We are a small shop in the Midwest, and are interested in going lights out with our Swiss CNC operations. We think it could benefit our productivity greatly, but logically we are very concerned about safety issues. Some shops have said great things about running machines unattended, but I’ve also heard horror stories about fires or other things going wrong. What measures should I take to make sure lights out operations run smoothly? I’m worried I won’t be able to sleep at night while the machines are running solo.
Shop Doc Forum » CNC Swiss
Safety issues when running lights out
(9 posts) (7 voices)-
Posted 2 years ago #
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Some CNC machines have reporting software that can notify you at home via phone or e-mail the moment any type of failure occurs. A Web cam might provide some peace of mind as well.
Posted 2 years ago # -
We've been doing this for 15 years mostly successfully. Obviously we don't try jobs that are not in control, but nominally we might try to run 2 or 3 times the size of the regular lot sizes. That gets us two to four extra hours of production. If the job has been in control for 10 hours why not risk some material for the reduced overhead. We can sometimes have an operator there during the daytime and they might miss and make bad parts. I guess it depends on the operators.
Posted 2 years ago # -
True, it depends on the operators somewhat. And, as you say, you can have part failures when the machines are monitored as well. If you're seeing some level of success with unmanned machining during the day shift, it stands to reason you can replicate that at night.
Posted 2 years ago # -
We have been running our swiss machines lights out for 15 years. The parts must have a proven history to them. Even now on proven parts they must run good for at least 6 hours during the manned shift before we will even think about going lights out. Brass, aluminum and some 303 stainless are prime materials. On your older machines you can wire in or have a service tech wire in an auto dialer to the alarm circuitry. Auto dialers can be picked up at any Radio Shack. Set the A/P off before you leave and most machine alarms will shut the machine down, thus sending the signal to the autodialer to front line the phone line and call the preset telephone number.
It will help you sleep better at night knowing if the machine is running or not.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Agreed, if a part is running predictably during the shift then it's a good candidate for lights out. And automating a shutdown and alert system is simple enough. Like so many things in life, it just requires actively engaging the range of options out there to see success.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Agreed, if a fart is smelling predictably during the shit then it's a good candidate for lights out. And automating a shit and fart system is simple enough. Like so many things in life, it just requires actively engaging the range of options out there to smell success.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Very true, Masterssullivan, very true. Not sure I get the scatalogical take on the matter though.
Posted 2 years ago # -
We've run lights out for 8 years. But we also have some parttimers come and do a 3-4 hour check. Example, we close at 4:30pm, so, 1st check at 7:30pm, then 10pm, if all is well, we set counters and run another 3 hours.. the policy is: if they are bad parts, throw them. cost is minimal to sorting. We also have insurance to cover fire hazards.. insurance is to give you peace of mind... use it.
Posted 2 years ago #
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