Hi folks,
I just thought you might want to see what ended up with our Robotic / Plasma Table. Thanks to all of your help here on the “cnczone” and the “unbeatable” customer support at Dynatorch, we were able to complete our project without a hitch!.
Brief History:
A few years ago, I purchased a couple of ABB IRB-6 Robotic arms (one was on a slide) and we built this table to accommodate one of them. After a ton of discussions and even more help on a previous thread: (http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showth...robotic+plasma),
We scrapped the robotic idea and went with a “not so conventional gantry design.
Table:
The table is 4’ x 10’. We would have went with a larger table hindsight, but at the table design stage, we were still expecting the robot to be on the back. The metal for the table is all laser cut from 3/16” plate steel with “Tabbed” assembly for accuracy. (Tabbed = legs have a dozen or so tabs that fit into the front and back and the angled front (angled for easy small parts removal) sections and are then are welded together. We ended up with a “very” accurate and square table. When we decided to go with the gantry design, we added the side rails which hold the helical rack and pinion and the 1.5” Thomson rods. One additional note on the table: there are air ram actuated levers with material handling balls that you can pop up (we even were able to program in a button to do this in the Dynatorch software) to move heavy pieces of material around on our table with one finger.
Gantry:
We choose the long sided gantry instead of the short sided type commonly built so that we could run it to the back and all three sides were free for loading and unloading. This came without its own set of problems though. For one, the gantry needed to be stout and yet light as possible. We finally choose the boxed construction design, along with the tabbed assembly design, all out of 6061 ¼” aluminum and also laser cut. The second design idea we wanted was for all of the components to be enclosed inside the boxed gantry with only the torch sticking out a slot in the bottom.
Software / Hardware:
This category should actually be at the top! Thankfully, we discovered Dynatorch. We went with their software / hardware configuration and we couldn’t be any happier. They really have a great software package. The thought behind the design is flawless including the built in arc height controls. Our system will cut a 3/8" hole that a 3/8" bolt will fit like you drilled it (they have a cool way of handling holes in the software). The smart servo motors coupled to gear boxes running on helical rack are the sweetest and quietest combination. We did pressurize the helical rack, but we accomplished this with a pair gas shocks pushing up on a linear slide mounted adaptor plate. The gear boxes (and the motors) are mounted to the adaptor plate. The linear slides eliminate side to side backlash. We did this instead of pivoting the motor on a hinge.
Short list of hardware:
X Axis (short travel) = 34 frame Smart Motors connected to 30:1 gear boxes = 800 rapids
Y Axis (long travel) = 23 frame Smart motor connected to 10:1 gear boxes = 1500 rapids.
Z axis = Dynatorch precision ball screw actuator with a crash detector installed.
X & Y axes are running Atlanta Drive helical rack and pinion
Dynatorch’s Dash auto initial pierce height sensing system
Dynatorch’s Laser Locator for finding where you are on the plate.
X & Y axis slide on 1.5” Thomson rods with twin bearings (two bearings in one housing)
Esab’s Powercut 1500 Air plasma system with a PT-21 machine torch
Final assembly:
We built the table and painted it in about 2 weeks over 4 years ago. We decided in October of this year to finish our plasma system, but this time with a gantry. It took about 30 days of “phone calls, emails, internet searching, posting to cnczone, designing/ drawing, erasing, redrawing, redesigning….until we had a final design we were happy with. We sent our cad files to our laser guy (didn’t tell him what they were for!) and got them back the first week of November. It took us another three weeks to weld up the gantry, send it to powder coating, and assemble and program the setup. Our first cut was perfect! (it wouldn’t have been if not for several years of reading cnczone!). We cut a 4”x 4” square from 3/16” steel, and it measured 4.003 X 4.003. I had just guessed at a kerf width of .050”. we cut 3/16” parts all day long now with this machine and have virtually no dross (an occasional tap with a paint scrapper along the edge is all that needed).
Final thoughts…..
To tell the truth, I am sorry the project is finished. I had such a good time designing it and building it, but now it is in our shop foreman’s hands to use. We spent around 30k, including the plasma system but not counting labor. I probably couldn’t build another for less than 40k in parts, as some of the parts were bought 4 years ago, and some were internet findings, but we think we have a plasma system that is accurate and should last us a lifetime.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47pBQBio3VE"]YouTube- DynaMax plasma system[/ame]
Thanks Dynatorch and cnczone…….