Dynamic properties of hybrid machine tool body – Theoretical and experimental investigation

The article presents theoretical and experimental investigation in order to obtain dynamic properties of hybrid machine tool body in comparison with cast iron body. For this purpose, the theoretical and experimental modal analyses were carried out. The influence of the mineral cast material for filling voids on the dynamic properties of the machine tool body was discussed. During the analysis, the modes and frequencies of free vibrations, the amplitude values and the damping ratios were compared. Despite lowering the free vibration frequency of the hybrid construction, compared to the cast iron body, in some cases, the dynamic properties were affected. This could be determined on the basis of decreasing the amplitude value of the transfer function (from 12.16% to 58.66%) and the increasing the vibration damping coefficient ratio (from 12.22% to 75.24%) in the case of a hybrid body as compared to a cast iron body. The final conclusions were drawn about the application of mineral casts in the construction of machine tools and its impact on the dynamic properties of the structure.

IoT Devices and Applications for Wire-Based Hybrid Manufacturing Machine Tools

Hybrid manufacturing machine tools have the potential to be a disruptive technology as they can leverage the benefits of both additive and subtractive manufacturing by incorporating both processes on the same machine while limiting the downsides of the individual processes. Since these machines use two very disparate manufacturing processes and hybrid manufacturing is an emerging technology, it will be useful to monitor data coming from the machine and apply it to improve the manufacturing process, the operation of the machine, and to integrate the machine into the larger digital framework of Industrial Internet of Things (IoT). The present work discusses IoT devices that would be beneficial to add to a hybrid machine tool as well as applications for those devices. The proposed methods discussed in this work have not been experimentally implemented on a hybrid machine tool and so there are no performance data available yet. The hybrid machine tool used as a basis to generate these IoT applications is the Mazak VC-500A/5x AM Hot Wire Deposition, which is a 5-axis machine tool incorporated with a wire feedstock 4kW laser deposition system. Methodologies and applications will be outlined for machine health and process monitoring. Other areas covered include process benchmarking, secure networking options for the proposed IoT framework, and hybrid process improvement. Limitations of these methods and future work for new sensor devices and application areas is also discussed.