[steve pies]

two of my companies VF-6 machines with carousel style tool changers tends to throw larger tools and often the tools become unaligned when the swing arm trying to load them into the spindle. these are slightly heaver tools but now where close to the max allowed. the Haas tech has been here and his solution was to take the swing arm apart and clean it. i have designated them as large tools to keep adjacent pockets empty. when designating tools as heavy or large the tool changer is supposed to reduce the speed of the swing arm but visually i can not see any reduction in speed. i feel the arm is moving too fast and that is why i am having this problem. is there anyway to slow it down?

[haastec]

Unless you have an SS model machine, then no the speed of the tool changer arm is at a fixed speed.

It's better to figure out why it is throwing tools anyhow since you said they are within spec.

Look at the attached pictures. If you E-Stop the machine while the arm is in the middle of its swing, you should not be able to pull the tool out of the arm. If you can, most likely the plunger ( circled ) is stuck in the down position preventing the locking thumb (circled) from locking the tool into place.

If this is the case remove the cover plate (arrow) and inspect the components. It is possible that the locking thumb has come out of adjustment or the spring inside is broken.

Did the Haas tech disassemble and clean as he suggested? Did he even address the issue?

Hope this helps.

[steve pies]

i did not watch the tech over his shoulder but what you desribe is exactly what he said the problem was and what he said he did. the thumb does lock but it has a bit of play that i can push into the housing, maybe about 1/4 inch before it stops dead. the plunger does not seem to be sticking. so maybe its an adjustment issue.