MODULE 4

Introduction to CNC Machines

• A computer numerically controlled(CNC) machine
is a mechatronics system, since the mechanical
system (machine tool) is incorporated or
integrated with the electronic controls for its
different drives and computer system for
interfacing the software with the mechanical and
electronic system.
• Development of CNC machines is an outstanding
contribution to the manufacturing industries.
• It facilitates the automation of the machining
process with greater flexibility i.e handling a
variety of components, finish the product in a
single set-up on the same machine, capable of
performing multiple operation.
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 Introduction to CNC Machines
• Advantages of CNC machines
– Higher flexibility
– Increased productivity
– Consistent quality
– Reduced scrap rate
– Reliable operation
– Reduced non-productive time
– Reduced manpower
– Higher accuracy
– Reduced lead time
– Increased operational safety
– Machining of advanced materials
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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
• The design and
construction of CNC
machines differs greatly
from that of conventional
machine tools due to its
higher performance level.
• The quality and reliability
of these machines
depends on the various
machine elements and
subsystems of the
machine
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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
• The following are some of the important
constituent parts and aspects of CNC
machines to be considered in its designing:
– Machine structure
– Guideways
– Feed drives
– Spindle and spindle bearing
– Measuring system
– Controls, software and operator interface
– Gauging
– Tool monitoring
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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Machine Structure
• It is the load carrying and supporting member of
the machine tool.
• All the motors, drive mechanisms and other
functional assemblies of machine tool are aligned
to each other and rigidly fixed to the machine
structure.
• The machine structure is subjected to static and
dynamic forces and it is, therefore essential that
the structure does not deform or vibrate beyond
the permissible limits under the action of these
forces.
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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
The basic design factors involved in the design of
a machine structure are:
Static Load
• The static load of a machine tool results from
the weights of slides and the workpiece, and
by the forces due to cutting.
• To keep the deformation of the structure due
to static loading within permissible limits, the
structure should have adequate stiffness.

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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Dynamic Load
• The dynamic load is due to a constant changing forces
acting on the structure while the movement is taking
place.
• The forces may cause the whole machine system to
vibrate. The origin of such vibrations are:
– Unbalance rotating parts
– Improper meshing of gears
– Bearing irregularities
– Interrupted cuts while machining

• This effect can be reduced by

– Reducing the mass of the structure
– Increasing the stiffness of the structure
– Improving the damping properties 8
 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Thermal Load
• In a machine tool there are a number of local heat sources which
set up thermal gradients within the machine.
• Its design should be such that the thermal distortion is minimum.
• Some of the heat sources are:
– Electric motor
– Friction in mechanical drives and gear boxes
– Friction in bearings and guideways
– Machining process
• These heat sources cause localised deformation, resulting in
considerable inaccuracies in machine performance. The following
steps are generally followed to reduce thermal deformation:
– External mounting of drives i.e. motors and gear boxes
– Removing frictional heat from bearings and guideways by a
proper lubrication system.
– Efficient coolant and swarf removal system for the dissipation of
heat generated.
– Thermo-symmetric designing of the structure 9
 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Guideways
• Guideways are used in machine tool to:
– Control the direction or line of action of the
carriage or the table on which a tool or workpiece
is held.
– To absorb all the static and dynamic forces.
• The guideways may be horizontal, vertical or
inclined.
• The shape and size of the work produced
depends on the accuracy of the movement
and on the geometric and kinematic accuracy
of the guideway. 10
 Design of Modern CNC Machines
• When machining is taking place, the rate of translational
movement(feed rate) can be as low as 20 mm/min. During
non-machining operations such as positioning, the feed
rate can be as high as 50 m/min.
• For fine machined surfaces and for accurate positioning
during machining, the movement must be smooth and
continuous, and free from any jerky movements.
• The following points must be considered while designing
guideways:
– Rigidity
– Damping capability
– Geometric and kinematic accuracy
– Velocity of slide
– Friction characteristics
– Wear resistance
– Provision to adjustment of play
– Protection against swarf and damage
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– Effective lubrication and efficient lubrication systems
 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Types of Guideways
• Friction guideways
– Vee guideways
– Flat guideways
– Dovetail guideways
– Cylindrical guideways
• Antifriction linear motion (LM) guideways
– Linear bearing with balls
– Linear bearing with rollers
• Frictionless guideways
– Hydrostatic guideways
– Aerostatic guideways 12
 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Friction guideways
• These guideways find wide
application in conventional
machine tools due to their
low manufacturing cost and
good damping properties.
• They operate under the
condition of sliding friction
and its coefficient of friction
is not constant.
• The coefficient of friction vary
with sliding velocity.
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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
• At the commencement of movement, the coefficient of
friction is very high, but as the velocity increases it falls
rapidly and beyond a certain critical velocity it remains
almost constant.
• Thus to start motion, the force required to overcome
friction is correspondingly high. This produce a stress in
the drive mechanism and deform elastically.
• With the increase in speed, the coefficient of friction
decreases and greater amount of movement than that
intended for the slide takes place , this may lead
ultimately to a jerky/intermittent motion. This is
known as stick-slip phenomenon.
• This effect of this phenomenon can be reduced by
using materials such as PTFE (Poly Tetra Fluoro
Ethylene) and Turcite at the guideways interface. This
materials have low coefficient of friction.
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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Vee guideways
– Vee guideways
– Inverted Vee guideways
• Incase of Vee guideways apex is
pointed upwards, there is no
chip falling or accumulation.
But lubrication is difficult in
this case.
• Incase of inverted Vee
guideways there is a possibility
of falling and accumulation of
chips, but the lubrication is
easier in this case.
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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
• The Vee guideways are widely used
on machine tools, especially on
lathe beds.
• One of the advantage of this
guideway is the parallel alignment
of the guideway with the spindle
axis is not affected by wear.
• These guideways wear away rapidly
due to the lack of bearing surfaces.
• Also these are difficult to
manufacture.
• Provisions have been made to
prevent the carriage from lifting off
the guideway.
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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Flat Guideways
• These guideways have better load bearing capabilities
than other guideways.
• They are easy to manufacture.
• In such guideways there is a problem of chip
accumulation and lubrication is not effective.
• They do not wear uniformily.
• Jibs are used to ensure accurate fitting of the slide on
the flat surface.

