Research on virtual dynamic optimization design for NC machine tools

Virtual dynamic optimization design can avoid the repeated process from de-sign to trial-manufacture and test.The designer can analyze and optimize the productstructures in virtual visualization environment.The design cycle is shortened and the costis reduced.The paper analyzed the peculiarity of virtual optimization design,and put for-wards the thought and flow to implement virtual optimization design.The example to opti-mize the internal grinder was studied via establishing precise finite element model,modi-fying the layout of Stiffened Plates and designing parameters of the worktable,and usingthe technology of modal frequency revision and the technology of multiple tuned damper.The result of optimization design compared the new grinder with the original grinder showsthat the entire machine's first orders natural frequency is enhanced by 17%,and the re-sponse displacement of the grinding-head has dropped by 28% under the first order natu-ral frequency and by 41% under second order natural frequency.Finally,the dynamic per-formance of the internal grinder was optimized.

Series Design of Large-Scale NC Machine Tool

Product system design is a mature concept in western developed countries. It has been applied in war industry during the last century. However,up until now,functional combination is still the main method for product system de-sign in China. Therefore,in terms of a concept of product generation and product interaction we are in a weak position compared with the requirements of global markets. Today,the idea of serial product design has attracted much attention in the design field and the definition of product generation as well as its parameters has already become the standard in serial product designs. Although the design of a large-scale NC machine tool is complicated,it can be further optimized by the precise exercise of object design by placing the concept of platform establishment firmly into serial product de-sign. The essence of a serial product design has been demonstrated by the design process of a large-scale NC machine tool.

ADAPTABLE DESIGN OF MACHINE TOOLS STRUCTURES

Adaptable design aims to extend the utilities of design and product. The specific methods are developed for practical applications of adaptable design in the design of mechanical structures, including adaptable platform, interface and module designs. Adaptable redesign problems are formulated as adaptable platform design under adaptability bound constraints. Analysis tools are then suggested for the implementation of the redesign of machine tool structures, including variation techniques based sensitivity analysis, similarity-based commonality analysis, performance improvement, and adaptability measures. The specific measure of adaptability for machine tool structures is measured through the quantification of the structural similarity and performance improvement gained from adaptable design. The method provides designers with an approach that brings adaptability into the design process, with considering the cost and benefits of such adaptability. The redesign of CNC spiral bevel gear cutting machine structures has been included to illustrate these concepts and methods.

Precision Design for Machine Tool Based on Error Prediction

Digitization precision analysis is an important tool to ensure the design precision of machine tool currently. The correlative research about precision modeling and analysis mainly focuses on the geometry precision and motion precision of machine tool, and the forming motion precision of workpiece surface. For the machine tool with complex forming motion, there is not accurate corresponding relationship between the existing criterion on precision design and the machining precision of workpiece. Therefore, a design scheme on machine tool precision based on error prediction is proposed, which is divided into two-stage digitization precision analysis crucially. The first stage aims at the technology system to complete the precision distribution and inspection from the workpiece to various component parts of technology system and achieve the total output precision of machine tool under the specified machining precision; the second stage aims at the machine tool system to complete the precision distribution and inspection from the output precision of machine tool to the machine tool components. This article serves YK3610 gear hobber as the example to describe the error model of two systems and basic application method, and the practical cutting precision of this machine tool achieves to 5-4-4 grade. The proposed method can provide reliable guidance to the precision design of machine tool with complex forming motion.

Dynamic Accuracy Design Method of Ultra-precision Machine Tool

Ultra-precision machine tool is the most important physical tool to machining the workpiece with the frequency domain error requirement, in the design process of which the dynamic accuracy design(DAD) is indispensable and the related research is rarely available. In light of above reasons, a DAD method of ultra-precision machine tool is proposed in this paper, which is based on the frequency domain error allocation.The basic procedure and enabling knowledge of the DAD method is introduced. The application case of DAD method in the ultra-precision flycutting machine tool for KDP crystal machining is described to show the procedure detailedly. In this case, the KDP workpiece surface has the requirements in four different spatial frequency bands, and the emphasis for this study is put on the middle-frequency band with the PSD specifications. The results of the application case basically show the feasibility of the proposed DAD method. The DAD method of ultra-precision machine tool can effectively minimize the technical risk and improve the machining reliability of the designed machine tool. This paper will play an important role in the design and manufacture of new ultra-precision machine tool.

