Fanuc 18i-M & Siemens 840D

[Mjölnir]

Is anybody doing 3D work with a Fanuc 18i-M or Siemens 840D control on a Fadal, and have an opinion either good, bad, or indifferent about them?

 

TIA

[crazy^millman]

I have heard nothing but horry stories about the Siemens control on a Fadal. If I were going to get any machine and had my choice between control it would be the Fanuc, I would also get the ethernet option, dataserver, HPCC, helical interploation(though I think it is standard now a days) Expaned work offsets, and expaned tooloffsets. I would then get me a PCI adapter and a 2 gig compact flash card and you can do anything and everything you want from there. Now for the machine I might look to a Kitmura, Mori, Makino, or something like that if wanting to do high quality 3d work. If you want something cheap that will get-er-done then go with the Fadal but if you are expecting or know of the above metioned machines and expect that out of the Fadal then you will not get it unless you back everything way down. That might be different with the Fanuc control but I would look to someone else who only use Fanuc for their machine and not soemone who uses them becuase they know their own control lacks.

 

HTH

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

I've used just about every option on a Fanuc 16/18i Series control and IMHO, Fanuc is far superior to any of the other controls. The code is straightforward, posts are simple enough to implement advanced features of the control. If you're looking to do some High End mold work, I believe the Fanuc with a Dataserver/Flash Card and HPCC will serv you nicely. Now the Fadal Iron... I'm not sold on Fadal Iron. Definitely hate their controls, but the iron... I'm not sure about. As I've stated many times before, I'd take a used Mori, Kitamura, Makino, or Yasda over a brand new Fadal any day of the week. With their proven reliability over DECADES you can't go wrong. I've personally run a Kitamura that was built in 1989 and held ±.0008 on it. I'd almost bet money there's not a Fadal out there that old that can boast that, oh, and it cannot have been rebuild either. This Kitamura has never been rebuilt. Routine maintenance is it. I know of guys running Mori lathes that are from the mid 80's still holding ±.0005 on them.

 

HTH

[Mjölnir]

I've got many thousands of hours of experiance programming and running Roku-Roku high speed mills (edm electrodes, hard milling, etc) with Fanuc 16i-M controls, and am familiar with all the various Fanuc options available. We aren't going to be buying another +1/4 million dollar mill any time in the near future but are looking to add another Fadal to the existing six we already have. And, no, nobody at the shop is expecting a Fadal to compete with the high performance mills (Roeders, Klink, Mikron, Makino, Roku-Roku, et al) despite what some Fadal salespeople have to say.

 

What I'm looking for specificaly is opinions on Fanuc 18i-M vs Siemens 840D controls preferably from somebody who has experience with both, and better yet if they're on Fadal's. Personaly I'm leaning towards Fanuc as I always have, but I've heard good and bad things about the Siemens and wish to investigate them further.

[Surface]

I have a 4020 with the Fanuc 18i control. I've been pretty happy with it, but without experience, I cannot offer a comparison to the Siemens 840D.

An important consideration with this machine is the the control itself is not stand-alone. The boards and motors on this machine are also GE.

[Mjölnir]

quote:

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I have a 4020 with the Fanuc 18i control.

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Have any options on it? Fadal is offering what they call "Mold 3" which is nano contour conrol, and "Mold 5" which has lots of goodies such as a RISC processor, HPCC, 3D cutter comp and a data server. The data server is available without either option, and as far as I'm concerned it's a must have for 3D work.

 

I think both options are waste of money on a Fadal, but am open minded enough to be convinced otherwise.

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

You NEED Mold 3 MINIMUM. HPCC will give you a pretty good performance boost over AI-NANO. AI-NANO is no slouch performance-wise.

[crazy^millman]

I would agree with James HPCC is the only way to go with a Fanuc for 3d work. I have done molds using the Card and had no problems as well if the cost of the Dataserver is a problem from atleast getting the HPCC.

 

Good luck and think you know the path you are hading in.

[KLR]

Hey Bob,

 

Siemens 840D is awesome but you really need to spend TIME with it to use it proficiently and understand what the control can do for you. On the other hand, your Fanuc 18i will be much better for you if you are running production with your FADAL because you can toggle around quicker and program faster on this control. But if you want to get into the hi-tech field of a siemens control good luck to you!

[Lynda]

Hi Bob Heininger....Lynda from OptiPro....

 

I haven't heard from you in a while - where are you working? Call me a call and I can let you know some of the options we offer our customers on active Mastercam maintenance...

[Ed@Elite]

We have 6 Fadal's with the Siemens 840D controllers. We run our Fadal's pretty hard. We have a lot of problems with them, but for the most part they are Fadal related problems, not Siemens problems. The new Fadals with the Siemens controller have a Siemens Spindle Drive, where the ones we have have a Fadal Spindle Drive. This is where we have most of our problems, with encoders and such. I love the Siemens control, its really easy to use once you get the hang of it. Going from a standard Fadal 88HS controller to the Siemens increased our speed about 400-500%.

 

We also just got a Makino S56 with a Fanuc 18i(Pro3) control, and I like this control alot also.

 

Its really not fair for me to compare the controllers because they are on 2 different machines. Just remember a Fadal is a Fadal no matter what controller is on it. Meaning I am sure the Fanuc 18i and the Siemens 840D will offer similar performance on the Fadal. It boils down to which controller has the most options for your application.