Documentation / User manual

Probing and finding the work zero

With a touch probe in the spindle, Studio finds an edge, a corner, a bore's or a boss's centre or the top face, and sets the work zero from it. The probe card checks the cycle against the setup before it starts, and the twin runs it as the machine would.

The probe card is in Setup, step Zero, under the jog keys. In 1.0 the probe card works on the twin. On a real machine, probe with the machine's own control.

Before you start

You need:

• the blank set up on the table (step Setup);
• the touch probe in the spindle (see The probe in the tool table);
• the spindle stopped.

The machine does not have to be homed: a cycle that finds the machine in an alarm or not homed resets and homes it first, and the card says so.

The probe in the tool table

1. In Setup, go to the step Tool.
2. In Tool, choose 3D probe Ø2 ball (stick-out 30, for edge finding).
3. Click Change tool.

Result: the probe card's first line, In the spindle, names the probe. When the spindle holds anything else, the card says to put the probe in first.

In a tool description the probe is written probe 2 L30: a 2 mm ball, 30 mm out of the holder.

Room above the blank: the Z budget

With Z at the top of its travel, the probe's tip has to clear the highest point of the setup: the blank's top, the vise's jaws or the clamps. Studio works this out for the tool in the spindle and for each tool in the tool table whenever the setup or the tools change. When a tool cannot get over the setup, the Setup step says how much it is short and suggests a shorter tool or a lower setup (clamps instead of the vise).

The probe card checks the same for the cycle: it moves the probe across at a safe height above the blank and the fixture, and shows that height in the checks.

The probe card

From the top:

• In the spindle: the probe, and whether it is calibrated (Calibrated with the time, or Not calibrated);
• Touch-probe cycles: the six cycles and the chosen one's fields;
• the checks;
• Show the path in 3D and Start probing….

After a cycle, the card shows its result instead (see Setting the work zero from what was found). Under the probe card is the Measure the part card, and under that the Reports card (see Inspection).

Number fields take the display unit, and in inches also fractions. A field that does not read turns red and says why (see Typing numbers).

The checks

The card checks the cycle while you set it up, before anything moves. Each check is green (✓), amber (!) or red (✕). Any red check keeps Start probing… grey.

When the twin follows a real machine, a red line says to probe there with the machine's own control.

Trying a cycle in the twin first

The checks come from a dry run: the twin works the cycle out without moving anything. Show the path in 3D draws its moves in the 3D view, in place of the program's path, until you leave the step.

Each touch goes the same way:

1. a protected move to the start (G38.3, F600);
2. a fast touch (G38.2, F300);
3. back off;
4. a slow touch (F20): the result is where this one touched.

Probing cycles

Choose a cycle, fill in its fields, and click Start probing…. Each cycle starts 3 mm from where it expects the face and searches 5 mm further. Depth is how far below the blank's top the ball's centre touches (3 mm unless you change it). Start: From the blank works from the blank in the setup; Given X Y starts from a point you give in work coordinates.

Edge

Finds one face of the blank. Which face: Left (X−), Right (X+), Front (Y−) or Back (Y+). Points: 1 point, or 2 points (the turn too), which also gives how far the blank is turned.

Result: Face X or Face Y, and with two points Turn.

Corner

Finds a corner from two faces. Which corner: Front left, Front right, Back left or Back right; Outside is the blank's corner, Inside a pocket's corner (give its place with Given X Y). From the corner is how far from the corner each face is touched (5 mm). 3 points (the turn too) touches the X face twice and also gives the turn.

Result: Corner X, Corner Y, and with three points Turn.

Bore and boss

Bore centre touches a bore from its middle outwards; Boss centre touches a boss from outside, over its top. Points: 4 points or 8 points. Diameter is the nominal size; empty takes it from a round blank. A block blank needs the diameter and Given X Y.

Result: Centre X, Centre Y and Diameter.

Top face

Z surface touches the top face once, at the blank's middle or at Given X Y.

Result: Surface Z.

Setting the work zero from what was found

The result card shows each value in machine and work coordinates, each touch, and how the probe's calibration was applied. When the blank is turned, it says by how much; you can set the setup's angle to it in the Setup step.

To make the result the work zero:

1. Click Set the zero…
2. Tick the axes to set. Axes the cycle did not measure cannot be ticked: a corner gives no Z. Result: the dialog shows the line it will send, for example G10 L2 P1 X-129.982 Y95.011.
3. Click Set as the G54 zero (or the work offset that was in use).

The zero lands on what was found: the face, the corner, the centre or the surface. Copy the program copies the lines the cycle sent. Measure again goes back to the fields.

Calibrating the probe on a ring gauge

A probe triggers a little after it touches (pretravel), and not the same in every direction. Calibrating on a ring gauge measures this, and later cycles are corrected by it.

1. Set the ring gauge on the table and choose Ring calibration.
2. Type Ring diameter as the ring's certificate says.
3. Position: From the blank (the tube's bore) when the ring is set up as the blank, or Given its centre.
4. Click Start calibrating… Result: Effective ball radius, XY pretravel, Three lobes and Ring centre.
5. Click Keep for this machine, or Don't keep.

The calibration belongs to the machine and to that ball diameter, and goes with the machine's world archive. A factory reset forgets it. Each result says which calibration it used. Until you calibrate, the card shows Not calibrated: a bore then measures two pretravels too large, and a boss two too small.

The machine keeps one calibration. When you put in a probe with another ball (a Ø0.5 stylus for small holes, say), the card shows Not calibrated and names the ball and ring the machine's calibration was made with: calibrate the new ball in the ring gauge. That calibration replaces the one before - back on the first ball, calibrate it again.

When a cycle stops

When a cycle cannot finish, the result card says why in red, the console logs it, and Measure again takes you back to the fields. The usual reasons:

• a touch met nothing within its search: the face is not where the cycle expected it. The controller raises ALARM:5;
• the probe touched something on the way to a touch: something stands where the blank should not be;
• the touches do not make a circle (bore, boss, ring).

After an alarm, follow the steps on the machine bar: Reset, then Unlock (see Alarms and what to do). The probe may stand anywhere when the cycle stopped: look at the 3D view before you jog.