BETTER PRODUCTION Shops Using Technology
106 MMS August 2017 mmsonline.com
tooling within the machining space, and this is why
Magnolia included Blum's probes and lasers.
"Tom said, 'You can't realize your investment if
you're going to continue an old-fashioned way of
picking up parts and setting tools with jig blocks,'"
Mr. Johns says.
The Blum probe reduces the time it takes to set
up a workpiece in the machine tool and can also
be used to verify dimensions once the workpiece
has been cut. The machine's coordinate system
indicates the position of the workpiece within the
its work envelope and records this location in the
control's part parameters. This information, along
with tool dimension data, indicates exactly where
the part is and how it is orientated in the machine.
The Blum laser oper-
ates similarly, but it uses
light to measure the tool
w h i l e i t i s rot ati n g at
actual cut ting speed.
This reduces setup time
and can also be used
after a cut to ensure the
to o l i s n ot b ro ke n o r
wo r n. A ny c h a n g e i n
length, radius or corner
radius is automatically
updated in the control,
ensuring accurate cuts.
M a g n o l i a e m p l oye e s
simply eyeball placement
of the probe close to the
part, hit the start button,
and let the probe auto-
matically come down and
confirm the part's loca-
tion within seconds.
"Now when we make
a par t, it's per fect the
f ir st time," Mr. Johns
says. "In one 10-hour
day, three machinists
might go through one to
five different jobs each,
so it's a lot of in and out,
a lot of setup time."
T h e B l u m c o m p o -
nents are the new work-
horses at Magnolia, he
says. "If you're running
40 parts, you can tell it:
'After three parts, take
the probe and confirm
this part.' The tolerance
g e ts re c o rd e d i n th e
Blum-Novotest Inc., call 859-344-6789
or visit blum-novotest.us.
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