How To Keep The CNC Cutting Machine Ready?
While you rarely see them warming up on TV, every professional athlete has a warm-up routine they use. The CNC machine works the same way and needs a warm-up routine of its own too. When you have the right warm-up routine in place, a good lubricated CNC cutting machine will always perform better. It reduces friction and wear and the potential for something to break, and improves the life of your CNC machine.
As it is a well known fact that heat causes thermal expansion in your CNC machinery. You can warm up your machine to keep its temperature stable, and it can even minimize the thermal expansion. That saves you downtime and unnecessary repair costs.
For consistent cutting, you might keep the CNC machine working idle for more than 4 hours. When you don’t warm-up your machine, thermal expansion has a more pronounced effect, which leads to inconsistent machining. In many cases, CNC machine manufacturers supply their own warm-up program. So, you have to create your own warm-up program.
If your shop is colder, that also becomes a factor for your machine to be blocked at times. In such a case, you should run your warm-up routine even if your CNC machine sits idle during your break. If you must have a tight cut every time, run the machine whenever you take small breaks of any kind. When you need to run your spindle at high speeds right away, it will work efficiently.
If you’re running a high-speed machine, start slow while you re-enter but only work your way up to the normal operating range, rather than the maximum operating speed. Run your warm-up routine for 200 seconds, starting with the slowest RPM and working your way up to the maximum. You should also cycle your tool changer, lathe turret and briefly turn on the coolant to make sure that CNC cutting machine is ready to start cutting.