[gunda]

Hi guys,

I am in an urgent need for a good post for a simple horizontal Okuma MB series. If anyone has and is willing to share I'd gladly share something in exchange.

Cheers

[gunda]

Luckily I did find a good post to use.
Can you guys share how you approach the fixture offset tracking (for Okuma) or in general the zero shifting for multiple parts and multiple sides?

[deadlykitten]

hy gunda, i have no experience with esprit, nor any cam, but about offset tracking, i know that there exist this approaches :
... generating all code from the cam, thus without using the macro
... using the macro in mdi in order to initialize the wcs, then selecting and executing the program
... so far i have never heard of someone that uses a cam to output a file that contains a CALL statement to that macro ( but this does not mean that is not possible )

when i was dealing with multiple fixtures on a vmc, i was using g-code to switch between active wcs; also, in md1 folder, i have had a file with wcs coordinates for each fixture

for example, check this pseudo-code :
- initialize wcs 1
- run main program
- initialize wcs 2
- run main program
... and so on

during loong setups, i was using a different approach, like this :
- call tool 1, wcs1, cut, wcs2, cut, wcs3, cut
- call tool 2, wcs1, cut, wcs2, cut, wcs3, cut
... and so on, thus i was reducing the tool-changes to a minimal; this also proved to help with restarting and supervising

kindly

[gunda]

Thanks for the ideas Deadlykitten, I think all of them are very well applicable.
When speaking about looking for the same solution yesterday I thought it would be a good idea to have the whole program generated with tool shifts and rotations referenced from the rotation center of the table. In Okuma this happens with OO88 and in cases some fine adjustments of the coordinate systems need to be performed the skip block function can be used so that /OO88 doesn't overwrite the values each time the program is run.
This is probably the easiest and straightforward way to edit the code from the CAM system

[deadlykitten]

I think all of them are very well applicable.

hey gunda, thx 4 your reply ... what can be done even futher, when using multiple fixtures inside the cabinet, in order to machine 2-3-4-or_more parts at once, is to use a software application that helps to manage fast the wcs of each fixture, operation order and restart cases; it can be implement in okumas, because they are running on windows, and can drastically reduce setup&auxialary times, thus keeping the spindle running

When speaking about looking for the same solution yesterday I thought it would be a good idea to have the whole program generated with tool shifts and rotations referenced from the rotation center of the table.

[ hmc with b axis ] = [ vmc with 4th axis ] = [ miling on an y lathe ]

motions are similar for all those machines ... so yes, is good to have the program generated with all rotations inside it

this requires a versatile cam ... it should be possible

In Okuma this happens with OO88

oo88 was developed to manage such cases, even for cnc's that are more complicated than mb-5000, thus oo88 can handle rotations among 2 or 3 axis

but, this does not mean that oo88 is the only way to implement this behaviour, especially on an okuma machine, that can do many tricks

skip block function can be used so that /OO88 doesn't overwrite the values each time the program is run

when i was using multiple wcs inside the program, i was not using "/" ... i was simply changing the wcs's from code, and machine was stable during restarts

however, the code was a bit tricky ... perhaps, similar tricks like when using /oo88 ... this is why i started to use the software application that was managing the wcs and operation flow, reducing time with restart sequences, thus helping to identify pretty fast the location where a program needed to be restarted; mass production / kindly

[gunda]

Hey deadlykitten, sorry for the delayed reply. I read your post on time but couldn't reply any sooner.
What app do you use to manage the tool offsets for Okuma. I checked their website and didn't find one responsible for this unfortunately.
Talking about OO88 - I think using skip function is very handy because once the program is read and all WCS are written in the control according to the calculations done in OO88. After that you can modify each zero point by simply adding a value in the WCS page on the control