Programming the Gl gantry robot

I have a flex gl50n gantry robot on my sqt10ms with t32 control. I'd like to make a program that picks a finished part off the sub spindle only, as I am pulling from a bar through the spindle. None of the set patterns do this intentionally, I am wondering if there is a way I can lie to the CHK2S pattern to do what I want. Unfortunately I have no experience with programming the gantry and I haven't figured it out yet. Thanks

Now I'm doing some learning on this too with my GL100. Robot Command #1 is M20, tells the GL to put the part in Head 1. Robot Command #2 is M21, tell the GL to remove part from Head 2.... What if you only call up M21? Will it just remove the part without wanting/having to put a new part in Spindle 1? I'm not sure if the patterns will work like that either...

I have no idea... but I have thought about doing the exact same thing as you... just haven't gotten there yet.

Are you sure about M21? M20 is just a call for robot service, M21 isn't used according to my manuals. The moves from MS to SS etc are all covered in the "patterns".

The problem with the CHK2S pattern is that it wants to pick up raw stock off the pallet, and then load said raw stock into the MS. Besides the wasted motion I don't want to just pretend and have the robot grab air because it still wants to load the MS which means I need to open the chuck, which I don't want to do because I have a bar in there and I don't want it to move.

Well... I'm on a T+ control, that may be the difference. M21 thru M29, are robot commands according to my books. All I'm going by are all the programs left in the machine from the previous owner. They left me all their programs, and their programs in the gantry control box. I've been sifting and studying my way through them. All the programs in the machine pretty much start with a MNP that does an airblast on the chuck, and orients the chuck, then has a M20 (Robot Command 1)... All of them end with the same air blast, orient, and then an M21 (Robot Command 2) to remove the part from head 2 at the end of the program...

I'm setting up my first gantry job probably late next week so I'll be learning a bit here as we go.

I'd like to see if you get this worked out... I have more than a few jobs where I would like to just stuck a bar in there and bar pull... and let the gantry put the part back on the table...

I have a really sharp Mazak applications guy that I've talked to a few times... but he's pretty tied up right now with the IMTS around the corner

Sent you an email David.

Replied to your email Tom.

So if I understand what you are saying correctly about how your programs are written is that the robot is called in at the beginning of the cycle to load the raw stock, the robot exits, part is machined, and then it comes back in to pick the finished part off the sub? Weird. The "patterns" in the GL controller that pick finished parts off the sub load raw stock in the main first. That is what I am trying to get around. I have 500pcs to run next week and would rather not have someone stand there to pick the finished part off every 3.5min.

The other thing I am really not liking about this setup is it looks like you have to have the chucks open before the robot comes in. I'd love to find a way around this so that the robot jaws can grab the part securely while it is clamped in the chuck, and then release the spindle chuck so that the part is always grabbed properly. I envision issues with parts falling out, dings, crashes etc in the factory configuration.

I might do some reading into the EIA programming capabilities of this system and see where that gets me.

Not sure on earlier controls, but on Fusion and Matrix controls, the robot program is just a macro cnc program running on the gantry side of the control. You can write whatever macro you want if you know what all the M codes do.