Tool Management Overview (0:00-0:30)
0:00-0:32: “Hey, hey, welcome to another training video. Today we’re gonna talk once again about tool management, however, this time it’s specifically for the auto tool Change spindles. We’re gonna talk about two things. One, how to put the tool away and two, how to pick up a cutter. We’re gonna show you how to use both of these operations in order to automatically exchange cutters when needed. Now, in a previous video we showed how to manually switch out the cutters for an auto tool change spindle. Um, at any time we just simply bring the spindle to us”
Verifying Tool Clip and Putting Tool Away (0:30-1:30)
0:29-1:30: “Um, at any time we just simply bring the spindle to us and we can bring and we can release and clamp the tool. However, now we want it to do it automatically. So let’s show you how we can control that right here in the display. So here in the controller under the tool display screen. And that’s the same on all three workstations. Um, we’re gonna find a couple of other controls that we’re gonna be using here in today’s video. And last video we showed how to use these three for manual tool change. Up here though, we’re gonna show you how to use the put tool away and pick up a tool for auto tool change sequences. Now the first thing we need to actually understand is the tool number. ’cause this tool number represents where it’s going to go drop off the cutter in our tool rack. So this is tool number four. That means that we need to verify that tool number four is empty in our tool rack. ’cause if there is a cutter in there and we say go put the tool away, it’s going to have a physical crash which can cause some problems. So verify that that tool position, that tool clip is empty and doesn’t have a cutter in it.”
Tool Status and Picking Up a Tool (1:30-3:00)
1:29-1:41: “and doesn’t have a cutter in it. If you’re gonna be dropping off a cutter that’s, that is in the spindle at that location. Now that we’ve verified that tool clip number four is clear, we can put the tool away by pressing this button.”
1:58-3:00: “So after it has put the tool away, we can see that the tool number here in the tool in spindle field is zero. That’s because there’s a sensor in the spindle. When there is no tool holder actually in the spindle, this will automatically be assigned to tool zero. Now to pick up a tool, we have this other field. We have a tool number that we want to go retrieve. So if we have a pickup tool command, we need to change this number and we do so by clicking on the number. And here we have, again, tools one through seven are the automatic tool positions, not 71, but tool clear seven or tool one and so forth. Um, I need to pick up a tool that doesn’t have an empty tool clip. So if I look at my tool positions, I have an empty tool clip in tool number one, but tools 2, 3, 4, and five. Um, I can go pick up and I have an empty clip in six and seven.”
Combining Actions for Efficiency (3:00-4:10)
2:58-3:08: “and I have an empty clip in six and seven. So I’m gonna say go pick up tool number three and enter. So now that we’ve populated tool number three, we can say pick up tool.”
3:20-4:10: “So far you’ve seen two separate processes. The put tool away and pick up cutter. But we can combine those into one action to where it’s gonna put the tool that’s in the spindle away first and then pick up the tool number all in one sequence. This time, instead of separating the actions of put tool away and pick up tool, we’re gonna combine them into one. Now that requires that we manage our tool numbers correctly before we do this command. For example, the tool in the spindle is tool number three. And that’s fine because that has an empty tool position, so that’s gonna put it away correctly. However, when we say pick up tool, we need to change the tool number that we want to go retrieve after it has put tool number three away. So if we click on this number, we can change this.”
Handling Pickup Failures (4:10-6:00)
4:07-4:25: “So if we click on this number, we can change this. Let’s say for tool number two, ’cause we have a tool in tool clip position number two and enter. Now when we say pick up tool, it’s first going to put the tool away in tool number three and then retrieve tool number two afterwards.”
4:45-6:01: “And there you have it an easy way to perform an auto tool change sequence to exchange your cutters to have whatever tool number you want to put into the spindle. You just need to pay attention really to one thing. And that is whatever tool number is in the spindle. Make sure the tool clip position is empty before putting the tool away, uh, because you don’t want to have a physical tool crashing against another physical tool. Okay? So that’s why, that’s why we verify and check that. Now the other thing that you probably want to be aware of is if you were to give it a, a command to go pick up a tool that doesn’t have a cutter in the tool clip, it doesn’t damage anything ’cause there’s nothing there to crash. Um, it’s just that the machine will try a few times to pick up and then it will simply shut off and you will have to turn the machine off and then on again to reboot the system after it has done that miss tool change sequence. Let me show you, um, what happens when you do that. So this time we’re going to have it, uh, put the tool away in tool position number two because that’s what is already empty in our tool clip. So that will work out great. However, I’m gonna change the tool that it’s gonna pick up”
Conclusion and Q&A Resources (6:00-7:00)
5:58-6:15: “However, I’m gonna change the tool that it’s gonna pick up to be number one because that one is empty. To demonstrate what we were just talking about is if it, if it tries to pick up a tool that simply isn’t there, let’s see what happens. So proceed”
6:36-7:01: “After the attempt of trying to pick up a tool that isn’t there. It brought up the popup and I’m simply going to end the operation. Now the problem that this creates is that here in the tool number, it still thinks it has a tool in the spindle when physically it doesn’t. And so it’s stuck in this loop. And so we have to power off the machine and power it back on to reset what it should be doing,”
