See What Lights-Out Machining Looks Like

Lights-out machining doesn’t have to be scary when you develop a reliable process using advanced technology. Photo Credit: Caron Engineering

Establishing an unattended machining process that you’re confident will run reliably throughout the evening when nobody’s around can be a challenge. In booth 135736 in the well-lit East building, Caron Engineering demonstrates technology that, when combined, can offer peace of mind when shutting off the lights and heading home for the evening.

There you can see a live demonstration of a Tsugami TMA8 turn-mill from Tsugami America (formerly Tsugami-REM Sales) with a cobot from Universal Robots prepped for lights-out production. This includes Caron’s ToolConnect tool data management system which reads and processes tool-presetter-written RFID tags and 2D-printed barcode tags to automatically update tool information directly to the machine’s CNC; TMAC adaptive tool monitoring system designed to optimize cutting by measuring tool wear and detecting breakage in real time; DTect-IT Software that extracts data from a Blum-Novotest scanning probe that analyzes the surface of the part and determines any dimensional anomalies to ensure consistent part quality; a Blum-Novotest LC50 Digilog laser that automatically measures rotating tools; MiConnect Technology flowchart-style programming that controls the interaction between the turn-mill’s CNC; and AutoComp Software which automatically processes the measurement data from a Sylvac Scan25 vision gage to calculate and compensate offsets in the machine’s control.

The moral of this story: If you want to make bank machining, don’t be afraid of the dark.