TNC News

Welcome to our TNC Newsletter, which brings you information on our latest products and applications
Being established for nearly 120 years, HEIDENHAIN have a range of contouring controls suitable for the most demanding of applications. HEIDENHAIN is represented in 49 countries worldwide, providing the assurance of a w orld class manufacturing company. Approximately 220,000 TNCs have been produced, of which 35,000 are iTNC530s and, with a group staff of nearly 8,000 employees, HEIDENHAIN can be your CNC control partner. In the UK, HEIDENHAIN operate via a wholly owned subsidiary, HEIDENHAIN (GB) Ltd, which will celebrate its 40th birthday in 2009.

Issue 12009

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For access to the latest documentation, programming station software and more ...............

TNC E-Learning from HEIDENHAIN

This interactive training system teaches fundamentals of NC technology and of HEIDENHAIN TNC controls NC Fundamentals Interesting for the NC novice: The interactive training system reveals basics of NC programming and HEIDENHAIN TNC controls. Touch Probes The units show the design and function of various touch probes for measuring workpieces and tools. Fundamentals of Machining in Tilted Working Planes If you are familiar with the NC fundamentals, here youll find an easy introduction to the topic of "Tilting a plane." The HEIDENHAIN Training Network Information on national and international HEIDENHAIN training courses.

Tool Probing with HEIDENHAIN

Are you a HEIDENHAIN TNC user? Would you like to cut to size every time? The TT 140 tool measurement touch probe offers the following benefits:
Automatic in-cycle measurement of actual tool length and tool radius Measurement of the tool while in the spindle Transfer of length and radius to the central tool file Monitoring of tool wear and tool breakage tolerances Facilitates unattended machine operation

It Happens!
Should an accidental collision occur, the central spindle of the probe has been designed with this in mind

PROBES for HEIDENHAIN controls: TT 140 table-mounted tool probe for TNC 320, 370, 400 series and 530 controls. Probing cycles are a standard feature on HEIDENHAIN TNC controls

An Affordable Machine Enhancement TT140 including installation from 1800

Component Probing with HEIDENHAIN

Are you a HEIDENHAIN TNC user? Would you like to cut your set-up times? The Task
Align the workpiece blank parallel to the axes Set the datum in the workpiece plane at a corner Set the tool axis datum on the top surface of the blank PROBES for HEIDENHAIN controls: TS 632 infrared and TS 220 cable types for TNC 100, 200, 300 and 400 series controls. TS 640 infrared and TS 220 cable types for iTNC530 control. Probing cycles are a standard feature on HEIDENHAIN TNC controls

The Time Saved

With a TS three-dimensional touch probe from HEIDENHAIN, this set-up operation is performed with a time saving of about four minutes, or approx. 72%

An Affordable Machine Enhancement TT220 including installation from 2700 TS640 including installation from 4600

New and Old HEIDENHAIN provides the perfect machine control solution
Manager, has cut lead times from three weeks to one week for what was previously the longest lead time item in a pump kit of parts. these new controls. Retrofitting of the iTNC 530 control to the Mecof gantry mill was undertaken by Simon Hopkins of SDH Controls & Services Ltd of Worcester (an approved HEIDENHAIN TNC retrofitter), who also fitted a HEIDENHAIN TS 220 touch probe. This probe has an accuracy of 5 micron using a standard stylus and a repeatability of 1 micron at a probing velocity of 1 m/min. HEIDENHAIN Applications Engineer Martin Lyons then provided the TS probe training, a crucial requirement as probing of key features on the raw castings determines the optimum set-up for the machining of datum faces, with tighter alignment tolerances being achieved, and also determines the amount of material to be removed

