Comprehensive consideration for machine tools’ energy efficiency and machining accuracy: Exploring the coupling relationship between material removal and thermal control

Recently, a research team from State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmissions, Chongqing University of China has found the coupling relationship between thermal control (TC) process and material removal (MR) process of precision machine tools. The research team believes that the coupling relationship of the two functional processes can affect the machining accuracy and energy efficiency by influencing the thermal balance characteristics and energy characteristics of machine tools. This study can be found in the journal Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering on 29 April, 2022.

With the widespread adoption of machine tools in manufacturing, the energy consumption of machine tools has been a research hotspot and frontier for green low-carbon manufacturing. However, previous research merely regarded the MR energy as useful energy consumption and ignored the useful energy consumed by TC for maintaining internal thermal stability and machining accuracy. In pursuit of energy-efficient and high-precision machining, more attention should be paid to the energy consumption of TC and the coupling relationship between MR and TC. Therefore, this research team explores the coupling relationship between the two functional processes by using theoretical modeling and experimental analysis. As shown in following figure, the MR of a precision machine tool is a value-added process, as the power of MR increases, the energy characteristics will change, and the heat generation caused by MR will increase, synchronously. To ensure the thermal balance state, the TC will consume enormous energy to take away most of the heat generated by MR.

Traditional researches are dedicated to improve cutting energy efficiency which is related to MR. But as machine tools become more sophisticated and machine tool users’ increasingly demanding on machining quality, machining accuracy that is closely related to the thermal balance state has become an important index to evaluate the machining performance of machine tools. “There is an obvious mismatch between energy efficiency and machining accuracy, so how to achieve energy-efficient and precision machining collaboratively is a key research project to improve the machining performance of precision CNC machine tools in the future,” said by Prof. Huajun Cao, the author of the study.

The research team of Prof. Huajun Cao is one of the pioneer research teams studying green manufacturing in China. This team has carried out extensive researches on green design and energy-saving technology of metal cutting machine tools, dynamic modeling and carbon efficiency evaluation method of manufacturing systems, and thermal balance control and thermal error compensation of precision machine tools. The above researches provide the research team strong technological base and discipline advantages in the green manufacturing field.

“Exploring the coupling relationship between material removal and thermal control is the first step to improve the machining performances of precision machine tools, which is just from a qualitative perspective at present,” said by Prof. Cao, “in the future, we will continue our research on the coupling mechanism of ‘electrical-mechanical-thermal’ which is affected by MR and TC. This work can provide theoretical supports for machine tools to achieve high efficiency and precision machining goals, and promote the green and low-carbon development of precision machine tools.”

Reference: Kexu Lai, Huajun Cao, Hongcheng Li, Benjie Li and Disheng Huang. Coupling evaluation for material removal and thermal control on precision milling machine tools. Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering, 2022, 17(1): 12 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11465-021-0668-9

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About Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering

Frontiers of Mechanical Engineering is an international peer-reviewed academic journal sponsored by the Ministry of Education of China. The journal seeks to provide a forum for a broad blend of high-quality academic papers in order to promote rapid communication and exchange between researchers, scientists, and engineers in the field of mechanical engineering. The journal publishes original research articles, review articles and feature articles. The journal covers all major branches of mechanical engineering including (not limited to): machines and mechanisms, gears and transmissions, mechanical system dynamics, mechanical structures and stress analysis, tribology and surface technology, mechanical design and bionics, machining processes and technologies, manufacturing automation, precision engineering, mechatronics and embedded systems, micro/nano manufacturing and systems, robotics, sensing, MEMS, and green manufacturing.

The Editors-in-Chief are Academician Zheng You from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China, Academician Dongming Guo from Dalian University of Technology, China. The journal has been indexed by SCI, SCOPUS, INSPEC, Astrophysics Data System (ADS), Google Scholar, CSA, Academic OneFile, Chinese Science Citation Database, Expanded Academic, Gale, OCLC, Summon by ProQuest, etc.