[Green0]

I realized my Hurco VM10U was taking 11 seconds chip to chip on tool changes. There is a macro it appears that drives the machine to Z home, then moves the Z down .747" to change the tool, then up to Z home, then down to the work. That is costing probably 1 second verses just going to G53 Z-.747 from machine home, and then down again after the change.

Then the larger problem- when a G54 move to Z clearance is read with the S command and M3, the machine moves to Z clearance, and then starts the spindle. So that costs about 1.5 seconds going home and getting to work (~3 seconds) These times are per tool change so we're talking about time that compounds and is wasted.

Is this a parameter edit or is that an unsolvable problem? Some people are saying the Hurco's handle motion and code differently in conversational and NC code. Like they are not capable of working optimally with NC code.

[Green0]

If I command the spindle before the Z rapid to clearance, it won't start until after the move to clearance. If I feed to clearance, it still won't turn on the spindle. The machine just does what it wants to do. It's totally unlike a fanuc machine- in a fanuc machine, if I tell it to start a spindle, it starts. If I tell it to rapid or feed while starting a spindle, it will do that.

[Green0]

I put the code up top above the G68 line today and it turned on ahead of the transform planes, but that it wanted to execute fully before anything else, so it sat there and spun to 9000 RPM and didn't move, so it saved no time. I've moved the S9000 M03 line about 6-7 places (on the Z clearance move line, above the Z clearance move line, 2 lines above the Z clearance line, After the Z clearance line, (whatever combination I could think of) and all of them waited till Z clearance before starting except the one above the G68, and it achieves nothing strategic, because it still wastes all the potential for overlapping time by finally just turning on, and confirming at 9000 before reading the G68, and then beginning to move.

Hurco guys are saying it's a post problem but unless there is a magic different code for turning the spindle on I don't see it. I think the machine is incapable of doing this the way it is set up inside.

We wasted a few hours with the attempts.

[Green0]

We talked to Hurco's various application people at IMTS- They told us that Hurco's current logic for the VM series doesn't allow the spindle to turn on during a positional move (rapid or feed). They also told us that logic does not allow more than one M-Code to be read on a line. So those time savers are currently not available. We also inquired about 3+2 5 axis positioning and whether having both brakes wired to one m-code would permit time savings by overlapping dwells, and that would cause a error because the logic would see a brake sensor clamped unclamped when its M-code was not unclamped.