Elbow precision machining technology by abrasive flow based on direct Monte Carlo method

The investigation was carried out on the technical problems of finishing the inner surface of elbow parts and the action mechanism of particles in elbow precision machining by abrasive flow.This work was analyzed and researched by combining theory,numerical and experimental methods.The direct simulation Monte Carlo(DSMC)method and the finite element analysis method were combined to reveal the random collision of particles during the precision machining of abrasive flow.Under different inlet velocity,volume fraction and abrasive particle size,the dynamic pressure and turbulence flow energy of abrasive flow in elbow were analyzed,and the machining mechanism of particles on the wall and the influence of different machining parameters on the precision machining quality of abrasive flow were obtained.The test results show the order of the influence of different parameters on the quality of abrasive flow precision machining and establish the optimal process parameters.The results of the surface morphology before and after the precision machining of the inner surface of the elbow are discussed,and the surface roughness Ra value is reduced from 1.125μm to 0.295μm after the precision machining of the abrasive flow.The application of DSMC method provides special insights for the development of abrasive flow technology.

Fully Integrated Machine Control for Ultra Precision Machining

To meet the demands for highly advanced components with ultra precise contour accuracy and optical surface quality arising in the fields of photonics and optics, automotive, medical applications and biotechnology, consumer electronics and renewable energy, more advanced production machines and processes have to be developed. As the complexity of machine tools rises steadily, the automation of manufacture increases rapidly, processes become more integrated and cycle times have to be reduced significantly, challenges of engineering efficient machine tools with respect to these demands expand every day. Especially the manufacture of freeform geometries with non-continuous and asymmetric surfaces requires advanced diamond machining strategies involving highly dynamic axes movements with a high bandwidth and position accuracy. Ultra precision lathes additionally equipped with Slow Tool and Fast Tool systems can be regarded as state-of-the-art machines achieving the objectives of high quality optical components. The mechanical design of such ultra precision machine tools as well as the mechanical integration of additional highly dynamic axes are very well understood today. In contrast to that, neither advanced control strategies for ultra precision machining nor the control integration of additional Fast Tool systems have been sufficiently developed yet. Considering a complex machine setup as a mechatronic system, it becomes obvious that enhancements to further increase the achievable form accuracy and surface quality and at the same time decrease cycle times and error sensitivity can only be accomplished by innovative, integrated control systems. At the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology IPT a novel, fully integrated control approach has been developed to overcome the drawbacks of state-of-the-art machine controls for ultra precision processes. Current control systems are often realized as decentralized solutions consisting of various computational hardware components for setpoint generation, machine control, HMI （human machine interface）, Slow Tool control and Fast Tool control. While implementing such a distributed control strategy, many disadvantages arise in terms of complex communication interfaces, discontinuous safety structures, synchronization of cycle times and the machining accuracy as a whole. The novel control approach has been developed as a fully integrated machine control including standard CNC （computer numerical control） and PLC （programmable logic controller） functionality, advanced setpoint generation methods, an extended HMI as well as an FPGA （field programmable gate array）-based controller for a voice coil driven Slow Tool and a piezo driven Fast Tool axis. As the new control system has been implemented as a fully integrated platform using digital communication via EtherCAT, a continuous safety strategy could be realized, the error sensitivity and EMC susceptibility could be significantly decreased and the overall process accuracy from setpoint generation over path interpolation to axes movements could be enhanced. The novel control at the same time offers additional possibilities of automation, process integration, online data acquisition and evaluation as well as error compensation methods.

Characterization and Analysis of Inconel 718 Alloy Ground at Different Speeds

Inconel 718(IN718)alloy is widely applied to fabricate high temperature resistant or corrosion resistant parts due to its excellent mechanical performance.However,the machining of IN718 alloy is difficult as it may cause serious tool wear and poor surface quality(SQ)of the workpiece.In this work,grinding experiments on IN718 alloy at different speeds were conducted by using a CBN grinding wheel.The relationship between grinding speed,SQ and subsurface damage(SSD)was well studied.With increasing grinding speed,surface roughness decreased,and SQ was greatly improved.Meanwhile,the microhardness of the grinding surface declined as the grinding speed increased.The SSD depth was almost unchanged when the grinding speed was lower than 15 m/s,then it decreased with higher grinding speeds.It was attributed to the mechanical-thermal synergistic effect in the grinding process.The results indicated that increasing grinding speed can effectively improve the SQ and reduce the SSD of IN718 alloy.The conclusion in the work may also provide insight into processing other hard-to-machining materials.

