2. Caron Engineering Inc. was started in 1986 by founder and President
Rob Caron, PE, a licensed professional engineer
We have a strong electrical engineering background in both hardware
and software design
Our focus has always been to enhance the ability of any CNC machine by
providing advanced technology that can be added to existing machines
This advance tool monitoring and adaptive control system was
first developed by Caron Engineering Inc. in 1989
We have continued to enhance the product over the years using
our extensive CNC control experience and the excellent feedback
from our customers
TMAC is now a world class system allowing customers to better
understand and control their cutting tools
3. • Maximizes tool life by monitoring power, not guessing with
cycle count or time in cut
• Reduces cycle time with Adaptive Control
• Immediately stops any CNC machine and retracts the spindle
when a tool breaks to minimize damage
• Newly developed “multi process” technology can monitor
several cutting programs simultaneously
• Ability to monitor extremely small tools (0.1mm) with several
available sensor types
• Increase unattended “lights out” operation with remote
notification of alarms
• Has the ability to use power, strain and vibration sensors
4. Spindle
Motor
Measures true power
Electrically sums the current
and voltage reference
Provides a 0-10 Volt signal
respective of the power
Can be set to any power range Spindle
from 2-90 HP (1.5-67 kw) Drive
(standard)
5. • Power is linear over the range of the motor,
providing a very stable and accurate indicator of
spindle motor
• Current, is non-linear over the range of the
motor due to power factor
• Most tool monitors provided by machine tool
builders measure current
KW(HP) AMPS Power
6 30 Current (Amps)
5 25
4 20
3 15
2 10
1 5
0 0
0% 50% 100%
Motor Load
7. • Monitors true power instead of current as most
CNC load monitors do
• Measures the power of a new tool during a cut
• Determines whether a tool is worn or broken
by comparing the cutting power to user
programmed limits
• Adaptive control overrides the feed rate
automatically to maintain constant power
during cutting
8. TMAC8 works on the simple concept that the power used by a tool
increases as it gets dull
• Retract the tool
• For a tap (some
machines) unwind out
Power
of material
• Send email or text
Extreme
message to
Wear E appropriate person
X • Stop after cutting
Learned W T • Call redundant tool
E R
A E • Not enough power
Undercut
M was achieved
R
E • Any action that can
be taken for Wear
Part # 1 10 15 20 25 28 29 and Extreme limits
9.
10. A machine like this can have (3)
tools cutting simultaneously
requiring (3) separate monitoring
processes
11.
12. • The TMAC-MP system was designed to run in the Linux
environment providing a very expandable system
• Each TMAC process is initiated by running an instance of a TMAC
application, allowing any number of TMAC processes to be spawned
• Sensors can connected via Ethernet, USB, RS232, Analog or digital
• The sensor processes can also be expanded and communicate all
sensor data to a common shared memory area
• Digital and Ethernet I/O are also expandable and communicate to
and from shared memory
• Using the shared memory scheme, any TMAC process can look at
any sensor and communicate to any I/O (digital or Ethernet)
13. Any process can be adaptively
controlled with TMAC-MP
Adaptive control allows the user to
program or learn a the power for
each tool and the system will adjust
the feedrate to maintain this level.
This technique especially useful for
the milling tools but can be used
on all types of tool. It can reduce
cycle time and extend tool life
14. The system can have our standard multi-range power sensor for each
spindle motor on the machine. This includes live tooling as well.
The power sensor changes its sensitivity based on how light or heavy
the cut is for each tool
6.03 HP Cut 0.007 HP Cut
15.
16. New sensors are available for TMAC-MP
• Micro Tool strain gauges
• Allow very small tools to be monitored (0.1mm drill)
• Can monitor very small boring bars taking light cuts
• Embedded in the tool holder
• Static (non-rotating) tools only
• Accelerometers
• Monitor vibration in (3) axes
• Small footprint allows easy mounting
• Useful for monitoring
• Spindle bearings
• Bar vibration
• Machine impact
• Tool vibration
• Also includes a temperature sensor
17. All micro tools are hardwired to
TMAC-MP and are embedded in the
tool holder
0.15 mm Drill
1mm Boring Bar
(0.08mm depth of cut)
18. • Measures vibration in 3 axes
• Measures temperature
• Can be used to monitor
• Tools
• Bearings
• Machine crashes
• Temperature variations
• The sensor can be monitored in the
background and can retain excessive impact
data for later analysis
• Small size (40mm x 16mm x 6mm)
19. Each Spindle
Motor/drive
combination PC
Power Sensor
ETHERNET
Power Sensor I/O ETHERNET TMAC-MP ETHERNET
Fanuc control
Processor System
Micro/Sensors
USB
Accelerometers
Power Sensor
USB
20. Many coolant flow/pressure sensors can be used.
The user sets the minimum flow/pressure allowed
per tool
If the coolant flow/pressure drops below this
level, an alarm is generated
All coolant flow/pressure is also graphed and can
be reviewed with TMAC Viewer
A variety of flow/pressure transducers are available
depending on the maximum pressure and
minimum flow rate to be monitored
21. Each TMAC process has the ability to monitor power, strain or
vibration for any tool. Each sensor works on the same principle that
as the tool wears the signal will increase
Power Monitor
Vibration Monitor
Micro Tool
For each type of monitoring there is a wear limit(yellow) and an
extreme limit(red) that can be used. Also, an undercut limit(blue)
can be used to determine if the tool is missing
22. • By measuring the actual cutting load in real-time, the system can
adjust the feedrate to maintain a constant load throughout the cut
• This allows the tool to cut at its optimum load and also reduce air
cutting
• Any variation in the cutting environment such as material, tooling
and even coolant delivery will be compensated for
• Feedrate adjustments are made constantly and in small increments
(1% of the programmed feedrate) to allow a smooth adjustment
23. Historical data can be
viewed and analyzed
Data can be exported to
programs like Excel for
more advanced analysis
All data is data and time
stamped and shows any
alarms that occurred
24. TMAC MP is a complete solution for monitoring
both the tools and the machine with the ability
to adapt to changing cutting conditions
Your profitability will be increased by:
• Increased machine utilization by decreasing
or eliminating broken tools.
• Higher machine efficiency with adaptive
control
• Less scrap and lower overall tooling costs
• Attainable unattended “lights out”
production
