New machine day.

[YoDoug]

Our 4th Okuma MB5000HII is coming in the building today. The only difference in this one is the other three have Fastems FMS and on this one we are going to build our own pallet system. CAD design below. The Cell on the left is the MB5000 with 240, 24" * 10" pallets and two load stations. The right is the current cell we are building on an M560 that uses the VersaBuilt robot-loaded vise jaw system. I just finished writing the control software for that cell and we should have it put together by the end of the month or so.

[TylerBeer]

Damn Doug, nice!

[Zoffen]

What are you using for fixturing in the horizontal? Are you loading multiple stations on the tombstone?

[Flycut]

wow

[YoDoug]

What are you using for fixturing in the horizontal? Are you loading multiple stations on the tombstone?

We make our own fixtures to go on the pallets. For pallets we make our own but use Schunk Vero S receivers and pull studs. It is just going to be one pallet on one face of each tombstone. We can be loading one tombstone while the other is in the machine. APC time is about 6 seconds so not much time lost indexing the APC between the two pallets.

[YoDoug]

My control software for the M560 cell is coming together nicely.

This is the database page where you can enter info for each part. Info includes stock size, offsets for robot pick/put, programs, vise pressures, etc. The database is network backed and the add/edit/delete functions are set up with a web interface so the programmers can access them from their computer to add new parts.



Each of the four part racks has it's own tab. You select a part from the database for each row you want to run, then it updates the graphics to match one of three tray configurations. Then you select (highlight) the parts in that row that will be run.



There is a tab for vise jaw management. The system holds 32 sets of vise jaws that robot can change out. 15 are dedicated to op 10 sizes ranging from 1" wide to 8" wide in .5" increments. That leaves 17 open spots for second op jaws. Each jaws has a laser engraved data matrix code with the part number and the operator uses handheld scanner to check them in. If you try to build a schedule for the machine and the jaws are not checked in it will pop up a warning. It also monitors the status for the machines current running schedule and jaws still need for the remaining schedule are locked so you can't change them until they are done being used. They are color coded on the interface, red means being used, green means available. There is also a 2D camera above the jaw changing station to verify that right jaws are in the right place.



Lastly is the status page. The app monitors the machines schedule and shows which racks/rows are needed for remaining schedule and updates display colors. Current running row is highlighted blue.



In total we can set up up to 17 different parts ranging from 1" * 1" * .375" up to 8" * 10" * 3.". Each row can hold from 4 to 10 part depending on size. Our planning estimates are that two rack can be built and running for 12+ hours of runtime while allowing the operator to set up material and jaws for the other two racks without stopping the process.

[Zoffen]

Your boss must love you! This is awesome!

What system are you using for the Automatic Jaw changeout?

[YoDoug]

Your boss must love you! This is awesome!

What system are you using for the Automatic Jaw changeout?

We are using the versabuilt system. https://www.versabuilt.com/. We bought the robot gripper, base jaws, top jaws, and adapters for the schunk vises from them.

[MIL-TFP-41]

Your work holding distributor must really like you! For that kind of coin I would negotiate a beejeer on the side. Well maybe a few t-shirts anyways.

[Zoffen]

The Schunk Pullstuds alone would bankrupt most shops.....    

[YoDoug]

The Schunk Pullstuds alone would bankrupt most shops.....    

We currently have three cells with 4 machine and 344 pallets. There are just over 1800 pull studs and 34 Vero S modules in those cells. This new cell will add another 12 modules and 720 more pull studs. We also have 17 different Schunk grippers on robots and 14 THW quick change chucks. When this new cell is done we will probably have spent $500k on schunk stuff over the last 8 years. A lot of money, but we consistently get 7000+ annual hours of production on 20 machines and to date have not had one Schunk product fail.