While people are dreaming of new things for a version 3 I thought I would throw in a few items. I was staring at the sliding head thinking of the "right thing to do" and realised that the machine has interleaving of motion as well as coordinated motion
While you could approximate that in the current system with effort in perhaps a special cam software system it would be better if it became built in somehow The way it currently works is a camshaft rotates once per part this drives cams for all slides, collets and accessory movement. this means while turning a dia another tool can be on a fast move into/out of position ready to start/finish cutting one tool could be cutting a dia while another cutting a taper That type of machine was "programmed" as starting/finishing an operation/move at an angle(time/number or revs of the total operation) of the cam just have to avoid crashes :) The machine also has mechanical gain(ratio) and offset so a class of parts can be made without remaking cams this also helps adjust tool wear/settings during production. I have seen other mentions on the list of machines that have multiple milling heads, I think this is the same problem normally the answer has been run multiple pcs and coordinate, this would be wrong on a single spindle sliding head lathe I found a working example on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDxvBHXklJo The rocker has two tools one being the cutting off tool so you can see the cycle time achievable with the method. shame about the flood lubricant and shaky camera work. Found a brochure for a later version on a forum http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/bechler-10-lathe-243337/ There have been a number of machines where a lot of axes are the same but just hold a different tool like this, there is a need to address their multiple axes in a consistent manner my machine has 4 X axes and a Z, not counting anything mounted on the front accessory block I have a couple of accessories one has three drills that can be brought into line with the spindle and the other has saws (screw head production probably) Dave Caroline ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Emc-developers mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers
