Program rotation

[Slixmix]

We are currently running some large chambers on a Mazak 8800 horizontal cell. The program runs the first op on one side of the pallet and the second op on the other. The problem I have is I need to rotate the program on one side only 180 deg. There is only one program that runs both faces so I can't just edit one face. It is an EIA program, not Mazatrol. The program is pretty long and we don't have a source I could just flip over. We have XYZ pro 32 editor through Extreme Dnc. The reason I need to flip one side is the parts are very large and the operators use a crane to unload them and flip them over for the next op. If we flip the program they don't have to unload the part they can just rotate it around and load it on the next op. Its a safety issue the bosses want fixed. Anyone have any ideas? You're probably thinking "just re-program it"

[Mark H]

Just off the top of my head...

 

How about a G68. It rotates the program about an axis. I think Mazak calls it Three Dimensional Coordinate Conversion.

 

It goes something like this...

 

G68 XYZ(center of rotation) R(rotation angle)

(NC code...)

G69 (cancel program rotation)

 

There are other paramters, but those listed above are the basic ones. Also, this is a paid option for the Mazaks, so you might not have it.

[Slixmix]

Thanks. I'll look into that. Sounds a like a quick fix to my problem.

[Ying Jiang]

FYI,

 

If you are using Mastercam v8 or v9, you can upgrade the CIMCO Edit in Mastercam from the OEM version to Professional version which will give you many NC functions such as "Rotate", "Mirror", "Translate", "Math function", "Backplot", etc... The nice thing is that all those functions works right from the NC codes. (It can even take a Heidenhain conversational file and convert it to a ISO format.)

 

Click on the CIMCO Integration link on the bottom of this page and you can download a full 30 days demo version. Try it out and see if it does what want. You can also buy this editor as a stand alone product.