640 tool axis

Hey guys,

I'm new to this forum but not new in machining. 15 years of experience at boring mills and vmc's.

However, we recently got ourselves a new horizontal boring mill with a heidenhain 640 control. But I don't like it very much.
On our other machines we have the 530 controller and it's much easier to program. And it has to do with the following problem.

The machines has standard x y axis (left right and up down). Z axis is the column and W for the spindle. When setting a new workpiece on the machine I would normally move the column towards the table and from there on move the spindle. So drilling, boring, bore milling everything would be done with that spindle but for some reason I can't set tool lengths from the w axis. Only by using Z.
Which makes things very hard to program our OEM said to use the paraxcomp but that doesn't work very well either. When doing a bore through multiple plates each with a 200mm space between them it only does the first one correct and the second one it starts way before where it should. (using q203 = - 200 and then the cycle call)

Why can't I set tool lengths with w axis?
Is there something wrong with my kynimatics?

Thanks in advance!

Hi,

I am not sure if I understand your problem correctly- is it possible to share a sample program wherein you are facing the issue? The W axis and Z axis are parallel axis? Is the W like a quill?

You could use the following options-
1. Normally in the Heidenhain programs we have to do a "Tool Define" followed by a "Tool Call" following by tool axis. If you specify W there instead of Z, it might work out (not sure but maybe)
2. Call/write to the machine manufacturer to understand the logic of the W and Z axis and how to define the relations
3. Datum shift function- that should create the relations between the multiple points you want to carry out the boring operations at

Last option if all else fails-
4. Interchange W and Z axis in the machine parameters.

Best regards

Jaideep