Measure tools the smart way

Searching for the most accurate tools for the job is a familiar scenario in a production operation in Asia. Operators often times look for the right tools and its availability as a complete set or as individual components. Job shop operators usually encounter cumbersome tool lists that usually cannot be called up on screen when and where they are needed. There is not even clear annotation on tools for provision at the machine. Tool data are frequently still communicated manually, which is time-consuming and places great potential for mistakes to be made—not a cost-effective way of doing things.

Whilst large sums are being invested in high-tech machines and in increasingly greater  numbers  of  tools,  technically obsolete production operations tend to slip from the field of view. The vast potential for improving efficiency and cutting down on cost, all inherent in the modernisation of procedures of this kind, which all too often fails to get the recognition it merits. This then gives rise to high and non-verifiable costs for tools and their accessories, long periods of machine downtime and, through that, high tooling costs.

The acquisition of tools to the provision of tools and to their use on the machine are all based on a simple process, which can be organised simply and better with the help of an intelligent Tool Management system.

Reliable tool flow

Intelligent software modules such as the ZOLLER tool data management, inventory location  management and NC program management systems can guarantee, when used in conjunction with a ZOLLER measuring machine equipped with ?pilot 3.0? image processing, a simple and reliable flow of tools at the workplace.

The existing  CAD/CAM  system produces the NC program and, if necessary, performs tool collision detection. From this, the tool list (setting sheet) can be produced. Then, using the ZOLLER measuring machine with ?pilot 3.0?, the order-specific tools can be measured, checked and managed.

Simply better organised

The resultant tool list includes all the information required about tool, machine and workpiece. The  tool data are not communicated as they were previously using job progress cards or folders, but instead travel quickly and securely across the modern network. Meaning that they can be called up wherever they are required.

By means of the ZOLLER tool data and  inventory location  management functions, the complete tools or individual components needed can then be checked out and commissioned. The operator can also print out the commission list actually required for a given job.

Vast potential for cost-savings

The storage of tools as individual components offers vast potential for cost savings because expensive tools and accessories do not need to be available on multiple occasions in the form of complete tools. It is possible to gain a quick overview of the tools in circulation and the use to which tools are being put – on the machine, or with reference to a given job.

Fast production process

The production process is faster and more independent of the operator. The subsequent measuring and testing or inspection of tools is then a fully automated or a manual process. Data output – in an appropriate formaZoom Lebron XIV 14