Golden Arrow Waterjet is a very popular brand of waterjet cutting machine, having exported hundreds of machines all over the globe. This particular machine had been running well in a factory in Queensland, Australia since it was originally installed in 2008. However, after it was sold to Halo Tech in Gladstone recently, it was decided that since the original controller on the machine was based on obsolete PCI hardware, the machine’s controller should be updated to a more future proof solution.
Retrofit Details:
- Machine Configuration:
- Servo X, Y (Panasonic Minas A5)
- Z Axis driven by DC Motor
- 6 x Digital Outputs required
- 5 x Digital Inputs required (including limits for X and Y)
- Key Control Equipment supplied by MDSmotion:
- 1 x G2-M104A Motion Controller
- 1 x ISOIO-0808 Relay Boards
- 1 x MDSnc PC Software
- 1 x Mini Industrial PC supplied by customer
- Control Methodology:
- X and Y Axis Drives (Panasonic) running in Velocity Mode and commanded by +/- 10V analog signal from G2-M104A. Position feedback via Quadrature Incremental Encoder.
- X and Y uses physical limit switches for homing.
- Relay outputs from 4 of the ISOIO-0808 boards are used to control various operations of the machine, such as pumps, pneumatic valves, motors etc.
- Isolated inputs from the ISOIO-0808 boards are used to interface with sensors and push buttons on the machine.
Since the control software now uses MDSmotion’s MDSnc, the machine is much easier to operate. Not only that, but since we can make custom changes to our software at our customer’s request, that’s exactly what we did. To make life easier for the operators at Halo Tech, and since they have a lot of experience with laser cutting machines, custom changes were made to MDSnc to allow it to support the output of a post processor from a nesting package that they already own. That way, they didn’t need to purchase and learn any new software packages, saving time and money.