Compensating for varying levels of wear/runout etc across a fleet of old and new mills?

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tuyere

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Hey, all.
We have a fleet of 7 Rolands, from an older DWX-50, -51s and -52Ds, to a very new DWX-52DCi. Each machine holds slightly different tolerances, as you'd expect for a fleet of mixed age and machine wear. The difference is big enough that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for compensating for this on the 3shape side of things, nor on the Millbox side of things (so far as I know). Our current workflow involves queueing up jobs into a shared pool that are set up on any of the mills as they become available- we generally don't prepare jobs with a specific machine in mind unless it's a special case that needs the highest possible precision, or if it's a diagnostic/test job for a particular machine.
So: anybody aware of a practical method that'll allow us to compensate for every machine's eccentricities without having to prepare jobs for each specific machine? Preparing different 'profiles' for each machine to get the best possible result isn't difficult to work out, but we can't know which we should be using at the design or even CAM phases. We've talked it over and assigning a mill to a job earlier in the workflow just isn't workable, it would lead to way too much machine downtime and would introduce a significant new challenge of carefully managing 'assignments' across the multiple technicians who all share the duties of design and job set-up.
 
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Hey, all.
We have a fleet of 7 Rolands, from an older DWX-50, -51s and -52Ds, to a very new DWX-52DCi. Each machine holds slightly different tolerances, as you'd expect for a fleet of mixed age and machine wear. The difference is big enough that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for compensating for this on the 3shape side of things, nor on the Millbox side of things (so far as I know). Our current workflow involves queueing up jobs into a shared pool that are set up on any of the mills as they become available- we generally don't prepare jobs with a specific machine in mind unless it's a special case that needs the highest possible precision, or if it's a diagnostic/test job for a particular machine.
So: anybody aware of a practical method that'll allow us to compensate for every machine's eccentricities without having to prepare jobs for each specific machine? Preparing different 'profiles' for each machine to get the best possible result isn't difficult to work out, but we can't know which we should be using at the design or even CAM phases. We've talked it over and assigning a mill to a job earlier in the workflow just isn't workable, it would lead to way too much machine downtime and would introduce a significant new challenge of carefully managing 'assignments' across the multiple technicians who all share the duties of design and job set-up.
Here's your AI generated response, pretty good IMO.

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Jane Qi

Jane Qi

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Hey, all.
We have a fleet of 7 Rolands, from an older DWX-50, -51s and -52Ds, to a very new DWX-52DCi. Each machine holds slightly different tolerances, as you'd expect for a fleet of mixed age and machine wear. The difference is big enough that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for compensating for this on the 3shape side of things, nor on the Millbox side of things (so far as I know). Our current workflow involves queueing up jobs into a shared pool that are set up on any of the mills as they become available- we generally don't prepare jobs with a specific machine in mind unless it's a special case that needs the highest possible precision, or if it's a diagnostic/test job for a particular machine.
So: anybody aware of a practical method that'll allow us to compensate for every machine's eccentricities without having to prepare jobs for each specific machine? Preparing different 'profiles' for each machine to get the best possible result isn't difficult to work out, but we can't know which we should be using at the design or even CAM phases. We've talked it over and assigning a mill to a job earlier in the workflow just isn't workable, it would lead to way too much machine downtime and would introduce a significant new challenge of carefully managing 'assignments' across the multiple technicians who all share the duties of design and job set-up.
Hello, @tuyere . My name is Jane Qi, customer service specialist for DGSHAPE/Roland Global.

Regard to your inquiry, in order to best assist you, I would like to ask you a few questions:

(1) Which CAM software does your lab use for each DWX device?
(2) What materials are you using?
(3) What applications are you milling?
(4) With the CAM software, are you running the generic setup of the software or have you made adjustments to the CAM strategies?
(5) By wear/runout, are you referring to the milling device, spindle, or the tools? Also, how long are the mentioned items lasting currently?
(6) What brand of tools are you using for your DWX devices?

Look forward to your reply. Thank you.
 
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tuyere

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Hello, @tuyere . My name is Jane Qi, customer service specialist for DGSHAPE/Roland Global.

Regard to your inquiry, in order to best assist you, I would like to ask you a few questions:

(1) Which CAM software does your lab use for each DWX device?
(2) What materials are you using?
(3) What applications are you milling?
(4) With the CAM software, are you running the generic setup of the software or have you made adjustments to the CAM strategies?
(5) By wear/runout, are you referring to the milling device, spindle, or the tools? Also, how long are the mentioned items lasting currently?
(6) What brand of tools are you using for your DWX devices?

Look forward to your reply. Thank you.
Hi Jane,
Thanks for reaching out. In order:
  1. We use Argen's Millbox 2020 package currently, but we should be upgraded to 2023 by the weekend.
  2. We mill zirconia, PMMA and wax.
  3. We do single crowns, bridge, round-houses (full arch cases) and implant crowns/bridges.
  4. We're running vanilla Millbox strategies with no modification.
  5. I guess I'm most concerned with any wear or slop integral to the machine itself, we replace tooling and spindles more or less on the recommended schedules.
  6. We use Roland-brand tools exclusively, purchased through Argen.
 
Toothman19

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What you want is oqton.
This is a software that runs everything, especially mills and allows you to incorporate those varying degrees of each mill. https://oqton.com/healthcare/
Oqton doesn't work on the older mills. I tried getting set up with them but they couldn't run my Wieland select. I was pretty disappointed because I love the thought of AI nesting
 
TheLabGuy

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Oqton doesn't work on the older mills. I tried getting set up with them but they couldn't run my Wieland select. I was pretty disappointed because I love the thought of AI nesting
I know they were working on the ivoclar mills last year, thought they would of had them online by now. I know all the printers are there and the Rolands. The AI nesting will save you so much money, but if you plan on growing and having one software, one friggin program for everything is sooooo much easier to train folks with, that was the biggest advantage I saw.
 
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Toothman19

Toothman19

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I totally agree. Maybe I'll check back in with them and see if things have changed
 
Jane Qi

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Hi Jane,
Thanks for reaching out. In order:
  1. We use Argen's Millbox 2020 package currently, but we should be upgraded to 2023 by the weekend.
  2. We mill zirconia, PMMA and wax.
  3. We do single crowns, bridge, round-houses (full arch cases) and implant crowns/bridges.
  4. We're running vanilla Millbox strategies with no modification.
  5. I guess I'm most concerned with any wear or slop integral to the machine itself, we replace tooling and spindles more or less on the recommended schedules.
  6. We use Roland-brand tools exclusively, purchased through Argen.
Hello, @tuyere

The CAM software allows you to select a device for jobs, all of which have strategies specific for each mill based on the spindle type, clamp, and B-axis degrees. I would like to discuss with you further to clarify your inquiry. Would you please inbox me your contact number if you would like a call back to discuss further. Thank you.
 
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tuyere

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Hello, @tuyere

The CAM software allows you to select a device for jobs, all of which have strategies specific for each mill based on the spindle type, clamp, and B-axis degrees. I would like to discuss with you further to clarify your inquiry. Would you please inbox me your contact number if you would like a call back to discuss further. Thank you.
Thanks, I'll be in touch shortly.
 
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