evant to the needs of all the relevant personnel con- cerning every tool available – more will be said on this topic later. .. The Tool Management Infrastructure Whenever a tool management system has been devel- oped, an organised and well-planned tool preparation facility is vital to prepare the specic tooling require- ments – o-line, so that tooling might be: • Built to pre-dened assemblies – from a range of standardised stocked parts, or from tool modules, • Replacing worn cutting inserts on used tooling as- semblies – these tools being returned for rebuild- ing, or servicing, • Measuring tool osets – then, when it is both timely and appropriate, sending tooling in the form of tool-kits to specied machine tools, • Inspecting tooling – normally undertaken on tool pre-setters and by visual means, to ensure that they are t for immediate use, • Assembling: tooling, xtures, gauges, etc., as a ‘complete tool-kit’ – to be issued to the appropriate machine tool at the correct time. In order to ensure that consistent and accurate tool preparation occurs, a documented ‘historical proce- dure’ covering all tooling-related aspects, is necessary, such as: tool inspection, servicing and building, is re- quired for each tool. ese factors can be controlled by utilising a computerised tool management system, as only the data les will need to be updated, together with tooling assembly instructions, with both servic- ing and inspection being undertaken by a step-by-step approach – if needed. Many of the more sophisticated tool management systems currently available, oer a link back to the original Computer-aided Design (CAD) soware, allowing tools to be shown graphi- cally assembled as tool parts. As the these tools travel around the machining facility, through various stages of preparation and measurement, then assembled as ‘qualied tool-kits’ visiting machine tools and then travelling back to the tool preparation area for re-servicing, each stage of the tool-kit’s cycle must be controlled. Informa- tion concerning the tool kit’s progress, must be avail- able at any instant and, a means of exercising control is to link each tooling station to a central computer via a DNC-link. As the unique data referring to any tool is stored within the central computer, its identity can be accessed allowing its ‘logistical progress’ 22 to be precisely tracked within the manufacturing facility. For some companies that are unable to justify such a complex tool management method of tooling control, then a much less costly and simpler ‘manual system’ using either printed labels, or bar-codes can be de- ployed for tool identication when delivering tooling to-and-from the required machine tool. A cautionary note concerning the use of paper labels for tool identi- cation, is that they can more easily become detached during the machining cycle. In an automated machining environment, there is no real alternative but to have a ‘tooling requirement’ and in particular, employing some form of ‘intelligent/ tagged’ tooling, typically via permanent machine- readable tool identication. Such tool identication techniques, allow the necessary data to be interrogated and retrieved from critical areas around the produc- tion facility: machine tools, preparation area and stor- age, plus other peripheral areas – as required. Tooling equipped with ‘intelligent’ memory circuits embed- ded within them (i.e. typically shown in the case of the non-rotating ‘Block tooling’ in: Figs. 116, 117 and 118), can automatically perform the functions of: tool identication, tool osets and cutting data up-dating on the machine tool. Other information complement- ing the tooling data-base pertaining to tool servicing needs can also be exploited by using these ‘tool-coded data chips’ , which are securely situated within the ‘front-end’ of each tool. So that ‘complete tooling control’ is maintained over all the items necessary relating to tool-kits, it is possible to extend stock control over all the tooling requirements out on the shop oor (Fig. 131). Such tool-tracking is important and certain logistical ques- tions must be known, such as: what tooling is where, is it timed to be there now and, what is its present con- dition, together with other specic questions, which 22 ‘Logistical information and knowledge’ , in any production environment is vital and has been dened (i.e. by the Council of Logistics Management – CLM), in the following manner: Logistics is the process of planning, implementing and control- ling the ecient, cost-eective ow and storage of: raw material, in-process inventory, nished goods and related information, from point of origin to point of consumption for the purpose of conforming to customer requirements.’  Chapter  need to be addressed, indicating the complex task of monitoring all tooling, via a computerised tool man- agement system (Fig. 132). Tool control soware en- ables these physical transactions associated with the: tooling, servicing, kitting, recalibration, etc., to be achieved, without loosing track of any individual tool items. e tooling soware will also continuously monitor stock levels, allowing replenishments be ac- tioned, once any itemised tool stock level falls below a certain pres-set value. Figure 131. Tooling and xturing must be precisely controlled at the ‘focal-point’ of kit build-up/replenishment – at the tool preparation area. [Courtesy of Sandvik Coromant] . Modular Tooling and Tool Management  Obviously, it is important to create a suitable tool management system, that can operate successfully in a company’s machine shop and it needs to be customised to suit their particular tooling requirements from a relevant database. ese tooling-related matters, will form the basis for a discussion in the following sec- tion. .. Creating a Tool Management and Document Database Production Requirements Prior to any new machining activities being under- taken and, in order to establish the ‘true’ production requirements of a company, it is essential that co- operation and information regarding the customer’s potential product occurs. More specically, this de- tailed dialogue should be between both the sales and manufacturing departments. e rst requirement is an understanding of the manufacturing load, typically these being broken-down into the following batch and volume classications 23 : • Job shop – one-, or two-o specialised workpieces, 23 Optimum/economic batch size, this will vary, but if batch size is graphically-plotted against cost , for values of set-up cost and holding cost, then the overall total variable cost can be derived, with the lowest plotted value representing the minimum cost batch size ‘Q*’ (i.e. derived from R.Wild’s book: Production and Operations Management, Chap. 14 – see References), as follows: Q* = √ 2C s r/C 1 Where: Q* = minimum cost batch size, C s = set-up, or prepara- tion cost/batch, r = consumption rate, C 1 = stock-holding cost/ item/unit of time. Figure 132. Ecient tool management of tool kits around the manufacturing facility, requires some form of ‘tool tracking and identication’ – as ‘kits’ are: serviced and built, measured, the sent to an awaiting machine tool. [Courtesy of Sandvik Coromant] .  Chapter  • Small batch – up to perhaps 50 workpieces, • Medium batch – between 20 to 100 workpieces, • Large batch/Volume production – >100 work- pieces. NB ese classications of batch size are open to considerably much wider interpretation, obviously depending upon a specic company’s production requirements and the actual machined part’s: com- plexity, material cost, machining operations and its dimensional size and so on! At any workpiece quantity greater than the ‘Job shop’ levels having similar production processes undertaken, allows them to be grouped into ‘families’ , according to their: dimensions, tolerances, workpiece materials, etc. is technique of allocating components to be ma- chined into similar groupings is oen termed ‘Group Technology’ 24 . It is vitally important that both the Sales and Mar- keting personnel are aware of the company’s patterns of manufacture and their capabilities, if the company is to be able to rapidly respond to their customer’s needs. e sales force will be able to relate a customer’s requirements to the standard range of parts produced, with the manufacturer being in a position to ‘ne-tune’ even small production runs for maximum eciency. By comprehending the manufacturing process for the company’s standard-ranges, allows the optimum con- ditions of production to be utilised, even when ‘modi- ed standards’ , or even ‘specials’ have to be produced. Flexibility here, plus the ability to cater for unique cus- tomer needs, may oer new market opportunities for the company. 24 ‘Group Technology’ (i.e. GT), is essentially utilised for ‘group- ings’ in two distinct varieties: (i) Component geometry – the ‘closeness of shapes’ , (ii) Similar production processes – such as: Milling, Drill- ing, Turning, etc. e benets of utilising a GT-approach to manufacture are: smoother logistical work-ow, simplied work control, more ecient plant layout and improved use of oor-space, contributing to enhanced manufacturing versatility and better response to variable workpiece shop- loadings. NB e GT-approach to manufacturing lends itself to compo- nent coding systems, typically of the Opitz variety for a unique part-coding classication. Perishable and Capital Equipment Review In many cases, cutting tool manufacturers produce standard forms to enable companies to compile data on both their perishable and capital equipment needs. erefore, it is necessary to gather the data together, because the performances of either categories are independent. If a tooling survey is approached in a methodical and step-wise manner, then the following sequence, may be of some help: • Collect data on perishable tooling, a company must analyse their entire tool-ow system, includ- ing tooling inventories: high-lighting the maximum and minimum levels, quantities of new and used tooling, together with their tool-storage require- ments. As a preliminary data-gathering exercise, all the items in stock should be listed, plus the number currently in stock and, the quantity used in the last 12 months, with the last price paid for them, • Review the stock lists for tool obsolescence, by checking to see which items have not been used in the last 12 months and which can be replaced by say, an ANSI, or DIN standard item. Any tools fall- ing into this category, can be considered obsolete, it would not be a surprising fact to nd out that up to 50% of the current tooling inventory was obsolete – as has been shown in a survey in the USA. is level of obsolescence, can be regarded as money ‘tied-up’ and doing nothing for the company’s prof- itability, • Remaining ‘tooling items’ should now be reviewed, as these are not obsolete. For example, the cemented carbide insert grade of tooling, should be grouped according to their grade/coating, size, geometry, etc., then once they have been ‘grouped’ in this manner, it is now perhaps possible to order larger quantities of them, enabling the company to exert some ‘leverage’ over their suppliers and to obtain substantial cost advantages as a result. NB If tooling information of this nature is com- piled and regularly up-dated, then reviewed, future tooling decisions can be speeded-up and decisions can be taken with some degree of condence. e compiling of information concerning capital equip- ment within the factory, usually commences with the preliminary identication of such machine tools and associated equipment, then numbering them (i.e. this activity is oen termed: ‘brass-tagging’) and their spe- Modular Tooling and Tool Management  cic location within the company’s premises. A list is then compiled, allocating every machine tool’s: power capacity, spindle taper, number of spindles, its current operating condition 25 , present tooling utilised, plus the current and past operations performed on each ma- chine tool. By organising information concerning the capital equipment capability and availability, produces a number of distinct benets, including a knowledge of the machines basic characteristics, thus ensuring that the most advantageous machine tool can be selected and any machining operation is performed using the optimum parameters. Knowledge gained from such a study of perishable and capital equipment, allows for improvements in both: process planning – the action plan for the manu- facturing of a certain part, together with production planning – the best use of a factory’s resources for a particular workload. Building-Up the Tool File Probably the principal users of a tool le within any manufacturing organisation are the Process Engineer and Part-programmer, with perhaps the Tool-preset- ting operator and Stores-personnel, also making use of this ‘le’. It should be stressed that new tools are only added to the tool le aer a proper investigation of the need for them, assuming that such tooling was not previously listed. By accepting this limitation on 25 ‘Operating condition’ , this machine tool activity is invariably of some concern, as although some form of periodic mainte- nance is likely to be undertaken, perhaps less attention is given to the machine’s current state of calibration. is situation can be diagnostically-achieved, both speedily and eciently by the use of telescoping ‘Ball-bars’. is calibration equipment can undertake a quick ‘health-check’ and assess both the static and dynamic machine tool’s performance, indicating the fol- lowing important characteristics: Servo-mismatch, Stick-slip, Reversal spikes, Scale uncertainty, Straightness, Squareness, Lateral play, Back-lash, Cyclic error. ese machine tool re- lated-factors are automatically prioritised by the soware, then they can then be simply: analysed, diagnosed and then corrected, together with a machine tool ‘health-check’ report. NB Many companies perform these full diagnostic ‘health- checks’ , periodically, or simply prior to a shi commencing, as they can be undertaken in just a few minutes for a ‘quick assessment’ , or perhaps a more thorough ‘Ballbar’ assess- ment can be achieved in just a few hours – when a convenient ‘maintenance window’ occurs. the number of dierent tools in the tooling inventory, then a company can be assured that when the tools are ‘called-up for use’ in the manufacturing process they will be available and backed-up with spares, since the ‘stores’ has access to this ‘le’. An important feature of any tool le is the cutting data and machining times listed. ese machining data are known to be achiev- able and will be those values expected to be employed during component production. More specically, the data values are the ones utilised to calculate quotation prices for the product, for any future customer ap- praisal. e editor of the tool le has a key role to play in the acquisition of tooling data, so when building up the ‘le’ , they have to: • Scrutinise any reported deviations – from the re- corded cutting data and the original tool le, • Investigate higher productivity ratings – some newly-available tooling may lay claim to be both faster and more ecient in comparison to either its predecessor, or competitors tooling products, • Obsolete tooling should be ‘weeded-out’ – particu- larly with the introduction and addition to the tool le of newer high-technology tooling, • Investigation of new tooling – to see if claims of new tooling products, with regard to their: geom- etry, coatings, performance, etc., are a genuine im- provement over the previous versions used. e systematic accumulation of tooling knowledge in the tool le for each section of the manufacturing operation, ensures that the cutting performance will ‘continuously improve’ 26 . Such improvements may be considered to be analogous to improving the skill of an operator on a conventional machine tool, but with more exibility, as the tool le system soware is able to cope with much more diverse and complex tooling 26 Continuous improvement programs’ , were originally devel- oped in Japan and are now well-known and are oen termed ‘Kaizen’ *, which is a philosophical and rigorous approach to process/product improvements, based upon: (i) Satisfying the customers – in order to keep the business alive and to be more protable, (ii) Being both customer- and process-oriented – to promote vigorous improvements here, (iii) Requiring commitment and participation of a company’s personnel – using their knowledge and experience to achieve continuous improvements in both working practices and in the product’s quality. *In Japanese, Kaizen, approximates to: ‘Change to the better’.  Chapter  situations. A ‘well-disciplined’ and ‘active’ tool le, completely eliminates the anticipated ‘hiccups’ that are likely to occur, whenever a new Part programmer is employed, or even when hiring new Stores personnel, or Machine operators, for that matter! With the soware structure of the tool le – of necessity – being highly complex and interrelated in nature, it is not possible within the connes of this chapter to go into too much detail showing how the operating system works. However, an appreciation of a simpler, but still valid tool le format can be gleaned by describing how a ‘manual le’ is produced. Prior to constructing this manual tooling data-base, a separate record is produced for each tool, which is cross-refer- enced to separate cards for cutting inserts that can be utilised with the tool. In essence, there are four ‘elds of tooling information’ that are needed for a usable tool le, these are: 1. Tooling is built-up from modular elements – which are the ‘key’ to eective management and control, as they allow the widest range of tooling for an ex- tensive assortment of machine tools available, from the minimum number of tooling elements in stock. Hence, a tool for a given machining application may be assembled from dierent modular elements, to suit a range of machines, 2. Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) 27 – the system together with the tool stores should support the tooling from the tool le, with such items as: spares, consumables, plus back-up tooling. In order to achieve this objective, the tool le record would include details of the build-up for each tool as well as the stores location for each part, using a specic ‘key’ notation, 27 ‘Materials Requirement Planning’ (MRP*), is a soware- driven system that enables manufacturing companies to calculate: how many materials are needed, what particular types that are required, plus at what times they are needed. To achieve this level of control, the system utilises a sales order book, which records known future orders and also a ‘fore- cast’ of what sales orders the business is reasonably condent it might have won. en, the MRP soware interrogates and checks all the ‘components/ingredients’ which are required to make these future orders and ensures that they are ordered in time. *MRP, was originally developed in the 1960’s and is some- times termed MRPI, to dierentiate it from the ‘derived’ MP- RII system – see Footnote 18. 3. Certain ‘steering comments’ on tooling – normally these statements are based upon shop-oor expe- rience, that are included to enable the Process-, or Planning-engineer to select the appropriate tool for the desired machining application, 4. Organisation of basic cutting data – this is nor- mally produced so that the data can readily be in- cluded into the CNC program. NB is cutting data is organised according to the component to be machined and the optimum or- ganisation of this machining data will vary from one company to another, depending on their needs. Of course, all of this data listed reects the compa- ny’s actual experience, in particular, it includes the results of any ‘optimisation exercises’ (i.e. Machin- ability trials – more on this later) previously under- taken in the machine shop. Practicalities when Starting-Up a Tool File Whenever a tool le system is initiated, the important point to observe is to: start small and keep the tooling information to be included ‘sound’. Having accepted this principle, a company may start to build-up the tool le steadily – over perhaps a month, including any practical test data for maybe a hundred, or so of the most popular tools utilised. is information now residing within the tool le, will ow through the tool- management system and, it will begin to highlight the requirements of the system users, driving forward the le’s further development. Conversely, a company may embark on a more comprehensive tool le sys- tem, incorporating all the machining data available on perhaps two thousand tools, but utilising provisional cutting data, instead of well-proven information. With this rather heavy-handed and rapidly-built tool le approach, the probable outcome will mean that the whole ‘le’ has incorporated many ‘dud tooling solu- tions’ , thereby ensuring that the system is discredited, even before it is correctly operating at anywhere near its optimum level. Obtaining meaningful test results and tool assess- ments does not necessarily demand extra eort from the company, merely the organisation of endeavour already being made by the company’s ‘Tooling-engi- neers’ and those from the tool suppliers. Oen, most of the tooling trouble-shooting activities will dissipate once the current component batch is completed, sim- Modular Tooling and Tool Management  ply because there is no framework in which this vital information can be recorded – for future usage. So, all the time and pain’s-taking eort needed to collate ‘sound’ tooling data is disregarded and the informa- tion is discarded. So, when then a repeat batch order duly arrives, the whole tooling-related data-gather- ing process must once again begin, by ‘re-inventing the wheel’ – this being a total and unnecessary, but is costly waste of everybody’s time! Tool-kitting servicing to the machine shop must be based upon the assurance that the completed kits are dependable, whilst providing the maximum secu- rity from a limited budget for tooling stock. Usually there is a nite tool stock available, with the objec- tive being to utilise, for example, the same modular tools across a range of machine tools. For this reason, modular quick-change tooling, has seen a widespread acceptance by machining-based companies of late. Yet another important factor in any tooling requisi- tion for a specic machining operation, is the inherent quality of the tools used. One of the major function’s of the tool-kitting area, is to monitor and control the quality of delivery of tooling within the manufactur- ing environment, by accessing the ‘tool data ow’ for both out-going ‘new kits’ and in-coming tooling ‘old kits’ from completed production runs. As batch sizes become smaller, the ‘logistical-ow’ of kits speeds-up. e eectiveness of the tool-kitting personnel will be inversely-proportional to the number of tooling items on the inventory and the ‘standard’ they must control. is problem of eective tool control, is a further ar- gument in favour of a factory-wide standardisation of the tooling inventory. erefore, in summing up tool- ing-related activities within the production location, two main factors emerge, these are: 1. Linking every tool with its application technology – this is normally achieved in such a manner that it is the most productive tools that are chosen for new jobs and not the old ones – just because they have been previously used and are known to be sup- ported by the tool stores. is tool selection strat- egy, will result in the optimum cutting conditions being selected, 2. Formulating a rationalised and optimised tool management ‘standard’ – this is essential as it sup- ports tooling across the breadth of the whole fac- tory. NB When purchasing any new tooling, or machine tools, reference to this ‘standard’ is of the essence for the overall system to operate eectively. .. Overall Benefits of a Tool Management System By the correct implementation of a basic, but compe- tent tool management control system, the following list highlights the ‘rewards’ that can be expected: • Manpower is conserved and training requirement minimised, • e number of tools lost, or misplaced is reduced, • Timely and up-to-date information on tool usage is produced, • Tool inventory shortages are identied and pre- vented, • e accuracy of the tooling inventory is improved, • Inventory levels and excess purchasing are mini- mised, • Time spent on re-ordering, etc., plus ‘piecemeal purchasing’ are reduced, • Record-keeping functions are consolidated, • Tool tracking and tooling availability within the machine shop is monitored, • Tools in rework can be tracked, • A record of scrapped tools can be kept, • Obsolete tooling can be identied and then elimi- nated, • e cost of the total tooling inventory can be criti- cally-assessed, • e gauges and xtures supplied with the tool kits can be identied and tracked, • Machine tool set-up, tool-return and withdrawal times are reduced, • Possibility of pin-pointing over-use machining problems, by specic personnel, • Improper charge-outs, losses, or pilferage can be minimised, • Space requirements and overheads are reduced, • Possibility of incorporating existing tool numbers and current mode of operation into an automated system, without making radical changes. Tool management systems provide all of the above benets, by allowing the operations to be easily re- ported, analysed and corrected, enabling timely de- cisions to be made, concerning the tooling, with the minimum of manpower and operational changes necessary. So that the information required by a com - pany can be obtained, the system should be organised to allow personnel responsible for the tools to record their activities. On the ‘shop oor’ , it is the usual prac - tice to allow two basic groups of the workforce levels of responsibility/access to the system to provide both  Chapter  vital and helpful tooling information, these are the: Tooling-supervisor and Stores personnel. So far, the information on Tool management sys- tems has been principally concerned with the justi- cation and benets that accrue through the adoption by a company and the philosophy underpinning its practical application. In the ‘continuous circle’ of tool monitoring and control, the tool-kitting area is at the ‘heart’ of the overall tool management procedure. is vital day-to-day activity of tool preparation and set- ting, will be the subject of the following section. .. Tool Presetting Equipment and Techniques for Measuring Tools Introduction Cutting tools that are to be utilised on CNC machine tools for the production of workpiece features, need to have exact measurement information regarding their osets known, so that the CNC program can automati- cally displace (i.e. oset) the tool these dimensional distances, in order to perform the intended machining task. Otherwise, major errors in the machined com- ponent’s dimensional features would result. Hence, cutting tooling can be classied under three distinct headings, these are: 1. Unqualied tools – these are tools that do not have known dimensions, therefore they must be inde- pendently measured and these values can then be located and placed into a ‘suitable eld’ within the CNC Controller’s tool table. Typical of such tooling, are special-purpose form tools that may be consid- ered to full this classication, 2. Semi-qualied tools – these are tools where not all of the tool measurement oset data are known. For example, a typical Jobber drill’s diameter would be normally be known – say, φ12 mm 28 , but perhaps its length for the purposes of utilising it immediately would not. erefore, it would necessitate measur- 28 Whenever a tool’s dimensional size is known, it is necessary to refer-back to the individual tooling manufacturer’s tolerance specication, in order to establish the limiting values when this data is utilised, when the tool is to be used without any form of pre-measurement being undertaken. ing the drill’s length, once it has been suitably lo- cated and held in an appropriate chuck, 3. Qualied tools – are when all the tool oset data are known and this information can be readily in- put into the CNC controller’s tool table. Typically, ‘Modular quick-change tooling’ 29 , can be consid- ered under this category. Presetting on the Machine Tool – Tool Contacting When setting an ‘unqualied’ tooling dimension – such as a drill’s length, on the machine tool, this being the crudest form of tool presetting*. It is achieved on say, on a vertical machining centre, in the following manner: the cutting tool’s tip is held in the machine’s spindle and is positioned over the table, being slowly ‘jogged-down’ 30 until its just touches a suitable ‘setting 29 Modular quick-change tooling, such as the ‘front-end’ cutting units, tted into the already machine tool-pocketed and lo- cated ‘back-ends’ , typied by the ‘KM tooling’ ranges (i.e. see Figs. 120 to 122), would give the following repeatability read- ings: • Axial tolerance ±0.0025 mm, • Radial tolerance: ±0.0025 mm, • Cutting-edge height tolerance: ±0.025 mm. NB All of these tooling manufacturer’s tolerances, limit the machining tolerances that can be held, unless they (i.e. already placed within quick-change tools in their respective holders) themselves are measured, which tends to negate the rationale for their original purchase! 30 ‘Jogging-down’ – sometimes referred to as ‘inching-down’ , is a manual means of slowly lowering the tool’s tip down onto a surface – in this case a known height ‘setting-block’. is lin- early-controlled action is achieved, by employing the ‘hand- wheel’ , which allows the handwheels angular rotation to be equated to an operator preselected incremental amount. is incremental motion can be changed to a smaller value, as the block is slowly approached, to give a sense of ‘feel’ (i.e some- what like using a ‘feeler-gauge’), as contact is made between the tool and the block. NB e tooling is usually kept stationary while this manual setting activity is undertaken. * is is not strictly the most basic tool setting method, as the ‘cut and measure’ technique – then setting this measured value in the tool table, is the most primitive and time-consuming procedure of tool oset setting. Modular Tooling and Tool Management  block’ 31 . e Z-axis position is then noted and its value is automatically entered into the tool table, giving a ‘semi-qualied’ tool oset, that can then be used for the important Z-axis motion – when coming down onto the workpiece’s surface to