O/T Hydraulic Pressure Monitor

[mark l]

We have the same problem I'm sure most shops with Hydraulic machining fixtures have-operators sending pallets into machines without having them clamped, and every now and then loosing pressure during the cylce. Which brings me to my question-has anyone ever seen any type of a wireless pressure transducer that you could put on the fixture and then have the receiver wired into the PLC on the machine that would send an alarm if the pressure dropped?

 

Thanks for any input

[robk]

That would be a good idea. More than once our parts have fallen off the tombstone.. Pretty noisy. Lights out production would at least let me sleep at nights.

[McRae]

This is a good idea and I would suggest to call enerpack and they may have something already.

[TODD_P]

we interface a pressure switch to the feed hold on the machine so if pressure is lost machine will go into feed hold mode.

[McRae]

what is the make and model of the transducer that sends the signal? Feed Hold - Great Idea.

[mark l]

Just a regular old pressure transducer would work on a 3 axis single pallet machine, but with a rotary table and a automatic pallet changer you almost have to have wireless. I did run onto a company that would install a rotary arm on our machines so we could have live hydraulics during machining but at a price tag of around $16,000.00 a machine it has been a little hard to justify

[mark l]

Just to update anyone interested, I found a Machine Supply Co. that says they can do it via a radio remote control transmitter, receiver and pressure switches. They say they've never used it on machine tools so were going to try and see, the only thing that has me worried is integrating it to the machine control but those PLC programmers do things that make my head spin.

[McRae]

quote:

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via a radio remote control transmitter,

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This is better than the Infra Red solution as the RF isn't line of sight and the flying chips and coolant shouldn't be a problem. We use an IR Spindle probe sensor on the Integrex and I have only had a minor problem when trying to get close to the chuck and close to zero. This blocks the recieving units and so the probe signal doesn't reach the machine. An RF Device would be better but there are cost concerns.

[mark l]

The cost is actually not that bad (around $1000)

when you consider our special made boring quills cost around $500.00 not to mention the loose part usually rips a work support off the fixture.

 

Still my biggest concern is integratting it becouse there price did not include them coming in and doing that.