Are your CNC machines making money, or just chips ?

Making money, or just chips ? Can you spot the difference ? An adult elephant costs Rs.3000 per day for its food and medical expenses. Therefore, you would make it work to its fullest power.

Making money, or just chips ? Your typical CNC lathe costs as much as an elephant, for space, power, tooling and manpower. Fact : Most people use their CNC machines like this. Why? Because their programmers are obsessed about the part program, not the productivity. Because programmers think if the part is dimensionally OK, then their job is done !

Reduced cycle times = Money 1. Cutting parameters must be optimal. 2. Tool path must not have wasteful motions. 3. Spindle power must be used to the maximum. 4. Calculate cycle time accurately. 5. Analyze cycle time operation-wise. 5 things you must do, but you never do: Why ?

1. Cutting parameters Improper cutting parameters - one of the biggest causes of poor productivity on shop floor. Caused by: - Lack of knowledge of FS selection - Unnecessarily cautious approach - Use unscientific thumb rules Most programmers do not have knowledge to select correct FS, so they don’t do it.

2. Tool path Tool path is often longer than necessary during manual programming, particularly when the blank is a casting or forging. You need to do extensive trigonometric calculations to eliminate wasteful cutting and rapid motions. This can take be very laborious and time-consuming, so you don't do it.

3. Spindle power If you are only using 50 % of the power, your cycle time is 200 % higher than what it can be. To achieve maximum power usage - check power while cutting on the machine, change FS, check again, etc. This is laborious and time-consuming, so you don't do it. As a result, the spindle load meter on your machines probably looks like this. =

4. Cycle time – accurate calculation To calculate cycle time accurately you need to consider the tool travel distances, effect of CSS, axes acceleration / deceleration, spindle acceleration / deceleration, etc. It is impossible to do this manually, so you don't do it.

5. ABC analysis of operation-wise times Analyze operation-wise machining times. Identify operations that have the maximum scope for time reduction, reduce their cycle time by changing FS. Needs detailed breakup of machining times. It is impossible to do this manually, so you don't do it.

Do multiple iterations You need to do these 5 things cyclically, repeatedly, and arrive at the optimal cycle time. You typically do not have tools to do them, and getting a working CNC program out is itself a big headache. So you do not do this.

Post mortem check - useless If you are like most users, you cannot do the 5-point cycle before starting machining, since you do not have the right tool to help you. So you occasionally check the cycle time AFTER starting machining. Too late to bother about productivity.

Make money, and not chips 1. Think of your machine spindle as an elephant's trunk. To get best return on your investment, use it to the maximum. 2. Be obsessed about the cycle time, NOT about the program. 3. The program should be the last thing you should think of. 4. CAPS enables you to do the 5-point cycle, that can generate CNC programs automatically, 'untouched by human hand'. Summary =

FeatureHow it worksHow it helps you reduce cycle time Automatic selection of cutting parameters from a database. We ship the the software with parameters that most shop floors commonly use. You can configure these values to suit your requirement, and they will automatically appear whenever you make a new part. Optimal cutting parameters are selected automatically, making your cycle times system dependent instead of person dependent. Your cycle times remain consistent even though the person doing the programming may change. Variety of machining operations with unique tool paths. Each operation has a finely-tuned tool path to automatically reduce the tool travel. Reduces cutting and aircut times, and hence cycle time. Spindle power requirement graph Shows graph of operation-wise requirement of spindle power vs. machine's available power. Cutting parameters can be modified for a dynamic viewing of the spindle power. Enables you to tweak the cutting parameters to make maximum use of spindle power, and also ensure that you do not damage the spindle motor by over-use. Accurate calculation of cycle time Takes into account execution times of your specific machines – axes and spindle acceleration/deceleration, chuck open/close, tool change, etc. The error as a result is less than 1 %. Before machining, in a few minutes you can check the cycle time for multiple combinations of cutting parameters, tools and operation sequences. You can then decide on the process with the least cycle time. Generation of detailed process and cycle time sheet Has operation-wise breakup of cutting times, aircut times, cycle time, etc. Enables you to perform an ABC analysis on the cycle times for each operation, and attack the most inefficient ones. CAPSturn helps you do this, with these features

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