begin engaging in the rst cut. If each tool length has to be input into the tool table’s ‘osets’ , then this simple procedure has several disadvantages: it is labour-intensive, ties-up cycle con- siderable time, it is rather inaccurate and, it sets only one oset dimension. In the case of turning centres, the technique of determining osets is dierent, but similar limitations still apply. A tool presetting device is oen used on many of today’s machine tools, this technique is typied by the ubiquitous ‘touch-trigger probe’ 32 . Hence, this type of tool-contacting presetting probe fulls a number of ‘quoted benets’ , such as: • Setting/re-setting of tool length and diameter (Fig. 133b) – automatically up-dating, or correction of the respective tool table osets, even while the tool is still rotating, • Measurement of a complete tool station – automat- ically in just a few minutes, 31 ‘Setting blocks’ , are usually manufactured from hardened steel, that have been accurately and precisely ground to a known di- mensional size and tolerance, nominally to some conveniently ‘round gure’ , for example:100 mm in height. ese ‘blocks’ are usually either rectangular, or round in cross-section. e rectangular ones are preferred, because dierent nominal di- mensions can be utilised for each adjacently at and square face. e tolerance for the ‘Setting block’ should be ‘very close’ , as any dierence from the nominal size when input into the tool table, will impinge on the overall workpiece tolerance, in essence, somewhat reducing the tolerance’s ‘working range’. 32 ‘Touch-trigger probes’ **, in the simplest form these ‘tool probes’ are omni-directional switches, that are sprung-loaded, which when the tool makes contact with either an attached setting cube, or a cylindrical ‘setting gauge’ (Fig. 133b), it im- mediately breaks the electrical circuit. is loss of electrical contact occurs when the three equi-spaced precision rods: each one seated on two precision balls (i.e. each rod being po- sitioned at 120° to each other) in a simple kinematic seating mechanism, are lied/pushed either individually, or ‘as one’ out of their respective seating(s), which triggers an ‘electrical pulse’ representing a nominal dimension and is automatically recorded as either a length, or radius – in the case of a rotating tool, which then automatically up-dates the tool table’s osets for this tool. **On a turning centre (Fig. 133a), this tool setting touch-trig- ger probe, is termed a ‘tool eye’. NB A small vertical machining centre with a 12 to 15 tool station, would take at least 5 minutes per tool, with the traditional manual technique, men- tioned above (i.e. see Fig. 133-bottom right, inset graph/description). • Elimination of manual setting errors – tools that are set manually, particularly tooling such as a large diameter face mill, it will be open to errors when setting both height and diameter osets. is is because each cutting insert may ‘stand proud’ in its respective seating, giving a false oset reading – when stationary. Ideally, the whole tooling assem- bly needs to be rotated as its oset is set, • No presetting of tools is necessary – as this is auto- matically undertaken on the machine tool, • Accurate and precise ‘First-o machining’ 33 – this is the result of condence in the tool osets, set by the ‘probing system’ , • In-cycle tool breakage detection – at convenient and programmed pre-selected intervals, the tool’s osets can be checked for either: tool wear – to a prescribed level, or tool breakage, which will auto- matically stop the machine preventing either fur- ther workpiece damage, or part-scrappage, • Improved condence in unmanned machining – due to the fact that tool breakage detection pe- riodically occurs, untended machining operations can be undertaken. ese are ‘real benets’ that occur when using ‘on-ma- chine’ tool presetting equipment, but the ‘down-side’ of such systems is they do utilise some potential in-cycle cutting time. is negative eect using some of the cy- cle-time, can be signicantly reduced for the following presetting system, employing non-contact laser-based tool setting techniques. 33 ‘First-o machining’ , this term is self-explanatory, in that it is the rst component produced in a batch which is simply known as the ‘First-o’ the machine. Invariably, this initial component produced, is subject to rigorous inspection proce- dures, being the ‘initiator’ for calculated data concerning the whole batch’s metrological and statistical variability/consis- tency.  Chapter  . be listed, plus the number currently in stock and, the quantity used in the last 12 months, with the last price paid for them, • Review the stock lists for tool obsolescence, by checking to. automatically prioritised by the soware, then they can then be simply: analysed, diagnosed and then corrected, together with a machine tool ‘health-check’ report. NB Many companies perform. companies to compile data on both their perishable and capital equipment needs. erefore, it is necessary to gather the data together, because the performances of either categories are independent.