Vertical Turning Center - lower spindle / right ram with live tool

[Sam Roberts - 3D-Machine]

I am needing help with our new VTL. I am hoping there is someone who is familiar with this type of machine and Mastercam. I am a believer in what you see is what you get. My hope is that Mastercam can do this for Vertical turning with a Live Tools. I have great success with Mastercam turning and milling but am struggling with getting this going in a rapid manner. I am using a post supplied by In-House solutions and I hope I can get help after hours and on the weekend here. Typically I figure most of this stuff out myself but I am losing valuable machine time that I need running.

 

Thanks in advance,

Sam

 

Machine Control Features:

 

° Sinumerik operator panel front OP 012, with membrane keys

° Sinumerik PCU 50.3C 1.5 GHZ, 512 MB RAM; 24 V DC; Windows XP PRO

° (PCU 50 includes hard drive, USB ports for data transfer and backup, Ethernet.)

° Sinumerik HMI advanced software for PCU

° MCP 483C, machine control panel, w. big EMG

° Sinumerik 840D/DE NCU 572.5 (Memory: NC 3 MB, PLC 128 KB)

° Programming cycles for milling and turning

° Alarm messages with description of action.

° Transmit Function for pocket milling with C-axis.

° Mini hand held unit for Sinumerik with coiled cable 3.5 M

 

Machine Specifications:

 

° Maximum Turning Diameter and Swing 82.6”

° Chuck Diameter 63”

° Maximum Turning Height 63”

° Twenty four-position ATC

° Maximum Table Load 44,000 lbs

° Maximum Table Speed 450 RPM

° Power 80.0 HP

° Torque 22,125 lb ft

° Ram Size 10”x10”

° Maximum Cutting Force 11,240 lbs

° Number of Fixed Cross-rail Positions 6

° Cross-rail Fixed Position Pitch 7.87”

° Cross-rail Travel 49.2”

° X-axis / Z-axis Rapid Traverse 472 ipm

° X-axis / Z-axis Maximum Feed Rate 197 ipm

° Cross-rail Rapid Traverse 15.7 ipm

° Linear Axis’ Positioning Accuracy 0.0004”/40”

° Linear Axis’ Repeatability 0.0002”

° Voltage 480 volts

° Power, max 180kVA

[Mick]

I've got experience with an OM 60M VTL, with C axis (face machining only for milling). I customised a post to suit this, and used it right through to X6. What sort of questions do you have?

[Sam Roberts - 3D-Machine]

First: Backplot looks great. When I go to varify my tool gets reversed and kills the part.

 

Second: when using stock to face it starts from the wrong side. I always have to use points.

 

Third: X+ comes out X- and C-axis drill points are right. When I switch the post to reverse the sign then my drill points become negative.

 

I have tried putting the geometry 180 degrees apart and I still see the same problems.

 

Not sure if there is a bug in verify. I have seen it work during trial and error but actual code from the post seems to be the same problem regardless. Also when changing things in the machine def manager it does not seem to effect the code. I know that the post can Overide this but find know where in the post to put in stroke limits of the machine. This machine will travel 100mm past center line of main spindle.

 

I have see other post with some/similar issues but I still have no resolve. I sent In-House solutions a sample part and assumed they would test the post to verify when I purchased it through my Mastercam Dealer.

 

Hoping its just a simple problem but have not seen a lot of users that program this kind of machine. I like to see it in Mastercam as I do the machine.

 

Thanks,

Sam

[#Rekd™]

Our lathe ( Standard 2 Axis with live tooling C axis) has a Siemens control and the In-House post needed a lot of modifications to work, The modifications were done while the Applications engineer was here to check the code.

 

Is your post putting out .MPF for the final code?

[Sam Roberts - 3D-Machine]

Yes it is putting out .mpf on the file name extension.

 

 

;********* TOOL LIST *********

;POST DEV - IN-HOUSE SOLUTIONS INC.

;TOOL - 12 OFFSET - 1 OD-80DEG-RH INSERT - CNMG-532 HOLDER - C6-DCLNR-45065-16

;TOOL - 13 OFFSET - 1 OD-55 DEG-RH INSERT - CNMG-532 HOLDER - C6-DCLNR-45065-16

;TOOL - 14 OFFSET - 1 HGPAD 4L-T20 INSERT - CNMG-532 HOLDER - C6-DCLNR-45065-16

;TOOL - 1 - 1-3/8" INSERT DRILL - DIA. - 0."

