4551
General Mach Discussion / Re: BT30 spindle from scratch - with power drawbar and ATC of course
« on: July 22, 2013, 03:24:52 AM »
You shouldnt need custom holders as your tool arm moves out the way and the only time you would need the spindle rotating would be on loading and thus I am sure you could incorporate a wear disc/brake of sorts into the arm. You would have the spindle stopped when unloading a tool and thus no need for the brake to stop the tool spinning when released from the spindle.
The only reason the bearing and brake are needed on the Chiron is the basket tool changer setup as the arms hold the tools at all times, even when machining, and thus the bearing is needed. Add to that the fact that the whole setup of the basket toolchanger was to make super fast tool changes and have no need to actually stop the spindle then you can see why it was required to have these custom holders.
At the time (late 80's) I think most toolchangers were talking 10 plus seconds per tool, the Chiron must have been amazing at under 1 second, even 25 years later it is still amongst the fastest around. Another big benefit that was/is touted by them is if something happens to a tool arm then no big deal as you still have all the rest you can work with until time can be found to get that repaired, on a standard style changer you are stuck until you get the changer repaired or have to resort to manual tool loading. Again probably no big deal for me or your customers but in high volume production that could save a lot of money.
When I got the Chiron two of the positions were missing and the previous owner had used it that way for 8 or 10 years as the type of work he did often only required 3 or 4 tools, so that kind of shows that Chirons talk of no downtime due to a tool arm failure holds true.
Hood
The only reason the bearing and brake are needed on the Chiron is the basket tool changer setup as the arms hold the tools at all times, even when machining, and thus the bearing is needed. Add to that the fact that the whole setup of the basket toolchanger was to make super fast tool changes and have no need to actually stop the spindle then you can see why it was required to have these custom holders.
At the time (late 80's) I think most toolchangers were talking 10 plus seconds per tool, the Chiron must have been amazing at under 1 second, even 25 years later it is still amongst the fastest around. Another big benefit that was/is touted by them is if something happens to a tool arm then no big deal as you still have all the rest you can work with until time can be found to get that repaired, on a standard style changer you are stuck until you get the changer repaired or have to resort to manual tool loading. Again probably no big deal for me or your customers but in high volume production that could save a lot of money.
When I got the Chiron two of the positions were missing and the previous owner had used it that way for 8 or 10 years as the type of work he did often only required 3 or 4 tools, so that kind of shows that Chirons talk of no downtime due to a tool arm failure holds true.
Hood