A manufacturer of precision industrial wood routers used in the production of custom routed wood and plastic parts needed to upgrade and improve its machines. From high-speed, sophisticated, CNC production routers to the inverted routers their equipment had made both production and custom woodworking tasks faster and easier, but now they wanted to raise the standard even higher. It was decided to consider a new design for a gantry wood router that would allow for larger work area over the existing moving table design and still work at very high speeds.
The cast-iron frame CNC router delivers feed rates of up to 6350cm per minute, full 3D capability, and only minimal footprints. The time-based look-ahead controls allowed for faster machining, with spindles that are fully programmable and top speeds of 24,000rpm.
To achieve the necessary control the Delta Tau UMAC (Universal Motion and Automation Control) 3U rack-based system was selected, with the MACRO (Motion and Control Ring Optical) fibre optic link to the operator’s console. It was chosen because it offered the best cost to performance solution that was available in the market. The fibre optic link reduced the wiring between the control console and the machine, thus increasing reliability and reducing labour costs allowing for fast machine commissioning at the customer’s location.
The clever Delta Tau’s unique way of placing the gantry axis in the same co-ordinate system allows for both motors to act as a single axis without following error. This ensures that the gantry tracks without binding and increases the accuracy of the system by eliminating following error between the two motors.
The powerful UMAC system controls all machine functions and communicates with the PC, which is running the Visual Basic and Delta Tau NC32 programmes. Because the system is PC based the ability to use Visual Basic (Microsoft trade mark) in conjunction with the NC 32 programme gives the ability to offer an interface specific to their machine, increase ease of use by customers and have the ability to do remote diagnostics via a modem.
Micromech Systems is an authorised systems integrator for Delta Tau high level multi-axis motion control products, if you wish to find out more about these controls then contact Sales on 01376 333333
‘Affordable Automation’