WFL Mill-Turn Machines

[Guest]

Hello SolidCam team,

have somebody of you ever done a PP for the WFL M150 (or any WFL machine) Mill-Turn machine with controller Siemens? The thing is, I can push out GibbsCam from one oil&gas factory for programing this one specific machine (and GibbsCam is for now in the stage of development of PP for about a month), but I need 100% finished PP to show them the power of SolidCam and the time savings in programming. Of course, my reseller can build one. But the way of creating and debugging is quite painful and it takes time(Maybe is one already done on SalesForce, I don't know and haven't asked for it now). The goal is to have some experience with this machine/controller specifics. The machine has gone thru retrofit from the WFL factory (mechanical page) but the controller is about 15 years old. So there is a quite big chance that somebody has solved it already. The kinematics of the machine is the main spindle S1 /C1; Upper head X1 Y1 Z1 B1 S3/C3 U1; on the carriage (Z1 axis) behind the upper head is a big vibration-dumped boring bar dia 220mm max load out 1460mm X1 Z1 (machine is single-channel, you just pick up the workgroup upper head/main spindle, or boring bar/main spindle); tailstock and one steady rest. I'm aware that the U axis is not supported for now, but as I read here on the forum the news about SC22 this future will come soon for end-users (hope in may for release). And the next great futures will come in Sc23 (can´t wait for it, especially one project with multiple machines)

Best Regards

John

[BestLoveAnran]

Hi there, we have a sucessful project on M65. I am in China, where are you?

[MillTurnBr]

Hello SolidCam team,

. I'm aware that the U axis is not supported for now, but as I read here on the forum the news about SC22 this future will come soon for end-users (hope in may for release). And the next great futures will come in Sc23 (can´t wait for it, especially one project with multiple machines)

Best Regards

John

We have WFLs M80, M120 and M150, all with U-Axis, and there are many things on SC that makes it adequate for these machines.

The only reason we're not programming them on SC yet is because we started our implementation last year and we have several other PPs defined as priority as we deploy the software and go through the learning curve. We plan to touch the WFLs next year.

That said, we already communicated to developers that support for U axis mounted on a rotary axis (U1 on B1) is important for the future, but I'm not sure if this support will be available in the very first release with U axis support, 2022.

Mounting a collinear axis on the end of a rotary axis brings several challenges, specially in machine simulation. We know that because we developed WFL U-axis support with CGTech, the makers of VERICUT.

My understanding is that support of U axis on horizontal or vertical milling machines is the initial target for SC 2022.

[Guest]

Hello Lu and Daniel,

unfortunately, the client opted for GibbsCam due to an unsupported U axis in SC it is a crucial thing for them. Anyway, Lu. Are you using in PP WFL cycles for programing machine-like TLCH / TLPRER and other WFL cycles? Or is there a possibility to go with PP on clean siemens, due to the 15Y old controller is everything a little bit complicated (going on with WFL cycles for now). BTW. I can't see the attached JPG because I am not a member of the forum (only resellers can see and log in to the forum and for the question, I am from the Czech Republic / Europe).

Daniel, I can't wait for the next release of SC, the new toolkit from SC21 is a great thing for this type of machine. And many other things which push SC miles forward. Hope that the developers won't lose the drive.

Best Regards
John

[MillTurnBr]

Hello Lu and Daniel,

unfortunately, the client opted for GibbsCam due to an unsupported U axis in SC it is a crucial thing for them. Anyway, Lu. Are you using in PP WFL cycles for programing machine-like TLCH / TLPRER and other WFL cycles? Or is there a possibility to go with PP on clean siemens, due to the 15Y old controller is everything a little bit complicated (going on with WFL cycles for now). BTW. I can't see the attached JPG because I am not a member of the forum (only resellers can see and log in to the forum and for the question, I am from the Czech Republic / Europe).

Daniel, I can't wait for the next release of SC, the new toolkit from SC21 is a great thing for this type of machine. And many other things which push SC miles forward. Hope that the developers won't lose the drive.

Best Regards
John

Hi John,

Sorry for the late reply... Saw your post only now...

It's not possible to go clean Siemens with WFLs... The secret of their capabilities lies on their OEM cycles...

[Guest]

Hello Daniel,

can you send me your contact? We are dealing with great issues on the WFL machine and we don't know if we are doing something wrong or if there is a problem with the machine. Friendly company has M80 and they say there is a problem with the machine, just want to double-check if we are doing something wrong or not.
if you will be so kind as to contact me via email at [email protected] I have some questions about how are you dealing with some cases.

John