Reflec ti ng i ts parent companys f o c u s o n innovation, SPP decided in 2007 to reconfigure its split SPP Pumps Gary casing machining Hurcombe, who project managed the companys move to CNC machining of split pump casings process into roughing (on a refurbished Mecof gantry mill) and An ambitious machining finishing (on a new Dugard Eagle improvement project involving the HBM-4 horizontal borer with 60installation of a new CNC horizontal station tool magazine). Initially, it borer specified with the was necessary for HEIDENHAIN iTNC 530 CNC roughing and system and the retrofitting of an finishing operations iTNC 530 to a refurbished CNC to be completed on vertical spindle gantry mill has more the HBM-4 while than halved cycle times at the refurbishment of the Coleford, Gloucestershire older machine was manufacturing facility of SPP Pumps taking place. Now, Ltd. It has also saved SPP in the with the two region of 100,000 of sub-contract machines up and cost over the past year, because running, SPP has been able to refine the machining process balancing cycle times and significantly i m p r o v i n g The HEIDENHAIN iTNC 530 CNC retrofitted to the Mecof vertical spindle gantry mill by SDH Controls & Services Ltd. throughput. Over the years we have acquired various pump companies along with their machine tools, so we already had several different types of CNC system before we decided to add to the list by specifying the HEIDENHAIN control, says Gary Hurcombe. The fact is that when we were first researching our options, everyone we spoke to said that if we were going to continue with shopfloor programming the HEIDENHAIN control is the most user-friendly. This has proved to be the case because machinists Dave Sayer and Dave Houghton really like the flexibility and ease-of-use of

from wear ring bores prior to finish machining of the assembled halves of the split casing on the new CNC horizontal borer.

Rough machining of wear ring bores using a Seco bull nose cutter

split casings for larger variants of centrifugal pump can now be machined in-house. This, according to Gary Hurcombe, Operations

Dynamic Collision Monitoring (DCM) (Optional): Improvements

DCM in Test Run mode This new function enables you to check for collisions in the Test Run mode before actually machining a part. In operation. The screen shows the machine kinematics, as entered by the machine manufacturer, with all defined collision objects. As usual, the screen layout can be arranged to show the machine kinematics full-screen or at the right next to the NC program. If there is a collision, the TNC displays an error message and marks the colliding objects in red. Fixture monitoring The collision monitoring function of the iTNC now also considers the work holding equipment. This enables you to detect collisions between the tool and work holding in time, so that they can be avoided. HEIDENHAIN provides parameterized descriptions of standard work holding. The Fixture Wizard for PCs, which is available free of charge, helps you to describe your own work holding equipment and to transfer the description to the iTNC 530. In the Manual Operation mode, the fixture management function is used to set up the work holding equipment in the machine's work envelope. An interactive menu allows you to use the integrated measuring cycles to measure and automatically transfer the work holding equipment data, and to define the variable input values, such as the jaw distance of a vice.

this way you avoid machine downtimes and increase machine availability, especially during unattended

Calibrating Rotary Axes with KinematicsOpt (Option): Improvements

Improvements in software version 05 In order to further accelerate the measuring process, you can reduce the number of measuring points per angular increment from four to three. Also, it is no longer required to set the datum in the ball centre. Simply move the touch probe to a position above the calibration ball, and the iTNC will automatically determine the centre of the calibration ball, which is required for the measuring process. Detailed log files providing different types of data (e.g. the measured compensation values) are available in order to make the calibration process more transparent. For example, the new Cycle 452 (PRESET COMPENSATION) simplifies working with tool changer heads. This cycle enables you to adjust different tool changer heads in such a way that the workpiece preset applies for all heads. The required data is saved in the corresponding machine constants. As a result, the machine operator is now capable of calibrating new or exchanged milling heads on the machine without any special knowledge, so that a service technician is no longer needed for this task. Only a touch probe and a calibration ball are necessary for the measuring process.

Sales Office - Tel. 01444 238550 email sales@HEIDENHAIN.co.uk TNC Technical Sales Engineer - Martin Lyons Tel. 07860 789155 email martinl@HEIDENHAIN.co.uk