Rob Caron talks DTect-It with Tony Gunn

DTect-IT & AutoComp keep those spindles turning.

Rob Caron from Caron Engineering explains why Wolfram Manufacturing are using their DTect-IT CNC Sensor Analysis System on their bar feeders. DTect-IT combines high-precision sensor technology with advanced analysis capability to detect, in this case, vibration caused by bar whip and corrects anomalies occurring in the machining process preventing scrapped parts & reduced tool life. Using a multitude of sensor options, the user can monitor specific parameters to alarm and signal the CNC when irregularities are present. All data is recorded and accessible in the historical viewer to analyse and trend data over time. As MTDCNC’s Tony Gunn discovers Wolfram are also using another Caron Engineering product to help them run more efficiently, AutoComp, an automated tool wear compensation software package. AutoComp is a Windows based software application that eliminates human error by processing measurement data from almost any electronic gauging device, it reads the part measurement file and automatically calculates and updates tool offsets in the CNC control. No manual data entry needed! Two great products ideal for use in automation from Caron Engineering keeping the spindles turning at Wolfram Manufacturing.

Full Video Transcript

Rob: As everybody’s moving to automation, the labor pool is stressing every manufacturing company. There’s just no way to really be completely automated without systems like this. Monitoring what’s going on in the process and doing everything automatically.

[Music]

Tony:  Welcome yes, it’s MTDCNC time again and I’m with the famous Rob Caron. you guys all know him Caron Engineering, incredible products today we’re going to talk DTect-It and we’re going to talk AutoComp. We have the Edge Technologies bar feed behind us, and we get to learn a little bit more about why and how this is going to help you create success in your company as well. So, Rob thank you so much for taking your very important time and spending it with us at MTD.

Rob:  Thank you, Tony, thanks for you know staying here with us. 

Tony: Absolutely, it’s always a pleasure when I get to see you, Rob, you’re an amazing, amazing person. Now let’s get started in talking about what we’re looking at here. We’re looking at a bar feed. I know we always have to measure vibration; I know DTect-IT does vibration. You’re going to go into detail of that. I’ve done interviews before where the whip that comes from a bar feed can be a big issue and that vibrates and that vibration translates into the part which creates chatter, shorter tool life, so DTect-IT will help us solve some of these problems. Right? How does that work?

Rob:  So, what we’re doing with DTect-IT, we have a vibration sensor actually mounted on the main spindle going into the machine where the bar enters into the actual machining environment. That sensor can measure vibration, temperature, and other things that are going on in the machine environment. In this particular case, we’re actually using it to determine when the bar vibrates too much. This bar is a very small bar. I can almost barely pick up the part it’s so tiny, so when a bar vibrates too much, they’re really trying to hold tight tolerances here at Wolfram Manufacturing on this installation, and if the bar vibrates too much, if there’s a slight bend in it, it’s actually going to cause the tool to reflect against that, which it could cause tolerance problems. As Tony said, it could cause chatter and other issues. So, the key is to monitor the vibration every time, and the way we do that is the vibration sensor using DTect-IT software, monitors a running vibration. A level is set in DTect-IT that says what is the allowable vibration before I know there’s going to be problems. DTect-IT is constantly monitoring that when that. When that vibration is exceeded the level is exceeded detected informs the CNC, and the CNC program actually starts reducing the RPM in small amounts continually looking to see whether it’s brought the level below that certain point. Once it does it actually allows the CNC now to continue running the vibration is acceptable knowing we’re going to get a good part. So, this happens automatically. There’s no human intervention involved in this at all. The sensor that’s on here in this particular case is looking for bar feed vibration. It could also measure the bearings of the spindle, do an analysis on them, could also measure the temperature of the bearings as well, so it’s a multi sort of faceted sensing system. But in this particular case we’re really concerned about the bar- very small diameter, very tight tolerance- the bar anomalies can happen anytime. You could have 10 bars that run perfectly, and all of a sudden, one of the bars had a bend in it- someone dropped it on the floor, the vendor delivered it slightly bent- so, it’s a guessing game. No one has any idea when this problem is going to happen. You can run two days and never see a problem, and then run for two hours with a constant problem.

Tony:  You know, Rob, a story I’ve never shared before for the audience that’s watching right now is when I was running a machine shop, and we were running some lathes, and we were running tiny parts like this in the jewelry industry. There were little beads that tiny little diamonds would go into. We actually had a bar feed that was so out of balance, because the person didn’t pay attention to it; the entire bar feed started whipping and split to a 90 degree it almost hurt someone very badly. We could have used your product. So now that we’ve talked a little bit about DTect-IT, let’s talk about AutoComp. Now I saw you trying to pick up this part a little bit ago, because it is that small guys. So, I decided to do it for you, just in case it would be helpful. So, when we’re talking about AutoComp, what does that do for a person who wants to use it? 

