Workpiece Offset Machine Coordinate vs Manual Alignment

Hello all, 

I have to say I learned more than I bargained for with this one!  Very interesting stuff...

I'm investigating read point alignments now and incorporating them into some programs. The machinists are unwilling to move the CMM with the jogbox and enjoy the ability to put a part into the fixture, hit go and walk away. Now I know i can use a read point alignment to save myself or the other programmer some time instead of using manual pickups by using the readpoint for the initial alignment and then marking the feature so it doesn't execute on production run. It's a better replacement for manual alignments, which leave more room for error IMO. 

I love the idea of using a known sphere/slot/position on our Erowa fixture for the readpoint. My only concern is nailing the xyz origin offset for each fixture/part/program and communicating that new method of programming with the rest of our team here. It's a daunting task. On top of that, I'm the young kid who doesn't want to ruffle feathers by changing a process that's been around for 5+years. 

Thanks everyone! Appreciate all the tips and tricks

Hello all, 

I have to say I learned more than I bargained for with this one!  Very interesting stuff...

I'm investigating read point alignments now and incorporating them into some programs. The machinists are unwilling to move the CMM with the jogbox and enjoy the ability to put a part into the fixture, hit go and walk away. Now I know i can use a read point alignment to save myself or the other programmer some time instead of using manual pickups by using the readpoint for the initial alignment and then marking the feature so it doesn't execute on production run. It's a better replacement for manual alignments, which leave more room for error IMO. 

I love the idea of using a known sphere/slot/position on our Erowa fixture for the readpoint. My only concern is nailing the xyz origin offset for each fixture/part/program and communicating that new method of programming with the rest of our team here. It's a daunting task. On top of that, I'm the young kid who doesn't want to ruffle feathers by changing a process that's been around for 5+years. 

Thanks everyone! Appreciate all the tips and tricks

well, if you do mount a tooling ball to that base to use as an external alignment feature, all you need to do is:

Run whatever program you have for a part.  Once it is done, map out the tooling ball location (you would need to do this for every part)

Create an alignment program that aligns to that tooling ball as X0Y0Z0, then save that alignment as an external alignment

In each part program, delete all MANUAL alignment stuff, recall the external alignment, then simply offset by the mapped out values for the tooling ball.

The program then should run your DCC alignment (you DO have DCC alignments for the parts, right?) correctly, every time, as long as the correct part/program combo are being attempted.

This would allow you do periodically (once a week?) run the fixture alignment, and you should not have this issue any more.