;TOOL - 2 - 1/8 BALL ENDMILL - OFFSET - 1 - DIA. - 0." - R0.0625"

;TOOL - 3 - 1" VARIMILL W/C - OFFSET - 1 - DIA. - 0." - R0.0200"

;TOOL - 4 - 1/2 VARIMILL - OFFSET - 1 - DIA. - 0."

;****** END OF TOOL LIST ******

;NEWLAND NVT2000

;MACHINE GROUP-1

;ROUGH FACE, LEAVES .010" STOCK

;------------------------------

;****** START OF PROGRAM ******

;------------------------------

G00G153X23.Z33.D0

STOPRE

DIAMON

G18

N12T="OD-80DEG-RH"

G54

M10

G95

M1

G97S35M04

G00X-60.Z1.

G96S550M04LIMS=100

Z.015

X-27.7

G01X-17.4175F.02

G00Z.065

X-60.

Z1.

M1

G97S35

G00G153X23.Z33.D0

M01

STOPRE

DIAMON

G18

N12T="OD-80DEG-RH"

G54

;NEWLAND NVT2000

;MACHINE GROUP-1

;ROUGH FACE AND OD

G95

M1

 

STOPRE

M11

DIAMOF

N1T="1-3/8" INSERT DRILL"

G54

;NEWLAND NVT2000

;MACHINE GROUP-1

;C-AXIS FACE DRILL 9 HOLES

G94S828M03

M22

SPOS[4]=168.75

G00X12.5Z1.M08

G17

G81Z-2.25-.15F5.M21

SPOS[4]=191.25-.15

SPOS[4]=258.75-.15

SPOS[4]=281.25-.15

SPOS[4]=348.75-.15

SPOS[4]=11.25-.15

X12.25SPOS[4]=45.-.15

X12.5SPOS[4]=78.75-.15

SPOS[4]=101.25-.15

M09

M22

DIAMON

G00G153X0.Z0.D0

M05

M01

[Mgrenier]

Try playing with this section in you post. That is what we did to have it posted properly. Our post is a derivative from mplmaster from this site.

 

