[pmit]

Does anyone have experiance using tool life managment on a Fanuc 21-MB.
This is on a CellCon horizontal mill module. The examples in the manual make no sense. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

pmit.

[Bluesman]

Does anyone have experiance using tool life managment on a Fanuc 21-MB.
This is on a CellCon horizontal mill module. The examples in the manual make no sense. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

pmit.

I am with you man, FANUC tool life management is NUTS. Probobly the only thing on a Fanuc I can never figure out. I got a 15MB and I am trying to do the same right now and I cant understand squat about all this tool group crap. And it looks like all it can do is set up spare tools, What if all I want is a 5 cycle warning on TL about to exspire so I can change a tool with out stopping the process. Halps us out here guys please

Bluesman

[pmit]

Bluesman,

Thanks for your input. I am only trying to setup spare tools. I am running into problems with tool length offsets not changing with the tools and the control not counting cycles. Anyone who has any experiance good or bad I would like to hear it.

Thanks

pimt

[theemudracer]

this is a tool life prg. that we use to load the data on our 18-i lathe. There are lots of other parameters that have to be set correctly to get this to work.

We actually had to have a fanuc service guy come out and help us. He worked on it for 2.5 days and still did not figure it out with new firmware installed,even his boss in chicago could not figure it out.

It came down to the format in the prg. how we were trying to start counting tool life and figured it out 2 weeks after he left.

To top it off they said they had never had a customer that wanted to use tool life on a lathe in Minutes of use.

I can get you guys my parameters if you guys want them.

The P# is the Group #
The L # is the minutes of use or number of times the tool is to be used.
The Q designates how you want to count tool life. Minutes of use or Count
I maybe wrong but I think Q1 is count and
Q2 is minutes of use.


O9997(TOOL LIFE)
G10L3
P1L25Q2
T0101
P2L200Q2
T0202
P3L100
T0303
P4L100
T0404
P5L30Q2
T0505
P6L20Q2
T0606
P7L30Q2
T0707
P8L100
T0808
P9L20Q2
T0909
P10L100
T1010
P20L10Q2
T1020
P11L40Q2
T1111
P21L10Q2
T1121
P12L20Q2(L20 ON 2.00 CHROME)(L30 ON 1.25 COLD ROLL)(L15 ON 1.25 CHROME)
T1212
G11
M30


This is a prg that we use tool life on.

It has to have a M code that you specify in a parameter or the machine tool builder does. Ours is M32. When you call a tool that you want to count the life of it you call it like T1299 instead of the usual T1212.


O5006(470-25006)
/2M98P9999
#500=[7.44+.145]
#501=1.25(O.D. OF PART)
#502=[#501+.1]
#503=-[23.4684-#500+6.44]
#504=-[23.4684+[#503-.145]]
G10L2P01X0.Z-23.4684B0.
G10L2P02X0.Z#504
G11
M118M32
G40G28U0
G99G28B0

(CHAMFER MACRO)
G54
G65P9007A800.M1S0D1.25C.0625R.04F.01

G54G97S1100
T1199M03 Tool life count starts here for this tool. When you call another tool it stops counting for this tool. Now it only counts when the machine is in G01 mode. The counter is internal and not able to be seen untill it reaches at least 1 full min.
M08
(GROOVE MAC)
G65P9008C0T.0405W.058Z-.25R1.175H.05B1.25F.006
M05
M09
G28U0.


(5/16 DRILL)
T0299
G54
M43
G0C0.
G97M13S4000
G65P9004A0.B1.C83.D-.85F20.X.0Z.1

(3/8 TAP)
G54
T0909
M43
G0C0.
G65P9004A0.B1.C84.D-.625F.0625S1400.X.0Z.1

(PULL OUT&PART OFF MACRO)
G65P9010F.006

(CHAMFER MACRO)
G55
G65P9007A800.M0S1D1.25C.0625R.04F.01

(GOOVE MAC)
G55G97S1100
T1121M113
M08
G65P9008C0T.0405W.058Z.25R1.175H.05B1.25F.006
G28U0.