Structural Bionic Design of Machine Tool Structures

A structural bionic design process is systematically presented for lightweight mechanical structures. By mimicking biological excellent structural principles, the stiffening ribs of a machining table and a moving column were redesigned for better load-bearing efficiency. Finite element method（FEM） simulation and model experiments were carried out for performance verification, which showed the increase of structural static and dynamic performance. Structural bionic offers a new solution to change conventional structures for high specific stiffness.

Design method and vibration testing of a reconfigurable multi-process combined turn-milling machine tool

To provide a good machining method in remanufacturing for the repaired parts with various forms, the design method of reconfigurable multi-process combined machining system and its implementation technology for remanufacturing are systematically proposed. The key technologies include reconfigurable structure design method of multi-process combined machining, man-machine coordination parameter programming and control system technology with self-maintenance function. A turn-milling machine tool based on this design method is developed. Natural frequency and corresponding vibration modes of the machine tool were analyzed by using both FEA and vibration test. Stiffness tests and machining experiments show that the rapid machining of most processes for the repaired work pieces can be successfully realized.

MODULE DEFINITION MODEL FOR MODULAR DESIGN AND MANUFACTU－RING OF HEAVY DUTY MACHINE TOOLS

The key techniques of modular design of heavy duty NC mathine tools are described. Amodule definition modelfor modular design and manufacturing of heavy duty NC machine tools isbulit and the essential composition of the module definition model (MDM) is discussed in detail. Itis composed of two models: the part definition model (PDM) and the module assembly model(MAM). The PDM and MAM are built and their structures are given. Using object-oriented know-ledge representation and based on these models, an intelligent support system of modular design forheavy duty NC machine tools is developed and implemented This system has been applied to thepractical use of Wuhan Heavy Duty Machine Tool Works

Research on Visual Virtual Design Platform for NC Machine Tools

The fundamental ideas on building the collaborative design platform of virtual visualization for NC machine tools are introduced. The platform is based on the globally shared product model conforming to the STEP Standard,and used PDM system to integrate and encapsulate CAD/CAE and other application software for the product development. The platform also integrated the expert system of NC machine tools design,analysis and estimation. This expert system utilized fuzzy estimation principle to evaluate the design and simulation analysis results and make decisions. The platform provides the collaborative intelligent environment for the design of virtual NC machine tools prototype aiming at integrated product design team. It also supports the customized development of NC machine tools.

Design of Five-Axis Ultrasonic Assistant Compound Machine Tool

A compound machine tool was designed, which combined rotary ultrasonic assisted grinding, electrical discharge machining(EDM) and multi-axis milling. Experimental results indicated that its positioning accuracy was less than 5.6 μm and its repetitive positioning accuracy was less than 1.8 μm; the vibration amplitude of ultrasonic grinding system was uniform and stable, and the EDM system worked well and stably.A smooth surface of K9 optical glass component was achieved by the grinding method.

Kansei Engineering Applied to the Form Design of Injection Molding Machines

This study investigated the relationship between a subject’s evaluation of injection molding machines (IMMs) and formal design features using Kansei engineering. This investigation used 12 word pairs to evaluate the IMM configurations and employed the semantic differential method to explore the perception of 60 interviewees of 12 examples. The relationship between product feature design and corresponding words was derived by multiple regression analysis. Factor analysis reveals that the 12 examples can be categorized as two styles—advanced style and succinct style. For the advanced style, an IMM should use a rectangular form for the clamping-unit cover and a full-cover for the injection-unit. For the succinct style, the IMM configuration should use a beveled form for the safety cover and a vertical rectangular form for the clamping-unit cover. Quantitative data and suggested guidelines for the relationship between design features and interviewee evaluations are useful to product designers when formulating design strategies.

