Parallel Kinematics Machine Tools

With small moving masses, parallel kinematic machine tools achieve very high dynamics of motion. Nevertheless, such machine tools are still rare today. The reason for this is the necessary very high rigidity of the axes, which must be designed as direct drives. At the same time, it is difficult to achieve a perfect surface quality. Conventional servo drives fail to meet these requirements.

The solution with Triamec Servo Drives together with a Beckhoff TwinCAT CNC controller leads to success for a well-known Swiss machine tool manufacturer: The target data of the CNC controllers are converted into the joint coordinates using inverse kinematics. At the same time, a workspace­ monitoring system is running to protect the mechanics from damage. The manipulated variables are then interpolated and sent to the Triamec servo drives in 10kHz cycles via the Tria-Link field bus.

For the tool spindle, a multi-pole motor with more than 80'000 rpm is used, which can be positioned precisely at any time with a TSP700 servo drive and exhibits extremely good synchronization.

The result can be seen in the truest sense of the word: Amazing surface quality, highest milling dynamics, best planing results, clean deburring for products with high optical requirements.