Temperature Variable Optimization for Precision Machine Tool Thermal Error Compensation on Optimal Threshold

Machine tool thermal error is an important reason for poor machining accuracy. Thermal error compensation is a primary technology in accuracy control. To build thermal error model, temperature variables are needed to be divided into several groups on an appropriate threshold. Currently, group threshold value is mainly determined by researchers experience. Few studies focus on group threshold in temperature variable grouping. Since the threshold is important in error compensation, this paper arms to find out an optimal threshold to realize temperature variable optimization in thermal error modeling. Firstly, correlation coefficient is used to express membership grade of temperature variables, and the theory of fuzzy transitive closure is applied to obtain relational matrix of temperature variables. Concepts as compact degree and separable degree are introduced. Then evaluation model of temperature variable clustering is built. The optimal threshold and the best temperature variable clustering can be obtained by setting the maximum value of evaluation model as the objective. Finally, correlation coefficients between temperature variables and thermal error are calculated in order to find out optimum temperature variables for thermal error modeling. An experiment is conducted on a precise horizontal machining center. In experiment, three displacement sensors are used to measure spindle thermal error and twenty-nine temperature sensors are utilized to detect the machining center temperature. Experimental result shows that the new method of temperature variable optimization on optimal threshold successfully worked out a best threshold value interval and chose seven temperature variables from twenty-nine temperature measuring points. The model residual of z direction is within 3 μm. Obviously, the proposed new variable optimization method has simple computing process and good modeling accuracy, which is quite fit for thermal error compensation.

Smart Cutting Tools and Smart Machining: Development Approaches, and Their Implementation and Application Perspectives

Smart machining has tremendous potential and is becoming one of new generation high value precision manufacturing technologies in line with the advance of Industry 4.0 concepts. This paper presents some innovative design concepts and, in particular, the development of four types of smart cutting tools, including a force-based smart cutting tool, a temperature-based internally-cooled cutting tool, a fast tool servo （FTS） and smart collets for ultra- precision and micro manufacturing purposes. Implemen- tation and application perspectives of these smart cutting tools are explored and discussed particularly for smart machining against a number of industrial application requirements. They are contamination-free machining, machining of tool-wear-prone Si-based infra-red devices and medical applications, high speed micro milling and micro drilling, etc. Furthermore, implementation tech- niques are presented focusing on： （a） plug-and-produce design principle and the associated smart control algo- rithms, （b） piezoelectric film and surface acoustic wave transducers to measure cutting forces in process, （c） critical cutting temperature control in real-time machining, （d） in- process calibration through machining trials, （e） FE-based design and analysis of smart cutting tools, and （f） applica- tion exemplars on adaptive smart machining.

CUTTING-DIRECTION BURR FORMATION IN ORTHOGONAL PRECISION CUTTING

The cutting burr is one of the common phenomena occurring in metal cutting.In this paper,the forming processes,main effect factors and change law of the cutting direction burr in orthogonal cutting have been studied and related theories are analyzed based on the cutting experiments.The result shows that:(1)the forming processes of cutting direction burr consist of normal cutting,flexure deformation of end surface of workpiece,plastic effect,continuous cutting and shear break separating in orthogonal cutting;(2)a new phenomenon is found that cutting direction burr is formed with the shear break separation of the chip and workpiece machined surfaces;(3)the size of cutting direction burr varies with workpiece materials,cutting parameters and geometric parameters of the cutting tool.

