By: Chris Davala, Okuma Application Engineering:
Remember phone books, those bulky collections of white and yellow pages that now seem like relics from another era (probably because they are)? Thankfully, processes evolve. Our knowledge and familiarity evolve. And fortunately, our Okuma machine manuals are evolving, too.
The machine manual — it’s the friend you don’t need all the time, but when you really do need it, you want it close by and ready for easy reference. Cumbersome paper manuals for machines have been the standard for years, but they take up space and are an inefficient use of resources. And worst of all, you can only find it where the last person put it down. It’s frustrating.
As part of Okuma’s commitment to being a trusted, reliable, and sustainable partner, our machine manuals are now exclusively available digitally. That’s right, all operator manuals for all Okuma machines are now offered solely in a digital, paper-free format. Just transfer the data quickly and easily to a USB drive and load it directly into your OSP suite control panel. That means all your go-to knowledge and information can now be accessed directly and immediately from your machine, so you never have to go looking for the physical books.
The stock digital manual comes included on your OSP suite control with the machine — that doesn’t change. Simply click the Manuals button and everything you need is pre-installed on your CNC machine when you get it. But you can also add your own PDFs to this list, so they’re easily searchable.
Do you have customized instructions, a third-party manual, electrical drawings, parts books, alarm & error lists, maintenance manuals, or a schematic drawing that you know your operators could benefit from accessing? Just load it through the USB port, and it’s there. The video above outlines instructions on how to find and add manuals and other documentation to your machine. It’s the same process across all machines and categories.
But don’t expect a box of books to show up in the mail; any updates will now be delivered digitally for upload through a USB port on the control panel. Stay tuned for updates as we’re also working to make all manuals available for download in a print-friendly format from a website or cloud-based source soon.
Of course, like other reading materials, some people just prefer that old paper copy. Special accommodations can be made to satisfy that, at a cost, if you still need a hard copy of a manual. If not, let your fingers do the scrolling.