Introduction to Smart Tool Measurement System (0:00-1:13)
0:00-1:13: “Hey, hey. Welcome to another training video. Today we’re gonna show you how to zero out your Z axis, uh, for the horizontal and vertical workstations ’cause it’s the same set of procedures for both using the smart tool measurement system. Now, why does the smart tool give us an advantage at zeroing out our Z axis? Well, one, it automates the touch up procedure for us. Traditionally, you would have to take a cutter and lower it down until you pinch a piece of paper between the tool and the material. And once you’ve gotten it to where that that paper is, is stuck between the cutter and the material, you can simply zero out your z axis in your controller. And I mean, that works to zero out your Z axis. However, one, it’s, it’s manual. And so it, it takes that time in order to set up that procedure. And two, if I wanted to have multiple cutters, uh, performing different tasks to this part, I would then have to break out the program into as many cutters as necessary for that part. Let’s say there were three cutters that I wanted to use, um, to produce this component, I would need to create three separate programs and do a z zero setup for”
Setting Up the Smart Tool Measurement (1:13-3:10)
1:09-3:12: “to create three separate programs and do a z zero setup for before each program is run. ’cause I’d have to put the new cutter in here, which has a different height and re zero it out manually and then run that single program and make sure I do that for all three consecutively, um, to, to get a finished part. So with those issues in mind, the, the smart tool pad eliminates all those hassles and definitely speeds up the process and makes life a whole lot easier, where we can combine as many cutters as we need into a single, uh, program file that we run on the machine. So let’s show you how we use the smart tool pad to zero out your Z axis. We’re not gonna use the paper method this time. So back here on our controller, um, we can find the smart tool controls in all three workstations. So if we go to the horizontal vertical or turning, uh, workstations, you’re gonna find, um, in the display screens a smart tool screen. Okay? Uh, now in the horizontal and vertical tables, this is where we’re gonna be using it. Today you’re gonna notice that you have these program smart tools set up procedures, which is a multi-tool touch off and a single tool touch off. And both in the horizontal and vertical tables, uh, we can use those applications. However, in the turning Workstation you can see that they’re grayed out and I cannot click on them. They are, uh, deactivated for this workstation. So we’re just gonna focus only on the horizontal and vertical tables. So for the horizontal table today, uh, we can see we can now, um, touch off either one of these procedures. Now be aware that before I can actually press and activate any of these set of procedures that I need to align the cutter over my smart tool pad, ’cause the machine doesn’t know where that pad is located, if I was to move it onto the surface of where I want Z zero to be. So Z zero becomes whatever the smart tool pad”
Executing the Multi-Tool Touch Off Method (3:10-5:10)
3:09-5:12: “So Z zero becomes whatever the smart tool pad is, is resting on. So if I want my Z zero to be on top of my part, I simply rest it on top. If I want it to be on the bottom of my part, I’m gonna put it on the tabletop surface instead. So I, I simply choose, I usually get that information from my job setup sheets. They tell me where I need to place, um, the smart tool pad for this setup procedure. For this example, I’m just going to assume that the top of the part is our Z zero for this example. So I’m gonna place this on top. Now again, the, the machine doesn’t know where that smart tool pad is located on the machine. And so I need to move the cutter over the pad and just align it so that the tool is over the center of that pad ready for the touch off procedure, um, to be applied here in the controller. So using my manual controls, I’m simply going to move the machine or the cutter and align it over my smart tool pad. So I’m just getting it so I can visually see that it’s over the pad. And once you get close, it’s pretty simple to move the pad under the tool to where it’s directly over the center. Now we’re ready to do our setup procedure. So over here on our controller, we can go back to our, our smart tool display screen. And today we’re only gonna focus on one particular touch off method. And it’s gonna be the multi-tool touch off method. You can use this, use this in any scenario, whether if it be for a single tool in a program, or for as many cutters as you wish in a program. This will be your go-to touch off method when you’re getting started with the machine. So once we press this, the cutter is going to start plunging, um, towards that smart tool pad. So let’s see what happens. And there it goes. Okay, you may notice it touches off the pad twice and then it lifts up. And then on the controller it gives us a prompt saying we need to move the smart tool pad back to the home position”
Finalizing the Z Zero Setup (5:10-6:30)
5:09-5:25: “need to move the smart tool pad back to the home position and then click the continue button. So we’ll move this back to the home plate, um, and make sure there’s no debris or chips in the way. We don’t want the Z axis to be thrown off because of that. So make sure that’s clean. And now we can press continue.”
5:30-5:38: “And here it automatically, um, maneuvered directly over the smart tool pad again and it’s gonna touch off the, the smart tool pad a second time.”
5:53-6:32: “And this has now finished the, the sequence of running the multi-tool setup procedure. Uh, and this has now successfully set up our Z zero for the, the top of our material, uh, not just for this cutter that’s in the spindle, but for all future cutters. Uh, so this will, this will be applied to as many cutters as we need. And this happens automatically as we’re running a program. So again, let’s say we went back to a program that had three cutters in it, tool one, two, and three. Um, it would grab tool number one when we pressed play to run that program. It would then touch off the smart tool pad to measure the cutter and then continue cutting. Now the reason it touched off the smart tool pad twice”
Verifying the Smart Tool Pad Functionality (6:30-8:18)
6:29-8:18: “Now the reason it touched off the smart tool pad twice during the setup procedure is it found this, this height difference between the material surface and the smart tool home plate. And it records that height difference in the controller, uh, to then be applied to the tips of cutters throughout the program, which is exactly what it’s gonna do. Uh, and it’s gonna repeat that process every time it does a tool change. So for tool number one, it’ll measure and then start cutting for tool number two, it will measure and then start cutting and repeat that for tool number three. Uh, so it doesn’t matter the length of the cutter, um, in, in regards to that program. It’s gonna measure it and apply that height difference automatically to the tip of the cutter so it knows exactly where to cut on the surface of the material. It’s pretty smart stuff, which is why we called it the smart Tool Measurement system. So here’s a quick tip Before we actually run the, the multi-tool set of procedure, I like to check to see if my smart tool pad is functioning. Uh, ’cause you never know when something could have, um, become unplugged or damaged, and I don’t want to accidentally jam my cutter into the surface of my smart tool pad, just make sure it’s functioning beforehand. So, um, what I do is I’ll take my smart tool pad and we have, we have two different, uh, pad types. One is a pressure sensor, so you just press on it to, to activate it. The other one is you touch the aluminum plate to the cutter, and that then creates, creates a closed circuit, which activates the smart tool pad as well. Either way, whatever type you have this one for, the audit tool change is a pressure sensor. Uh, we can, uh, verify this using the controller here on the controller. We can see this section here what’s called probe and there’s a light indicator. So as I’m pressing down on the smart tool pad, that probe light turns on. And when I let go of the smart tool pad, the probe light turns off.”
