Spindle Thermal Error Optimization Modeling of a Five-axis Machine Tool

Aiming at the problem of low machining accu- racy and uncontrollable thermal errors of NC machine tools, spindle thermal error measurement, modeling and compensation of a two turntable five-axis machine tool are researched. Measurement experiment of heat sources and thermal errors are carried out, and GRA（grey relational analysis） method is introduced into the selection of tem- perature variables used for thermal error modeling. In order to analyze the influence of different heat sources on spindle thermal errors, an ANN （artificial neural network） model is presented, and ABC（artificial bee colony） algorithm is introduced to train the link weights of ANN, a new ABC- NN（Artificial bee colony-based neural network） modeling method is proposed and used in the prediction of spindle thermal errors. In order to test the prediction performance of ABC-NN model, an experiment system is developed, the prediction results of LSR （least squares regression）, ANN and ABC-NN are compared with the measurement results of spindle thermal errors. Experiment results show that the prediction accuracy of ABC-NN model is higher than LSR and ANN, and the residual error is smaller than 3 pm, the new modeling method is feasible. The proposed research provides instruction to compensate thermal errors and improve machining accuracy of NC machine tools.

Identification of Kinematic Errors of Five-axis Machine Tool Trunnion Axis from Finished Test Piece

Compared with the traditional non-cutting measurement,machining tests can more accurately reflect the kinematic errors of five-axis machine tools in the actual machining process for the users.However,measurement and calculation of the machining tests in the literature are quite difficult and time-consuming.A new method of the machining tests for the trunnion axis of five-axis machine tool is proposed.Firstly,a simple mathematical model of the cradle-type five-axis machine tool was established by optimizing the coordinate system settings based on robot kinematics.Then,the machining tests based on error-sensitive directions were proposed to identify the kinematic errors of the trunnion axis of cradle-type five-axis machine tool.By adopting the error-sensitive vectors in the matrix calculation,the functional relationship equations between the machining errors of the test piece in the error-sensitive directions and the kinematic errors of C-axis and A-axis of five-axis machine tool rotary table was established based on the model of the kinematic errors.According to our previous work,the kinematic errors of C-axis can be treated as the known quantities,and the kinematic errors of A-axis can be obtained from the equations.This method was tested in Mikron UCP600 vertical machining center.The machining errors in the error-sensitive directions can be obtained by CMM inspection from the finished test piece to identify the kinematic errors of five-axis machine tool trunnion axis.Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method can reduce the complexity,cost,and the time consumed substantially,and has a wider applicability.This paper proposes a new method of the machining tests for the trunnion axis of five-axis machine tool.

A Generic Kinematic Model for Three Main Types of Five-axis Machine Tools

Material removal is one of the most used processes in manufacturing. Five-axis CNC machines are believed to be the best tools in sculptured surface machining. In this study, a generic and unified kinematic model was developed as a viable alternative to the particular solutions that are only applicable to individual machine configurations. This versatile model is then used to verify the feasibility of the two rotational joints within the kinematic chain of three main types of a five-axis machine-tool. This versatile model is very useful applied to the design of five-axis machine tools.

INVERSE DYNAMIC FORMULATION OF A NOVEL HYBRID MACHINE TOOL

In recent years, hybrid devices have increasingly received more research.However, few of researchers studied the dynamic analysis. The inverse dynamic analysis of a novelhybrid machine tool designed in Tsinghua University is presented. The hybrid machine tool underconsideration consists of parallel and serial structures, which is based on a new 2-DOF parallelplatform and serial orientations. The kinematics and the dynamic equations are studied first for theparallel structure through Newton-Euler approach. And then, the dynamic analysis for serialstructures is conducted. Finally, a closed-form inverse dynamic formulation is derived by using someelimination techniques. Some simulation results are also given.

Kinematic Modelling and Control Simulation for 1PS+3TPS Type Hybrid Machine Tool

A structure scheme for a novel hybrid machine tool (HMT) is proposed in this paper. In the scheme,a 4-DOFs 1PS+3TPS type spatial hybrid mechanism is utilized as main feed mechanism,with assistance of a two direction movable worktable,multi-coordinates NC machining can be realized. In the main feed mechanism,fixed platform is connected with moving platform by three TPS driving links and one PS driving link,one translation DOF and three rotation DOFs can be achieved by it. This type HMT enjoys some advantages over its conventional counterparts:large workspace,good dexterity,etc. Closed form inverse displacement analysis model and inverse kinematic model for main feed mechanism are established. A fuzzy PID control scheme for machining control of HMTs with high tracking precision is proposed aiming at highly nonlinear,tightly coupled and uncertain characteristic of HMTs. Simulation researches for fuzzy PID control of HMTs are carried out. Simulation Results demonstrate the effectiveness and the Robostness of the fuzzy PID controller.

