A family tool is a tool which produces two or more different parts in one cycle of the machine.
An example is an injection moulding tool which produces a left hand and right hand automotive component in the same shot.
Another example is a press tool which produces a rotor and a stator for an electric motor in the same blow.
Another example is a slitter which slits a reel of web into strands of different widths.
The Rhombus Factory Information System has full support for family tools.
- You can specify any number of family members.
- A family can contain the same part more than once.
- You can control the position of each part in a family. This allows you to track the position across the web of slitting operations.
- It supports tools which cleat parts in the tool so that it takes many blows to make one part. An example of this is a press tool making rotors and stators which cleats the rotor laminations into a stack in the tool. In this case the rotors are counted in stacks, but the stators as individual laminations.