Demystifying the technology of German CNC machine tools

1. Advanced Technology to Improve CNC Processing Efficiency
Improve the efficiency of CNC machining to improve the cutting speed, feed rate, jerk, reduce tool change time, loading and unloading time and other means, such as linear feed speed of 150m/min, acceleration 1g.

(1) Adopt linear motor and torque motor to shorten the transmission chain and improve the dynamic characteristics of the system.

(2) Lightweight design: The structure of moving parts is optimized, and composite materials such as carbon fiber are used to reduce the quality of moving parts. Such as automotive parts lightweight manufacturing, the use of carbon fiber coating rubber die-casting, temperature control at 150 °C, vacuum extrusion, hot press curing. The material is high in strength, light in weight, and approximately 30% lighter than metal materials, and can be used as a replacement material for major parts such as car shells. BMW and Mercedes use this material as the chassis and body. EEW uses a large number of carbon fiber materials in the moving parts of machine tools for large-span Gantry mobile machines to achieve high dynamic and high-speed motion.

(3) Use electric spindle to increase spindle speed.

(4) exchange table, reloading time 2.2s, improve the efficiency of loading and unloading.

(5) Robot loading and unloading, instead of manual loading and unloading.

(6) High jerk, increased from 50m/s3 to 150m/s3, processing efficiency increased by 30%.

(7) Secondary tool change, tool change time is reduced to less than 1s.

2. Advanced technology of composite processing

In addition to conventional milling machine tools and double-spindle machines, Aachen Institute of Technology in Germany explores milling and laser surface treatment compounding, milling on low-hardness, high-toughness substrate materials, and then welding on the surface by laser machining. The upper layer has special performance materials; German EEW cooperates with Hugo Rost Company and combines X-ray flaw detection equipment on wind power blade five-axis machining tools to achieve milling and flaw detection in a single clamping.

3. Advanced technology to improve machining accuracy
(1) Cooling of heating elements in CNC machine tools, such as primary and secondary drives of linear drives, CNC rotary tables, spindles, etc., to reduce the influence of thermal deformation on machine tool accuracy. Positioning accuracy 6μm, repeatability of positioning accuracy 4μm.

(2) Application of GPS positioning technology in improving assembly accuracy.

4. Modular machine tool technology

German machine tool companies have a very fine division of labor, and the concept of modularity runs through the entire process of machine tool production:

(1) Modular design of machine tools: the modularization of the machine tool is a reasonable division, and the electromechanical-hydraulic integration design.

(2) According to the results of modular design, parts such as motors, screws, guide rails, and tool magazines are directly purchased, and parts such as racks, columns, and crossbeams are processed externally, so that most machine tool companies do not perform or have a small amount of machining.

(3) Modular assembly: In order to improve the assembly efficiency of the machine tool, component-level assembly (including electro-hydraulic gas) is performed first, and the module has a convenient interface, which makes the module more independent and convenient for transport and assembly.

5. Intelligent automatic machine tool technology
One of the German high-tech development strategies in terms of machine tools is the digital factory, automation of production and processing, energy saving and adaptation to various requirements.

In the HEIDENHAIN internal small parts logistics using automatic intelligent AGV vehicles, to achieve automatic planning, automatic obstacle avoidance, automatic door opening and closing, automatic lift up and down functions, with high intelligence.

The development trend of German machine tool equipment is automation, high efficiency, energy saving, and the machine tool equipment is gradually providing integrated and automated solutions to users in addition to basic processing functions. For example, TRUMPF not only sells machine tools in China, but more importantly plans and provides overall automotive manufacturing workshops, production lines and equipment for Chinese automobile manufacturing companies. Its products have widely used automatic loading and unloading devices to make the processing efficiency and automation of machine tools more efficient. Greatly improve.

Automated manufacturing of BMW car and motorcycle frames was formerly made by hand. The Institute of Machine Tools at Kasrr University was equipped with machine tools, space forming technology, CNC control of machine tools, robot forming, automatic cutting, automatic process control, and measuring machine work stations. Measure, follow-up drilling and other processes, automatic assembly and welding processing. Research on the adaptive processing of different models is being done. The whole process will be completed by robots in the future.

6. Other machine tool technologies

1 three support, do not hit the foundation. 2 Ergonomics, better proximity. 3 green manufacturing advanced technology. 4 trace lubrication, low temperature trace lubrication MQL. 5 liquid nitrogen cooling technology. 6 energy-saving equipment.

Germany completely ceases nuclear power and plans to fully use renewable energy sources by 2050. This not only poses challenges to the energy sector, but also puts forward energy-saving equipment requirements for the machine tool manufacturing industry.