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Author Topic: How many people here are running mach3 on industrial machines?  (Read 6940 times)

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Offline comet

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Re: How many people here are running mach3 on industrial machines?
« Reply #10 on: February 29, 2016, 09:54:29 AM »
TBH I've been running in an industrial setting for 8 or so years now with mach, vmc with a tool changer.
Mostly large 3d programs cutting moulds.
There has only been one issue that has caused me problems which was probably mach, that was it not liking having two mpgs connected.
And that could potentially still be a hard ware issue that I haven't traced.
Every other issue has been of my own making.
   I would certainly say that if your hardware/computer is up to it then Mach is.

Tony
Re: How many people here are running mach3 on industrial machines?
« Reply #11 on: February 29, 2016, 06:04:16 PM »
TBH I've been running in an industrial setting for 8 or so years now with mach, vmc with a tool changer.
Mostly large 3d programs cutting moulds.
There has only been one issue that has caused me problems which was probably mach, that was it not liking having two mpgs connected.
And that could potentially still be a hard ware issue that I haven't traced.
Every other issue has been of my own making.
   I would certainly say that if your hardware/computer is up to it then Mach is.

Tony

Good to hear its working well for you. Have any more details on your setup? What kind of machine?

Offline comet

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Re: How many people here are running mach3 on industrial machines?
« Reply #12 on: March 01, 2016, 04:32:13 AM »
Im just using a five year old dell optiflex 32bit  desktop computer with the on board graphics switched off in bios, and a pci graphics card installed.
Its running xp pro, and outputs to a uc300 .
  What thats connected to has no bearing on Mach itself, it matters not if your connected to a machine the size of a house or a little Chinese bench top. as long as you have set it up mechanically and electronically correctly.
  I personally always use servo's on my retrofits because they are worth the extra effort 100 times over, and essential when doing the kind of work I do where I cannot afford to miss steps.
    Your best bet is to get a machine with brushed DC servos on it as this will simplify matters if you need to buy new drives.
My ATC, which is very rarely used, is one I designed myself using a swing in carousel , I modified the VB script available somewhere here to make it work, although im sure you could get something like a little "click" plc to handle that if you wanted
Hope that helps
Tony

Offline smurph

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Re: How many people here are running mach3 on industrial machines?
« Reply #13 on: March 01, 2016, 03:30:58 PM »
Matsuura MC500 with 16 pod tool changer.  Mach3/Galil driving the stock Yaskawa drives and servos.  Running 500 IMP.  It does HSM perfectly fine.  The main limitation is the spindle speed which is 5K.  Using Inventor HSM for the tool paths.  It is not a large machine, but it is certainly an industrial machine.  It never crashes.  It always does what I want it to.  Never needed Macro B and it never had it.  (Original control was YASNAC).  Mach 3 is FAR superior to the original control.  Tool changes are twice as fast!  Rapids are up from 275 IPM to 500 IPM.  

I took my time integrating Mach 3.  All of the original machine safety lockout are used and functional.  All of the macros are thoroughly debugged and working flawlessly.  This machine could be put to production use and never blink an eye.  

Converting one of these type of industrial mills can be a really good option for the hobbyist.  I have about as much in this machine as it would take to retrofit a Bridgeport.  And you get nice things like limit switches on both sides of the table (no one switch wonders here!), real home switches, and ATC.  

I think you get out of Mach 3 or Mach 4 what you put into it.

Steve
« Last Edit: March 01, 2016, 03:42:39 PM by smurph »
Re: How many people here are running mach3 on industrial machines?
« Reply #14 on: March 01, 2016, 09:37:35 PM »
Im just using a five year old dell optiflex 32bit  desktop computer with the on board graphics switched off in bios, and a pci graphics card installed.
Its running xp pro, and outputs to a uc300 .
  What thats connected to has no bearing on Mach itself, it matters not if your connected to a machine the size of a house or a little Chinese bench top. as long as you have set it up mechanically and electronically correctly.
  I personally always use servo's on my retrofits because they are worth the extra effort 100 times over, and essential when doing the kind of work I do where I cannot afford to miss steps.
    Your best bet is to get a machine with brushed DC servos on it as this will simplify matters if you need to buy new drives.
My ATC, which is very rarely used, is one I designed myself using a swing in carousel , I modified the VB script available somewhere here to make it work, although im sure you could get something like a little "click" plc to handle that if you wanted
Hope that helps
Tony

Tony, what do you reccomend for DC servo drives? Ive used geckos on smaller machines but heard they will limit performance on larger machines. I couldnt seem to find much for large DC drives? I was trying to find a machine with AC servos so it would be easier to find drives, and plus you cant beat performance.

What machine are you using?
Re: How many people here are running mach3 on industrial machines?
« Reply #15 on: March 01, 2016, 09:44:18 PM »
Matsuura MC500 with 16 pod tool changer.  Mach3/Galil driving the stock Yaskawa drives and servos.  Running 500 IMP.  It does HSM perfectly fine.  The main limitation is the spindle speed which is 5K.  Using Inventor HSM for the tool paths.  It is not a large machine, but it is certainly an industrial machine.  It never crashes.  It always does what I want it to.  Never needed Macro B and it never had it.  (Original control was YASNAC).  Mach 3 is FAR superior to the original control.  Tool changes are twice as fast!  Rapids are up from 275 IPM to 500 IPM. 

I took my time integrating Mach 3.  All of the original machine safety lockout are used and functional.  All of the macros are thoroughly debugged and working flawlessly.  This machine could be put to production use and never blink an eye. 

Converting one of these type of industrial mills can be a really good option for the hobbyist.  I have about as much in this machine as it would take to retrofit a Bridgeport.  And you get nice things like limit switches on both sides of the table (no one switch wonders here!), real home switches, and ATC. 

I think you get out of Mach 3 or Mach 4 what you put into it.

Steve

They were good old machines. We had one at school when i did my training 10 years ago, thats the first industrial machine i ever used. I had a taig at home for a few years and the matsuura seemed huge back then!

How did you get the spindle to orientate? Been thinking more about how i can control toolchanger and the rest doesnt seem to bad, i think i could handle it. But worried about orientation. Anybody else have any suggestions on how to do this?

Offline smurph

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Re: How many people here are running mach3 on industrial machines?
« Reply #16 on: March 02, 2016, 02:48:36 PM »
On the Matsuura, it is an air cylinder that engages a roller bearing into a V slot on the spindle.  The air cylinder is pressurized and the spindle is run at slow speed/low torque causing the roller bearing on the air cylinder shaft to roll on a collar.  When the V slot comes around, the roller drops into the V slot.  A limit switch detects this and shuts the spindle off.  The air cylinder is now holding the spindle in the correct orientation.  So all I did was use what the machine already had.  Another plus to converting a machine like a Matsuura, Hurco, or the like is all of this stuff is there!  Full coolant system too!  No fabrication required.  And you don't spend a year on the conversion project.  Meaning chips start flying quicker.  

I used the Galil to run the tool changer.  But Mach could have been used.  In fact, I had Mach controlling it all at one point.  But I moved it to the Galil to reduce the tool change time a bit.  The Galil can have programs running on it at the same time it controls the axes.  But any PLC could be used to work the ATC as well.  All my M6 script does is tell the Galil what tool is desired and waits for the Galil to signal when it is done.

But the BEST part about using an industrial machine is the rigidity.  You can use a 1" hog mill and remove some serious material.

The cons are it has a 10HP spindle that requires a rather large rotary phase converter if three phase is not available.  However, only the motors are 3 phase.  The drives and servos are powered from single phase.  One could replace the spindle VFD and use VFDs to run the TC, oil lube, and coolant motors and run it all on single phase.  But I had a 15HP rotary converter already.

Steve