5 Upgrades to Consider for Your CNC Machine
If you have a CNC machine, you may want to look into machinery upgrades. The right upgrades can prolong the life of your equipment, help you avoid repairs and save money compared to buying new equipment. Here are some of the CNC machinery upgrades you may want to consider.
1. Safety Updates
Overtime, manufacturers make machines safer, and if your CNC machinery is old, it may not have some of the latest safety upgrades. Additionally, workplace safety codes change over time. Talk with a machinery upgrade specialist to see if they can upgrade your equipment so that it meets current safety codes and manufacturing standards.
2. Parts Replacement
You should also talk with the machinery upgrade specialists about adjusting and refining the metal components of your CNC machine. That includes ballscrews, servo motors, gears, spindles and other parts. You can upgrade these parts to stronger metals or more precise shapes, or you can simply have them replaced as needed if they're worn.
3. Rotobic Tender Integration
In addition to replacing certain parts, you may want to upgrade your CNC machine so that it has robotic tender integration. Essentially, if you integrate a robot, the robot notices when certain parts need to be replaced. Then, you load those parts into a tote, and you feed the parts toward the machine on a conveyor belt. At that point, the robot removes the old parts, installs the new parts and sends back the old parts.
4. Self-Cleaning Components
Some robots can also help with cleaning parts of your CNC machine. Robots with self cleaning components have on-board air nozzles. Then, they train the air on the metal parts to remove dust and debris.
5. Software Upgrades
You shouldn't just upgrade the material components of your CNC machine. You should also upgrade the software. There is productivity boosting software that can help to optimise your processes. It can work with robot integration or on its own to improve what your machine is doing.
The software should be able to follow the wear and tear of different components. Then, it should adjust the drive behind each component to ensure it's working to the best of its ability. For instance, parts that are starting to wear out, may need a bit more power or speed from the motor. The software should also engage damping filters and link processing parameters with key change triggers. That all helps to streamline communication between the software and the machinery and to improve productivity on the work floor.