CNC Machining Oversized Workpieces With Precision Probes
Solution Overview
Problem
Automated machining assemblies are expensive and not well-suited for machining oversized parts due to their limited working areas, which makes mass production of high-strength components with CNC machinery prohibitively expensive and inefficient.
Innovation Solution
A method and fixturing device that allows for the precise positioning and machining of oversized parts within a CNC machining apparatus by using a workpiece manipulator and high-precision probes to maintain machining tolerances, enabling the machining of different portions of the workpiece within a smaller working area and ensuring consistency across parts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If a larger machining assembly is used to accommodate oversized parts, then the working area is sufficient, but the cost becomes extremely expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The oversized workpiece is divided into multiple portions that are sequentially positioned within the limited working area. The fixturing device enables different portions of the workpiece to be brought into the machining zone one at a time, allowing a smaller, more cost-effective machining assembly to process what would otherwise require a much larger machine.
2Ease of manufacture
If a smaller machining assembly is used to reduce cost, then the cost is reduced, but the working area becomes insufficient for oversized parts
Solution Approach 1:
The fixturing device introduces additional spatial dimensions and repositioning capabilities, allowing the workpiece to be moved and repositioned in multiple locations around the working area. This enables a smaller machining assembly to effectively access different portions of an oversized workpiece that would otherwise exceed the machine's working area.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the workpiece is shifted during machining, then different portions can be machined, but maintaining precise location becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses measured position data of machined features to determine the precise location of the workpiece after it has been repositioned. This feedback information is then used to adjust subsequent machining operations, ensuring that precision is maintained even as the workpiece is moved to different portions within the working area.
Data Source
AI summary
This application relates to methods for applying automated precision machining operations to an oversized workpiece with a compact computer numerical control (CNC) machining apparatus. By shifting an oversized workpiece through a working area of the CNC machining apparatus, the CNC machining apparatus can apply machining operations to any portion of the workpiece in an automated manner. To achieve precision results, a position of the workpiece is tracked as the workpiece is shifted through the working area. In some embodiments, a probe can be utilized to track the shifting of the workpiece by determining a location of a machined feature after a particular shift has been completed. In this way, a position of the workpiece can be tracked without having to rely upon tolerances inherent to a workpiece manipulator.