NEW INSIGHTS INTO PRINCIPLES FOR DESIGNING ARCHITECTURE OF ENVIRONMENT SYSTEM FOR TOOL INTEGRATION ─IN THE CASE OF PRODUCTION MACHINES DESIGN

CAD/CAM integration is broadly viewed as tool integration. From this point of view, both CAD/CAM software and hardware are considered as tools. A great advantage of this view point is that a very flexible paradigm is introduced, in which the CAD/CAM system for a particular industrial application can be customized and built by selecting a set of tools. This paper intends to shed some lights on the principles for designing the architecture of such a tool integration environment. Although such an environment is no more than a computer program sys. tem itself, its particular characteristics arising from its unique role, i.e., tool integration, make the discussion on the designing of an environment architecture nontrivial. The paper externalizes the author's experiences in implementing an tool integration environment for production machines.In particular, the discussion renders some insights into the concepts such as tool integration models, various views of an environment architecture, classification of data into tool-data and environment data, and employment of the information relativity principle in making an environment architecture flexible. The paper will take production machines design as a target application that an environment system is developed for, owing to its extreme complexity and thus make sense of coverage of other engineering applications.

An Open CAM System for Dentistry on the Basis of China-made 5-axis Simultaneous Contouring CNC Machine Tool and Industrial CAM Software

China-made 5-axis simultaneous contouring CNC machine tool and domestically developed industrial computer-aided manufacture （CAM） technology were used for full crown fabrication and measurement of crown accuracy, with an attempt to establish an open CAM system for dental processing and to promote the introduction of domestic dental computer-aided design （CAD）/CAM system. Commercially available scanning equipment was used to make a basic digital tooth model after preparation of crown, and CAD software that comes with the scanning device was employed to design the crown by using domestic industrial CAM software to process the crown data in order to generate a solid model for machining purpose, and then China-made 5-axis simultaneous contouring CNC machine tool was used to complete machining of the whole crown and the internal accuracy of the crown internal was measured by using 3D-MicroCT. The results showed that China-made 5-axis simultaneous contouring CNC machine tool in combination with domestic industrial CAM technology can be used for crown making and the crown was well positioned in die. The internal accuracy was successfully measured by using 3D-MicroCT. It is concluded that an open CAM system for den-tistry on the basis of China-made 5-axis simultaneous contouring CNC machine tool and domestic industrial CAM software has been established, and development of the system will promote the introduction of domestically-produced dental CAD/CAM system.

Research on steel-fibber polymer concrete machine tool structure

Researched on the design and manufacturing of machine tool bed made by Steel-fibber Polymer Concrete(SFPC),which analyzed the static,dynamic and thermal performances of the bed.The results of study prove that machine tool bed made with SFPC is much more superiority than made in cast iron in dynamic and thermal perform- ances,and is more superiority then made in Polymer Concrete (PC) in static perform- ances.It can be concluded that the static,dynamic and thermal properties of machine tool can be improved by manufacturing machine tool bed with SFPC.Also SFPC machine tool bed posses some other advantages in the following: short development time,simple pro- duction process,reducing cost cost,saving energy,iron and steel.

Dimensional Synthesis Design of Novel Parallel Machine Tool

This paper presents dimensional synthesis design theory for a novel planar 3-DOF (degrees of freedom) parallel machine tool. Closed-form solutions are developed for both the inverse and direct kinematics. The formulation of the dexterity and the definitions of the theoretical workspace and the valid workspace are used to analyze the effects of the design parameters on the dexterity and workspace. The analysis results are used to propose an approach to satisfy the platform motion requirement while realizing orientation capability, dexterity and valid workspace. A design example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of this approach.