(5/16 DRILL)
T0404
G55
M143
G0A0.
G97M13S4000
G65P9004A0.B1.C83.D.85F20.X.0Z-.1

(TAP)
G55
T0606
M143
G0A0.
G65P9004A0.B1.C84.D.625F.0625S1400.X.0Z-.1

M115
M09
G28U0.
M178
M12
M99

[pmit]

Thanks for the info. This is the first practical application I have seen. It will take me a while to go thru this. When your tool life is expired does it automaticly switch to another tool or does it just stop you from running?

[theemudracer]

If I had mutipule tools setup and registered in the same group it would switch to the next tool in that same group number that had life,when it expires it would switch again and so on untill there is no tools left in that group that are not expired. When All the Tools are expired it will alarm out on the next M30 or M02 it hits. NOT A M99(that I use).... The machine will stop from making a new part but will not alarm out untill it gets an "external reset" and then it will alarm out and will not run untill you have cleared the counter for the expired tool and then that will clear the alarm.

There is a parameter that you can change to setup how many tool groups you want vs how many tools in each group you want. For example, 64 Groups with 4 tools in each group or like 16 groups with with 32 tools in each group.

Hope this helps

[Jarwalcot]

Have you seen this: http://www.programmingunlimited.com/fMacA.htm

[pmit]

Mudracer thanks for your help. I am looking over all of your info and it is helping. Unfortunitly the machine is now 5 hours away from me in my customers plant and I cant just walk out to the control and start trying all of these ideas.

JR thanks for the link. I have been working on writing something like this from scratch but why reinvent the wheel if it has already been done. If the Fanuc side proves to be too big of a pain I am going to use this macro and see how it works.

pmit

[Jarwalcot]

Give us an update when you find the best solution for your needs..

Good Luck,

[theemudracer]

Mudracer thanks for your help. I am looking over all of your info and it is helping. Unfortunitly the machine is now 5 hours away from me in my customers plant and I cant just walk out to the control and start trying all of these ideas.

JR thanks for the link. I have been working on writing something like this from scratch but why reinvent the wheel if it has already been done. If the Fanuc side proves to be too big of a pain I am going to use this macro and see how it works.

pmit

No problem let me know how it turns out....

[Bluesman]

If I had mutipule tools setup and registered in the same group it would switch to the next tool in that same group number that had life,when it expires it would switch again and so on untill there is no tools left in that group that are not expired. When All the Tools are expired it will alarm out on the next M30 or M02 it hits. NOT A M99(that I use).... The machine will stop from making a new part but will not alarm out untill it gets an "external reset" and then it will alarm out and will not run untill you have cleared the counter for the expired tool and then that will clear the alarm.

There is a parameter that you can change to setup how many tool groups you want vs how many tools in each group you want. For example, 64 Groups with 4 tools in each group or like 16 groups with with 32 tools in each group.

Hope this helps

What if I do not want to use spares, I just want a 5 or 10 cycle warning to come on that tells my operator to change the tool before the next few cycles. I have never been able to do this with standard Fanuc Tool Life, I always end up using system varibles because it has been alot simpler. Anyone know how to use this for just a warning for a tool chnage??

Bluesman

[theemudracer]

What if I do not want to use spares, I just want a 5 or 10 cycle warning to come on that tells my operator to change the tool before the next few cycles. I have never been able to do this with standard Fanuc Tool Life, I always end up using system varibles because it has been alot simpler. Anyone know how to use this for just a warning for a tool chnage??

Bluesman

Id say you are doing it the only way it can be done currently then. I have not seen anything about a warning before the tool expires.

[Bluesman]

Id say you are doing it the only way it can be done currently then. I have not seen anything about a warning before the tool expires.

Thats to bad, I see in the option parrameters that ther are 2 types of tool life management so maybey the answer is there.What I want is for it to function like on Makino Pro3 or a newer Kitamura.


Bluesman