This type of machining seems to be becoming more and more common, and we would like to jump on the wagon. Being a Brown & Sharpe screw machine shop, this is not a possibility. But with our recent purchase of a new SL-10 with Servo 300, we would like to try it.
My main question for those that do, or know someone who does "lights out" machining, where in the world do you put the parts? The pan for the parts catcher does not look big enough to be able to catch 6-8 hours of parts. Maybe an hour or 2 if the parts are small. Do you just let the parts fall in the bottom with the chips? That would seem like a long way for them to fall.
My next question has to do with tool life. From what I have found, tool life has a lot to be desired. Some "calculators" I have found estimate the life of an insert in 12L14 to be about 16 minutes. That doesn't sound right. We run some carbide and a lot of HSS in our screw machines and can run, in some cases, for 50-60 hours without having to sharpen the tooling. Is there something here I am missing? How can you run lights out with 16 minute tool life? I realize that it is 16 minutes of actual in contact with material time. But that may only allow a couple of hours worth of running, or less, depending on the situation.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Some "calculators" I have found estimate the life of an insert in 12L14 to be about 16 minutes.
I would laugh at that 16 mins in 12L14, what are they running 3,000 SFM or more? Like you I have screw machines & run 12L14 on my CNC's. & that tool life is stupid!
If your going to leave machine unattended then you need to set up toollife management on your machine where you have extra tools in your machine so after so many parts it goes and picks up a new tool, as for your parts catcher prob. well i cant answer that, i never have my machines run without some one in the shop that can at least empty the bin.
individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.
jackson,
Correct me if I am wrong, I thought "Lights Out" meant you push the start button, turn the lights off and go home. If there is someone there to tend the machine, it's not really "Lights Out" to me.
I saw some others post in another thread that they run a TL-15 in a lights out setting. I am curious what they might have to say.
ive run a hatachi cell , full loaded pallets would run 8hrs , i'd pop in a few times on the weekends to load the pallets and leave
as jackson said tool life management is necessary , the machine can be set so that if a tool breaks the program is stopped and the next pallet enters and begins machining ,
there is some good software out there , where as a guy can sit at home and monitor what the machine is doing at any given time
The haas tool management feature will use new tools after it runs X amount of parts (or uses the tool for X amount of hours). So you load all the tools you need, and tell the machine when to start useing them. A nice feature, I wish our shop could take advantage of it.Originally Posted by gizmo_454
No your right, but how you going to do that if the parts catcher gets full? i guess you could just not use it and make some sort of basket i'v done that plenty of times or you set up a shut that when the parts catcher throws the part it throws it in to a make shift shut into a tub out side the machine
individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy.
Have you looked into a parts conveyor? We are looking at a couple of production machines and that is one of the options we are looking at.
Sounds like an ugly situation. Well, I'm not looking to jump right into "lights out" just yet. The machine is still on order and will not be here until mid March. And I really want to get a good feel for the machine before I trust it enough to be able to leave the building.
As for the parts conveyor, I haven't even thought about anything like that. Sounds like it might be something good to look into in the future.
Thanks for all the input guys! I really appreciate it.
parts conveyors are a great thing but one thing a guy needs to have is a parts basin at the end of the conveyor that is filled with water so the parts don t just drop onto each other and get damaged
trust me i've been there
That sounds like a good idea! We constantly have problems with dings in threads and such with our screw machines. Water would be much easier on them than falling a foot or two to its demise.
I run lights out all the time on my Haas lathe with a barfeeder. Here are pictures of what I walked into this morning from running last night. Yes the parts catcher doesn't hold many parts. Many times parts are scattered across shop floor (see pic 1). Another problem is chip removal (see pic 2) And another problem is the birdsnests that develop around drilling tools (see pic 3). We run conservative speeds and feeds and use tool overload in control when running unattended. Also if you are buying a new lathe never get the screw auger it's worthless compared to the chip conveyer.
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