scope:

Purpose of the guideline

The purpose of this guideline is to clearly define characteristic values for the idle time behaviour of NC systems in order to allow comparative observation of similar systems.

This series of guidelines describes:

Part 1 the "cut-to-cut time" for automatic tool change

Part 2 the "pallet change time" and "workpiece sequence time" for automatic workpiece pallet change

Part 3 the remaining idle times comprised of the "positioning time", the "spindle acceleration time" and the "waiting time"

The increasing importance of the idle times cited in Part 3 is a result of the increasingly shorter tool engagement times of more efficient machines and tools and the resulting percentage increase in the proportion of idle times.