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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Dovetail Guideways
• It is preferred when both the horizontal and vertical
locations of moving parts are considered essential.
• Jibs are used to ensure accurate fitting of the slide on
the dovetail surface. The jibs are tapered and can be
adjusted to reduce excessive clearance caused by wear.
• Although the Vee type guideways have certain
advantages, it is flat or dovetail forms which are used
on CNC machine tools.

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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Cylindrical Guideways
• In cylindrical guideways, the
bore in the carriage housing
provides support all around
the guideway.
• These guideways are very
efficient for relatively short
traverses and light loads since
for long traverses if the
guideway is supported only at
each end, it may sag or bend
in the centre of the span
under a load. 19
 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Anti-friction Linear Motion(LM) Guideways
• This antifriction guideway are employed to
overcome the relatively high coefficient of
friction in metal-to-metal contacts.
• These guideways are used on CNC machine
tools to reduce amount of wear, friction, heat
generation and improve smoothness of the
movement.
• They use rolling elements in between the
moving and stationary elements of the
machine. 20
 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Advantages and disadvantages of Antifriction Linear
Motion Guideways
Advantages:
• Low coefficient of friction
• No stick-slip
• Ease of assembly
• Commercially available in ready-to-fit condition
• High load carrying capacity
• Heavier pre-loading possibility
• High traverse speed
Disadvantages:
• The main disadvantage of these guideways as
compared to friction guideways is their lower damping
capacity.
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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Types of Antifriction Linear Motion(LM)
Guideways
• Most commonly used antifriction guideways
are:
– Linear bearing with balls
– Linear bearing with rollers

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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Linear bearing with balls
• A linear ball bush bearing uses re-circulating balls.
• These are designed to run along precision ground shafts
(tolerance as fine as 0.005mm) and offer frictionless
movement over varying strokes of length with high linear
precision.
• Two main kinds of linear ball bushes are available are
closed type and open type.

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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Linear bearing with rollers
• The re-circulating linear roller bearings are used for movement along a
flat plane.
• It consists of hardened and precision ground supporting elements and a
number of cylindrical rollers.
• The supporting element prevents the rollers from falling out and sliding
against each other.
• Also the guiding element assists in smooth return of the rollers to the
loading zone.
• The rollers are in contact with guideways provides smooth and easy
movement.

