Thread: Restarting on Nexus 510C

I am a mazak milling newbie running a Mazak Vertical Center Nexus 510C. The control is labeled Mazatrol 640M Nexus. I need to learn as much as I can about restarting within a program. All the programming is done offline with unigraphics, so the programs are EIA. I searched this forum for "restart", and did read one older thread about it, but it wasn't as specific about the procedure as I would have hoped.

On the Haas mills I ran at my last job, as long as I had the restart setting turned on, I could pick any safe point within the program (it didn't have to be the beginning line # of the tool), and the machine would position itself, and then proceed with the tool path from that point. I'm wondering if there is a way to accomplish this on my mazak. (For example, when finish milling multiple features with the same tool, and only the very last feature comes out oversize & needs to be recut. I don't want that tool to recut the features that are already in tolerance.)

In the older thread I found, it mentioned temporarily inserting a GOTO statement, but I am not familiar with how to format such a statement. Any advice on using this GOTO statement, or other methods of restarting this machine would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Tim

I ran one for two years and never did figure out how to restart an EIA program. You could run the manuals thru a paper shredder and it would not degrade their readability.

Tim, look for the soft key that says, "EIA MONITOR". This will bring you to a full screen of the active program. Cursor to wherever you want to restart, and look for the soft key on the very right titled "RESTART 2 NONMODAL". You may have to hit the right arrow soft key to find it. Push it, and the line you're on should highlight, that's now where you're at in the program. Hit cycle start.

Beware, this is a NON MODAL restart, so it's just like restarting a Fanuc control. Make sure you start in a safe position that will call the correct work offset, tool length, spindle start, and the first feed rate. ALWAYS turn the rapid all the way down, and turn on single block before the restart.

If you can't find the RESTART 2 NONMODAL button, it might be turned off. You need to browse the parameter manual (or just call Mazak), and find the parameter to activate it. If you can't find the parameter, I can look it up in one of my manuals.

There is also a soft key in the EIA MONITOR titled RESTART. This is a restart method similar to what you are used to on the Haas. I've never used it, because our programs just have way too much stuff going on with subs, macros, pallet changes, etc. I like to be in complete control of what the machine is trying to do.

There's 2 ways

first, the non-modal restart on the EIA monitor page - cursor to the line, make it and hit go. covered quite well above and i cant add anything.

Secondly, there's a restart softkey in the lower right when the position page is displayed, in memory mode. If the active program is eia, an eia type window will come up, if main prg is mazatrol, a slightly different window comes up. MODAL RESTART is supposed to work for both.

you have to fill this window up with info and its designed to restart in nested sub programs, hence there's a lot of questions that are usually unnecessary.

so you just hit input for program number, (unless you're brave enough to attempt a restart inside the nesting of a sub program) then they ask for sequence number. THIS MEANS THE N NUMBER used to label an eia block. these days, the n word usually matches the tool number and appears in the first line after tool change, by custom.

then they ask you for block number. this is easily misunderstood, but what they really want is the number of lines AFTER the n number you just specified that you want to restart at. if you want to restart at the n number you keyed in, just hit input. Or "0".

the last window is for subroutined nested counted, i think just input or 1 would suffice. I never used it in my life. I leave the mastery to the power users.

Now that all this info is fed into the MODAL restart window, just hit cycle start and it will activate all the necessary modals you need to start at your n word.

EXCEPT

it doesn't restart the spindle!

so, the first step AHEAD OF THE ABOVE INSTRUCTIONS is to MDI in the correct spindle speed and direction for where you're restarting. It's a mazatrol thing. It should be labeled "modal restart for everything but the spindle"

mazatrol rocks! But EIA guys may not experience all in mazatrol that does rock. what ever floats the boat.

-90% Jimmy

Thanks so much. That is exactly the info I needed. The practical machinist crowd always comes through for me.

Tim

Something else worth mentioning about the modal restart....BE CAREFUL if you use it. I've tried to use it before, and somehow it read through the second op sub and loaded the wrong offsets. It was purely by luck that this didn't cause a major disaster.

It should work fine on a simple VMC program that just runs from the start, to the end, and then starts over. If you've got a complex program with lots of subs, macros, probe routines, pallet changes, different sets of offsets being loaded etc., just use the RESTART 2 NONMODAL.