What does this application require?
Routers used to cut glass slabs into pieces of various geometrical shapes require a CNC able to handle the cutting or grinding head while keeping the tool in a tangent position relative to the profile to be cut. They especially require an easy user interface, and optimized CAD-CAM software that allows to cut the maximum number of pieces from a slab. Sometimes other complimentary software is required in order to handle the incoming slabs and the processed pieces, according to production criteria. All these software must run on the machine console, so the simplest but most expensive solution is the use of a double hardware and two operating systems, one for the CNC and another for the CAD-CAM.
What does Costantino offer?
As the CAD-CAM requires more hardware and software resources than the CNC, in order to avoid using dedicated hardware and software for each application, the CNC software must run independently from the operating system, and, moreover, it must run protected in one of the PC processor cores, where also the eventual other complimentary software runs. Costantino can do that.
Routers for cutting application are always used in the middle of a three-machines chain. The machine BEFORE the router is used to load the slabs to be cut, the one AFTER the router is used to break the glass etched by the router itself. Sometimes it is necessary to label the pieces, writing all the information needed for the following processing or stocking procedures directly on the glass pieces. To handle this workflow, the control that handles the router must be flexible from an hardware and software point of view, in order to allow an easy interfacing with all these complimentary machines.
Moreover, our Glass Cutting Application allows to automatically adjust the tool radius, in order to compensate for tool wear, and the tool cleaning feature.
Costantino satisfies all these requirements, with its IEC61131 programmable PLC and its architecture, which allows the I/O peripherals dislocation directly on the machine, using various field bus.
What do our competitors offer?
Many CNC on the market require an external PC to run the CAD-CAM software and the user interface.
Some of them can run the CAD-CAM, limiting it to run on their hardware and software resources (operating system), and not on the required ones.
Many CNC are not as scalable as Costantino, and force the operator to use distinct products according to the machine requirements.
Not all CNCs offer the facilitations given by the developing environments for application software offered by Costantino. Some less expensive CNCs do not even have a programmable PLC.
Some CNCs does not have the flexibility of interfacing with any type of servo driver or stepper motor, either using the new and traditional field bus or the classic Pulse/Direction and analog (with encoder feedback) interfaces.
Configuration Example
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Machining Examples – Videos