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Mazatrol advice please

Techguy

Hot Rolled
Joined
Oct 26, 2007
Location
Hamburg, MN
Hi guys,

I am starting up a new shop and need some advise.

I have just purchased a '97 SQT15MS, an '02 PFH-4800 and a '92 H-400N. In the coming months I will likely add an early 2000s VTC-200 as well. The last time I spent any time programming was in the early 90s on M-32 and T-32 controls in a company I used to own. Now I need to re-learn the M-32 control as well as learn the T-plus and Fusion 640 controls.

I am confident that the T-plus will be fairly easy to learn, but the milling controls are going to be my real challenge. You know, old dog/new tricks.

My question for you guys is this... Would an offline system such as Griffo Bros or others be an easier shorter and safer choice than trying to go back and forth between the different milling controls?

We will be doing mostly short runs and prototypes working from SOLIDWORKS models.

Ease of use, learning curve, and flexibility between different Mazak controls are my biggest concerns.

I am new to this forum, but it looks like a great wealth of knowledge can be found here.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
 
All of the different Mazak control's for the most part are about 90% the same. I was amazed at how much the old M1 control's are like the Fusion 640M control's. They are pretty much the same thing. The newer one will just have more features you can play around with. I don't run our lathes but have messed with them some. Its the same story with them. We have an old version of Griffo that we just use for file storage. Recently we've been looking into getting the newest version were you can program from a computer. The last quote was $8000 and that didn't have many options that we don't already have. My opinion is that once you get those machines up and going your not going to notice a whole lot of difference with the different control's and the programming. The button's on all of them are pretty much the same the newer control's just look a lot nicer. I pulled a program off of our Ultra 650 with M+ stuck it in the new Nexus 6000 with the Fusion 640M contol's changed the WPC's and away it went.
 
yeah I agree , if you start on the fusion control all the others will be a walk in the park. if you are only doing three/four axis work on your mills you shouldn't need a cam system, we only went to a cam system when we started doing five axis stuff.
 
Techguy-
We currently use a Griffo Bros. program for holding and sending programs to our Mazak lathes and mills. There is a function in it that lets you pick a program and convert from say a T-32 to T-plus or vise-versa. Can do the same for the mills. I think it's a great program.

Good luck with the new shop!
UG
 
the function that uniguy is talking about
is called translate, it is not included in data transfert from camlink.
it is a $600.00 option.
i've used griffo for many years and like it.
so techguy,if you use solidworks,new griffo version
works with it. to make programming even easyer.
 
If you are going to be doing short runs and prototypes, I would highly recommend some type of CAM system to program with. Ideally the cam will output Mazatrol, as most earlier Mazaks won't run EIA (g-code) unless the option was specifically purchased with the machine.

Griffo, Mazacam, and one or two others are good cad/cam systems designed to output Mazatrol, as well as g-code.

A cam system will make it easier to use customer-supplied cad drawings, which will usually be in digital form. Especially if your customers supply you with solid model files like those made with Solidworks, you're gonna need offline cam.

For any kind of surfacing work (3d) you will definitely need a cam system. Mazatrol itself is not designed for true surfacing machining. Thus any Mazak you plan to surface with must have EIA capability.

Good luck with your new shop...and keep us posted!

Greg
 
Thanks for the replies guys, they all help.

Today I was playing with a demo copy of Edgecam. I like what I see so far, but I am going to continue to look around before I decide.

Only 2 more weeks before all of the machines arrive. I have been busy getting the facility built out and it is almost done. Next week the epoxy floor and the electrical service go in.

I underestimated how much work it would be to start a shop from an empty 7200 sq ft. pole shed and get everything ready, but the end is in site!!!

I am really looking forward to getting the PFH-4800 running to see what that baby can really do. I admit to being a little intimidated by its speed, but I hope before too long I will have it running like Mazak intended.

Now is the time when I will begin to find out what I overlooked. Thank God for overnight UPS!

Dan
 








 
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