Digital CNC benefits available for analogue users

An analogue version of Heidenhain's iTNC 530 CNC provides uers of analogue driven machine tools a cost-effective route to enhanced productivity, while benefitting from existing knowledge.

Users of analogue driven machine tools now have a cost-effective route to enhanced productivity, while continuing to benefit from their existing knowledge.

This follows the introduction of an analogue version of Heidenhain's popular iTNC 530 CNC control.

Until now this control system has only been available on machines equipped with digital drive technology or by replacing existing analogue drives and motors on machines already in the field.

This is no longer the case thanks to the ongoing development program at Heidenhain, and one of the first companies in the UK to take advantage of this development is Peak Precision Engineering.

Having recently acquired a used Boko multi-axis machining centre, the Stalybridge, UK-based sub-contractor seized the opportunity to not only refurbish the mechanical side of the machine but to add CNC control to the machine's quill through the addition of a secondary Z-axis (or W-axis).

"Once we had purchased the machine and invested in having the head rebuilt and the ballscrews refurbished, it seemed a sensible option to complete the process by upgrading the control," says Peak Precision Engineering's managing director Geoff Mullan.

"The new combination of a rotary B-axis and the quill's W-axis in effect gives the machine a full five-axis capability and has brought a machine with restricted capabilities into another dimension".

"Now that we have this additional capacity we are able to bring in-house the machining of a number of major aerospace components that we have just won the contracts to produce." Making this happen is Boko specialist and Heidenhain approved TNC control retrofitter, Nutech Machinery Services.

"Having assessed the situation it was decided that the most cost-effective option was to install the analogue version of Heidenhain's iTNC 530 control," Nutech's Bob Spooner explains.

"The process of changing over is relatively simple and the condition of the existing drives and motors did not warrant their replacement".

"As the machine was already mechanically configured as a five-axis machine, the addition of the W-axis and the processing speed of the new control fully justified the upgrade." Prior to the introduction of this control in February of this year the only option would have been to replace the drives and motors in order to accept the digital signals from the standard iTNC 530.

Now, users can keep their existing analogue drives and motors while enjoying a full range of benefits previously available only on brand new machines.

Nutech Machinery Services simply added a new drive, motor and linear scale measuring system to the quill axis (W) in order to take full advantage of the iTNC 530's capabilities.

A powerful contouring control, the operation of which will be familiar to anyone who has worked on a TNC control over the past 20 years, the iTNC 530 can provide up to 10 control loops (axes) within a block processing time of as little as 0.5 milliseconds.

Other benefits include reduced cycle times courtesy of closed-loop control methods; fast editing of programs through the on-board editor system; and fast transfer of large data files using the Ethernet data interface that processes information at up to 100 megaBaud.

Retrofitting the new control is a straightforward process and can be carried out during a machine's annual maintenance shutdown.

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