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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Frictionless guideways
 Hydrostatic guideways
 Aerostatic guideways
Hydrostatic guideways
• In these guideways the surface of the slide is separated from the
guideway by a very thin film of oil supplied at pressures as high as 300
bar.
• In hydrostatic guideways stick-slip and frictional wear are almost
eliminated.
• A high degree of dynamic stiffness and damping is obtained, both the
characteristics contributing to good machining capabilities
• But high cost and complexity in assembly limited its application.

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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Aerostatic guideways
• In these guideways, the slide is raised in a cushion of
compressed air which entirely separates the slide
and guideway surfaces.
• Their major limitation is low stiffness and this limits
their use to positioning application only. Ex.
Coordinate Measuring Machine(CMM)

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 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Advantages and disadvantages of frictionless
guideways
Advantages:
• Longer life
• No stick-slip
• Large damping capabilities
• Frictionless
• Less thermal distortion due to better heat
dissipation.
Disadvantages:
• Difficulty in assembling the guideways
• High cost
• Leakage problems 27
 Design of Modern CNC Machines
Selection of guideways
• Factors affecting the selection of
guideways are:
 The load carrying capacity
 Damping
 The traverse speed
• Inorder to get maximum benefit,
most of the machine tool
manufacturers make use of
combination of antifriction and
friction guideways with
turcite/PTFE lining.
• Such a combination improves the
load carrying capacity through the
use of antifriction guideways and
damping property through the use
of friction guideways. 28
 Drives
 Drives are the devices which impart motion to mechanical
elements.
 The primary function of the drive is to cause motion of the
controlled machine tool member like spindle, slide etc to
confirm as closely as possible to the motion commands
issued by the CNC system.
 Depending on their characteristics, machine tool drives
can be classified as follows:
 1. Spindle Drives
 D.C Spindle drives
 A.C Spindle drives
 2. Feed Drives
 D.C Servo drives
 A.C Servo drives

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Feed Drives
 The main components of a feed drive are
 Feed servomotor
 Mechanical transmission system.

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Mechanical Transmission Systems
 The mechanical transmission system of a feed drive
consists of the following elements:
 Elements to convert the rotary motion into linear
motion: (Re-circulating ball screw and nut or Rack and
pinion system).
 Elements to transmit torque (gear box or timing belts
and couplings)

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Mechanical Transmission Systems
 The transmission system should be designed in such a
way that the transmission error should be kept to the
minimum. To achieve this, the following requirements
are necessary:
 Low friction
 High stiffness
 Sufficient damping
 Backlash free operations
 High natural frequency

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Re-circulating ball screw and nut
 In ball screws, the sliding friction encountered in
convectional screws and nuts is replaced by rolling
friction.
 The basic components of a ball screw are a nut, a screw
with helical grooves, and balls made of steel or ceramic
that roll between the nut and the screw.
 The balls in the end of the thread portion in the nut
will be returned to the beginning of the thread form
by a deflector.

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Re-circulating ball screw and nut

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Re-circulating ball screw and nut
Advantages:
 High efficiency
 No stick-slip effect
 Low frictional resistance
 Low drive power requirement
 High transverse speed.
 Less wear and hence longer life
 Little temperature rise

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 PRELOADING
 Rolling bearings usually retain some internal clearance
while in operation. In some cases, however, it is desirable
to provide a negative clearance to keep them internally
stressed. This is called “Preloading”.

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Preloading of ball screw and nut

 The primary requirement of screw and nut mechanism

in CNC machines employed for motion transmission is
that the backlash should be minimum between screw
and nut.
 Backlash free motion results in the slide travelling
without any positioning error.
 Preloading is the process of applying initial load to the
nut which will cause elastic deformation of the screw
threads in the axial direction, thereby increasing the
axial rigidity of the ball screw nut.

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PRELOADING
 There are several techniques for preloading. Some
common methods are:
 Tension Preload
 Compression Preload
 Oversize Preload
 Constant Pressure Preload

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PRELOADING
Tension Preload
 It provides the required amount of preload by the
insertion of a spacer of specified width(depending upon
the desired amount of preload) between the two nuts.
 Each nut exerts pressure on its respective ball, thus
forcing the balls away from each other.

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PRELOADING
Compression Preload
 This preload is achieved through the insertion of a spacer,
between the nuts, but the pressure is applied(to the nuts)
in the opposite direction, squeezing them together and
forcing the balls against threads of the screw shafts
 The spacer thickness, both in tension and compression
preload depends upon the desired amount of preload.