Tool wear condition monitoring method of five-axis machining center based on PSO-CNN

The effective monitoring of tool wear status in the milling process of a five-axis machining center is important for improving product quality and efficiency,so this paper proposes a CNN convolutional neural network model based on the optimization of PSO algorithm to monitor the tool wear status.Firstly,the cutting vibration signals and spindle current signals during the milling process of the five-axis machining center are collected using sensor technology,and the features related to the tool wear status are extracted in the time domain,frequency domain and time-frequency domain to form a feature sample matrix;secondly,the tool wear values corresponding to the above features are measured using an electron microscope and classified into three types:slight wear,normal wear and sharp wear to construct a target Finally,the tool wear sample data set is constructed by using multi-source information fusion technology and input to PSO-CNN model to complete the prediction of tool wear status.The results show that the proposed method can effectively predict the tool wear state with an accuracy of 98.27%;and compared with BP model,CNN model and SVM model,the accuracy indexes are improved by 9.48%,3.44%and 1.72%respectively,which indicates that the PSO-CNN model proposed in this paper has obvious advantages in the field of tool wear state identification.

The Research on Hybrid Intelligent Fault-diagnosisSystem of CNC Machine Tools

After analyzing the structure and characteristics of the hybrid intelligent diagnosis system of CNC machine toolsCNC-HIDS), we describe the intelligent hybrid mechanism of the CNC-HIDS, and present the evaluation and the running instance of the system. Through tryout and validation, we attain satisfactory results.

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.

Kinematic calibration method with high measurement efficiency and robust identification for hybrid machine tools

Geometric error is the main factor affecting the machining accuracy of hybrid machine tools.Kinematic calibration is an effective way to improve the geometric accuracy of hybrid machine tools.The necessity to measure both position and orientation at each pose,as well as the instability of identification in case of incomplete measurements,severely affects the application of traditional calibration methods.In this study,a kinematic calibration method with high measurement efficiency and robust identification is proposed to improve the kinematic accuracy of a five-axis hybrid machine tool.First,the configuration is introduced,and an error model is derived.Further,by investigating the mechanism error characteristics,a measurement scheme that only requires tool centre point position error measurement and one alignment operation is proposed.Subsequently,by analysing the effects of unmeasured degrees of freedom(DOFs)on other DOFs,an improved nonlinear least squares method based on virtual measurement values is proposed to achieve stable parameter identification in case of incomplete measurement,without introducing additional parameters.Finally,the proposed calibration method is verified through simulations and experiments.The proposed method can efficiently accomplish the kinematic calibration of the hybrid machine tool.The accuracy of the hybrid machine tool is significantly improved after calibration,satisfying actual aerospace machining requirements.

A local toolpath smoothing method for a five-axis hybrid machining robot

Smooth transitions between two adjacent five-axis toolpaths can reduce feedrate fluctuation,improving machining quality and efficiency.Hybrid robots’flexibility to adjust the orientation is advantageous in five-axis machining,but their kinematic issues raise challenges for toolpath smoothing.This paper proposes a G3continuous toolpath smoothing method for a hybrid robot.B-splines in the machine coordinate system(MCS)are inserted at corners to synchronize five-axis transitions.The transition errors of the tool position and orientation paths are estimated with the golden section method.These approximation errors are constrained by adaptively modifying the B-splines,i.e.,adding anchor points and optimizing the control points.A bisection search method is proposed for these geometric modifications,guaranteeing the user-defined error tolerance limit.Compared to the method based on the workpiece coordinate system(WCS),the proposed framework generates a smoother trajectory under the same error tolerance limit.Simulations and experiments are provided to validate the effectiveness.

Tool Positioning Algorithm Based on Smooth Tool Paths for 5-axis Machining of Sculptured Surfaces

The current research of the 5-axis tool positioning algorithm mainly focuses on searching the local optimal tool position without gouging and interference at a cutter contact（CC） point,while not considering the smoothness and continuity of a whole tool path.When the surface curvature varies significantly,a local abrupt change of tool paths will happen.The abrupt change has a great influence on surface machining quality.In order to keep generated tool paths smooth and continuous,a five-axis tool positioning algorithm based on smooth tool paths is presented.Firstly,the inclination angle,the tilt angle and offset distance of the tool at a CC point are used as design variables,and the machining strip width is used as an objective function,an optimization model of a local tool positioning algorithm is thus established.Then,a vector equation of tool path is derived by using the above optimization model.By analyzing the equation,the main factors affecting the tool path quality are obtained.Finally,a new tool position optimization model is established,and the detailed process of tool position optimization is also given.An experiment is conducted to machine an aircraft turbine blade by using the proposed algorithm on a 5-axis blade grinding machine,and the machined blade surface is measured with a coordinate measuring machine（CMM）.Experimental and measured results show that the proposed algorithm can ensure tool paths are smooth and continuous,improve the tool path quality,avoid the local abrupt change of tool paths,and enhance machining quality and machining efficiency of sculptured surfaces.

