Before Investing in a CNC Router

YOU NEED TO KNOW THE ADVANTAGES OF:

• Servo Motors over Steppers
• Ball Screws over Acme Screws and/or Rack-and-Pinions
• Rigid Machine Frames over Table Top Routers
• A Windows-Based CNC GCODE Interface
  

Servo Motors over Steppers

All Techno machines, except for the Stepper DaVinci, feature servo motors, not stepper motors. With servo motors, you can achieve greater power and speed. Our competitors play a numbers game of specifications we do not. We actually can achieve specifications better than what we claim. When we claim speeds of 200 inches/minute, we can usually go 250 ipm. When we claim a repeatability of .0005 inches, we can and do achieve repeatability better than that, and so on. The speeds claimed by some of our competitors on their machines can only be achieved if they throw the machine off a cliff. Stepper motors are always prone to vibration and can result in a loss of steps. Even micro-stepping is not a guarantee of eliminating this. When a motor is run open loop, the resulting vibrations from a heavy cut can cause all sorts of problems and without the encoders to tell where the motor actually is, you can always have problems

Ball Screws over Acme Screws and/or Rack-and-Pinions

Techno only use ball screws and anti-backlash ball nuts on ALL OUR MACHINES. Acme screws are very inefficient and combined with stepper motors can compound the problems. Rack and Pinions can be an endless source of problems. When chips or dirt falls on the rack, the pinion gear has to go “over it” resulting in loss of positioning accuracy and vibration. The racks constantly need adjusting to tighten them and after tightening them in one spot, you are more than likely to be too loose or too tight on another area of the rack. This of course causes the system to be either too loose or to bind. This does not happen with a ball screw because the balls roll over a formed thread. Since they roll, we can tighten up the fit between the screw and ball nut without causing the system to bind. Racks and acme screws wear because of the nature of their action they have to rub and they have to have a certain amount of looseness to achieve their motion. In both the rack and Acme screw, the sliding action causes the wear, which requires the adjustments. The rolling action of the ball screw means that the motion of the system is first of all more efficient so that the motor power is used to move the system, not just used to overcome the sliding friction of the mechanism, but second it does not wear as much or as fast. Putting it simply, rubbing wears material out, rolling does not. This means that our customers spend their time running the machine, not adjusting it.

Rigid Machine Frames over Table Top Routers

Techno machines, especially our larger CNC machines, are built on rigid steel frames, not bolted assemblies or sheet metal covered aluminum assemblies. This results in stiffer frames which means that when you take heavy cuts, our machine will not rack or twist. Our CNC lathes are designed with covered mechanisms to prevent chips from getting where they should not. Our CNC wood lathe has the entire moving mechanisms covered in sealed slides and the seals are on the bottom of the mechanism so that the wood chips have an even more difficult time of getting in the machine

Windows-Based CNC GCODE Interface

Techno's WINDOWS-BASED CNC GCODE Interface is extremely user-friendly with most major functions just one-click away. Even users that are unfamiliar with computers can get up and running in no time. Techno provides easy to follow Interface Tutorials that walk you through the processes. It's simple to install on any Windows-Based PC (WIN 95 / 98 / 2000/ME/XP) so you don't have to worry about compatibility. The Interface's Main Menu (shown at right) highlights Techno's single-screen design. Some of the features that one-click will take you to, include:ท Toolpath Previewerท Built-in GCODE Editorท Production Logging and Reportingท Toolbreak Auto-Repositioningท Infinite Look-Ahead and Continuous Motion (optimizing feedrates while maintaining accurate positioning)AND, all of Techno's complete system machines (LC, RG, Prem Class, etc.) get this software bundled with the machine, FOR FREE. AND, you get FREE lifetime updates on this software, via the Internet.


Servo-Stepper Motor Table