Machine Tools

Passive means of vibration attenuation have been employed successfully and efficiently in machining systems such as turning and milling. Traditional approach to controlling vibration in a milling system is to develop control mechanisms for cutting tools or machine spindles. However, due to the nature of milling operations where the cutting tools rotate at high speed, the passive vibration control methods

This chapter will examine the development of Taiwan’s vibrant industrial districts through case studies of arguably the four most successful industrial districts over time: bicycles, machine tools, information and communication technologies (ICT) hardware products, and integrated circuits (ICs). While the Taiwanese state played an active and often critical role in developing these industrial sectors and clusters as it did more broadly in Taiwanese economic development (Chu 2017; Wade 2004), these industrial clusters also varied in terms of the state’s role, the nature of their transnational links, and the concomitant density of their domestic clusters, and whether or not rural industrialization was an antecedent to
each cluster’s development.

Under the Industry 4.0 framework, a plethora of digital technologies and techniques has been introduced in the Manufacturing domain. Machine tools must become more intelligent, in order to create a network of fully connected machines. By extension, this will lead to the creation of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Although these technologies provide for increased functionality of the manufacturing equipment, there are certain issues/implications, refraining engineers from integrating such technologies in the production. Therefore, in this paper, the results of a systematic literature review are presented and discussed, including the horizontal and vertical integration of such digital technologies. The contribution of this paper extends to the recognition of the opportunities emerging as well as the identified implications from a practical implementation point of view.

This historic article published in the Chartered Machanical Engineer (magazine of the London based Institution of Mechanical Engineers) provides the early technical history behind the development of computer numerically controled machine tools and it predicted the advent of CADCAM.

New technologies which are mainly based on high speed and precision (robots, manipulators, machine tools, etc.) impose special requirements for gears. Other technologies such as telescopes, radar systems, antenna systems, etc., require high accuracy and speed of positioning. Common for all these facilities and devices are transfer of information, energy and materials from one state to another without bringing their own faults in the system. So, it is important that gears do not have excessive internal backlash. Harmonic drive gears are one of the newer gears which in there is no internal backlash. Harmonic drive gears have other advantages such as high capacity output bearing, high torque capacity, excellent positioning accuracy and repeatability, compact design, high single stage ratios, high torsional stiffness, high efficiency, simple installation and assembly, etc. In this paper it is described some cases of using Harmonic drive gear in machine tools.

Keene’s capital goods producers do not compete with producers in low-wage nations, but rather with firms in Europe and Japan, and unit labor costs have generally been higher in those places than in the United States since 1990. The decline in U.S. jobs has less to do with external forces than Americans seem to think, and more to do with the policies taken (or not taken) inside the United States. A case study of Kingsbury Machine Tool Corporation from 1980 to 2012 explains how.

Recent advancements in Information and Communication Technology have shown immense potential of advancing current CNC machine tools
to Cyber-Physical Machine Tools (CPMT). CPMT deeply integrates machine tool and machining processes with computation and networking, thus becoming more intelligent, interconnected and autonomous. However, challenges of data communication and management remain. This is due to the diversity of manufacturing devices, sensors used and hence the delivery of data types. This paper presents an MTConnect-based CPMT that allows diverse types of real-time manufacturing data to be effectively and efficiently collected and managed, to enable advanced human machine interactions and cloud-based decision-making supports in CPMT.

Gearboxes are the most important and complicated part of machine tools, there are a great lack of an integrated manual and/or computerized design of gearbox, this problem motivate to made a solution. The developed software called (GearBox LAB) for design and simulate multi-stage gearboxes, it is created by using Visual Basic6 (VB6) programming language. The software considers optimum structural diagram, speeds design (theoretical, actual and their errors), speed chart, kinematic diagram, design of gears, shafts, keys and spline, bearing selection, shafts axis layout, gear box dimensions, fixing bolts and foundation studs, gear meshing and bearing frequencies as well as the Campbell diagram. The program is helpful for mechanical designers, researchers, students, troubleshooters as well as quality control and vibration engineers.

This paper proposes a new methodology of computer aided machine tools selection for focused flexibility manufacturing systems. The methodology is based on multi-criterion approach and allows to select suboptimal sets of machine tools with the right level of flexibility required by the specific production problem. In the selection process, we first consider critical decision criteria which directly decide if a given machine tool is suitable to realize a defined production task and complies with conditions specified by the designer. Furthermore, economic considerations are taken into account in order to find the best solution from the viewpoint of minimization of both investment costs and time of machining. An illustrative example of machine tool selection using the proposed methodology and the software implementation is also provided.

One of the challenges of machining process is to improve the quality of machined surface by reducing the vibration of cutting tools. The research aims to suppress vibration using composite boring bars with an enhanced damping capacity. A new design of boring bars with different cross-sections is considered. Static and dynamic behavior of the proposed tools is investigated. A mathematical model for determining the eigenfrequency is proposed, and it is compared with computer simulation and experimental results. The validity of the proposed models is verified by conducting experimental machining tests in order to study the changes in vibro-acoustic signals depending on the cross-sections of the toolholder. The results show that the composite material significantly improves damping of boring bars, which leads to a reduction in the vibration compared to conventional boring bars.

Machine Tool 4.0 introduces a new generation of machine tools that are smarter, well connected, widely accessible, more adaptive and more autonomous. Cyber-Physical Machine Tools (CPMT), based on recent advancements of the Information and Communication Technology, provides a promising solution for Machine Tool 4.0. This paper proposes a systematic development method for CPMT. Generic system architecture is developed to provide guidelines for advancing existing Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine tools to CPMT. The proposed architecture allows machine tool, machining processes, real-time machining data and intelligent algorithms to be deeply integrated through various types of networks. The development methodologies for the core of the CPMT, the Machine Tool Cyber Twin (MTCT), are studied and discussed in detail. MTCT enables different types of feedback loops among the physical world, the cyber space and humans to be realized. An MTConnect-based CPMT prototype is developed to validate the proposed CPMT. Experimental results have proved great interoperability, connectivity and extensibility of the proposed CPMT. The potential of implementing artificial intelligence in CPMT is also discussed.

In the past five years, several industrial initiatives such as " Industry 4.0 " , " Industrial Internet of Things " , " Factories of the Future " and " Made in China 2025 " , have been announced by different governments and industrial leaders. These initiatives lead to an urgent need to advance current manufacturing systems into a high level of intelligence and autonomy. As the main component of any manufacturing system, machine tools have evolved from manually operated machines into the current computer numerically controlled (CNC) machine tools. It is predicted that current CNC machine tools are not intelligent and autonomous enough to support the smart manufacturing systems envisioned by the aforementioned initiatives. Inspired by recent advances in ICT such as Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Internet of Things (IoT), this paper proposes a new generation of machine tools, i.e. Machine Tool 4.0, as a future development trend of machine tools. Machine Tool 4.0, otherwise known as Cyber-Physical Machine Tool (CPMT), is the integration of machine tool, machining processes, computation and networking, where embedded computers and networks can monitor and control the machining processes, with feedback loops in which machining processes can affect computations and vice versa. The main components and functions of a CPMT are presented. The key research issues related to the development of CPMT are identified and discussed. A three-layer CPMT-centered Cyber Physical Production System (CPPS) is proposed to illustrate both the vertical integration of various smart systems at different hierarchical levels and the horizontal integration of field-level manufacturing facilities and resources.