Biesse Rover suction pads suck

[majstor76]

I work in woodworking company, we produce full wood furniture and have a problem with suction pads on Biesse Rover. For example, piece that needs to be machined is door of cabinet with frame about 85 mm wide (cca 5.5 inch). I rearange the area on suction pads for vacum with rubber band but it just wont hold the piece. Machine doesnt show drop in vacum but i can lift the piece with one hand. Does anyone have experience with things like these? If the piece for machining is flat, without grooves, suction pads hold well. To me, it seems like that machine is for particle boards or panels , not the type of work we do

[ger21]

85mm = 3.5inch

Vacuum holding power is proportional to the contact area of the pod and the part. So, the smaller the part, the less holding power you'll get. You're correct that the pods are designed to hold flat panels, and from my experience do not work well with smaller hardwoods parts. We're currently building some hardwood furniture, and have made some clamping fixtures to hold the parts. The pods hold the fixtures, and the fixture holds the parts with toggle clamps. I've seen that some manufacturers offer alternative pods for different applications, including pods with clamping functions. Not sure if they are available for Biesse's, though.

Here's something I found.

http://www.allstaradhesives.com/schm...hp?m_id=Biesse

http://www.vacuumpods.com/Biesse.htm

[majstor76]

Originally Posted by ger21 85mm = 3.5inch

Why cant we all just get along and use metric?

Originally Posted by ger21 Vacuum holding power is proportional to the contact area of the pod and the part. So, the smaller the part, the less holding power you'll get. You're correct that the pods are designed to hold flat panels, and from my experience do not work well with smaller hardwoods parts. We're currently building some hardwood furniture, and have made some clamping fixtures to hold the parts. The pods hold the fixtures, and the fixture holds the parts with toggle clamps. I've seen that some manufacturers offer alternative pods for different applications, including pods with clamping functions. Not sure if they are available for Biesse's, though.

Biesse Rover has option to turn pin stops (used for positioning od piece) into clamps but they only hold one side from outside and you cant machine that side. Also, our pieces usually dont have empty space from inside to put clamps and to machine from outside.
We have old Reihenbacher cnc with grid table and vacum holds well but have room full of fixtures to lift piece from table when machining sides. We want to avoid making that kind of fixures with Rover for every dimension we do.

Originally Posted by ger21 Here's something I found. http://www.allstaradhesives.com/schm...hp?m_id=Biesse http://www.vacuumpods.com/Biesse.htm

And this

http://www.tristatemach.com/products.../1/none/0/9/13

but all these pods cant help if the wood is not straight, theres no much surface or the vacum pump is weak. And vacum pump is producing about 60 mmHg or Torr. If the pods were designed for panels, could be that pump is also

[hummer]

Since you have piece wide 85mm there are 2/3 pods(75mm wide) and 1/3 pods (54mm wide) I don't see any reason why they can't hold the piece + they can be rotated for 15 degree for whole circle.
If piece haven't flat surface and / if is not straight there are ''unicalmps'' (made for such purpose http://www.biesse.com/prodotti/zoom....apido_zoom.jpg ) , yes the one side from which piece is hold can't be machined but you can put pause in program and rotate piece by hand and continue the program.
We sometimes work with such pieces and it seams as good and very accurate solution.

well, Biesse developed technology for such problem so called EPS. sistem can lift piece from one pair of uniclams to another while processing, and it only can be found on Rover B and C.

also you may check filter on your vacum pump and filters on pods that can be reason for less vacum on pods.

[majstor76]

Pump is working maybe 10% below capacity (if i compare readouts on machine for level of vacum and manuals of machine), so theres no problem. I think that problem is ,in part, in rest of the machines in factory which are old and cant produce straight enough parts for biesse suction pads to work. Tomorrow i will work on some doors and try to get some idea how to deal with problem.

pozdrav zemljak

[cerealkiller2]

If you have a newer Rover then you may need to pull the brass screens out of the carriage and blow them out. Dust builds up on the screen and clogs the vacuum. Like someone posted biesse has several different size pods, or you can machine your own using the machine.

[Mike McClaran]

Two inch parts and less are not a problem. Check out our videos and customer testimonials. If you don't like our products we even pay for the shipping back to us.
http://www.greenbvc.com

[majstor76]

Originally Posted by Mike McClaran Two inch parts and less are not a problem. Check out our videos and customer testimonials. If you don't like our products we even pay for the shipping back to us. http://www.greenbvc.com

Thanks, but Im not anymore on Biesse, now im in another company on Homag. Working only on panels, i dont have anymore problems with pads. Gone are the days of jumping on 2 inch nonstraight board for suction pads to work . I mustve looked like idiot on table of machine