Error compensation on precision machine tool servo control system based on digital concave filter

It is concluded from the results of testing the frequency characteristics of the sub micron precision machine tool servo control system, that the existence of several oscillating modalities is the main factor that affects the performance of the control system. To compensate for this effect,several concave filters are utilized in the system to improve the control accuracy. The feasibility of compensating for several oscillating modalities with a single concave filter is also studied. By applying a modified Butterworth concave filter to the practical system, the maximum stable state output error remains under ±10 nm in the closed loop positioning system.

Active Vibration Isolation System for Sub microultra precision Turning Machine

Now vibration isolation of ultra precision machine tool is usually achieved through air springs systems. As far as HCM I sub micro turning machine developed by HIT, an active vibration isolation system that consists of air springs and electro magnetic actuators was presented. The primary function of air springs is to support the turning machine and to isolate the high frequency vibration. The electro magnetic actuators controlled by fuzzy neural networks isolate the low frequency vibration. The experiment indicates that active vibration isolation system isolates base vibration effectively in all the frequency range. So the vibration of the machine bed is controlled under 10 -6 g and the surface roughness is improved.

Comparison of Different Approaches to Force Controlled Precision Honing of Bores

Honing is a machining process which can economically produce exact bores regarding form, geometry and surface quality. During the honing process, the tool, equipped with one or several abrasive honing stones, combines three movement components： rotation, oscillation in axial direction and radial feed movement of the honing stone. The feed movement is a decisive factor for the results of the honing process and can be controlled either by a gradual lining in fixed time intervals or by the regulation of the occurring forces. The presented studies show different approaches for the regulation of force controlled honing and their effects on the measured forces, the torque and the quality parameters of the process.

Formation and Control of Drilling Burrs

In this paper, a new forming model of the feed direction burr for drilling process is presented. The feed direction burr formation is experimented and studied. The related theories are analyzed, and the influential factors of the feed direction burrs are pointed out. Furthermore, a certain number of new measures to prevent and decrease the burr in drilling process are advanced.

Integrated Simulation Method for Interaction between Manufacturing Process and Machine Tool

The interaction between the machining process and the machine tool （IMPMT） plays an important role on high precision components manufacturing. However, most researches are focused on the machining process or the machine tool separately, and the interaction between them has been always overlooked. In this paper, a novel simplified method is proposed to realize the simulation of IMPMT by combining use the finite element method and state space method. In this method, the transfer function of the machine tool is built as a small state space. The small state space is obtained from the complicated finite element model of the whole machine tool. Furthermore, the control system of the machine tool is integrated with the transfer function of the machine tool to generate the cutting trajectory. Then, the tool tip response under the cutting force is used to predict the machined surface. Finally, a case study is carried out for a fly-cutting machining process, the dynamic response analysis of an ultra-precision fly-cutting machine tool and the machined surface verifies the effectiveness of this method. This research proposes a simplified method to study the IMPMT, the relationships between the machining process and the machine tool are established and the surface generation is obtained.

FORMING PRINCIPLE OF TWO SIDE-DIRECTION BURR AND IT'S PREDICTION IN METAL CUTTING

The burr is one of the common phenomena occurring i n metal cutting operations The mathematical mechanical model of two side dir ection burr formation and transformation is established with plane stress strain theory,based on the orthogonal cutting The main laws of formation and change of the burr are revealed,and it is confirmed by experiment result,which first realizes prediction of the forming and changing of the two side direction burr in metal cutting operation.

Surface texture formation in precision machining of direct laser deposited tungsten carbide

This paper focuses on an analysis of the surface texture formed during precision machining of tungsten carbide. The work material was fabricated using direct laser deposition （DLD） technology. The experiment included precision milling of tungsten carbide samples with a monolithic torus cubic boron nitride tool and grinding with diamond and alumina cup wheels. An optical surface profiler was applied to the measurements of surface textures and roughness profiles. In addition, the micro-geometry of the milling cutter was measured with the appli- cation of an optical device. The surface roughness height was also estimated with the application of a model, which included kinematic-geometric parameters and minimum uncut chip thickness. The research revealed the occurrence of micro-grooves on the machined surface. The surface roughness height calculated on the basis of the traditional kinematic-geometric model was incompatible with the measurements. However, better agreement between the theoretical and experimental values was observed for the minimum uncut chip thickness model.

