Assuming 1 hour per shift is spent on tool setting, five machines operating two shifts at an hourly shop rate of $75 costs the shop approximately $189,000 annually (10 hours a day × $75 per hour × 252 days a year). The math is fairly straightforward, he said. Read/write RFID tags automate the tool-offset entry process. It takes a little digging to actually understand how much time is spent manually setting tools and what impact that has on shop throughput and profitability.” “Part of the problem is resistance to change, and part is because the benefits of presetting are somewhat intangible. have not embraced presetting to the extent of those in Europe,” said Drew Strauchen, vice president of marketing and business development at Haimer USA LLC, Villa Park, Ill. So why continue to do it when an offline presetter saves time?
Most machine tool accessory suppliers will tell you that the majority of shops still set tool-length offsets the old-fashioned way: By touching off each tool one at a time and manually keying in values-hopefully without fat-fingering one along the way.Įven on CNC lathes, most of which have a probe arm that allows the operator to simply touch off tools in the X and Z axes, tool setting might consume 3 to 5 minutes per tool-time that’s better spent making parts.
