Older CNC controls have become insufficiently reliabile for use in industrial environments, where speed, reliability and the ability of rapid troubleshooting is more and more important. For that reason the companies have been deciding to replace the machines or, if they are mechanically still good enough, to upgrade them since this represents a smaller financial investment.
This bachelor thesis describes the upgrade of a tube bending machine, manufactured by BLM Plauno from Italy. The main purpose of the upgrade was the replacement of the original Bosch CNC controller with the Siemens Sinumerik 828D controller. Since axes drives and other electrical equipement were also replaced, a new electrical cabinet was designed to provide compatibility of the components with the controller.
A new PLC program was made, parameters for optimized axes operation were set and a user program in G-code, according to which tubes are bent, was created.
During the upgrade Slovenian and European regulations and standards had to be considered beside the customer's requirements.
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