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Tip Consolidation

RichVP
All,

Is there an easy way to find out what tips we use in a certain directory? Then I can do an analysis of that and find out what tips I can remove or at least take off the calibration.

I recently picked up PC-DMIS programming after a lengthy background in programming for CNC manufacturing. We doubled our capabilities by adding another CMM.

I have worked through a lot of the older methods we used to try to update them as we can. Right now we're moving to external manual alignments. I'm looking to add a disc probe or two. Slow but steady improvement with a lot of the things I find people are doing on these forums and various other forums. So I thank everyone for the wealth of knowledge this forum has.

The next step is our calibration program. We don't run more than 5 of one unique parts at a time and normally no more than 1 unique part at a time. So calibration before each run is not efficient.

Over the last 10-12 years the calibration program we run Saturday night while the plant is closed Sunday has got to be 22-24 hours worth of tips. Now with two machines we don't want to calibrate them at the same time to prevent both being down by an unexpected issue during calibration.

Consolidating these tips and lessening the calibration time would greatly improve our flexibility.

-Rich P
Process Designer
Tactair Fluid Controls Inc.
Liverpool, NY 13088
  • Put the calibration routine in your part programs and calibrate as desired. The input comment command along with some flow control commands will let the program branch to the calibration routine or part measurement. Sorry I can't be more specific with syntax; I won't be at a cmm until at least tomorrow. Search for parameter sets, if/Goto and input comment…
  • global used. It will search & destroy, er, search and find all probe files & tips used in the programs in the current directoy & sub-directories.
  • global used. It will search & destroy, er, search and find all probe files & tips used in the programs in the current directoy & sub-directories.

    I found this but was unsure of it to begin with. I'll try this to consolidate some.

    I was hoping for a way to open PC-DMIS files directly into a text for all the code. That way I could say what P#'s use what tip and can cross reference the P#'s to our history for those parts to see if there is a need to keep the tips associated to it calibrated.

    It is probably going to be ineffective for us to calibrate as required. With doing the majority of our runs with only one unique part at a time it doesn't make sense. At least from my thought process.

    -Rich
  • If you have a GOOD scheduler, you could plan the 5 programs that will run in a given day.
    -Make a 'new' file
    -Open your individual part programs and copy all
    -Paste into the 'new' file
    -Repeat until your # of programs are captured

    -Find all your DIFFERENT probe builds
    -Perform a 'mark used' on each individual probe build
    -Generate a parameter set for each probe

    -Generate a calibration program that calibrates these 'clusters' during off hours so you can run freely the next day?!

    Global can be a difficult thing to overcome:
    -Empty out the probefile of angles (delete them except for A0B0)
    -Perform a global used
    -Go to your current calibration program and put each probe build through a calibration routine (If any 'wasted' angles were originally in the program, they will be gone now) FYI, if you had 'dump' files that utilize 'odd' angles, then they will be added to the calibration through the global used function.

    HTH and best of luck
  • I would love it if we had a scheduler that did well enough for us to do this. It is typically an overview and then priorities shift daily, sometimes quite drastically, based on need.
  • If it were me and I had a calibration that ran for 22-24 hours. I might consider deleting all my probe angles and when I was to run a program I would add all the angles for that program and calibrate them at that time. This way once I have run the programs that are being worked with, I would be left with only the angles needed. I did say I might do this didn't I lol I'm not sure of your exact situation and this may not work for you but its something I have done before and would do again if my probes and probe angles get overly hefty.
  • If it were me and I had a calibration that ran for 22-24 hours. I might consider deleting all my probe angles and when I was to run a program I would add all the angles for that program and calibrate them at that time. This way once I have run the programs that are being worked with, I would be left with only the angles needed. I did say I might do this didn't I lol I'm not sure of your exact situation and this may not work for you but its something I have done before and would do again if my probes and probe angles get overly hefty.

    We have 800+ programs for various parts at various ops. I am going to start trying to record what I can but that was my next option but may cause some tension when operators have to wait a tad longer.

    My first step is to record the unique parts regardless of the operation they are at. Then I'm going to send it to planning and see what is still active. Then I can archive anything that isn't an active production part.

    Thanks for all the suggestions. Definitely a daunting task as a whole.
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