Hello Everyone,

I am trying to build a 2-axis (lathe like) servo driven machine that will roll sheetmetal onto a profiled die. I'm sure Mach can handle it, I just can't decide which parts of Mach would be best for each part of the problem.

Picture a length of gear rack (with very large coarse teeth) lying on its side with the teeth toward you. The 2-axis machine has a roller on its nose and this roller travels sideways across the face of the rack, up and down through the teeth, to digitize the profile. Force control is needed here to avoid damaging the roller or the rack. The motion control is via joystick at this point. The actual profile isn't a rack, it's free form, but I thought it would be easier to describe this way.

Next an offset is needed from the digitized profile which is set up as a "no go" zone in the program.

A sheetmetal strip is then clamped across the face of the rack and the 2-axis machine rolls back and forth across the sandwich,  progressively rolling the sheetmetal onto the racks teeth. The "no go" zone is used to ensure the sheetmetal doesn't get thinned out by the roller getting too close to the rack.

I am hoping someone might have a suggestion on how to construct a routine for digitizing the rack and then applying an offset which would somehow be used by the g-code. The entire process can be done with the joystick and recorded for replay, but there needs to be an offset to preserve the metal thickness.

I'm not sure where to even start on this one. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Davey Boy.