Design and Characterization of a Low-Cost Piezoelectric Vibration Energy Harvester with Bulk PZT Film

To improve the efficiency of MEMS piezoelectric vibration energy harvesters(PVEHs), the bulk lead zirconate titanate(PZT) has been used to substitute the thin film PZT for the higher mechanical-electrical coupling coefficients. The expensive equipment of micromachining set a high entry barrier on the research of PVEHs with high efficiency. To solve this issue, this paper developed an efficient PVEH with bulk PZT using common precision machining, whose dimensions and electrical outputs are comparable to the MEMS devices. After numerically analyzing the effects of the length ratio of the proof mass to the harvester on the output power, a compact PVEH consisting of a cantilevered uni-morph and a tungsten proof mass was designed. Simulations show that the mechanical damping ratio and the thickness have little effects on the optimized length ratio. By using a uni-morph with the copper structural layer of about 80-90μm and the bulk PZT-5 H layer of 139μm, a low-cost harvester prototype was assembled. The key parameters of the prototype were experimentally identified and compared with the theoretical predictions. Under the harmonic base excitation of 0.4 g(where g = 9.8 m/s^2) at 160 Hz, the maximum output power of the prototype is about 76.7μW, with the normalized power density of about 3.35 mW/cm^3/g^2. Under base excitation of 0.4 g at 159 Hz, the prototype charged a 680μF capacitor from 0 to 4.84 V in about 154 seconds.

On-machine measurement of tool nose radius and wear during precision/ultra-precision machining

The tool state exerts a strong influence on surface quality and profile accuracy during precision/ultraprecision machining.However,current on-machine measurement methods cannot precisely obtain the tool nose radius and wear.This study therefore investigated the onmachine measurement of tool nose radius on the order of hundreds of microns and wear on the order of a few microns to tens of microns during precision/ultra-precision machining using the edge reversal method.To provide the necessary replication,pure aluminum and pure copper soft metal substrates were evaluated,with pure copper exhibiting superior performance.The feasibility of the measurement method was then demonstrated by evaluating the replication accuracy using a 3D surface topography instrument;the measurement error was only 0.1%.The wear of the cutting tool was measured using the proposed method to obtain the maximum values for tool arc wear,flank wear,and wear depth of 3.4 lm,73.5 lm and 3.7 lm,respectively.

Development of Diamond-like Carbon Fibre Wheel

A unique diamond-like carbon (DLC) grinding wheel was developed, in which the DLC fibres were made by rolling Al sheets coated with DLC films and aligned no rmally to the grinding wheel surface by laminating Al sheets together with DLC fibres. In this paper, the formation process of DLC fibres and the fabrication process of a DLC fibre wheel were investigated. Many grinding experiments were also carried out on a precision NC plane milling machine using a newly developed DLC wheel. Grinding of specimens of silicon wafers, optical glasses, quartz, granites and hardened die steel SKD11 demonstrated the capabilities of nanometer surface finish. A smooth surface with a roughness value of Ra2.5 nm (Ry26 nm) was achieved.

Precision micro-milling process:state of the art

Micro-milling is a precision manufacturing process with broad applications across the biomedical,electronics,aerospace,and aeronautical industries owing to its versatility,capability,economy,and efficiency in a wide range of materials.In particular,the micro-milling process is highly suitable for very precise and accurate machining of mold prototypes with high aspect ratios in the microdomain,as well as for rapid micro-texturing and micro-patterning,which will have great importance in the near future in bio-implant manufacturing.This is particularly true for machining of typical difficult-to-machine materials commonly found in both the mold and orthopedic implant industries.However,inherent physical process constraints of machining arise as macromilling is scaled down to the microdomain.This leads to some physical phenomena during micromilling such as chip formation,size effect,and process instabilities.These dynamic physical process phenomena are introduced and discussed in detail.It is important to remember that these phenomena have multifactor effects during micro-milling,which must be taken into consideration to maximize the performance of the process.The most recent research on the micro-milling process inputs is discussed in detail from a process output perspective to determine how the process as a whole can be improved.Additionally,newly developed processes that combine conventional micro-milling with other technologies,which have great prospects in reducing the issues related to the physical process phenomena,are also introduced.Finally,the major applications of this versatile precision machining process are discussed with important insights into how the application range may be further broadened.

