When a millisecond makes all the difference: intelligent collision protection
A single collision can halt a machine for days with enormous loss of money, especially in automated, unmanned production environments; this is a risk nobody can take. A collision can be caused by several factors and cannot be avoided in advance, but the GEMCMS system from Artis Marposs intervenes in under one millisecond, avoiding its consequences, such as damaging the machine, machining stops, loss of machine precision, breakage of the tool, damage to the piece and high and long repairing costs
The invisible risk of unattended shifts
Lights-out manufacturing, night shifts and weekends running without personnel are a growing reality across the industry. But without an operator present, even a simple error such as a previous process missing or an incorrect zero-point offset can trigger a collision during a rapid traverse move. The result: destroyed spindle bearings, broken tools, damaged workpieces, and machine downtime that can stretch into days.
"A single undetected collision can wipe out weeks of planned production and destroy components worth tens of thousands of euros."
The GEMCMS system from Marposs was also developed for this scenario: to protect machine tools, robots, and handling systems when no human eye is watching.
A hardware response, not a software alert
Speed is everything. When a collision occurs, kinetic energy transfers to mechanical structures within fractions of a millisecond. A system that detects the event after 10 or 20 ms is already too late. GEMCMS continuously evaluates signals from sensors with an internal cycle time of less than 1 ms. When a defined collision threshold is exceeded, the system triggers a direct hardware interrupt, drives are actively counter-controlled or de-energised before the energy can irreparably damage the spindle.
A self-contained, dedicated protection system
GEMCMS responds in under 1 ms via a direct hardware interrupt to the drive controller, without communication latency. Our sensor can detect mechanical deformation induced by dynamic or quasistatic impacts. Thresholds are fully configurable to meet each application's requirements.
Where GEMCMS is used
The system is designed for any environment where unplanned downtime carries a high cost. Typical applications include:
- High-value machining centres running continuous production
- Automated milling and turning lines
- Robotic cells for component handling
- Any machine operating in unmanned shifts, nights, weekends, ghost shifts
The cost of not having it
Protecting a single motor spindle, whose replacement cost typically ranges from $30,000 to $50,000, not counting lost production, is already sufficient to recover the entire investment in the monitoring system. On top of that, GEMCMS provides the confidence to extend production into unmanned night and weekend shifts, knowing that in the event of an anomaly, the machine will stop itself before the damage propagates.
"Preventing a single collision event is enough to pay back the full cost of the monitoring system."
When integrated with the other modules of the GENIOR MODULAR process monitoring line, GEMCMS becomes part of a complete sensory infrastructure, combining real-time collision protection, tool breakage and wear detection, and predictive maintenance into a single, unified system for fully autonomous production.