Workpiece Pallet Structure for Thermal Decoupling in Hybrid Machining
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing workpiece machining systems face challenges in achieving precise machining during combined additive and subtractive operations due to thermal coupling issues between clamping and receiving plates, leading to positional tolerances and potential form deviations.
Innovation Solution
A workpiece pallet design featuring a clamping plate and a receiving plate separated by a thin supporting web, made of materials with different thermal expansion coefficients, which minimizes thermal coupling and internal stresses, ensuring effective thermal decoupling and precise positioning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the clamping plate and receiving plate are rigidly connected to ensure structural stability, then mechanical strength is improved, but thermal coupling increases causing positional tolerances and form deviations
Solution Approach 1:
The supporting web is segmented into a grid pattern of thin walls, creating multiple small structural elements instead of a single rigid connection. This segmentation maintains mechanical strength through distributed support while minimizing thermal conduction paths between the clamping plate and receiving plate, thereby reducing thermal coupling and positional tolerances.
Solution Approach 2:
The supporting web is designed as thin-walled structures with wall thickness significantly smaller than the plate dimensions. These thin film-like structures provide sufficient mechanical support for structural stability while presenting high thermal resistance due to their minimal cross-sectional area, effectively decoupling the thermal fields of the two plates.
2Strength
If a thick supporting web is used to connect the clamping plate and receiving plate, then mechanical strength is improved, but thermal insulation performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The supporting web exhibits local quality variation where the wall thickness is locally minimized (thin-walled) to reduce thermal conduction, while the overall grid structure provides distributed mechanical support. The local thin-walled design creates high thermal resistance at the connection points without compromising global structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The supporting web functions as a composite thermal-mechanical structure where the thin-walled geometry creates a material distribution that optimizes both mechanical strength and thermal insulation. The structure behaves as a composite system with high structural efficiency but low thermal conductivity, achieving both requirements simultaneously.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the supporting web cross-sectional area is large, then mechanical stability is improved, but heat transfer between plates increases causing form deviations
Solution Approach 1:
The supporting web is divided into multiple thin-walled segments arranged in a grid pattern. This segmentation distributes the mechanical load across multiple elements, maintaining overall structural stability while each individual thin wall presents minimal thermal conduction path, thereby reducing heat transfer and preventing form deviations.
Solution Approach 2:
The supporting web transitions from a solid two-dimensional plate to a three-dimensional thin-walled grid structure. This dimensional transformation allows the structure to maintain mechanical stability through spatial distribution of support elements while minimizing thermal conduction through the thin wall thickness in the critical heat transfer direction.
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
The design achieves low thermal coupling, reducing heat transfer and positional tolerances, thereby ensuring precise machining and minimizing form deviations during high-temperature additive processes.
Implementation Method 1
a supporting web is arranged in a connecting gap between an upper surface of the clamping plate and a lower surface of the receiving plate... The supporting web having, in a cross-sectional plane aligned parallel to the lower surface of the receiving plate, a cross-sectional area which is less than 15 percent... of an area of the lower surface of the receiving plate
Data Source
AI summary
A workpiece pallet for use for additive and subtractive workpiece machining, including a clamping plate which has a first interface which is designed for a form-fitting fixation to a machining table of a processing machine, the workpiece pallet further including a receiving plate, which has a second interface for fixing a workpiece, wherein the clamping plate and the receiving plate are arranged spaced apart from one another and wherein a supporting web is arranged in a connecting gap between an upper surface of the clamping plate and a lower surface of the receiving plate, which supporting web is connected to the upper surface of the clamping plate and to the lower surface of the receiving plate, the supporting web having in a cross-sectional plane aligned parallel to the lower surface of the receiving plate a cross-sectional area which is less than 15 percent of an area of the lower surface of the receiving plate.