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Bridgeport VMC-3020 Tool Changer not Working

Deese

Aluminum
Joined
Dec 5, 2004
Location
mebane,nc
The tool changer is not working on this vmc I bought it does not index when you home the machine and I can't get it to move the carousel or the tool arm in no matter what macro I call it seems to hang on m66. I took the cover off the tool arm motor and turned the impeller fan manually and ran the tool arm in. I took the Geneva mechanism motor off and operated it manually. The tool changer motors are driven directly by the output card in slot 10 I have never seen any lights on that output card light up. I also dont believe the lube pump is running either.
 
I believe these had a Fanuc 21i control? I would re-seat the input module for the tool change switches and the output module in slot 10. Are the inputs working? X5.4 should be on and X5.5 should be off. View those in the status page and see if the input card is lighting up. Also X4.6 should be on for spindle orient, X5.2 should be on for drawbar clamped, and X5.3 should be off for drawbar unclamped. Do you have manuals for this machine?
 
I believe these had a Fanuc 21i control? I would re-seat the input module for the tool change switches and the output module in slot 10. Are the inputs working? X5.4 should be on and X5.5 should be off. View those in the status page and see if the input card is lighting up. Also X4.6 should be on for spindle orient, X5.2 should be on for drawbar clamped, and X5.3 should be off for drawbar unclamped. Do you have manuals for this machine?

It is a 21i-m control yes, I believe all those inputs are working. I will double verify that.I had the pcmlad up looking at it yesterday,this is a new control to me so I will have to learn the features. I will try to find that status page,that would be even better than the lights on the i/o cards.I have the bridgeport operator and maint manuals,and the fanuc maint manual. I did see a rung on the ladder for tool arm forward that was not made,the input was M1.0TB I checked it when it was hung mid tool change macro. Maybe that is toolchanger back switch?
 
The "pmcdiag" button is next to the "pmclad" softkey. Then hit "status", type "x", then "search" softkey. Then look at the inputs that I posted above. You should also verify that the z-axis is going to the tool change position that is listed in parameter 1241(2nd ref position). The value might be in meteric, and the z-axis machine position should be at that position when the carousel comes in.
 
The "pmcdiag" button is next to the "pmclad" softkey. Then hit "status", type "x", then "search" softkey. Then look at the inputs that I posted above. You should also verify that the z-axis is going to the tool change position that is listed in parameter 1241(2nd ref position). The value might be in meteric, and the z-axis machine position should be at that position when the carousel comes in.

Well you called it,it is the x4.6 spindle orient input. The machine orients the spindle,applies the brake,but the input does not go high. I cancelled the tool load macro,and ran m19 and it did the same thing. I reached in and grabbed the spindle and gave a twist and a relay of some kind closes to my right somewhere,after that relay closes the orient input is active high.I ran the macro again while the spindle was oriented and bam! toolchanger was in like Flinn. Ready to load message on screen. So there must be some adjustment for the orientation of the spindle? I thought it strange when I grab the tool and turn it that relay works,I noticed that a couple days ago.
 
The spindle orient parameter is 4077 and there are 4096 pulses in 360 degrees. It may be loose or worn spindle belts.
 
Disregard the above post about parameter 4077 as this machine uses a special Varispeed spindle drive, not a Fanuc. Refer to section 4D18 of the maintenance manual to tune M19.
 
Yep I have the manuals in the truck I'm going home I'll read it over tonight thank you very much for your help. By the way since you seem to know these machines what is the spindle Purge air for just to keep coolant out or is that the cool the bearing or what's the deal with that
 
This thing is not fixed yet. I did the procedure to tune up the spindle orient. I adjusted the encoder belt tension which wasnt bad I just snugged it. They want you to adjust the count of the encoder on the spindle drive to stop at that number,and the tool changer keys are aligned. Well I dont know how in the hell you are supposed to align it when you cant move the tool change arm in manually or the head down manually. Maybe there are more secrets to that. But the issue is the orient bit still does not go high on the m19 command. If you reach in and grab the drill chuck you cant turn it because its holding position for the orient. But you can apply torque to it and when you do it sets the orient bit high. So where it stops in the encoder count is beside the point that when it stops at the count programmed in the drive it doesnt set the orient bit high.
 
Well I suspected this was a spindle drive problem,so I downloaded the proper manual from yaskawa 200 pages. I read it and learned about the drive settings and how you can display status of inputs and outputs on the drive display.The drive was not setting its own orient bit output high,we could have guessed that but it nice to see it verified. I ran through the orient tune up procedure again,and I also did a spindle drift procedure which wasnt very intuitive in the bp manual but I figured it out.There are about two more pages in the orient setup procedure that bp leaves out of their manual.That is where I found the answer.There is even a note in the procedures "if the ORE bit does not set even when the spindle comes near the setpoint adjust this setting higher" The setting is the proportional of the servo pid loop that the spindle motor is controlled by when you command the orient. I bumped it from 15 to 25 and it snapped the spindle right around and the bit was high, low and behold. I adjusted it back down to 20 and it was still good to go.So a 5 point increase in the p of the pid loop fixed this machine. Maybe it is 20 years of sitting in a college it was tired and needed a boost.
 








 
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