Little victories, Unattended machining.

[YoDoug]

We have two automated machining cells here that have robots that load pallets into machining centers. Both are vertical spindle machines, 3x and 5x. Both machine 100% aluminum making a lot of chips. We have struggled to consistently get 12+ hours of unattended runtime because of chip build up causing machine doors to hang up. We have added chip wash down jets in the machines and even air nozzles that periodically fire, yet we still struggled. Well this week I added a decent size air nozzle to the robot head and programmed a blow off routine to clear the chips in front of the door every time it loads a pallet. Last night was the first night this week that both machines ran all night, 14+ hours unattended, without any hang ups. We have been so busy this year and losing even a few hours of overnight running gets us a little more behind on orders when it happens. I'd say this is a little victory that could be the turning point to us getting caught up or even ahead in the next month. It will also allow us to start working on more new product development. Right now we are just trying to keep existing products going out the door.

https://i.imgur.com/5wAq20I.jpg?1">

[RobertELee]

Nice!

Not sure how your load station is laid out, however I've had a similar issue in the past and installed a vertical shield that drops between the work envelope and door, actuated by an air cylinder. It blocked about 99% of the chips and was a fairly easy install. One thing I thought about later was to have a microswitch installed to detect open position just in case the shield doesn't raise you don't have a crash.

[DUM1]

EPIC ! great job !  :rockon:
same type struggle with the horizontal duel cell , always something , when I'm busy or gone not much if any lights out.
we have had major turnover in staff , no one knows anything any more .
Keeps me hopping busy though. hope to get a raise some day , hope you do too .

[YoDoug]

Nice!

Not sure how your load station is laid out, however I've had a similar issue in the past and installed a vertical shield that drops between the work envelope and door, actuated by an air cylinder. It blocked about 99% of the chips and was a fairly easy install. One thing I thought about later was to have a microswitch installed to detect open position just in case the shield doesn't raise you don't have a crash.

The load stations are separate from the machines. The robot brings the pallets to the load stations similar to a FMS.

[MIL-TFP-41]

Gotta love it when things go right. We had a PC10 Matsuura MX330 installed last October. Just broke the 5000 hour auto-run mark, not bad out of a possible 5400 hours.

[CNCAppsJames]

Gotta love it when things go right. We had a PC10 Matsuura MX330 installed last October. Just broke the 5000 hour auto-run mark, not bad out of a possible 5400 hours.

92.5% uptime FTW!!!

[MIL-TFP-41]

92.5% uptime FTW!!!

It would be more but people were complaining about coming in on Sundays and holidays to load more parts....So we stopped running all day on Sundays. Plus shutting down for a day every few months for the 2000 hour maintenance things (Change oil in the 4th & 5th & all of those little things)

[CNCAppsJames]

Yeah, maintenance is crucial. Do that stuff and things tend to go well.