Demand-oriented enhancement of machine tools by an accuracy increasing add-on

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Eckart Uhlmann
• Subject Area: Metal-Cutting and Abrasive Manufacturing Engineering
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 515938129

The flexibility of manufacturing processes can be increased by the use of reconfigurable production systems. Modular machine tools meet the requirement of demand-oriented reconfiguration, but have a lower structural rigidity due to an increased number of contact points. This leads to the necessity of a demand-oriented increase in accuracy. The aim of the planned research project is the extension of machine tools by a universally applicable compensation unit with an inherent force measurement for online compensation of process force induced displacements at the tool-center-point. Current research approaches are tailored to individual machine tools and thus cannot be used universally. This motivates the research into compensation concepts that can be equipped as required and are applicable to different machine tools. The research project focuses on the investigation of a compensation unit that can be integrated with minimal manual configuration effort into any machine tool. For this purpose, investigations are carried out on force estimation of piezoelectric actuators using self-sensing methods. The aim of this is to measure applied process forces without the use of external sensors. Subsequently, real-time capable models for predicting displacements of machine tools at the tool-center-point, which use process forces as input variable, are investigated. Results of these investigations culminate in a compensation unit for online compensation of process force induced displacements on machine tools. The knowledge gained in this research project will contribute significantly to increasing working accuracy of flexible machine tools. This will be quantified by means of manufacture and measurement of test pieces, thus proving success of the research project. The second funding period will focus on the use of the compensation unit as a measuring device for an automated measurement of the machine tools stiffness at the tool-center-point.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants