Method of controlling selection of tools in a quadriaxial numerical control lathe

Abstract

A method of controlling selection of tools in a quadriaxial numerical control lathe provided with two tool rests each mounting a plurality of tools and adapted to perform machining by the use of the tool rests, without requiring a programmer or the like to give an instruction concerning selection of tools to be used in each of machining processes when he/she forms a machining program. The method comprises: providing a tool kind memory storing a tool kind table showing the kinds of tools to be used in accordance with machined portions and machining modes, and a tool information memory storing a tool data such as the kinds of the tools mounted on the tool rests, the positions of the tools on the tool rests, identification of the tool rests and so force; retrieving the content of the tool kind table in the tool kind memory in accordance with the machining modes and the machined portions for each of machining processes in order to determine the kinds of the tools to be used in each machining process; and further retrieving the tool data in the tool information memory on the basis of the kinds of the tools thus determined, thereby to select and extract the tools usable in each machining process.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.