Demanding optical load: General Industry Coverage

To effectively activate its adaptive spindle load function, an adaptive machine tool control must know the exact cutting tool position and feed before the tool enters the cut. That’s because there is no load when the tool is not cutting, and, if activated early, the adaptive feed rate will increase until the spindle load increases, or, if activated late, the tool will have already engaged the part.

“Either way, you’re not in the best position unless the control has some load at the time the adaptive control system is turned on,” said Jerry Scherer, application engineer for FANUC Factory Automation (FA) America.

That’s where the control manufacturer’s recently patented CNC adaptive control for on-demand integrated adaptive control comes into play, which it developed to increase machine tool productivity with the FANUC iAdaptS adaptive control.

Courtesy of FANUC FA America

FANUC FA America developed the on-demand system for use with its iAdaptS adaptive control.

On-demand’s main benefit is the user does not need to know where the part is nor the feed rate to activate adaptive control, Scherer noted. In other words, on-demand automatically turns on the adaptive control when needed. It does this by measuring the current value of the spindle load during machining, and when it is greater than the current value of the target spindle load, it will automatically turn on the adaptive control, according to the company. Conversely, when the spindle load drops below the target spindle load, it will automatically turn off the adaptive control.