Rob:  So obviously the machine is producing a lot of parts, the machine is AutoComp producing a lot of parts and parts are constantly coming off this machine. There’s only a few features on this part, and we’ll show you the picture so there’s not a lot of actual features here. So, it’s making this part very fast. The cycle time is super short, but as a part is being cut the tools are still wearing, the dimensions are tight and so somehow the tools need to be adjusted as they wear over time to maintain a good tolerance part. So, with AutoComp the operator in this particular case we’re using a caliper manual gauging, and the operator can simply measure the part, in this case we have a wireless caliper, and all they have to do is measure and hit a button and it’s automatically measuring the part. So, every time the parts measured the dimensions are evaluated, and we just need the right guy operating the caliper. So, the dimensions are evaluated and what happens now is I know I can explain this from here. So, for every dimension depending on which one is selected, there’s a tolerance an out of spec tolerance. I mean that’s a bad part, but there’s also what we call compensation limits as long as a part is in tolerance and if it exceeds the compensation limits, AutoComp is going to automatically adjust the tool for that part. So, the goal and the theory is you’re just continually adjusting automatically you’re not going to produce bad parts. Now every once in a while, a tool could break or something like that, but it will be seen in the dimensional data of the part. So, this can continue to run. It can be done manually with something as simple as a caliper or it can be done with automatic gauging which is more typical, especially when you become you know we’re moving more towards robotic loaded parts…in this case it might be robotic unloaded parts, so AutoComp works for any one of those areas, It’s beauty is its controlling the tool offsets automatically, but it’s also tracking how much it’s compensating every tool, and it can actually change tools by saying it dimensionally wore that tool war beyond a certain amount. It’s going to automatically tell the user to change the tool or if you have redundant tools it’s going to do it automatically, so it’s tracking both the life of the tool and the dimensional quality of the part.

Tony:  Supervising enough machine shops, Rob, I can tell you firsthand that even when someone’s sitting by a machine and they’re measuring it with calipers like you just did and manually putting the offsets in, oftentimes that negative and positive thousands it’s in the opposite direction. So, allowing us to do this automatically because the system understands it, we’re removing that operator error, 

Rob:  Absolutely, and when you look at something like a Swiss machine that we have here there’s maybe 20 or 30 tools there are different axes, different turrets, all cutting simultaneously. So, it’s not just typing the right value in, its remembering which tool cut that particular dimension when there are so many tools in the machine that are running simultaneously like that.

Tony:  And these two products go together really well from what I’m gathering, and, in all aspects, I’m thinking okay with my tool where we’re measuring that but when my tool wear becomes more dull, I have more vibration. Well, we’re checking that out as well right, so also if I have some vibration in my tube it’s going to reduce my tool wear, so obviously all of this is a very symbiotic relationship that really enhances the product output, doesn’t it? 

Rob:  Absolutely. and that both systems are collecting all this data, so if all of a sudden you’re getting some difference in your parts and you want to go back and see when that started, you know you’ve got all this data. Whether it be vibration level or dimensional data on the part, all the data is available now, so analysis of when the problem started, where it happened, is all so much easier with all these systems. All our products really are designed 100% for automation. They’re giving you real-time information but they’re also making real-time adjustments and corrections for the fact that there’s nobody standing there running a machine. The system is just running automatically, and they’re essential to any automated manufacturing process, and then the other key point to that is the data that’s being collected when things start to go wrong down the road gives every automated manufacturing system a great view into what could have gone wrong or what did go wrong.

Tony:  Well once I start my machine shop after I buy my machines, you’re the first person I’m calling to make sure they’re running. So, well Rob thank you for conveying this information to the audience. Hey guys and gals out there I hope you’ve learned as much as I have today. This time for me is incredibly valuable constantly learning something new. It no longer needs to be a guessing game, it no longer needs to be hopeful that we’re going to create the products that we want, and without the scrap that we’re looking to get away from and keeping those spindles running. It’s carrying technology that allows us to implement the strategies that we want to really improve our shops and create the output we’re looking to do to be profitable, which is what we’re all looking to do. So, Rob thank you so much for your time your time. You are amazing. 

Rob:  It’s always a pleasure. Thank you very much, Tony, I appreciate very much.

[Music}