A "SPINDLE OREINTATION FAILURE" errors can happen if orientating speed is not set correctly for the gear range the failure occurs. Here is a check list for what could be wrong:
Check Air (air pressure is required to lock the spindle during orientation)
Check that RPM of spindle is same for both M3 and M4
Check ORIENTATION FACTOR parameter
Check SPINDLE RPM OFFSET parameter
Test orientation in all ranges.
Has the spindle controller card or spindle drive been changed?
If the answer is yes, then start with setting up the zero speed offset of the signal.
It would depend on your spindle drive, each have their own method to balance the RPM so the speed is the same in M3 and M4 directions:
For GTK drives, there is an "balance" pot on the drive. Run the spindle in M3 and M4 directions at the same speed, turn the balance offset till they are the same in both directions.
For Baldor drives, the drive will need to be "Auto Tuned" The Fadal Maintenance manual will guide you through the autotuning procedure. This will calibrate the Spindle card's signal offset....
For other drives, refer to the Fadal Maintenance manual.
For the 527F control, set the Spindle RPM Offsets on SETP page 4 to calibrate the RPM scaling. See SETP document attached.
NOTE, Three things to be aware of when setting these values:
make sure the spindle % pot is not enabled (M49)
make the range desired is maintained. With the S# use the .1 or the .2 to force the range desired.
Do not use the RPM extremes for minimum and maximum RPMs. Keep RPM in a reasonable range to avoid clipping at high RPMs and lack of power at low RPMs. See the steps below for a 10,000 RPM mechanical high/low gear machine. The maximum spindle speed is 2500 RPM in low range, note do not use the maximum RPM in either range to avoid clipping of the maximum RPM.
1. Start with all 4 of the parameters set to 0. The offset value is in RPMs
2. In MDI: S300.1 M3 M49
(note the number of RPMs that are short and add this number to the LOW RANGE
0 OFFSET)
3. In MDI: S2400.1 M3 M49
(note the number of RPMs that are short and add this number to the LOW RANGE
HIGH OFFSET)
4. In MDI: S300.2 M3 M49
(note the number of RPMs that are short and add this number to the HIGH RANGE
0 OFFSET)
5. In MDI: S9000.2 M3 M49
(note the number of RPMs that are short and add this number to the HIGH RANGE
HIGH OFFSET)
Adjust the SETP parameter OREINTATION FACTOR to set the speed of the orientation.
If the orientation is too fast and quickly passes the latch, then the factor will need to be reduced. If it doesn't turn or too slowly, then the factor needs to be increased. Set for each spindle range, so if your machine has a high and a low range, the ORIENT FACTOR will need to be set for each range.
See the attached manual for setting this parameter for the 527F control. Here is the text from the manual:
The SETP parameter ORIENTATION FACTOR has two orientation factors can now be used for each spindle gear range. This allows for better orientation control in different gear ranges. Also there are two other parameters that can be adjusted, the TIMEOUT sets how many seconds before the orientation has to complete before
an error occurs.
The INCREMENTS allows for finer control of the factor. The default is 10, but if the INCREMENTS is set to 1, then the orientation factor is 10x finer, so a previous FACTOR=10 & INCREMENTS=10 can now be entered as a FACTOR=100 & INCREMENTS=1 This will result in the same RPM for orientation. But now allows for finer control of the factor, setting to FACTOR=105 & INCREMENTS=1 effectively allows for a finer RPM than when the increment was larger.
Step by Step instructions:
1) in MDI start the spindle in low range by entering: M3 S1000
2) in MDI orientate the spindle using: M19
3) If the spindle turns to slowly, then increase the LOW RANGE ORIENTATION FACTOR if the spindle turns too fast decrease the value. Here is the value to change:
4) in MDI start the spindle in high range by entering: M3 S6000
5) in MDI orientate the spindle using: M19
6) If the spindle turns to slowly, then increase the HIGH RANGE ORIENTATION FACTOR if the spindle turns too fast decrease the value. Here is the value to change:
