R-30iB steel beam plasma cutter

    Hello and happy new year!

    i have an R-30iB 45kg payload fanuc robot (with profinet software package and wago profinet i/o) and i want to make a plasma steel beam cutter.

    Something like this in this video (not the same but something similar)

    External Content www.youtube.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    From first view i think to use a plc to handle the conveyor with optical sensors and when beam is in the right place

    start the stored program in robot from plc to do the cut.

    My question is how can i do the offline programing of fanuc robot ? robodk? roboguide?

    In cad software must load 3d cad files of steel beams witch are typical for beams of the same type

    and design the cuts in these 3d cut files.

    Also how can i do torch height control ?

    Torch height control works by measuring the arc voltage and correcting the distance of torch from steel in realtime.

    If i was only in x-y plane not 3d cut torch height control can be done with an external from robot independent small linear axis the has its own control and motor

    but in case of 3d cut this must be done from robot..

    Any idea how to do this ?

    Thank you.

    I've done this before. At least a prototype.

    External Content www.youtube.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    Quote from javaman

    My question is how can i do the offline programing of fanuc robot ? robodk? roboguide?

    Either of those would work. You could also write or use an existing post processor for any of the CAM packages out there. I did that for Fusion 360. Looking at the beam cut website, it looks like they rolled their own software.

    Quote from javaman

    Also how can i do torch height control ?

    You could either mount a small servo inline with the torch on the faceplate and have it control the torch height, or feed the error of the signal back to the robot via some means and use the dynamic path option to correct the path in real time.

    Quote from javaman

    Any idea how to do this ?

    Modern higher end plasma cutters have automation interfaces, so shouldn't be too bad.

    Check out the Fanuc position converter I wrote here! Now open source!

    Check out my example Fanuc Ethernet/IP Explicit Messaging program here!

    Not on that ABB. If you are cutting thick enough steel, you don't really need to.

    On the Fanuc, like I stated before, you either use an inline servo to the torch, or use DPM (Dynamic Path Modification), a Fanuc option.

    Most modern torches will output something like an analog voltage for torch height. Feed that into an analog input card, and use DPM to correct on tool Z while cutting.

    Check out the Fanuc position converter I wrote here! Now open source!

    Check out my example Fanuc Ethernet/IP Explicit Messaging program here!

    I think is more complicated...

    In this video shows that robot does 3D laser scan the steel beam before cutting and recalculates the path.

    External Content www.youtube.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    How this is done ?

    Doesn't look too bad. If you want to do it with a single laser, it would be something like this:

    1. Move to a point on the beam to cut with a laser TCP, measure position.

    Goto 1 until whole path is measured.

    2. Check if any of the data is too far out. Fault if so.

    3. Apply delta of measurement to the ideal path, probably in tool Z.

    4. Run cut path.

    This, combined with DPM, should result in a pretty accurate cut path.

    Check out the Fanuc position converter I wrote here! Now open source!

    Check out my example Fanuc Ethernet/IP Explicit Messaging program here!

Advertising from our partners