Hardinge Cobra 42 with 21t Crash Prevention

Hello,

This ultra-light Cobra 42 lathe drive me nuts. Does any know if there is a parameter in the 21t control on a Cobra 42 lathe that causes the program to automatically rewind at the first press of the reset button? This machine really is a light duty machine with some weird control issues. On my Cobra, one press of the reset button stops the program mid-flight. A second press is needed to rewind the program. The problem is that if you start the machine up after the first reset press, the machine takes off and usually crashes like it does not know where it is. Everything is fine if you rewind before starting again, but many times operators forget the extra press and because this machine is so light, we have to do a turret re-alignment every crash. It's getting to the point where I want to put a quick release clamps on the turret sheet metal covers so that I don't have to remove the 14 screws to get to the turret mounting screws. Luckily these latest crashes were in a feed mode and we did not bend the way alignment pins, which has been done in the past and the spindle does not seem to move out of alignment during one of these episodes. I think I need to also mess with the soft limits, but it looks like these are quite useless as there is only one set of them and we are using tool holders of many different lengths that make the soft limits pretty limited. Any ideas on how to prevent crashes on this machine? Thank you

Dan DeMerchant
Highpower Security Products LLC
Meriden, CT USA

I dont mean to sound harsh but any operator that just starts the machine back up after pushing reset and not making sure everything is in the right place to start needs to be looking for their next job. that being said there alot of things that can be done none of which are 100% protection your best corse of action is training even if you have to set down and wright out a set by step directions on what to do I have tried to make some machines crash proof and you can stop alot of dumb thing from happening but in the end it was alot of wasted time because some dumb ass will out think me and find a way to crash it anyway you so thats why I say the only way to out smart stupid is training.

You may be presuming too much, like the operator knows how to setup the machine. This machine uses the reset button to both stop the running program and unlock the door during loading. When using the machine for secondary op, the operators, who know little about how the machine works often get impatient waiting for the cycle to stop as most of the time they work on manual machines and they want to get ahead of the machine cycle. Because of this, they are pre-maturely pressing the reset button in order to open the door. The problem is that this causes the current tool offset to reset and because the program does not re-wind automatically, we can't get back to a safe spot in this case. If the operator stops the machine before the last tool index, the machine will crash every time. I called Hardinge and they told me that there is a K bit to turn on in the control to rewind in auto mode. Only problem that I found out is that the ladder in the machine is older than the one that they are referencing and that the K bit feature actually does not work in my early serial number. Because of this, I have to figure out either how to manually edit the ladder or install an updated ladder from Hardinge. I have identified the rung in the ladder that needs to be corrected and am working on this. It's crazy and really not safe that the old controls Fanuc don't rewind automatically, cancel out their tool offsets with the same button that actually releases the door safety. Hardinge must have got this criticism and patched it in later ladder releases so I think my issue is justified.

I am sorry I am not trying to nit pic just relating on my experance here on our harding it has to always run from in X&Z home operators will try to open the door before it gets home and the interlock will stop the machine then the program dose not finish each time this is done they have to go to edit push reset to get back to the top of the program to restart so the machine starts a little closer to the chuck if its just a little off home you just get a bad if its alot off of home you get a crash what I mean about training is I have had to teach them to wait for the cycle light to go off or wait till they see the home lights come on or watch that the program has returned to the top I have to tell them to go faster that sometimes they have to slow down a bit to be faster in the long run.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by danohpsp

You may be presuming too much, like the operator knows how to setup the machine. This machine uses the reset button to both stop the running program and unlock the door during loading. When using the machine for secondary op, the operators, who know little about how the machine works often get impatient waiting for the cycle to stop as most of the time they work on manual machines and they want to get ahead of the machine cycle. Because of this, they are pre-maturely pressing the reset button in order to open the door. The problem is that this causes the current tool offset to reset and because the program does not re-wind automatically, we can't get back to a safe spot in this case. If the operator stops the machine before the last tool index, the machine will crash every time. I called Hardinge and they told me that there is a K bit to turn on in the control to rewind in auto mode. Only problem that I found out is that the ladder in the machine is older than the one that they are referencing and that the K bit feature actually does not work in my early serial number. Because of this, I have to figure out either how to manually edit the ladder or install an updated ladder from Hardinge. I have identified the rung in the ladder that needs to be corrected and am working on this. It's crazy and really not safe that the old controls Fanuc don't rewind automatically, cancel out their tool offsets with the same button that actually releases the door safety. Hardinge must have got this criticism and patched it in later ladder releases so I think my issue is justified.

---

Sounds like a more reasonable solution is to seperate the "allow door open" function from the reset function. Will require work on the ladder. Probably not in parameters.

hi
ineed maintenance electrical and programing manuales pleez sed by email:[email protected]
thanks