a b s t r a c tIn order to evaluate the configuration of machine tools, the IWF Axis Construction Kit (ACK) has been developed. This paper describes the evaluation of this approach. The ACK supports rigid body simulations and simple elastic body simulations. The ACK is compared with commercial FEM software to investigate its usability and reliability. Required time was compared in modelling of a machine tool. The ACK needed 30% of the total required time for the FEM because of its modularity in machine modelling. Then, in order to investigate the reliability of the ACK, static and dynamic simulations of both approaches were compared with each other and with analytical calculations on basic beam models. The result showed that the ACK provided equivalent results to the FEM. Static and dynamic simulations were also compared with measurements on an actual machine tool. The ACK obtained almost equivalent results to the FEM. Almost all lower structural mode shapes and their natural frequencies could be reproduced with the ACK when crucial parts were modelled using elastic bodies.

Abstract:Reconfigurable machine tools are proposed as manufacturing concepts coping with turbulent and quickly changing business environments. New tools for efficient modelling of different machine variants are required in order to facilitate and accelerate the reconfiguration of machine tools. This paper presents a software tool which allows the evaluation of the performance and conformance to requirements of machine structure variants at an early stage. In contrast to computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) tools which process numerical control (NC) code to predict the tool trajectory, this tool calculates the static and simulates the dynamic properties of the machine structure as a basis for machine evaluation. Models of different structure variants are assembled using a module library, which contains models of the available physical modules. Thus, different variants can be set up and analysed efficiently, significantly improving the data basis on which important and far-reaching decisions have to be made. An example illustrates how the tool can be used for obtaining information on the physical machine properties and how to interpret the results. The presented software tool is part of a methodology for the reconfiguration process of reconfigurable, modular machine tools.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract