New control software, significantly improving the ability to provide high speed production and die mould type machining in three, four or five-axes, features the latest CNC miller/driller.
New control software, significantly improving the ability to provide high speed production and die mould type machining in three, four or five-axes as well as precision milling and drilling for electrode, aluminium, steel and hard metal components, extends the capability of the Fanuc Robodrill Alpha T21i which is launched at MACH 2004, by 600 Centre of Shepshed near Loughborough, in D-Series guise. Robodrills have progressed from the 1970's to become an international top-seller by combining a high speed, short-cycling capability with the latest control and drives development from Fanuc to achieve high positioning accuracies and precision surface contours. Indeed, with the launch of the T21iD, rapid traverse rates of 54m/min are achieved with an acceleration of 1.5G, 1.8 secs chip-to-chip for the 21 tool position magazine and a choice of 10,000 or 20,000 revs/min spindle, define the potential for highest levels of productivity.

Available in three versions, all with Z-axis travel of 330mm, the ultra-compact D-Series has 300mm travel in X and Y with a 630mm by 330mm table.

The standard D has a 500mm X-axis and 400mm Y-axis with 650mm by 400mm table and the DL, extended capacity version, has 700mm in X with 400mm in Y and an 850mm by 410mm table.

Software improvements to the Fanuc 16i-MB control abound in the D-Series such as Fanuc's optional Auto Intelligence (AI) contour control and nano contour technology which uses RISC processor to read up to 600 blocks in advance.

This capability enables precise control of acceleration/deceleration without variation of feed rate giving a continuous ultra-smooth surface texture.

A jerk control option, with automatic feed rate control at a corner, reduces mechanical shock and, high resolution is achievable through the latest fast response servo motor developments introducing an ultra-precision pulse coder of 16 million pulses per rev.

For five-axis type applications, tool centre point control ensures the command path and feed rate is maintained while tool radius compensation during table rotation negates the need for part program change.

Thermal displacement compensation in the Z-axis is carried out in 'real time ' by monitoring the operational status of the spindle and predicting any elongation along the vertical axis while tool monitoring and tool life control is standard.

As part of the extended capability of the latest Robodrill, deep hole drilling can be performed to create precision holes as small as 0.1mm diameter to a depth some 30 times the hole diameter.

To help improve performance for deep hole drilling with small tools and high speed milling, the standard 5.5kW spindle delivers 10,000 revs/min but a faster 3.7kW 20,000 revs/min high speed option ensures higher productivity and cutter security.

Both spindle types have BT30 taper and through coolant is an option.

High speed rigid tapping at up to 6,000 revs/min is standard with a quick, 20 times override tap extraction rate.

Fast setting and changeover is helped by new control features such as set-up file able to hold 30 sets of program data with automatic initialisation.

A quick editor using the full screen display operates in similar vein to a PC with functions such as copy, move, search and cursor jump.

Meanwhile, a custom PMC function allows simple control of peripheral devices giving fast programming and editing on the 10.4in full colour LCD screen.