Elastic Guide Elements for Non-Circular Workpiece Production
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing production machines for non-round workpieces face challenges with high maintenance costs and susceptibility to harsh environments due to the need for hydrostatic guides to prevent stick-slip effects, which are complex and expensive to design and maintain.
Innovation Solution
The use of a compensating body with a mass multiple times that of the tool carrier, suspended via elastically deformable guide elements, allows for compensating strokes within the range of elastic deformation, eliminating the need for hydrostatic or aerostatic bearings and preventing movements perpendicular to the direction of compensating strokes, ensuring accurate and precise tool movement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If hydrostatic or aerostatic guides are used to prevent stick-slip effect, then movement smoothness and accuracy are improved, but device complexity and maintenance requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the compensating body from the traditional hydrostatic/aerostatic bearing system, using a simplified elastic guide element system instead. The compensating body is suspended via guide elements that allow elastic deformation, eliminating the need for complex supply lines and leak prevention measures while maintaining movement accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the physical state of the guide system from rigid hydrostatic/aerostatic bearings to elastically deformable guide elements. By allowing controlled elastic deformation within a specific stroke range, the system achieves smooth movement without the complexity of fluid supply systems.
2Ease of operation
If hydrostatic guides are used to eliminate static friction, then movement smoothness is improved, but susceptibility to harsh environmental conditions increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention replaces the complex hydrostatic/aerostatic mechanical system with a simpler elastic deformation-based system. The guide elements utilize elastic mechanics to provide smooth movement without requiring fluid supplies that are sensitive to environmental conditions such as temperature, pressure, and contamination.
3Productivity
If roller bearings are used for high dynamics, then productivity is improved, but stick-slip effect and machining accuracy deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The invention introduces a dynamic compensating body that moves in opposition to the tool carrier's oscillations. This dynamic compensation system, combined with elastic guide elements, enables high-speed operation while maintaining machining accuracy by continuously adapting to dynamic conditions without the stick-slip problems of roller bearings.
4Manufacturing precision
If the compensating body mass is increased to reduce tool carrier strokes, then manufacturing precision is improved, but weight of moving object increases
Solution Approach 1:
The compensating body functions as a counterweight system, with its mass optimized to be at least three times (preferably five or ten times) the mass of the tool carrier. This mass ratio enables the compensating body to effectively counterbalance tool carrier oscillations and reduce stroke deviations while maintaining reasonable weight through optimized geometry and material selection.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design reduces tool carrier strokes to within the elastic deformability range of guide elements, achieving high accuracy and low straightness deviations without additional bearings, resulting in a simpler, more robust, and cost-effective production machine.
Implementation Method 1
the compensating body has such a multiple mass of the mass of the tool carrier carrying the tool that the oscillating movements of the tool carrier corresponding compensating strokes of the compensating body lie in the area of the elastic deformation of the guide elements
Implementation Method 2
the tool carrier is mounted by rolling elements
Implementation Method 3
the movement of the tool being able to be triggered or executed by a drive acting between the tool carrier and the compensating body
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a production machine for non-circular workpieces provided with a tool feed unit (1) comprising a tool carrier (2) for receiving the tool and a compensation body (3) for impulse decoupling, wherein the work movement of the tool carrier (2) can be effected by a drive (4) acting between the tool carrier (2) and the compensation body (3). According to the invention, the tool carrier (2) is supported by rolling bodies (5) and the compensation body (3) is suspended via elastically deformable guide elements (6) at a housing part (7) of the tool feed unit (1), wherein the mass of the compensation body (3) is larger than the mass of the tool carrier (2) carrying the tool so that the working movements of the tool carrier (2) effect compensation strokes of the compensation body (3) that are only within the range of the elastic deformability of the guide elements (6). The guide elements (6) thus effect the guiding and resetting of the compensation body (3).