, took off the covers to check and everything started working again. 3 days ago I did a tool change and the machine attempted to do a tool change with the tool out of alignment with the spindle, I assume the tool in position sensor sent a signal when it shouldn't have. I called the local Haas repair technician who said he hadn't seen this in 10 years of working on Haas machines. As I am pressed for time I got him to come over and replace the sensors that I had bought from Haas. When he ran the tool changer the same thing happened. We replaced the 2 sensors and ran the tool changer through a couple of cycles, nothing out of the ordinary.

My question is, has anyone else experienced this before. I am now very reluctant to run the machine unmanned just in case something goes wrong again. According to the Haas technician there is no overload detection and if this happens again the carousel will be damaged.

Any help will be appreciated.

So now you have two new switches installed by HFO so there is some sort of warranty yes?

I presume the interior or the carousel is clean now, especially above the Geneva mechanism, a large enough chip can give a false indication.

In truth there is overload protection. On the shuttle drive arm motor input shaft is an overload friction device. Partial position or tool already in holder will make a BANG and then time out because shuttle is out of position. Rude and some cosmetic damage, possible that a tool will get tossed out or jammed in the mess, a hassle and blemish causing, mostly annoying.

It sounds like your a bit gun shy - I totally understand.

Write up a program with a bunch of tool changes, spindle on, tool change, repeat. Run until your satisfied. Or stand there and MDI tool change until your comfortable.

Good luck!

Hi BGL
thanks for the feedback. I have been running it carefully and so far no crashes. The issue is with the indexing and if that goes out between a tool being placed in the carousel and another tool being picked up. There is no overload if the spindle comes down on the side of a tool etc, the carrier plate will probably break.

As to warranty I doubt that I will have any joy there unless I take legal action.

I see what your saying now. "out of alignment with the spindle" was in the indexing to next tool. My brain said, INCONCEIVABLE!

1) Rapid to Z 0.0
2) Shuttle in (empty pocket)
3) Tool release
4) G00 Z up
3) Index carousel halfway between tools
4) G00 Z down - smashing down on tools/shuttle

Did it not alarm out when it attempted to do a tool change with the tool out of alignment?

Jeez - I have enough nightmares as it is! Of the n# tool changes I have been around in 12 years around four Haas mills I have never seen that!

No, just no - don't want to even imagine it!

BGL said:

I see what your saying now. "out of alignment with the spindle" was in the indexing to next tool. My brain said, INCONCEIVABLE!

1) Rapid to Z 0.0
2) Shuttle in (empty pocket)
3) Tool release
4) G00 Z up
3) Index carousel halfway between tools
4) G00 Z down - smashing down on tools/shuttle

Did it not alarm out when it attempted to do a tool change with the tool out of alignment?

Jeez - I have enough nightmares as it is! Of the n# tool changes I have been around in 12 years around four Haas mills I have never seen that!

No, just no - don't want to even imagine it!

Click to expand...

Mystery man(???) just to be clear, is the scenario that BGL listed out what you are experiencing? That the carousel rotates halfway to next tool then spindle lowers between them? Or tries!?!?!

If this is the case, then there is an issue still with the switch, something triggering the switch, switch wiring, or faultily logic within a PCB giving a false read.

During the tool change cycle, the shuttle will go in towards the spindle, get confirmation via a switch that it is at the spindle, raise the head above tool, rotate carousel to next position, confirm at next position via switch, then lower spindle onto next tool.

I to want to say INCONCEIVABLE!!

A funny thing happened today. On the 2008 mini mill at my paying job..

Running along fine all morning. At a tool change in 100% rapid, shuttle in, tool release, Z rapid up, carousel rotates - All Stop! I look at alarm description, I wrote # down.. did not put in pocket - D'oh!

Anyway it says shuttle fault. I open door and look - carousel is almost exactly between tools. Spindle of death hovering above - My brain says out loud, "Hey I wounder if?"

I snatch flashlight I was just using and take a look. Sure enough there is a perfect drop of coolant holding a nice fat chip exactly centered on the face of the proximity switch. I reached for my phone to take a picture; too late, it dropped off already.
Press reset and get back to making noise.

Not sure of the default NC:NO of the switch in failure mode but I would hope Haas engineers would have enough sense to err on the side of caution. Myself I am confident that its a practically impossible fail - but then again??