Merging & Mill/Turn options in G-Post for

[JSmith]

Greetings Everybody,



we have a multi axis lathe havingZ, X & Caxiswith Fanuc 21iT controller. Iam in the process of defining its post processor. Untill now I've seen that there are perheps two options in G-post for building such a post. One is in lathesection which provides option of merged post processor. The other one is in milling section when we define our machine as1 Rotary/i Radial axis (Live Tooling) machine having mill/turn option checked on. Please correct me if I'm wrong. If this is true then what is the difference between these two options & which route I should follow to define a post for the said machine (having simultaneous Z, X & C axis). Is there any special programming required to build such a post. I'd really appreciate if someone out there could help me in this regard.



Best Regards & TIA,

John Smith

NC Programmer.

 

[appinmi]

The main difference is that with the "mill" type post, you do not have to have "merging" posts. I would go with the "mill" route. I have created a post for a multi-axis lathe that also has a sub spindle. With this option, when you create your NC sequences, they will have the additional attributes "MODE", which you select either mill or turn, And "HEAD", which you select either head1 or head2.


When defining you "machine" in the manufacturing file, create it as a 5 axis lathe with either one or two heads. You will have to create a post that "catches" things like the spindle, coolant, etc. because I imagine that there is different M codes for which spindle to turn on, (the main spindle, or the live tooling), and which coolant to turn on.