Controllers on or off

[DrBudman]

Just wanted to here some feed back on this issue....

Our shop supervisor in the last few months has started to leave all the cnc equipment on 24/7. He was told by a repair tech that the surge of turning them on and off is far worse than just leaving them on (electrical boards and such).

My question is, for those who don't run 3 shifts i guess, do you leave your controller on or off. Maybe saves wear and tear on boards, amplifiers and such by leaving them on 24/7.

Let me know what ya think. I turn my cmm's off everyday, mainly because they shut the air off everyday, but if it saves wear and tear maybe I should leave them on.

Thanks for any input

Dan

[tenndoc]

Years ago I had a computer tech tell me the same thing. His story was that the constant expansion and contraction of heating everything up and then cooling it down was the demon in the details that would cause failure - quicker.

Here in the shop we don't turn anything off unless we need to re-boot the bozo 'puters for some reason. Same goes for the controller. Of course we work, mostly, 3 shifts, 24/7.

The advice from years ago always made sense to me. Heat is the problem with the faster processors and it would stand to reason that holding a constant temp would keep things on a more even keel.

I just make sure the innards are kept clean of dust and small elephants. Everything else seems to keep up the magic of zero's and one's.

[rebeldude]

I always leave my on 24/7. I have a wireless remote,, and it has to be on to charge. But I used to leave it on even when I didn't

[kbotta]

We turn ours off at the end of the day, or for w/ends. Always have...
Kev

[T Miller]

Leave ours on till the weekend and then turn it off. Run 1 shift only
I run a warmup program in the morning while I have my cup of coffee

[J Temmen]

Run 1 shift and turn it off everyday, but thats because my boss thinks it might save him a couple of bucks throughout the year.

[Paul Sarrach]

Leave on 24/7. Was told by someone from B&S a long time ago.

[Craig H]

We turn ours off at the end of everyday.

[Scott Appleyard]

We leave ours on through the week and shut it down for the week-end.

[John Kugler]

Is there an "official" word from B+S or any other manufacturer?

I am curious as to what that would be. We run three shifts and just shut it down on the weekends.

[tenndoc]

I run a warmup program in the morning while I have my cup of coffee

We've just started running a warm-up program on the Cordax 150 if it's been sitting idle for any length of time and it is making a difference in the way the machine moves to location while running programs. Prior to the warm-up program you could see the machine hunt for it programed position. Guess the machine is alot like me. It needs to move around a little bit to get everything warmed up and ready.
Just thought I'd throw that out for consideration.

[Underspec]

Our CMM runs 24/7 never turns off.

[Schrocknroll]

We were told to turn off all computers when we leave to save on electricity, but even before that we generally turned them off every night.

[Dick Helm]

I was told back in early Cordax days to leave them on. But of late to turn them off. I still subscribe to the theory that on is less stress or at least constant. I leave my PC at home on 24/7

[Rick Coleman]

shut 'er down

Run one shift. Shut controller & computer down daily a& for weekend, always have. Never had any problems.