Page 79 - Fall 2023 EDM Today

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Warning
Q: Our Elox 12-3816 machine has developed a small
leak in the hydraulic cylinder. It is not too bad, maybe
The PMAC is somewhat unforgiving when
only one cup of oil per week. At this rate, we only need
entering text into the system. Unlike other
to add a very small amount of hydraulic oil every six
software tools, there is no undo button.
Be very careful when entering text as not to make any
work tank. Is this bad? Will we damage our EDM oil,
typing mistakes.
or cause other problems? If so, at what point will it
The fi rst command to enter is the defi nition of the months. Unfortunately, the oil is dripping into our
become a problem?
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compensation table. The format is:
DEFINE COMP {entries], source, target, count length
A: Unlike solid particulate, hydraulic oil cannot be fi ltered
Entries is simply the number of measurements. In the
out of your EDM oil. EDM and hydraulic oil are not com-
example above for the X-80, there are 41 entries, with
patible and should not be mixed. As the concentration of
the fi rst being zero.
hydraulic oil increases, you will see a deterioration of your
Source is #2, the Y-axis
cut stability and your metal removal rate will decline. This
degradation in stability and cut rate will increase as the
Target is #3, the Z-axis
Count length is the total feedback counts that represent
I can speak from fi rst-hand knowledge of this. I once was
the travel of the Y-axis. If a linear scale is used, it is likely
at an aerospace facility in New Jersey demonstrating a
that it is a 1µm machine tool scale. This has 25,400 amount of contamination increases.
power supply. Their maintenance department inadver-
counts per inch. For this example, the count length is
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tently dumped a drum of hydraulic fl uid into their central
1,016,000 (40 x 25400).
EDM fi lter system. The oil turned to a color that looked like
Immediately following the DEFINE COMP statement
chocolate milk. We tried cutting with it, but the cut was so
should be the data. The data must be entered in units that
unstable as to be useless.
represent 1/16 counts. This is required due to the PMAC’s
1/T interpolation capability.
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Table 1
IN THE COUNTRY WHEN
Excel Sheet Showing Corrections
YOU NEED EXTRA CAPACITY
It is suggested to use an Excel spreadsheet to deter-
mine the number. Table 1 shows the fi rst fi ve entries
in the table. Column C is 25400 x column B. Column C
does several things:
1. It multiplies column B by 16.
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2. It inverts polarity. This is the correction that must
be applied to compensate for the error. If the polarity
is not fl ipped, you will fi nd that the error doubles.
3. It takes the integer. You can only enter whole num-
bers, no fractions.
After the last data point is entered, the data entry is
complete, there are two more steps. Set I51 to 1 to
enable compensation tables. Then type SAVE into the
ISO 9001:2015 Certifi ed
PMAC terminal window to save the data.
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Once the data is in, the suggestion is to cycle power
and rehome the machine. You should now see that • Wire EDM Services • Small Hole EDM
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you can move with cross-axis compensation applied
and the errors should be corrected.
77
EDM Today, Fall 2023 Issue