Software for hardware: Tool Presetting

All images courtesy TDM Systems

Tool data management optimizes production resources and data.

We live in a digital age, and tool data management (TDM) is part of the digital revolution in the metalworking industry. TDM software can enhance productivity, quality and profitability in a variety of ways, many of which are obvious and immediate and others, less obvious, are no less far reaching and profound.

For starters, TDM software provides rapid responses to some of the most basic questions in manufacturing: What tool assemblies, tool items and related equipment are needed for an operation and where are they located? That’s no small matter, because the number and variety of tools, tool items and setup equipment present manufacturing plants with significant, and frequently time-consuming, selection and assembly challenges.

Not only is the needed equipment located in different places, but the data resides in different locations as well. Tool and setup data may be in the machine tool controller, tool presetter, toolcrib or, generally, in all three locations. Lacking an integrated and transparent system, this data has to be reentered once or more during the manufacturing process, possibly from loose data sheets and tool lists stored in folders, sometimes with significant variances between the documents. Needless to say, this is a time-consuming procedure, one rife with possibilities for error.

Integrated Database

TDM software addresses these challenges and more. With a TDM base module, users can create an integrated and transparent central database of tools and production resources that gives them the ability to save tool or manufacturer catalog data in a unified format at the item level, including 2-D graphics and 3-D models. This information then travels with the tools throughout the production process to wherever it is needed. There is no longer any time-consuming searching for or inputting data or troublesome data discrepancies.

Further functions range from efficient tool provisioning and procurement (with each tool and tool assembly linked to inventory and enterprise resource planning systems and supplier and pricing information) to tool optimization calculations to production planning and NC programming. In addition, the system contains logic to easily generate tool assemblies. With just a few mouse clicks, the programmer can obtain the desired tool assemblies along with stored technical data for NC programing and simulation.

Accurate simulation requires high-quality digital data on tools, as well as auxiliary components and fixtures. By interfacing its central database of tools and production resources with the CAD/CAM system, TDM permits the rapid and accurate transfer of that data. This grows increasingly important as ever more complex processing requires realistic 3-D models to identify interference contours and ensure manufacturing reliability. Not only does process reliability increase with accurate simulation, but so does productivity, because the entire planning process is optimized and supported from the onset, saving significant time.

Avoid Customization

Users should opt for a TDM system that offers standard interfaces for a broad range of CAD/CAM systems. Similarly, modules that offer standard interfaces with leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing execution system (MES) protocols—as well as widely used tool presetting systems, tool cabinets and tool vending machines—optimize the value of the central tool and resource database that TDM provides.