[Bwana Don]

I need some help with a broken tool detector for a Vertical Machining Center (CNC). When drilling, chamfering and tapping, if the drill breaks the next two tools are doomed. I would like to have the machine stop itself if the first tool breaks.

Does anyone have a good solution for this. The machine is a Kitamura Mycenter 3XI with a Fanuc 16i-m controller. The machine also has a pallet changer on it, so it would have to work for each pallet. Wireless sounds ideal but I'm no expert in this.

Thanks in advance to anyone who responds to this.

Don

[freefuel]

I have an electronics background,

If your looking to piggyback this onto an existing system I would suggest looking into spindle motor load sensing. this should be doable by monitoring the current draw of the motor in question. you would have to predefine what the normal load paramaters are first, then you would be able to detect not only breaks but jams as well. a busted tool should unload the spindle, and a jam should overload it. in each case if you have a simple way to halt the machine such as an emergency kill button, or just cut the power the the entire machine.

Justin N2TOH

The concept is fairly basic in theory, but be prepared for unexpected gotchas. like power line noise issues.