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PRELOADING
Oversize Preload
 Here, balls which are just slightly larger than the space
provided between the nut and screw shaft are used.
 This method is best suited to provide comparatively light
preload, to the extent of eliminating axial clearance.
 The balls have 4-point contact, thereby increasing the
operational efficiency.

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PRELOADING
Constant Pressure Preload
 In this case, a coil spring is inserted between the two nuts
to provide a constant pressure preload.
 By this method transmission efficiency as high as 90% can
be achieved.

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Re-circulating Roller Screws
 A roller screw has a grooved roller element which makes
physical contact with the threads on the nut and the screw.
 The rollers also have circumferential grooves which match
with the threads on the screws and the nut.
 The rollers move axially relative to the nut.
 These screws are capable of taking high loads with greater
accuracy.

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Spindle and spindle bearings
 The spindle which carries either the workpiece or the
cutting tool is subjected to high cutting forces or high
material removal rates and thus experience deflection
and thrust forces.
 The rotational accuracy of the spindle is decided by
the quality and design of the bearings used.
 The ball or roller bearings are suitable for high speeds
and high loads because of low friction, lower wear rate
and ease of replacement when necessary.

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Spindle and spindle bearings
Types of Spindle Bearings
 Various types of spindle bearings are:
 Antifriction bearings
 Hydrostatic bearings
 Hydrodynamic bearings

 Antifriction bearings are suitable for high speeds

and high loads. They show the following
characteristics:
 High reliability
 Ease of replacement
 Low friction

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Spindle and spindle bearings
 On CNC machines, the following types of ball and
roller bearings are used:
1. Ball bearings
 Deep groove ball bearings
 Angular contact ball bearings
2. Roller bearings
 Cylindrical roller bearings
 Cylindrical ball bearings(double row) with tapered bore.
 Tapered roller bearings

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Spindle and spindle bearings

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 Spindle and spindle bearings
Hydrostatic bearings Advantages:
 In this type of bearings, the spindle • High wear resistance
• High damping properties
is supported by a relatively thick film
• High running accuracy
of oil supplied under pressure.
 The oil is supplied to the bearing
through a throttling system to
control pressure and volume.
 Lubricating seals are used to prevent
the leakage of oil.
 The load carrying capacity of this
type of bearing is independent of
the speed of rotation.

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 Spindle and spindle bearings
Hydrodynamic bearings
Advantages:
 The pressure of oil within the • Good running accuracy
bearing is created by the rotation of • Simple design
the spindle. • Good damping properties
 As the spindle rotates, the oil in
contact with the spindle is carried
into wedge-shape cavities between
the spindle and the bearing due to
centrifugal action.
 As the oil is forced through the small
clearances between the bearing and
spindle, the oil pressure is increased.
 These bearings are used where the
load carrying capacities are low and
frequent starting and stopping of the
spindle is not required as in the case
of grinding machines
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 FEED BACK DEVICES
Device used for controlling the movement & speed of axes.
OPEN LOOP CONTROL SYSTEM:
 Open loop systems have no access to the real time data
about the performance of the system and therefore no
immediate corrective action can be taken in case of system
disturbance.

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OPEN LOOP CONTROL SYSTEM:

51
CLOSED LOOP SYSTEM:
 In a close loop system, feed back devices closely
monitor the output and any disturbance will be
corrected in the first instance.
 Therefore high system accuracy is achievable.

52
CLOSED LOOP SYSTEM:

53
CLOSED LOOP SYSTEM OF A CNC
MACHINE :

54
Contd…

 Transducers are used for accomplishing the feedback

functions.
 For converting physical quantities like speed,
displacement etc into electrical signals.

TYPES OF FEEDBACK DEVICES:

 Position Feedback Devices
 Velocity Feedback Devices

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 POSITIONING FEEDBACK DEVICES
 Used to measure the displacement of the position of the slide
or table & send the signals to the comparator to correct the
position.
 Classified as follows:
 LINEAR TRANSDUCERS
Glass scales with line grating
 Ferranti System (Using Moire Fringe Effect)

 Binary Coded Scale

 Inducto Syn

 ROTARY TRANSDUCERS
 Rotary Encoders

 Resolver 56
Linear Transducers:
 The transducers measure the position of the slide directly.
 This device mounted on the machine table to measure the
actual displacement of the slide and send the feedback to the
controller of the machine.
 This device is considered to be of the highest accuracy and
also more expensive in comparison with other measuring
devices mounted on screws or motors.