Hybrid multibody system method for the dynamic analysis of an ultra‐precision fly‐cutting machine tool

The dynamics of an ultra‐precision machine tool determines the precision of the machined surface.This study aims to propose an effective method to model and analyze the dynamics of an ultra‐precision fly‐cutting machine tool.First,the dynamic model of the machine tool considering the deformations of the cutter head and the lathe head is developed.Then,the mechanical elements are classified into M subsystems and F subsystems according to their properties and connections.The M‐subsystem equations are formulated using the transfer matrix method for multibody systems(MSTMM),and the F‐subsystem equations are analyzed using the finite element method and the Craig-Bampton reduction method.Furthermore,all the subsystems are assembled by combining the restriction equations at connection points among the subsystems to obtain the overall transfer equation of the machine tool system.Finally,the vibration characteristics of the machine tool are evaluated numerically and are validated experimentally.The proposed modeling and analysis method preserves the advantages of the MSTMM,such as high computational efficiency,low computational load,systematic reduction of the overall transfer equation,and generalization of its computational capability to general flexible‐body elements.In addition,this study provides theoretical insights and guidance for the design of ultra‐precision machine tools.

Optimal tool design in micro-milling of difficult-to-machine materials

The limitations of significant tool wear and tool breakage of commercially available fluted micro-end mill tools often lead to ineffective and inefficient manufacturing,while surface quality and geometric dimensions remain unacceptably poor.This is especially true for machining of difficult-to-machine(DTM)materials,such as super alloys and ceramics.Such conventional fluted micro-tool designs are generally down scaled from the macro-milling tool designs.However,simply scaling such designs from the macro to micro domain leads to inherent design flaws,such as poor tool rigidity,poor tool strength and weak cutting edges,ultimately ending in tool failure.Therefore,in this article a design process is first established to determine optimal micro-end mill tool designs for machining some typical DTM materials commonly used in manufacturing orthopaedic implants and micro-feature moulds.The design process focuses on achieving robust stiffness and mechanical strength to reduce tool wear,avoid tool chipping and tool breakage in order to efficiently machine very hard materials.Then,static stress and deflection finite element analysis(FEA)is carried out to identify stiffness and rigidity of the tool design in relation to the maximum deformations,as well as the Von Mises stress distribution at the cutting edge of the designed tools.Following analysis and further optimisation of the FEA results,a verified optimum tool design is established for micro-milling DTM materials.An experimental study is then carried out to compare the optimum tool design to commercial tools,in regards to cutting forces,tool wear and surface quality.

Design method and experiment of machinery for combined application of seed,fertilizer and herbicide

This study aimed to resolve the problems of full wheat straw returning to the field,which might readily cause stalk obstruction,poor sowing quality,and serious weeds at the seedling stage,affecting the growth of maize.Based on the idea of“simultaneous seeding and spraying,closed weeding”,this paper presented a design method for designing a corn seed-fertilizer-herbicide simultaneous operation machine,which focuses on the design of vertical active straw-removing anti-blocking device mechanism,design of nozzle key parameters,nozzle selection,seeding monomer analysis and spatial layout design of seed-fertilizer-herbicide mechanism.In addition,the interrelated formulas were deduced and machine design and field experiment were conducted.The experiment results showed that the average variation coefficient of spray uniformity of machines was 17.70%.The post-experiment weed amount was 8.9%,which was lower than that before sowing,8.5%lower than that before artificially closed weeding,and 14.3%lower than that in unenclosed weeding area.Moreover,the weeds were less in the working area of the machine,and the growth of corn was better.Compared with manual closed weeding,the average plant height uniformity and average stem diameter uniformity increased by 4.4%and 5.1%,respectively.Compared with unclosed weeding,the average plant height uniformity and average stem diameter uniformity increased by 18.3%and 10.8%,respectively.Overall,the rationality of the design method proposed in this paper was validated,and these can lay a foundation for the research and development of the same type of machine.