Programing the 1992 Polar 115 EMC Monitor cutter

[Al Ferrari]

I am trying to recreate a cutter program that was inadvertently deleted and for which I have no back up, written or otherwise.

This program was used to press the air out of a lift of stock by starting the back gauge at the full depth of the lift, pressing it with the clamp at the set pressure, WITHOUT activating the knife, at a series of positions along the entire depth of the lift for the duration of the set clamp delay, advancing the back gauge to the next step and repeating the action until the full depth of the lift had been travelled. All of this in hands free automatic mode (hands off the buttons).

What I need help with is what is the function key needed at each step so that it is performed and the program advanced to the next step. I am sure this can be done since I've had the program for years until it got deleted. But since I have not needed to create one from scratch in a very long time, I have forgotten the function key and cannot seem to find it in the manual.

Can anyone please help.

Thanks,

Al Ferrari

 

[MalcolmBliss]

Sorry Al, our 78X only offers a clamping without cut option where you can program a position and move the backgauge to that spot, activate the clamp, and move onto the next step. I believe the next model up from a 78X has a more richly featured computer where that is possible because I did inquire to the service tech from Heidelberg about it. Wish I could help you there, you could program a bunch of steps in one inch increases and use the clamp without cut feature, but it'd be a long program.

 

[Al Ferrari]

Thanks for the response Malcolm.

If you think about it, a 1 inch steps is much smaller than needed. Half to two thirds the depth of the clamp is adequate. That provides the needed overlap so that the escaping air is not pushed back into the region already pressed in the prior step.

Al

 

[MalcolmBliss]

Perhaps then, the clamping without cut option would work for you? on our machine there are many menu screens with additional functions. That should be there. I always remembered, right side series of keys, top row, middle button. That's where the function is in our computer.

 

[Al Ferrari]

"Perhaps then, the clamping without cut option would work for you?"

Right! That's what I need. But I can't seem to get it to work on Auto for me. What is the graphic symbol on that key on yours? And do you use it alone or in combination with others? I am not at the shop at this moment, Saturday, so I can only describe my steps from memory.

There are a couple of candidate keys: one with a graphic of a knife with a small vertical line inside of it, on the "K" key I think. I think this is auto knife. And one next to it almost exactly alike but with an X over it, which I think means no knife but still auto. Neither does the trick in the combinations I remember trying yesterday Friday. The key combination I remember using is something like "DYS". D is for clamp only with no knife. Y is no table air, and S is I think no brief back movement as it moves from step to step. But I think the Y function is for movements in the backward direction. (I have not mentioned that I have been trying to build a program with backwards movement, this could be a part of the problem).

I am also getting an "incompatible function" message I think when trying to use both the K and D functions in the same step (not quite sure I am remembering this correctly).

In any case, I started this thread hoping there would be some one from a shop in which the air pressing program I described in my opening post was used. It was originally taught to me by the Walter Huey, the installer-trainer back in 1992. I am a bit mixed up right now, and annoyed that the working program was deleted. I left the shop frustrated Friday.

Any one else familiar with this type of program sequence on a Polar Cutter?

Al

 

[MalcolmBliss]

Hello Al.
On Monday morning, I'll take a snapshot of our computer and pinpoint the key because I cannot recall from memory either, what the symbol looks like. Guess I'm getting old and dementia is setting in
Since your model is older than ours, it may differ, but if you want to resolve the issue, I'll snap the photo anyway and help you in any way I can. They are the Cadillac of cutters, even the oldies.
On our system, the very top row of keys, the middle key brings up a list of additional functions. Bear in mind our cutter is an '06 model, so I'm sure the computers are different.
Not sure if this will help you, but if it will help at all, let me know.

 

[Al Ferrari]

Thank you very much for the offer Malcolm.

A photo may be more than is needed. Perhaps with describing the symbol on the key may be sufficient. But lets wait and see if someone else working at a shop where such a program is used chimes in with an answer.

This EMC Monitor cutter is the only modern one I have used and I like it very much in deed, but let me relate an experience from an equipment show about another brand of cutter that takes the Polar off the high pedestal for me.

Sometime around '90 +/- a couple of years, I visited the Itoh brand cutter booth at an equipment show and saw something very impressive. They had a large unit that had been running on auto cut for several hours (perhaps all ntght before the show) and advancing just a few thousands of an inch on a lift of parent size stock. As I visited this booth, there was a very fine cotton candy like stream of paper fuzz spilling over the front table of the cutter and for several feet beyond. The sales pitch they were making was that the Itoh has such a massive knife carrier, more so than the Polars, that makes these micro cuts without deflection possible. By comparison, my Polar will not cut all the way through a full lift without the knife veering off the lift, if the advancement is less than 0.02 of an inch, even with a freshly sharpened knife. And it has been regularly greased at the gibbs for all these years. Has anyone else seen an Itoh cutter doing this?

I thought folks might find the anecdote interesting.

Al