Hello,

I've been wandering if anyone have or heard of an Mill Insert Dispensing Machine where on the interface, you type the # of the location of the desired insert, employe #, job # and quantity ?? I'm looking for Ideas to get going.

I already thought of welding 3/4 sc40 Aluminum tubes onto a plate, and have some type of selenoid opening and closing the gate dispenser. All I need now is to know what type of interface to use....

Any one got an idea ??

I've heard of suppliers offering this service...putting everything from tool cribs (consumables) into vending machines and then they send a person in to restock when the machine sends an email that quantities are getting low.
What if you bought an older vending machine and mod it? You could use a touch screen or card swipe to interface and drive any solenoids from a plc?

Do you have an idea of where I can get my hands on such a vending machine controller ?

Do you have an idea of where I can get my hands on such a vending machine controller ?

Are you trying to buy a solution or design a solution??

http://autocrib.com/

Are you trying to buy a solution or design a solution??

I'm trying to design a solution, but it also means that I have to start with something....

Hi guys,

I am new to this forum and want to say hello! We are looking for some type of dispensing solution for one of our warehouses and have narrowed it down to a short list of vendors. Am under a time crunch, so don't really have time to talk to all of them in person. Does anyone have any information - good and bad on the following?

1) AutoCrib
2) CribMaster
3) SupplyPro
4) SupplyPoint
5) DispenseSource
6) IVM

They all pretty much look the same, so I was wondering if anyone had any stories to share regarding product reliability, performance, support & service, etc.

Thanks in advance to all! Cheers!

Frank.

Does anyone have an idea of the approximate costs for systems already made? I understand that Kennametal sells one also - Tool Boss I think it is. Anyone familiar with it? Approximate costs of them?

I had worked for a company for several years that used the AutoCrib system; we got the machines free as long as we purchased a certain dollar amount of tooling from the supplier every month. I can't remember the target price, but we did well over that amount of business with them anyway, so the units were free.
The other brands all appear to be about the same concept, so it will come down to support from your supplier. Ours were networked, and the supplier would check inventory remotely in the machines daily, and would restock them for us. (with a guaranteed 'zero-outages' policy!)
They also did nice things for us, like blister-packing milling inserts in sets of four or five or whatever amount the cutter held, and every 5 packs had a new set of screws, a new allen wrench, and a tube of anti-seize.
The software setup allowed us to use our existing bar-coding to track tooling usage by part number, operation, operator, shift, etc.
We could also limit the number of tools that could be issued to a part or job or operator; the whole thing had a 'supervisor' option that would allow certain people free access to everything, and it also came with a key in a glass tube (in case of emergency, break glass) just to prevent shutting the plant down in case of mechanical problems or whatever else might come up.
They also offered a service (which we never used) in which they would blister-pack all of the inserts needed for a specific sequence on a specific job... good for a shop with a low quantity of parts.
Good system, especially because the supplier was willing to make it work.