Alter speed/feed by tool number

Question

I need to use some new drills using unmodified original .MIN CNC programs for Okuma Thinc controller, MU6300V. I'm looking to use the Okuma API to detect when tool group 4 is loaded into the spindle and then alter the speed/feed when it drills. I am familiar with the API and .NET. Looking for some general guidance on objects/methods and approach.

If this is too difficult then I would settle for just modifying the feed rate when a G81 drill cycle is called for a tool in group 4.

Answer 1

The first part of your request is pretty straight-forward.

// Current Tool Number
Okuma.CMDATAPI.DataAPI.CTools.GetCurrentToolNumber();

// Group number of current tool
Okuma.CMDATAPI.DataAPI.CTools.GetGroupNo(CurrentToolNumber);

Altering the drill feed / speed will be more troublesome however.

You cannot set feed/speed overrides using the API.
That is, not without some additional hardware and special options.
Other people have done it actually.

Have you ever seen Caron Engineering's Tool Monitoring Adaptive Control?
Because I think that is essentially what you're asking for.

• https://www.caroneng.com/products/tmac

The only other option you have is altering your part program to look for common variable values to set spindle speed and/or feed rate.

For Example

Use one variable to determine if fixed or variable value should be used, and another for the variable value

That way, on a machine that has your old drills and no THINC Application altering common variables, the fixed values are used. But, on a machine that has the application, it can look at the tool number or group and set a common variable that determines specific speed/feed values. Then those new values are used before starting the spindle and moving into the cut.

The choices available for changing feed/speed after the machine has entered a cut or commanded the spindle to run are:

• Human operator at the control panel
• TMAC