VM-22 grabbing wrong tools and crashing parts!!
I purchased this machine new 2004 and when brand new it would occasionally lose track of what tool was in what holder after a power down. It was never remedied under warranty although I feel it should have had the warranty extended to cover this one problem since it has happened since delivery.
Today I went to double check the locations of all the tools after starting the VMC up and as usual, they were all wrong again. However, the BIG STINK today is that now it began doing this while the machine is running!
In other words, this morning tool 5 was changed out for tool 23 with an M6T23 while tool 5 was in the spindle and tool 23 was in pocket 4 on the carousel. I then called up another tool to do an operation and then called tool 23 back up only to get tool 14 or some crap like that~
The reason this is so dangerous is because say I'm running production parts all day long with four tool changes. In the past it would do exactly that, run perfectly until powered down. After being powered down it would sometimes lose track of the tools and if I fired up the machine the next morning running the SAME program on the SAME parts, it would load DIFFERENT TOOLS and crash, crush and destroy anything that gets it it's way.
This problem has cost me thousands of dollars in busted tooling and damaged parts in the past. Since my dealer couldn't find the problem back when it was new, I performed a work around by using MDI to load each tool in my carousel every morning to make sure the tool list in the parameters, matched the actual tools in each tool holder.
It was a huge waste of time but since no one could fix it under warranty, I had no other choice. But now with it doing it randomly throughout the day I can't use the tool changer AT ALL! I don't have the cash to pay my dealer $100 (edit: $100 an hour) to come out and not know what to do to fix it. I can't pay them to just guess over and over.
I'd like to attempt changing the parameter so that tool 1 always goes back to pocket 1, tool 2-pocket 2, etc. It makes the programs take a little longer to run during tool changes but it's the only thing I can think to try but no luck finding the parameter to toggle.
I'M DESPERATE, PLEASE HELP I NEED TO BE BACK UP AND RUNNING BY THURSDAY AT 3:00pm. My customer will be at the shop needing a special part finished then.
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