CNC Tool Life Management

One of the down falls for most CNC machining centers is how the tool life is tracked.  Yes, there is a tool life counter on your machine, but the machine will not alarm out for a tool change until it reads a tool change command for the expired tool in your program. This could be anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours into the program. Would it not be more efficient to know if a tool has expired at the beginning of the program? 

Most CNC machining shops now have operators running more than one machine at a time. If the operator is not in the area when the tool life alarm goes off, the machine sits there idle, which cuts into your profit margin.  

Once the operator realizes that a tool change is needed, they will have to go through the process of calling up the tool, changing out the tool, and remembering which line of program they were on, so they can re-start the program. All of these minutes add up over a year, and hamper the  efficiencies  of your CNC machining centers. This ultimately cuts into your bottom dollar.

With our custom CNC macro programming, we will create a Tool Life Management Macro for all of your cnc machining centers.

We can help in the following areas.

• Have all tool changes happen at the beginning of the program. Usually with a visual cue.
• If you have a in-machine tool pre-setter, we can set up automatic tool measuring. (1)
• Monitor re-ground tool lengths. (2, 3)
• Reset tool wear compensations values.
• Output information on tooling to a file on your server.
• Ensure tool changes are happening when there suppose to.
• Have operators confirm when making a offset that will take more material off of the part.

1. If you have an in-machine tool pre-setter such as the OTS 3D touch-trigger tool setter from Renishaw © ,

we can create a custom automatic tool measuring macro. This will remove any guess work from your operator. 

2. Do you use re-ground tooling in your process? Do you have problems with your operators placing tools that are pass their life in the re-ground bin? It's very costly having tools reground that cannot be used any more.

We can help, especially if your using tool holder such as the PowRgrip™ series from Rego-Fix ©. We can create a custom macro that will tell your operator when to discard the tool in the recycle container. Ultimately, we can save you money.

3. If you have the diameter of your used tooling re-ground to a new diameter, we can create a custom program for you that will automatically measure the tools diameter.  This eliminating errors that your operator could make. 

Items included with our CNC macro programming packages.

• Custom downloadable macro programs to be uploaded to you CNC machining center.
• Detailed description of the macro program, usually in MS PowerPoint or MS Word document form.
• 30 day email, Zoom, or phone support.
• A macro map in MS Excel format.