ATC Arrow 750

Hi,

I'm trying to get the ATC going, but the sequence halts at alarm "Drawbar Not Clamped".

When I check i/o function in ProgramWare, I can find all signals but SL_TL_CLMP in the alarm remedy.

Could it be that I have a hw/sw mismatch since sw seems to be asking for an input that is not present?

The other three signals are toggling their statuses upon pressing drawbar button and spindle orientation is OK (checked within white sector in Motion Link).

Any hints much appreciated https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...a84e311bbe.jpg

If the drawbar clamps the tool and unclamps the tool OK physically then you have to adjust the switches at the top. You have 3 switches tool clamp, tool unclamp and no tool. Take the bonnet off and take a look, most of the machines had PROX switches with lights in them. You could have a bad switch or they may need to be adjusted.

MIKE CNC Machine Services INC | Cincinnati Milacron MachinesCNC Machine Services

Hi, meckardt55 - thank you for replying!

The machine have got 3 prox switches that lights up upon detection of clamp/unclamp/clamp with tool. The functionality of this is also seen in the ProgramWare I/O overview.

However, the one signal that I cannot find displayed in ProgramWare is the 'SL_TL_CLMP' stated in the alarm remedy.
My guess is that this signal is determining if there is a tool in the spindle or not - and if such signal is not detected in the software at all, the controller might have a problem continuing ATC cycle.

I try to run ATC with no tool in spindle (tool '0'), and command in tool :M06 T1002 for tool 2;
- spindle goes to upper position
- spindle rotates the slot-tab, pointing towards right
- tool carousel moves to spindle
- Alarm 39-28, and halt.

One strange observation;
After this halt, the drawbar seem to be stuck in unclamped position. If i press tool unclamp button once, the drawbar releases/clamps again.

Still manual tool changes :D

Does anyone know if there is a hardware difference related to tool clamp proximity sensors between Arrow and Sabre machines? (bought a new harddrive with "generic/standard" software - just added the controller/licence number from Siemens)
If so - is it possible to alter the software IO-configuration in a Sabre software to suit an Arrow machine?

I'm grasping for straws here.

Its hard to give you solid answers with all the unknowns here. There were several different software versions for the different machines/years, and many of them would not be compatible across the different machines. Best to find out what your machine should have and buy that. I have a vague recollection of your machine having the VFS5 spindle drive, which means it should have release 2 (likely 2.34 software). If you were able to successfully enter the Siemens code to unlock your options without other alarms indicating incorrect version, I would think you have a compatible version (although I've never used "generic" software so really don't have any idea what would happen). You can change the values in the setup pages, but you can't redefine what values are programmable so if you do not have the correct version in the first place, it will not work. It is possible you just don't have the configuration set properly, but I can't think of any settings that would result in what you have described.

Arrow and Sabre spindles both used the same basic setup, 3 prox switches for drawbar position (unclamped, clamped with tool and clamped without tool). The other items you mentioned are not inputs and would be the output from the CNC to clamp/unclamp the drawbar cylinder. There were differences in the ATC for air cylinder vs motor to position it, but that was based on vintage of the machine more than model. As Meckardt mentioned, the prox switches can be adjusted to get a signal when you aren't getting one, but do not adjust these. Every single time I work on a machine that someone has adjusted these, there was a more serious underlying issue and adjusting them only compounds the issue. These prox switches should never need to be adjusted once they were set properly at the factory. If they are working and suddenly one of them stops, it is because something else is wrong, not that the switch drifted out of position (the caveat to that is if the bolts somehow worked loose, but I have never seen this in 20+ years of working on Cincinnati's).

Based on your description, the alarm is drawbar not clamped, and the drawbar is unclamped (not clamped) which if it is going to pick up a tool would be the correct state so it doesn't sound like you should actually be getting this alarm. You didn't make it clear whether the carousel indexed to station 2 before moving to the spindle, or if the spindle was above the tool changer or at the tool change height. If above, it means it knows there is no tool in the spindle so it doesn't have to put a tool away, therefore it retracts fully to be able to pick up the new tool. The proper sequence would be:
1) Move spindle to ATC Retract position
2) Orient spindle
3) index ATC to correct pocket
4) move carousel under spindle
5) unclamp drawbar
6) lower Z-axis to tool change height
7) clamp drawbar
8) retract carousel from spindle.
9) release spindle orientation

Yours seems to be failing between 5 and 6 when the drawbar should be unclamped. This makes me think something else is causing the tool change to fail and when the tool change does not complete successfully the drawbar remains unclamped and you get an alarm. Is this the only alarm that comes up? Does it fail immediately after carousel moves to spindle or does it sit there for 1-2 seconds? Are you sure the carousel is getting all the way to the spindle and not stopping just short of the prox switch that confirms it is in position for the Z-axis to come down?