Modelling and Identification of a Digital Feed Drive

In many cases, the cutting method is usually adopted for the efficient machining of non-circular body of revolution and a feed drive is needed to actuate the cutting tool to and fro according to input signal wave. The feed drive for the purpose is required of fast response and accurate positioning. Both of these are highly dependent upon the actuating elements. Several schemes of actuation are specially interested. One is the introduction of piezoelectric actuation. However, the tiny working stroke of the piezoelectric material limits its application to a narrow range. Another is the application of electro-magnetic actuator. An innovative feed drive actuated by the stepper motor is introduced for the purpose. For a conventional step operating mode, a stepper motor can only be controlled to position at finite discrete points. Thus, when it is applied as an actuator of the feed drive, it is very difficult to maintain high accuracy and fast response. To eliminate quantitative error, the stepper motor is controlled under the continual mode. It is achieved with a micro-controller system and a built-in control algorithm program, called "tracking algorithm". Within each sampling cycle, the micro-controller will sample the input signal and the time interval will be divided into two parts according to the relative position between two adjacent stepping points. The phase coils correspondent to the two adjacent stepping points are energized respectively with calculated time duration. In the way, the motion of the tool frame smoothly tracks the input signal. This paper presents modeling and identification of frequency response of the proposed drive. The dynamic response of the feed drive is manly decided by the natural frequency of the stepper motor. For the conventional small-size stepper motors, the natural frequency is within the range 200～400 Hz. Experimental results show that the stepper motor actuated tool frame can smoothly keep in track of the input signal wave under "tracking control". The bandwidth of frequency of the feed drive exceeds 310 Hz.

In many cases, the cutting method is usually adopted for the efficient machining of non-circular body of revolution and a feed drive is needed to actuate the cutting tool to and fro according to input signal wave. The feed drive for the purpose is required of fast response and accurate positioning. Both of these are highly dependent upon the actuating elements. Several schemes of actuation are specially interested. One is the introduction of piezoelectric actuation. However, the tiny working stroke of ...