#Machining position turret/spindle settings
# Switch strings based on turret position top/bottom-left/right and cut type.
# Turret position is based on the Mastercam settings (see lathtype).
# Strings are re-assigned for output in the routine psw_str_mult.
# The string variable sw_string holds the place position value to determine
# how to assign the strings.  Planes are relative to the view from Mastercam.
# Assign the 17 digit string following the alpha columns below:
# A - C axis, 1 = axis winds, 2 = axis signed, 3 = indexer
# B - Spindle direction, 0 = normal, 1 = reverse
# C - Plane 0 arc/comp, 0 = normal, 1 = switch
# D - Plane 1 arc/comp, 0 = normal, 1 = switch
# E - Plane 2 arc/comp, 0 = normal, 1 = switch
# F - Plane 0, 0 = G17, 1 = G19, 2 = G18
# G - Plane 1, 0 = G17, 1 = G19, 2 = G18
# H - Plane 2, 0 = G17, 1 = G19, 2 = G18
# Decimal (required)
# I - Plane 0, X axis, 0 = normal, 1 = switch sign from basic
# J - Plane 0, Y axis, 0 = normal, 1 = switch sign from basic
# K - Plane 0, Z axis, 0 = normal, 1 = switch sign from basic
# L - Plane 1, X axis, 0 = normal, 1 = switch sign from basic
# M - Plane 1, Y axis, 0 = normal, 1 = switch sign from basic
# N - Plane 1, Z axis, 0 = normal, 1 = switch sign from basic
# O - Plane 2, X axis, 0 = normal, 1 = switch sign from basic
# P - Plane 2, Y axis, 0 = normal, 1 = switch sign from basic
# Q - Plane 2, Z axis, 0 = normal, 1 = switch sign from basic
use_only_tl : 0	 #Use only Top turret/Left spindle settings (below) for
			    #all Mastercam turret/spindle selections
			    #When configuring for multi-spindle/turret set to 0
#Columns-	   ABCDEFGH.IJKLMNOPQ   #Turret/Spindle		   #Path Type
scase_tl_c1  : "10000222.100100100"  #Top turret/Left spindle, Turning cut
scase_tl_c2  : "10000012.000000000"  #Top turret/Left spindle, Right Face cut
scase_tl_c_2 : "10110012.000000000"  #Top turret/Left spindle, Left Face cut
scase_tl_c3  : "10010102.000000000"  #Top turret/Left spindle, Cross cut (cuttype = 3)
scase_tl_c3r : "10001102.000000000"  #Top turret/Left spindle, Reverse Cross cut (cuttype = -3)
scase_tl_c4c : "10000222.000000000"  #Top turret/Left spindle, Y axis subs. Cycle
scase_tl_c4  : "10000122.000000000"  #Top turret/Left spindle, Y axis subs.
scase_tl_c5  : "10000222.000000000"  #Top turret/Left spindle, Multisurf Rotary
#Columns-	   ABCDEFGH.IJKLMNOPQ
scase_bl_c1  : "10000222.100100100"  #Bottom turret/Left spindle, Turning cut
scase_bl_c2  : "10000222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Left spindle, Right Face cut
scase_bl_c_2 : "10110222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Left spindle, Left Face cut
scase_bl_c3  : "10010222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Left spindle, Cross cut (cuttype = 3)
scase_bl_c3r : "10010222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Left spindle, Reverse Cross cut (cuttype = -3)
scase_bl_c4c : "10000222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Left spindle, Y axis subs. Cycle
scase_bl_c4  : "10000222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Left spindle, Y axis subs.
scase_bl_c5  : "10000222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Left spindle, Multisurf Rotary
#Columns-	   ABCDEFGH.IJKLMNOPQ
scase_tr_c1  : "10000222.000000000"  #Top turret/Right spindle, Turning cut
scase_tr_c2  : "10000012.000000000"  #Top turret/Right spindle, Right Face cut
scase_tr_c_2 : "10110012.000000000"  #Top turret/Right spindle, Left Face cut
scase_tr_c3  : "10010102.000000000"  #Top turret/Right spindle, Cross cut (cuttype = 3)
scase_tr_c3r : "10001102.000000000"  #Top turret/Right spindle, Reverse Cross cut (cuttype = -3)
scase_tr_c4c : "10000222.000000000"  #Top turret/Right spindle, Y axis subs. Cycle
scase_tr_c4  : "10000222.000000000"  #Top turret/Right spindle, Y axis subs.
scase_tr_c5  : "10000222.000000000"  #Top turret/Right spindle, Multisurf Rotary
#Columns-	   ABCDEFGH.IJKLMNOPQ
scase_br_c1  : "10000222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Right spindle, Turning cut
scase_br_c2  : "10000222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Right spindle, Right Face cut
scase_br_c_2 : "10110222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Right spindle, Left Face cut
scase_br_c3  : "10010222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Right spindle, Cross cut (cuttype = 3)
scase_br_c3r : "10010222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Right spindle, Reverse Cross cut (cuttype = -3)
scase_br_c4c : "10000222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Right spindle, Y axis subs. Cycle
scase_br_c4  : "10000222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Right spindle, Y axis subs.
scase_br_c5  : "10000222.000000000"  #Bottom turret/Right spindle, Multisurf Rotary

[Sam Roberts - 3D-Machine]

Martin,

 

This may have resolved the X- problem. Thanks for your help.

I am still awaiting In-House solutions about some of the other issues in the post and in verify.

 

Thank you,

Sam

[The_kid]

hey sam I ran a viper VTL with live tooling had many of the same problems you are talking about. I don't know anything about post devlopment but the guy we had work on it got rid off nearly all the problems. I might be able to help you out by sending you what I got... send me a message if you are interested.

[Sam Roberts - 3D-Machine]

I have done a lot of post editing and have fixed a lot of problems. I'm now trying to figure out how the Siemens 840D expects the C-axis output. For drilling it takes A moves (angular positions). So far I have not been able to get the correct code to the machine. I am going to get in touch with the machine seller tomorrow to get more information. The main spindle is S1 ( 63" chuck) and S2 is the CAT 50 live tool.

I have several other things to figure out that the person training was not sure of.

 

Any examples of code from a Siemens control doing a milling operation or drilling would be greatly appreciated.

[The_kid]

sorry just fanuc.

[#Rekd™]

Sam,

 

Contact Jeremy at http://www.dbssolutionsllc.com/

[#Rekd™]

Here is some more information.

 

http://www.m3.tuc.gr/EQUIPMENT/DMU50eco/Sinumerik%20810d/Short_Guide_Programming.pdf