Design and development of a five-axis machine tool with high accuracy,stiffness and efficiency for aero-engine casing manufacturing

In order to satisfy the machining requirements of aero-engine casing in modern aviation industry, this paper investigates three main issues during the design and development process of a five-axis machine tool with high accuracy, stiffness and efficiency, including whole structure design,key components design, and supporting stiffness design. First, an appropriate structure of five-axis machine tool is determined considering the processing characteristics of aero-engine casing. Then, a dual drive swing head and a compact motorized spindle are designed with enough drive capability and stiffness, and related structure, assembly method, cooling technology, and performance simulation are given in detail. Next, a design method of supporting stiffness of guide is proposed through the deformation prediction of the spindle end. Based on above work, a prototype of machine tool is developed, and some experiments are carried out, including performance tests of swing head and motorized spindle, and machining of a simulated workpiece of aero-engine casing. All experimental results show that the machine tool has satisfactory accuracy, stiffness and efficiency, which meets the machining requirements of aero-engine casing. The main work can be used as references for engineers and technicians, which are meaningful in practice.

Improved closed-loop tracking interferometer measurement for a five-axis machine tool with a bi-rotary milling head

Tracking interferometer based on bi-rotary milling head is a novel scheme to conduct volumetric accuracy measurement of a five-axis machine tool.The laser beam direction of the interferometer can be regulated to follow the retroreflector by moving the bi-rotary head.This is a low-cost implementation of multilateration measurement,and its measurement accuracy is mainly affected by the error motion of the rotary axes.This paper proposes an improved multilateration principle to identify the positionindependent geometric errors of rotary axis and laser beam,and minimize their impact on the measurement uncertainty.A closed-loop tracking interferometer system installed on the spindle is developed to perform the measurement with high tracking accuracy.The device can be installed on an ordinary five-axis machine tool without modifying the machine tool structure.The proposed scheme is conducive to improving the accuracy and practical application of the tracking interferometer based on birotary milling head.Experiments with the corresponding closed-loop tracking interferometer and uncertainty analysis are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed measurement scheme.

Accuracy Analysis and Calibration of Gantry Hybrid Machine Tool

The kinematic accuracy is a key factor in the design of parallel or hybrid machine tools. This analysis improved the accuracy of a 4-DOF (degree of freedom) gantry hybrid machine tool based on a 3-DOF planar parallel manipulator by compensating for various positioning errors. The machine tool architecture was described with the inverse kinematic solution. The control parameter error model was used to analyze the accuracy of the 3-DOF planar parallel manipulator and to develop a kinematic calibration method. The experimental results prove that the calibration method reduces the cutter nose errors from ±0.50 mm to ±0.03 mm for a horizontal movement of 600 mm by compensating for errors in the slider home position, the guide way distance and the extensible strut home position. The calibration method will be useful for similar types of parallel kinematic machines.

Efficiently constructing collision-free regions of tool orientations for holder in five-axis machining of blisk

Blisks with the integral structure are key parts used in new jet engines to promote the performance of aircrafts,which also increases the complexity of tool orientation planning in the five-axis machining.It is an essential task to find the collision-free tool orientation when the tool holder is pushed deep into the channel of blisk to increase rigidity and reduce vibration.Since the radius of the holder varies with the height,the line-visibility is no longer applicable when constructing collision-free regions of tool orientation.In this paper,a method of constructing collisionfree regions without interference checking is proposed.The work of finding collision-free regions resorts to solving the local contact curves on the checking surfaces of blisk.And it further transforms into searching the locally tangent points(named critical points)between the holder and surface.Then a tracking-based algorithm is proposed to search the sample critical points on these local contact curves.And the corresponding critical vectors are also calculated synchronously.Besides,the safety allowance,discrete precision and acceptable deviation are introduced in the algorithm to ensure accuracy by controlling the angle between two adjacent critical vectors properly.After that,the searched critical vectors are mapped orderly to two-dimensional space and the collisionfree regions are constructed.This method is finally verified and compared with a referenced method.The results show that the proposed method can efficiently construct collision-free regions for holder under the given accuracy.

