Makino Clamp Issues

Hello,

We have a few different Makino mills that are used for the production of aluminum castings. On occasion we have a production worker fail to properly clamp their parts before sending the tombstone in for its cycle. Does anyone know of a way to remove the human error out of this? A visual indicator that alerts the operator that the clamps are secured maybe. Thank you in advance.

CustomCastings said:

Hello,

We have a few different Makino mills that are used for the production of aluminum castings. On occasion we have a production worker fail to properly clamp their parts before sending the tombstone in for its cycle. Does anyone know of a way to remove the human error out of this? A visual indicator that alerts the operator that the clamps are secured maybe. Thank you in advance.

Click to expand...

Use a part probe to run checks before running the program

I was hoping for something a bit faster. We pump out a lot of parts during the course of the day and don't want people bogged down by an extra step if possible.

CustomCastings said:

I was hoping for something a bit faster. We pump out a lot of parts during the course of the day and don't want people bogged down by an extra step if possible.

Click to expand...

Probing is one option, but it takes a lot of time out of the cycle.

Serious production setups use a part presence sensor that blows air through a hole on the bottom of the part. If the part isn't there, the pressure is low and this triggers an alarm. Typically, there is enough pressure that the part needs to be fully clamped in order to not trigger the alarm.

Downside is that implementing that on a tombstone with a whole bunch of parts could be non-trivial. I don't know if the available systems will work with multiple part pockets, or if you would need n number of sensors and "channels" for each part. I suppose you could implement an external system at the load station; hook up an air line to the pallet during loading, and if the pressure is maintained, you have a good seal at all part locations and can release it to be machined.

The problem with any air gap sensors, even on a single vise is that they are finicky. Machining castings is likely to have a lot of false positive alarms.

Disclaimer: I have never dealt with high quantity jobs, with clamp sensors, hydraulic clamps, etc. I am taking a swing out of my own league.

But...

I think you could take something like a prox sensor that can sense aluminum, with a relatively short range. Install a few where you want to make sure the fixture should be.

Now, with that, you could get as simple or as complicated as you like.

You could simply wire them into a box, which has a red and green LED light on it. Maybe a red/green pair for each sensor. When all of the sensors are satisfied that the part is close enough, all of the lights are green. The operator would have to look at this box to make sure

Or you could get the more complicated, a little more foolproof route, and attach those signals into the machine. I don't know what Makino you have, but ours has the option for hydraulic clamping (unused) and a bunch of I/O that I would imagine some of which would be clamp interlocks, perhaps sensor interlocks too.

CustomCastings said:

I was hoping for something a bit faster. We pump out a lot of parts during the course of the day and don't want people bogged down by an extra step if possible.

Click to expand...

What machines do you have running?

For reference, We have an A88 and I can't imagine this taking more than 30 seconds total to sweep 4 sides of a tombstone. The "people" won't be bogged down by an extra step at all once programmed.

Are you using hydraulic clamping? Hydraulic clamping with a pressure transducer will keep the machine from running without the part clamped.

Of course, hydraulic fixtures are pricey. But, it's pretty well idiot proof.