Stuck in Fresno Again

Tonight, Basem and I are in a hotel in Fresno. We're installing new Yaskawa motors and drives on an Amada Coma punch press. Here's a picture of Basem earning his money today:

We're using Yaskawa's new Sigma V motors and drives - what a great combination. Easy autotuning, easy setup and wiring. That's a 28 Nm 3000 RPM motor behind him. We've come a long way from the wound field GE servo motors that Burgmaster used to use back in the 60's. Bill suggested that this motor had the strength of a hydraulic motor when he felt the rock solid standstill torque it has.

Today was Yaskawa day at Uptime. Jon was installing two inverters at LeFiell using the new V1000 series - again, rock solid technology. Later this month I'll be installing a larger Yaskawa servo at NOV on their new Fibro rotary table.

In other breaking news, we've just received a P.O. for a joint project with Studwell at Circor in Sylmar (formerly Castle Precision Industries). We'll be installing a Fanuc Powermate iD on their gun drill while Studwell raises the underground tank up to floor level. Even though it is only a one axis CNC, it is quite a large job with all of the re-wiring they want.

Things are looking up.

Arc Flash

Arc Flash changes are coming. Check this out. As some of you know, we are seeing some of our customers buy into Arc Flash procedures in a big way (GE , ATK, SCE, Solar ). Here is a little video showing a 12 cycle flash, presumably at 480VAC.

http://www.gereports.com/shock-and-awe-ge-unveils-arc-flash-explosion-blocker/

Pinch milling

This is way cool. A good argument for upgrading the entire machine.



Pinch milling

Fanuc Update

I have been reading Fanuc brochures today and thought I'd share a couple that everyone should take a look at. We've been told that the Fanuc 16/18/21 series is ending soon. Fanuc's entire CNC product line will consist of the 0 and 30/31/32 series. Here are the links:
http://www.fanuc.co.jp/en/product/catalog/pdf/FS0i-D(E)_v02_s.pdf
http://www.fanuc.co.jp/en/product/catalog/pdf/FS30i-A(E)_v06_s.pdf

There are several other interesting links there too, but these should be first. As you all know, we tend to work on older equipment, but we'll be seeing these soon enough.

The 0 control has become a real powerhouse.

DMG Mori Seiki

Some of you know that Adam is now working for Blum Laser Measurement Technology, a German metrology company that sells probes, laser tool setters, and conventional tool length setters. As part of his training last week, he went to a show in Chicago put on by DMG Mori Seiki. This may be old news to some of you but it was a surprise to me:

http://www.dmgmoriseikiusa.com/news/dmg-and-mori-seiki-announce-combining-of-us-operations-effective-april-1-20/


It looks like Gildemeister and Mori Seiki have combined their sales and service organizations in the Americas. From what I can tell, this is not a merger, but simply an agreement to sell and service together.

Nothing stays the same.

Warren

MHI Bridge X Axis Inductosyn drooping A.3gpp

I was working on a Mitsubishi Bridge at Frontier in Gardena last week. After seeing extraordinary positioning problems (.1" or more errors in various positions on the 150" travel), we discovered that the tape scale was very loose. For those of you who are unfamiliar with tape scales made by Farrand / Inductosyn or Mitsubishi, they need to be stretched. It is hard to tell how much they need stretching ( I had to bring our laser to stretch this one), but this one is TOO LOOSE.

After proper tensioning using the laser, this axis had only point in 150" that was .0008" out of position. Most points were between 0 and .0004" out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evz57rDIbJI

Heidenhain CNC

Travis asked me to ask everyone which customers have Heidenhain controls. We have been designated as reps for their probes, and integrating them into Heidenhain controls is very easy. Therefore, he wants to approach them first. The ones that come to my mind are ATK, Mafi Trench and Paragon Precision (in Santa Clarita). If you can think of any more, please add them here or let Travis know.

We are also going to be selling Blum LMT products (Probes, Tool Setters, Laser Tool Setters) and I'll have more to say about that later.

Progress continues to be made in the area of machine monitoring using the "Refresh Your Memory" system. NOV (Varco) has just given us a P.O. to upgrade their one machine pilot project to include Feedrate Override monitoring. Upon completion of this, they will probably move forward with several more machines. Sonic in Torrance and Ontario is expanding their system. We've been given all of RYM's Westec leads for this area and are considered to be their exclusive dealer for both monitoring and DNC in Southern California.

Sharon will be off until Monday.

Warren