Energy saving design of the machining unit of hobbing machine tool with integrated optimization

The machining unit of hobbing machine tool accounts for a large portion of the energy consumption during the operating phase.The optimization design is a practical means of energy saving and can reduce energy consumption essentially.However,this issue has rarely been discussed in depth in previous research.A comprehensive function of energy consumption of the machining unit is built to address this problem.Surrogate models are established by using effective fitting methods.An integrated optimization model for reducing tool displacement and energy consumption is developed on the basis of the energy consumption function and surrogate models,and the parameters of the motor and structure are considered simultaneously.Results show that the energy consumption and tool displacement of the machining unit are reduced,indicating that energy saving is achieved and the machining accuracy is guaranteed.The influence of optimization variables on the objectives is analyzed to inform the design.

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.

A Tool Path Re-generation Algorithm for Die & Mold Machining

Facing the challenges of a shorter product design a nd manufacturing lead-time, many mold companies are using 3-D CAD/CAM software s ystems in design and manufacturing. A new product file is often issued to the mo ld design department before it is completely finalized and the design may have t o be iterated many times during the mold design and making processes. In practic e, if a mold has been modified, all the tool paths that cover the modified regio n must be re-generated, no matter how small the modified region may be. With th e available tool path generation systems, if a tool path needs to be re-generat ed, all the cutter location (CL) points must be re-calculated, and none of the original CL points can be re-used. It would require as much time to re-gen erate the modified tool path as in the original case. On the other hand, the mod ified region is usually quite small compared with the entire mold. The complete re-generation process is therefore highly unproductive and time-consuming. This paper proposes an efficient tool path re-generation approach for 3-axis d ie and mold machining. It is assumed in this research that a gouge-free too l path has been generated for the original mold and the same ball end-mill is to be used to generate the tool path for the modified mold. It is shown in th is work that if the boundary of the modified region is interference-free, the a ffected CL points are enclosed by a set of CL points which correspond to the poi nts on the boundary of the modified region. An efficient tool path re-generatio n algorithm was developed in this research. With this algorithm, a closed CL cur ve is first generated from the boundary of the affected region. The CL points fo r the original mold are then analyzed by comparing the x and y values with the b oundary of the affected CL points. If the CL points are not affected by the modi fication, they are output to the new CL file directly. Otherwise, they are remov ed and replaced by the new CL points. The algorithm has been tested using severa l industrial parts, and results show that it is efficient, robust, and the re-g enerated tool path is gouge-free and smooth.

Pre-deformation for Assembly Performance of Machine Centers

The current research of machine center accuracy in workspace mainly focuses on the poor geometric error subjected to thermal and gravity load while in operation, however, there are little researches focusing on the effect of machine center elastic deformations on workspace volume. Therefore, a method called pre-deformation for assembly performance is presented. This method is technically based on the characteristics of machine tool assembly and collaborative computer-aided engineering （CAE） analysis. The research goal is to enhance assembly performance, including straightness, positioning, and angular errors, to realize the precision of the machine tool design. A vertical machine center is taken as an example to illustrate the proposed method. The concept of travel error is defined to obtain the law of the guide surface. The machine center assembly performance is analyzed under cold condition and thermal balance condition to establish the function of pre-deformation. Then, the guide surface in normal direction is processed with the pre-deformation function, and the machine tool assembly performance is measured using a laser interferometer. The measuring results show that the straightness deviation of the Z component in the Y-direction is 158.9% of the allowable value primarily because of the gravity of the spindle head, and the straightness of the X and Y components is minimal. When the machine tool is processed in pre-deformation, the straightness of the Z axis moving component is reduced to 91.2%. This research proposes a pre-deformation machine center assembly method which has sufficient capacity to improving assembly accuracy of machine centers.

基于UG和Moldflow的塑料外壳注塑模具设计与数控加工

以某塑料外壳为例,采用Moldflow软件进行注塑成型分析,得到了优化的浇注系统和冷却系统,并对塑件翘曲变形进行比较分析,获得了最优工艺参数。应用UG Moldwizard模块进行注塑模设计,并利用UG CAM模块对模具型腔进行数控加工工艺分析、生成刀路轨迹仿真并进行联机加工。该方法实现了模具CAD/CAE/CAM的一体化设计,缩短了开发周期,改善了塑件质量,对指导企业生产有一定的实用价值。