Uptime Tool Monitor

The Tool Monitor is a product of Uptime Electronics for monitoring machine tool life on a CNC display. It is a standard Win32 application that is tightly integrated into the MDSI OpenCNC environment. When installed, it is launched by the MDSI control menu alongside all other OpenCNC modules.

Tool Monitor Standard Features

• On-screen active-tool display featuring:
  • Station number 
  • Tool name or part number 
  • Expected tool lifetime (in either uses or hours/minutes/seconds) 
  • Remaining useful life of tool (or tool usage so far) 
  • Percentage tool life remaining 
  • Visual color bar graph of tool life remaining
• Real-time indication of tool currently in-use on the machine during operation.
  • Remaining tool-life only decreases while tool is cutting
• Fully-integrated with the MDSI OpenCNC desktop with the MDSI API
  • Reads variables directly from the MDSI dictionary
  • Sends messages directly to the PLC projects
  • Starts and stops automatically via the MDSI main menu
  • Writes directly to the significant events log
  • Writes directly to the on-screen message display
  • Color scheme matches that used by all MDSI windows
• Alerts the machine operator when a tool’s useful life reaches zero
  • Will continue to count tool usage beyond zero to indicate over-use
• Easy tool selection via large touch-screen sized menus
  • The same tool number may be set to multiple stations
  • Fast support for rotating tools and tool inserts
  • Simple touch-screen sized windows for editing tool parameters
  • Edit a tool’s remaining useful life on the fly while it is in use
• Add, modify, and delete tools and their standard lifetimes from a tool library
  • Can use a centralized tool library for multiple machines running Tool Monitor
• Current tool setup, lifetime, and usage is saved between application restarts so that no data is ever lost
  • Save and load tool profiles at any time to support different part programs without re-entering every tool
• On-screen text may be customized for any type of installation
• Optional compact display conserves valuable screen space
  • On-screen button toggles between compact and normal displays
  • Window automatically adjusts location so as to not run off-screen
• Sort tools on-screen by any column in ascending or descending order simply by touching a column header

Tool Monitor Option Packages

The standard Tool Monitor module simply monitors tool life on a single CNC control station. Two additional packages are available.

Random Tooling and Offset Management Package

This package enables advanced tool management capabilities within the Tool Monitor.

• Random Tooling Support
  • Assign multiple stations and tool offsets to the same tool number
  • Tool and station numbers displayed on the tool monitor window
  • Communicates tool usefulness to the OpenCNC PLC code
• Auto-withdraw Support
  • Optionally may stop the machine and initiate an automatic withdraw sequence when a tool’s useful life reaches zero
  • Optionally recommends the next best tool for an automatic tool-change after an automatic withdraw (when using random-tooling)
• Tool Offset Management
  • Assign multiple tools to the same station by assigning each tool a different offset
  • Load and display tool offsets directly from OpenCNC
  • Load, change, and save tool wear offsets directly to and from OpenCNC
  • Offset numbers displayed on the tool monitor window alongside tool and station numbers

Note: Random tooling, auto-withdraws, and offset management require extensive changes to the OpenCNC PLC code. These changes may be made by Uptime and may involve additional charges for labor.

Remote Monitoring Package

This package enables web-based real-time remote monitoring of the Tool Monitor.

• All Tool Monitor data may be monitored from any PC on a network using only a web browser.
  • All on-screen Tool Monitor data is continually output in XML format
  • XML style sheets and ASP pages format the data into easy-to-read tables that are continually refreshed in a web browser
  • Tool Monitor screens from multiple machines may be combined into a single page for remote monitoring
• Key tool-related events may be written to log files that are both human and machine-readable
  • Key events include tool additions, tool removals, tool changes, application starts and stops, and tool outages.
  • Event logs can optionally be written to any mapped network drive for easy remote monitoring
  • Events are logged in comma-separated-values (CSV) format

Note: Remote monitoring requires that the CNC computer be connected to a TCP/IP network. IIS WWW services must be installed on the CNC computer. These changes may be made by Uptime and may involve additional charges for labor.

Ordering Information

The Uptime Tool Monitor is typically requested as part of an Uptime CNC Retrofit job.  However any existing MDSI OpenCNC installation may have the Tool Monitor integrated into it.  Call us at (562) 692-7072 to discuss your needs and order a Tool Monitor Package.

OpenCNC is a registered trademark of Manufacturing Data Systems, Inc.
MDSI is a trademark of Manufacturing Data Systems, Inc.