Introduction to Tool Management (0:00-1:10)
0:00-1:10: “Hey, hey, welcome to another training video. We’re gonna cover tool management once again. Uh, this topic specifically will be how an audit tool change system reacts when we’re changing between tool numbers that fit within the rack of the machine and tool numbers that are out of the rack of the machine. So let’s go explain what I mean by in the rack of the machine, what those tool numbers represent. For an auto tool change system, you’re gonna have a tool rack here on legacy CNC systems. And here we can count them starting from left to right if you’re at the operator side. So this is tool 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and seven. So tool numbers one through seven are gonna automatically be exchanged, uh, with an auto tool change spindle. Now any tool numbers that are outside of that, for example 8, 9, 10, 11, and even 12, uh, the system can only go up to 12 tools, uh, for the Delta controller at this time. So technically from tool eight to 12 on a Maverick four by eight is considered a manual tool change number. So you’re gonna have auto tool change numbers one”
Performing Tool Changes (1:10-3:00)
1:08-2:37: “So you’re gonna have auto tool change numbers one through seven and manual tool change numbers eight through 12. Now let’s see how the machine’s going to react if we perform a tool change that switches between the tool number that’s in the auto tool change tool rack and the manual tool change numbers eight through 12. Now in this scenario I already have a tool in the spindle. It’s assigned to tool number three, so that will drop itself off in the tool rack. And I already have a cutter in tool number one as well, but I am going to place a tool in the spindle as a manual tool change that will one, put the tool three away and then come and grab tool eight through 12, whatever we choose. So back here on our controller, if we go back to the horizontal table here, it actually, this can actually be done on any of the workstation screens. Um, if we go here to our tool display screen, we have again tool in the spindle tool number three, and here I have pickup tool, tool number one. So that would perform an actual auto tool change between those two numbers, which we covered in a previous training video. However, I’m gonna change this. I’m gonna change the pickup tool number by clicking on it. I’m gonna change this to let’s say nine and enter. So now we are gonna have it put a tool away that’s in the auto tool change tool rack, and this is now gonna pick up a tool outside of the rack for a manual tool change. So let’s perform that task to see what happens.”
2:57-3:02: “Okay, so I did the first process automatically by dropping off tool number three in the tool rack.”
Understanding System Responses (3:00-4:30)
2:59-3:28: “by dropping off tool number three in the tool rack. Um, but it hasn’t finished this tool sequence yet. It’s now come to the operator and we have a popup on the screen here. We can see that it’s ready to put a tool into the spindle manually for tool number nine. So if I grab my, my tool here and I don’t have a, a tool in the spindle, so I can actually push release tool here on the controller, Put a tool in and clamp tool.”
3:32-4:31: “When I’m done with that sequence, I’ll push the play button and we can see that the tool in the spindle is tool number nine. So the machine is automatically gonna switch between an auto tool change rack position and a manual tool change number. Um, it doesn’t matter what the numbers are, it’s just gonna automatically go to the right location to perform that. So any tool number that are eight through 12 will automatically be changed by the operator here in the manual tool change position. And anything within one through seven will automatically be picked up and dropped off in the, in the tool number locations. So this will happen automatically within programs, but we can perform this outside of a program by using the same pickup tool sequences and managing our tool numbers. So I hope that clarifies a little bit what the machine does between, again, tool rack numbers and manual tool change numbers and how the machine reacts. But let’s do that one more time. This time in reverse. Let’s say I have again this tool,”
Reverse Tool Changes (4:30-6:00)
4:29-5:17: “Let’s say I have again this tool, which is tool nine in the system, and I wanna go pick up tool number one. If we switch the numbers, the machine should do this in reverse. Let’s take a look. So the tool in the spindle is nine, and if we go pick up tool, I’m gonna change this number to tool number one and push enter. And now if we say pickup tool, um, because the machine is already here at the manual tool change location, it, it didn’t have to move here, but if, if it was not here, it would already move to this location. Um, it’s asking us to perform a, a clamp and release release tool. So I’m gonna grab my tool and release clamp and then push play.”
5:35-6:00: “So again, it did exactly what we needed it to do. So it had us put the tool number nine away, which is taking it out of the, out of the spindle manually. And then after we released and then clamped the tool, which technically assigned tool zero into the spindle, it went back over and it picked up tool number one from our command sequence in the controller. So give this a try yourself. If you have any questions, uh, don’t hesitate”
Conclusion and Support (6:00-6:13)
5:57-6:13: “If you have any questions, uh, don’t hesitate to ask away in our Tuesday night webinars. You can also submit a support ticket where we can answer any of your questions, do remote access, email, phone support, and help you out the best we can. Until next time, good luck and have some fun with your machine.”
