citizen bar feeder issue - EX620 alarm

[doug_sinclair]

we have a functioning bar feeder sub routine that was working perfectly with solid material.

we switched to tube stock and now the machine won't eject the remnant bar.

we used the exact same coding to write the new program for the tube stock.

it works up until the point of ejecting the remnant. It grabs the bar and then releases without taking out the remnant. the alarm code is EX620

then it goes into an excessive error with (SV on) beside it.

any ideas?

Thanks!!!!!

[glenthemann]

You mean to say that it grips the bar, but the pushrod does not retract and thus does not release the bar?

as far as I can recall (without the manuals beside me) the ex620 is your excessive alarm (EX, EXcessive), and it is likely alarming out because the pushrod cannot retract itself from the material, ie. it is going over its torque limit trying to retract from the remnant and throws up your alarm.

How hard is it to manually remove the remnant (I assume youve been just manually loading bars.. we all have to make parts even if its one bar at a time :P). Id check that first, and then once youve removed the remnant check the end of it. Check your pushrod collet, it may be too small. You say you're using tube, so perhaps it is crushing and forcing its way further into the pushrod collet as it is running?

Though I do have to admit it would seem logical that if it was too hard to remove that you would get an alarm as the pushrod grabs the bar during loading.

Start with your remnant, that should give you some indication of whats going on. If I have misread what exactly what is going on, could you explain a little better? Does the pushrod retract? or does the gripper just close, and then open and then bam alarm?

When in doubt, give someone a call at citizen, theyre great about helping out with problems, and theyre great people

[doug_sinclair]

Thanks for the response.

What seems to be happening is the push rod is not returning to the home position after the bar is gripped.

The bar clmp grabs and then release without any movement from the push rod. It doesn't even try to move.

It works perfectly when using the manual "Zero Return" control form the bar feeder menu.

I'm not sure if it is a torque issue. The bar is easily remove by hand and using Zero return. I just re-loaded the solid material for another job and everything works fine.

There must be some simple peice of code that I'm missing to eject our tube stock.

Thanks.

[cogsman1]

Ex620 means it didi not get confirmation that the remnant was gripped. The feeder thinks the barend is still in the machine. The prox. switch needs to be adjusted for that size of bar.

[doug_sinclair]

Thanks, I'll change the settings nex time we run our tubes.