I would think that tool changing could be done by many means. The mechanical changing and securing is really the hard part. As a friend once told me: "The rest is a simple matter for software" (I never believed him either)
I have tried to come up with a reasonably easy way to handle tool changing over the years (faster than manual, cheaper than some of the big iron fully automated ... a tool changer that costs as much or more than my cheap CNC rig isn't going to cut it. The best I have though of is one that would fully exchange routers or spindles for another (already set up and calibrated. Have the head go place the head on a 'head rest', undo a motorized bolt (to unlatch the head from the head carrier), move the head carrier to the back of another 'head' and activate the 'motorized bolt' to latch the head in place (used with a couple of metal and permanent alignment pins on the head and head carrier. Then return to cutting. A power source should also auto connect/disconnect with the head/head carrier if doing it this way. If using water cooled spindle, it would be more of an issue, but for router or air-cooled spindle, it might work (but even the air-cooled spindle has a warm up/cool down cycle that should be observed). So this would probably do best with routers or marking devices. Just some musing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book "Graph Databases" is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their applications. Written by three acclaimed leaders in the field, this first edition is now available. Download your free book today! http://p.sf.net/sfu/13534_NeoTech _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