57
Simple Linear Transducers:

58
Glass Scales with Line Grating:
 It is a linear scale transducer fixed to the machine tool
structure for direct position measurement.

59
Ferranti System (Moire Fringe Effect):
 In linear transducer, the optical gratings are used.
 When two grating patterns overlap each other, a “Moire
Fringe” pattern is formed, depending on the
displacement.

60
Binary Coded Scale:
 Binary coded scale uses a special sensor known as Scanner for
measuring the parallel strips with alternate dark & bright patches.
 The darker patches are connected by an electrical contact represented
by binary 1, whereas the brighter patches by binary 0.
 The total movement of the slide is calculated by adding up all the
dark patches in all rows.

61
Inducto Syn:
 This system has two parts namely Scale & Slider.
 The Scale is similar to a Stator & Slider is similar to a
Rotor winding.

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ADAPTIVE CONTROL MACHINING
 Adaptive control system is a logical extension of the CNC-
mechanism.
 In CNC mechanism the cutting speed and feed rates are
prescribed by the part programmer.
 The determination of these operating parameters depends
on the knowledge and experience regarding the workpiece,
tool materials, coolant conditions and other factors.
 In adaptive control machining, there is improvement in the
production rate and reduction in the machining cost as a
result of calculating and setting of optimal parameters
during machining.
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ADAPTIVE CONTROL MACHINING
 This calculation is based on measurements of process
variables in real time and followed by a subsequent on-line
adjustments of the parameters, subjected to machining
constraints, in order to optimize the performance of the
overall system.
 Today adaptive control uses microprocessor based controls
and is typically integrated with an existing CNC system.

64
ADAPTIVE CONTROL SYSTEM:

65
Contd…
 Adaptive control possesses attributes of both feedback control
and optimal control.
 Like a feedback system, measurements are taken on certain
process variables. Like an optimal system, an overall measure of
performance is used.
 In adaptive control, this measure is called the Index of
Performance (IP).

66
FUNCTIONS OF ADAPTIVE CONTROL

The three functions of adaptive control are:

IDENTIFICATION FUNCTION:
 This involves determining the current performance of the
process or system.
 The identification function is concerned with determining
the current value of this performance measure by making
use of the feedback data from the process.
 Since the environment will change overtime, the
performance of the system will also change.

67
Contd…

DECISION FUNCTION:
 Once the system performance is determined, the next
function is to decide how the control mechanism
should be adjusted to improve process performance.
 The decision procedure is carried out by means of a
pre-programmed logic provided by the designer.
 Depending upon the logic the decision may be to
change one or more of the controllable process.

68
Contd…
MODIFICATION FUNCTION
 The third AC function is to implement the decision.
While the decision function is a logic function,
modification is concerned with a physical or
mechanical change in the system.
 It is a hardware function rather than a software
function. The modification involves changing the
system parameters or variables so as to drive the
process towards a more optimal state.

69
TYPES OF ADAPTIVE CONTROL SYSTEMS
 The AC system of machine tools can be classified into two
types:
 AC with Optimization (ACO)
 AC with Constrains (ACC)

AC with Optimization (ACO):

 ACO refers to systems in which the performance is
optimized according to a prescribed Index Performance.
 The IP is usually an economic function such as maximum
production rate or minimum machining cost.

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AC with Constrains (ACC):
 ACC are systems in which machining conditions such as spindle speed
or feed rate are maximized within the prescribed limits of machines
and tool constrains such as maximum torque, force or horse power.
 For eg: in a normal CNC system, the feed rate is programmed and kept
constant for the entire cut but in an ACC system, the maximum
allowable load on the cutter is programmed. As a result, when the
width or depth of cut is small, the feed rate is high and when the width
or depth of cut is increased; the feed rate is reduced in such a way that
the load on the cutter is not exceeded.
 In AC system the correct feed and speed are automatically found and it
is not necessary to spend efforts on calculations of optimum feeds and
speeds.
 By increasing tool life simultaneously with time saving, the adaptive
control system contribute to lower operating costs, which justifies the
extra price of adding AC to a conventional NC machine.

71
Applications
 AC system can be applied for lathes, drilling machines,
milling machines.
 The AC systems are used especially when
machining hard materials such as titanium and
stainless steel.
 AC system is applied to NC microboring process has
enabled taking very minute cuts in pre-drilled work
pieces without breakage.

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