A 5-axis wireless, indexing tombstone

KME CNC developed a 5-axis tombstone 8 years ago for horizontal machining centers that allows milling on five or more sides of a workpiece and on four different platters in a single setup. Recently, the company unveiled a version that requires no wires, cables or any type of connection, making it easier to move parts in and out of a machine.

“Even though we were pleased with our cable management, a lot of our customers wanted to go to lights-out or create better unattended machining processes,” said Robert Reynolds, director of sales at KME CNC. “We wanted to create a product that would allow operators to utilize more than one machine tool at a time and give them a competitive advantage by decreasing setup times while increasing accuracy and repeatability.”

The wireless 5-axis tombstone from KME CNC allows an operator to drive each 5-axis platter independently or simultaneously, resulting in less scrap and setup time and tighter tolerances. Image courtesy KME CNC.

Each of the tombstones has an independent “brain,” according to Reynolds. “It’s a smart tool that can accept information and then act on it,” he added. “This is a radio-frequency-address-based system that works with a transmitter/receiver module (TRM). Each tombstone has an independent address, and the transponder has an understanding of the address. Essentially, the transponder can talk to any machine tool through G code. An individual TRM can recognize multiple discrete addresses and control the tombstones as they become available in the system.”