Hello EMC community, I am new here and I am dropping in with a longer question. Sorry for this, but we are looking for a machine controller and this might help us to decide if this is the right place for us. So here is the story:
We are a manufacturer of customized front panels - specialized on small quantities (http://www.schaeffer-ag.de). Right now we are using milling machines of the company "Datron". Mostly machines like this one: <http://www.datron.de/ML-1500-NEW.607.1.html?&L=> Overall we have 14 machines and we are depending on Datron very much. Over the last years they changed their company policy and they are moving now in directions we really don't like. It's time for us to get out of this dependency. So we are considering to build our own machines. And that's why I am here: to find out if EMC could be the right base for this. Here are the points which are important for us: - Servo motors - Fast movements (up to 16m/min, we are doing HSC) - Measurement of the surface for a Z-correction - Automatic tool change - Reliability (the machines are running 16 hours a day). - Simulation with milling time estimation - A hand-held control would be nice - We would prefer to use a bus like CANopen, Sercos or EtherCAT to control the motors - Spindle speed control - SPC functionality I don't expect that EMC could deliver all this out-of-the-box. If I want it out-of-the-box I could use solutions like SINUMERIK. But this solution is not really open and I don't like software which needs a license server. :-) So EMC could give us the independency we want. We are willing to contribute the functionality that is missing. But it must be possible for us to get there with a manageable effort. So my questions are: - Which of these points are already included? - Is EMC already used in a comparable environment (especially regarding the needed reliability)? Of course I look around on the web pages, saw the videos and downloaded the demo CD. Everything look quite impressive and nice. So actually partly I could answer the questions by myself. But the devil is in the details and it's good the here it again from people who have really experience with the system. ;-) Any comments are appreciated. -Kai -- Schaeffer AG Dipl.-Phys. Kai Schaeffer Vorstand Nahmitzer Damm 32 Tel. +49-30-8058695-0 12277 Berlin FAX: +49-30-8058695-33 http://www.schaeffer-ag.de HRB 93611 B, Amtsgericht Berlin Charlottenburg Vorstand: Jörg Schaeffer, Kai Schaeffer Aufsichtsrat: Dieter Kersten (Vorsitzender) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW! Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project, along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lameness and boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08 _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
