[Todd Zuercher]

My question is about the possibility of adding some kind of optical registration for part positioning to some older Fanuc controlled CNC routers. We have a number of older CNC routers with various Fanuc Controls (0i and 210i) 15-20yr old machines. Our product line is changing to where we want to do some cutting out of pre printed sheet material.

What I would like is to be able to have one or two registration marks printed on the sheet at known locations relative to the printed parts to be cut out. Then have the machine find those marks and use them to set the coordinate system position and possibly rotation so that the designs printed on the sheet will align "perfectly" with the cuts the g-code program are to make. At this point I don't think that automatic scaling will be nessisary, unless we find that our substrate material is dimensionally unstable, shrinking or growing between the printing and milling process.

How I can imagine a system like this working. The G-code program would command a move to a rough position over the registration mark such that the mark would be within the field of view of the camera, then issue a command that would query the vision system for the offset position of the mark (how far away the mark is from the expected X0,Y0 postion. Then the control would use that offset to adjust the coordinate system to mill in the correct position. If rotation adjustment is needed, the g-code program would need to find two registration marks and use their relative positions to each other to adjust rotation (and possibly even scaling).

Is it feasible to add something like this to an older Fanuc control? Or would it require upgrading the whole system to a new(er) control?

What kind of potential costs would be involved? Anyone specialize in such work?

Must this be done with all Fanuc hardware? If not who makes such vision systems?

[memoryman]

Interesting. I have many questions, but my initial reaction is that it can be implemented in most controls. Cost would be a big consideration.
You can contact me directly at [email protected]

[Todd Zuercher]

What are some of your questions? (I also replied to you by email.)