CNC Retrofits
The iron still cuts. The control is what is tired.
You call because the control on a grinder, a lathe, or a mill is old, and the part you need for it is no longer something you can buy. The iron is often fine. The control is what is tired. The screen locks up, a move faults, and the operator cannot see why. Production is waiting on electronics the builder stopped supporting.
Before a new control goes on, we look at the machine. The iron has to still hold a cut. The motors and drives have to still be good, feedback included, or a new control is going on a tired axis. The spindle drive gets the same look. The wiring has to be something a new control can land on. What the machine has to make, and how the floor runs it, decides the rest.
The control we put on is Beckhoff TwinCAT. The motion is easier to work with, and you can see what the machine is doing, without throwing out a machine that still cuts. We set it up for the machine you have, from a 2-axis mill to a lathe or a router, and we leave room to add to it later. Motion, the screen, the diagnostics, the safety, and the data live in one system. You should not be jumping between three software packages to run one machine.
If the motors and drives are still good, we leave them.
If the iron is fine and the motors and drives are still good, we leave them and we change the control. Servo drives that are still sound stay connected. The control has to know where the axes are and stop them where the job needs. The screen is for the person running the machine, and when a move fails the reason is on that screen.
We program the TwinCAT control, tie it to the motors and drives that stayed, and run the machine with the people who will use it. The faults get worked until the moves and the stops match the job. We have spent time on the floor. We leave documentation, we train the people who will run it, and we answer the phone when something does not make sense.
You should get smoother motion and a tighter, faster cycle, without being locked into one expensive control brand. The point is a machine that is down less, easier to work on, and able to take the next job. If you need to watch the machine from somewhere else, check a part automatically, or run with less of a person standing there, we can build that in.
If the mechanics are gone, a new control will not put that back. We are not there to sell you a new machine. We are there to make the one you have run better, and to leave it in shape for the years ahead. One machine is usually enough to see if it was worth it. A retrofit still needs motion and a controller the floor can run. How we go about the work is in our note on CNC retrofits.