Rotary devices are among the most common accessories equipped on machining centers, yet there are few places to turn when it comes to learning how you should program them. This concise Mini-Vid addresses the two most common forms of rotary devices: indexers and rotary axes.

We begin by showing you the applications for rotary devices. We introduce the differences between indexers and true rotary axes. Next, we show the commands related to indexer programming. We then show the commands related to full rotary axis programming. We place important emphasis on the similarities between any rotary axis and linear axis programming.

Included are discussions on absolute/incremental motions, rapid/straight line motion, feed-rate control, and zero return position. Finally, we show how to approach the task of programming rotary devices, including the selection of program zero position, how to track position, and efficient rotation programming.