Safety Zone

[Peter Bennett]

I am a new user and have many questions. I program a CMS 5 axis router for trimming plastic parts. Is there a place in mastercam to define a safety zone around a part so when I run the program the head does not run into the fixture or part when it moves between cuts? I have tried to use the safety zone in the job set up without much luck.

 

Thanks for any help

 

Pete

[Mito@DeeringBanjos]

go to the toolpaths and job setup. you can define it there.

[Mito@DeeringBanjos]

i use alot of fixters in my set ups, and i dont use the saftey zone insted i have everything madeled in MC so when i do a backplot i visualy look for any crashes. its a little more work but does the job. sorry did not read your post good enough you already used the saftey zone.

[MATT Q]

I program thermwood routers for doing 5 axis trim work and I have my post customized to insert z clearance moves in between each repostion move this works great and then I edit them at the machine for efficiency.

[Leandro]

Peter:

We use the stock definition to make sure that in all repositions the tools moves out of the piece area.

And in adition in al ptoolend we move to the top of the z travel to prevent collisions.

[Travis_Buchanan]

Peter, MatQ uses the same ideal as we do. Have your post force absolute retracts between ops (for crash saftey) and optimize your program at the machine. Be sure you have your incremental retracts set long enough to completely remove the tool from the part. Backplot to be sure. I have found this to be a safe and effective method for avoiding crashes. Then at the machine you can block out or shorten the absolute retract you don't need. Do you have an Osai control? Are you programming TCP? If so this method is a must.

[Peter Bennett]

We do have an Osai control and am programming TCP. The post that I am using does force absolute retracts between ops. I thought I could do this in mc and avoid doing the editing at the machine. It is a tedius job to edit the programs at the machine.

 

Is it normal to have to do editing at the machine?

 

Thanks for everyones input on this.

 

Pete

 

If you use the safety zone in mc do you have to center your part in the safety zone since the safety zone centers at the axis?

 

Mito

 

When you have the fixtures modeled in mc is there a way to define it in mc so the toolpath avoids it.

[Müřlıń®]

quote:

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When you have the fixtures modeled in mc is there a way to define it in mc so the toolpath avoids it.

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Yes, define them as check surfs.

[mcpgmr]

Maybe a little more work in MC but this worked for me using Caia v4 to program 5 Axis (live or Dead).

Create a point in space and call it Head safe or somthing that you recognize to be the place where you want to to your head positioning. Move the machine to the point using Toolpaths/Point and assign a work plane to the operation that matches the work plane of the op when the tool is retracting from the part. This way the head stays fixed during the move over to the point in space. Then using the same point in space create another op using Toolpaths/Point and assign the desired workplane to that op so the head will do it's positiioning at a safe point away from the work and fixture. I've used this successfuly in MC for 4 Axis work so I'm confident it will work for 5. HTH !

[Travis_Buchanan]

quote:

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Is it normal to have to do editing at the machine?

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Yes and no. On complex parts with a lot of ops and radical machining angles I prefer to be at the machine during 1st set-up. This way I can tweak the program for cycle time as well as verify that I don't crash. You will also learn a lot watching your programs run and tweaking them.

[MATT Q]

+1000 to Travis

[Müřlıń®]

quote:

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Is it normal to have to do editing at the machine?

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Depends on your work type.

 

I could not live without the capacity to edit at the machinetool.

 

 

You would not want to run the whole program just to fix a small area of the part if it were be welded in a certain area. I do lots of repair work.

 

Another instance: Some toolpaths might need you to build surfaces closing off a section of the part in order to process correctly, or give you the toolpath you need.

 

Another trick I use is build an offset surface on all the shallow ramped areas of my part so the tool will not over deflect during Finish Contour...leaving some stock for Shallow to clean up.

[Peter Bennett]

I just tried the safety zone in mc. The safety zone display showed my part was inside the safety zone. I had the retrack box checked in the parameters. When I backploted the part the tool went right through my part.

 

mcpgmr

 

I like the idea of the point in space. I am haveing trouble with having to edit the program everytime I repost the part

 

Thanks,

 

Pete

[mcpgmr]

Worked good for me. I see in MC it's quite different than Catia but the priciple is the same.With MC you are some what confined to the predifined paramter choices. Nice thing wit Catia is the NCMILL/TIP and GODELTA command. You coud make those machines stand on there heads if you wanted to.