Tool library

[mekron]

My job is looking to revise our tool library to avoid overlapping tool #'s between operations & multiple jobs that may be being ran on the same machine. for example we had a repeat job that had 3 different operations on 3 different machines that was reduced down to 3 operations on 1 machine but some of the stock preparation and roughing shared the same tool #'s as the finishing operation which was undesirable and time consuming to fix. Any ideas of a good tool library setup would be nice.

[JayM]

I don't think this is a tool library issue.  Sounds like more preparation and planning would help resolve these issues.  Most mill programs number their tools, 1,2,3 ... in the basic order that they are used.  Some shops like to have dedicated tools. For example if you drill and tap 1/2-13 holes frequently in your shop, having a center drill, drill, chamfer and tap setup in the machine at all times would be useful.  Then you could always have these tools at a specific number say 10, 11, 12 and 13 respectively.  The issue is the variety of tools that can be required on a mill from job to job.  Different diameters, lengths angles, etc could change the tools that you need for a part.  A typical mill may have between 15 - 30 tool stations making a dedicated tool setup in the machine impractical for most shops.  If you have big machines with 100+ tool stations then using this type of setup may be more practical, but it still requires a lot of dedication from the shop and instruction / documentation.

 

To resolve your particular situation in the future always use different tool numbers for each operation of a job.  Then the tools and programs could easily be moved from machine to machine without having to edit the program.  Of course nothing could replace planning and preparation before the program is even loaded and ran.

[Bob W.]

It depends on how your machines handle tools and tool numbers.  My Makinos all currently take 4-digit tool numbers so I have my library set up where each tool has its own tool number regardless of the program or machine.  Tool 319 is ALWAYS a 3/8" 120 degree HSS spot drill no matter what program or machine.  We will never run into a situation where one program calls it out as T319 and another calls it out as T25.  When we had a Haas in the mix it was a real pain because we couldn't implement that strategy.  IIRC it would only take tool numbers up to 200.