Determination of the feasible setup parameters of a workpiece to maximize the utilization of a five-axis milling machine

The machining industry must maximize the machine tool utilization for its efficient and effective usage. Determining a feasible workpiece location is one of the significant tasks performed in an iterative way via machining simulations. The maximum utilization of five-axis machine tools depends upon the cutting system’s geometry, the configuration of the machine tool, and the workpiece’s location. In this research, a mathematical model has been developed to determine the workpiece’s feasible location in the five-axis machine tool for avoiding the number of iterations, which are usually performed to eliminate the global collision and axis limit errors. In this research, a generic arrangement of the five-axis machine tool has been selected. The mathematical model of post-processor has been developed by using kinematic modeling methods. The machine tool envelopes have been determined using the post-processor and axial limit. The tooltip reachable workspace is determined by incorporating the post-processor, optimal cutting system length, and machining envelope, thereby further developing an algorithm to determine the feasible workpiece setup parameters accurately. The algorithm’s application has been demonstrated using an example. Finally, the algorithm is validated for feasible workpiece setup parameters in a virtual environment. This research is highly applicable in the industry to eliminate the number of iterations performed for the suitable workpiece setup parameters.

Development of Virtual Simulation System for Remote Collaborative Surface Machining

Most researches about virtual machine tool are emphasized on simulations of machine motion and machining process for single machine. In this paper,a virtual simulation system for remote collaborative surface machining is developed. The motion command of machine tool is generated by an interpolator,which can derive synchronized motion commands according to feedrate. Thus,the system can estimate the machining time. For universal assembly of five-axis virtual machine tool,it is based on the D-H notation representation and machining constraints consideration. The remote collaborative virtual manufacturing system based on the CORBA technology is proposed in this paper. It demonstrated that the developed virtual machine tool can be used to verify and simulate the machining process for the collaboration of the surface design and manufacturing team.

Tool Orientation Optimization Based on Spatial Tractrix Method for Five-Axis CNC Machining with Ball End Cutters

When milling part surfaces with a ball-end tool in 5-axis CNC machining,maintaining a constant cutting speed by keeping a fixed inclination angle between the tool axis and surface normal is crucial to ensure safe operation and achieve high quality of the machined surface.Under this constraint,the variation of tool orientation is expected to be“smoothest possible”to reduce the angular speed of the rotary axes for the efficient and robust machining.To address this issue,the spatial tractrix which is the extension of classic tractrix is presented to establish the geometry model of the tool orientation kinematics in the part coordinate system.The proposed model describes the relations between the tilt angle and the variation of ball-end tool orientation.Two spatial tractrix-based methods,synchronizing tractrix-based method and equilibrating tractrix-based method,are developed to minimize the variation of tool orientation by controlling the variation of tilt angle.These methods are used to plan the tool orientation on a part surface modeled by a bicubic spline surface.The performance evaluation carried by intense simulations demonstrates the equilibrating tractrix-based method provide the best results in most cases compared with the existing differential geometry-based methods such as the tractrix-based method and parallel transport method.The synchronizing tractrix-based method works well in some special cases.

基于序列的五轴联动数控加工中心后置处理器仿真与优化

在五轴联动数控加工过程中,局部干涉技术影响下,加工节省时间百分比较低,为了提升后置处理器的应用性能,进行基于序列的五轴联动数控加工中心后置处理器仿真与优化。通过CAM软件获取后置处理器工作流程,依靠特征提取算法,获取数控加工特征,生成面向STEP-NC的五轴联动机床后置处理序列。根据加工序列,设计以装夹变换最少、转角变换路径最短为目标的后置处理器全局优化方案。通过转角优化选解,实现后置处理器的有效改进。实验结果表明:所提方法优化后的后置处理器,五轴联动数控加工节省时间百分比平均值为7.75%,相比相关文献提出的2个优化方法,节省时间百分比提升6.50%、6.77%。

自适应深度学习控制方法在五轴混联机床加工中的应用研究

针对五轴混联机床因其控制精度与效率较低,导致热误差和驱动位移误差较大的问题,设计了一种五轴混联机床自适应深度学习控制方法。构建损失函数,获取机床时序数据;建立机床整体结构的动坐标系与静坐标系,进行机床运动学变换;采用数据采样插补方法,对集成后的刀具位置进行插补操作;采用自适应深度学习控制方法控制五轴混联机床工作。试验结果表明,采用设计的控制方法控制后,零件没有出现磨损现象,并且控制后热误差和驱动位移误差均较小,零件生产效率较高。