Sounds SIMPLE but how would you do this???

[John Hill @ Poplar Hill Machine]

Hey Gang,

 

A little something I’d like to share…

 

I was talking with the machine tech for our new Brother VMC and he said that we could reduce our cycle times significantly if we used max feed rate moves instead rapids for any moves 1 inch or smaller. Now I know most of you are probably thinking, Duh! But! It’s *not* because the machine never reached full rapid or ramp up/down times but because it takes .15 seconds just to *process* a rapid-feed change vs .06 seconds for a feed-feed change. Doesn’t sound like a lot…until you add it all up!

 

Quick exmple…

 

I have a fixture with 10 parts on it. The parts are long rectangular tubes.

 

I want to machine the ends of the 10 parts with one op

Using straight lines just to clean.

Full depth of cut.

Keeping the tool down.

Using cutter comp.

Lead In on the FIRST part only.

Lead Out & Cutter Comp OFF on LAST part only.

Between parts, Feed at machine Max Feed Rate (Remember above!)

 

Sounds simple…

 

My first thought, create extra geo and do “Change at points” to switch between Feed & Max Feed. Had some difficulty getting the “Change at points” to work but with some help from JP@S4A, I succeeded. Then I thought unless there were something I needed to avoid with a very specific path, this was way too much work.

 

I experimented a bit and ended up using mi3 as a switch to indicate Max Feeds instead of Rapids, modified our post (modified copy of Mpmaster), and got good results. It’s not perfect, but so far I’ve knocked 7.8 minutes per fixture off!

 

I’m always open to suggestions, so if you have a better way…I’m listening!

 

I’ve uploaded an example Z2G file for anyone interested. PHM Hi-Feed Rapids

 

 

A Happy & Safe Holiday to ALL!

 

John

[Goldorak]

dynamic mill

 

keep tool down and set back feedrate at max machine feed rate. you can also set the microlift to avoid the tool to scrape the bottom of the part

 

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

I'd write a filter in the post that you can switch on and off with a misc int.

[John Hill @ Poplar Hill Machine]

Martin:

  No closed chains.

  All simple wireframe.

 

Matt:

  As I said above, this is exactly what I did.

  Copy of modified post/MD/CD in Z2G.