ARTICLE IN PRESS

International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 46 (2006) 1610–1616

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Design and analysis of power failure detector module for control of axis
runaway in CNC machines during unprecedented power failures
B. Vinoda,,1, G. Gurusamyb,2, C. Sasikumara,3
a
Department of EEE, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
b
Department of EEE, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Sathyamangalam, Tamil Nadu, India
Received 12 July 2005; accepted 5 September 2005
Available online 7 November 2005

Abstract

The introduction of Computer numerical control (CNC) machines radically changed the manufacturing industry because of it is key
advantages like high accuracy and faster production. Due to the development of technology, CNC machines are driven directly from files
created by CAD software packages, so that an assembly or part can go from design to production without any intermediate paper
drawing work being required. In one sense, CNC machines may be said to represent special industrial robot systems, as they are
programmable to perform any kind of machining operation. Most of the manufacturing industries faces problems in position control of
the vertical axis during machining on CNC machines, in the event of an unprecedented power failure. The axis slips downwards due to
inertia and gravitational force acting on vertical axis of CNC machines. In case of die and mould applications, where the accuracy of jobs
are comparatively very high, the damages caused due to this problem are very expensive when the material being machined is titanium or
other costly materials. In order to avoid this problem it is necessary to stop the axis run away immediately, by applying the
electromechanical brake connected to the axis servo motor or ball screw rod in advance. This paper is a result of a project work done on
the early detection of power failure by a microcontroller-based control, so as to apply the axis brake in advance and protect the axis run
away.
r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: CNC; Servomotor; Unprecedented power failure; Microcontroller; Power failure detector module

1. Introduction and motivation for research
Computer numerical control (CNC) machines [1] have
almost replaced the conventional machines mainly because
of its competitive advantages on quality and mass
production. Manufacturing industries can no longer
survive world competition unless they go in for automation
with CNC machines and robots doing most of the high
precision jobs. In the case of high precision jobs such as
dies, moulds, etc., production in CNC machines may cause
heavy losses due to run away of its axis drives during power
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 422 2592478; fax: +91 422 2573833.
E-mail addresses: bvinod@rediffmail.com (B. Vinod),
hodeee@bitsathy.ac.in (G. Gurusamy), c_sasikumar@yahoo.com
(C. Sasikumar).
1
Lecturer (SG).
2
Dean–Electrical Sciences.
3
Junior Research Fellow.
failures. This run away during power failures is more
rampant in the vertical axis due to gravity and inertia.
This problem has been reported by machine tool
industries employing vertical machining centers and the
study was conducted on such a machine. The method of
braking employed in this method is a servomotor with
built-in self-brake for the vertical axis. It has been observed
for three states of machine conditions like idle condition,
rapid traverse and feed traverse. In each case the drop of
the vertical axis varies from a minimum of 100 mm to a
maximum of 3 mm during power failures. Even though the
servomotor for the vertical axes has a self-brake, the system
has inherent problems like the delay in braking time and
release time, as it involves the electrical and mechanical
time constants of the elements used in the arrangement. It
was measured that before the electromechanical brake is
applied the vertical axis dropped down to a maximum of
3 mm. Due to this problem, the machine cannot be used for

0890-6955/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijmachtools.2005.09.008
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B. Vinod et al. / International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 46 (2006) 1610–1616
the manufacturing of high precision jobs, even though the
accuracy of the products produced by this machines are
very high if no power interruptions occur. The applications
like die and mould machining require very high accuracy
levels of less than 3 mm and the cost of each job may lead to
several lakhs depending upon the material composition. So
the loss to the manufacturing industry will be very high if a
power failure occurs during the mid of such a process.
Several solutions like employing a balance weight, hy-
draulic cylinders and self-brake for the ball screw were
tried, and each mechanism has more disadvantages than
advantages. The proposed method was first simulated and
analyzed in a virtual instrumentation software [2]. The
solution proposed here is tested and analyzed successfully
in a CNC vertical machining center. The hardware
interfacing of the system with CNC has been done and
the results are tabulated.
2. Vertical axis control
CNC systems require motor drives to control both the
position and the velocity of the machine axis. The most
common type of motor used for axis control is called the
servomotor. Each axis must be driven separately and
follow the command signal generated by the CNC control.
Feedback devices connected to the motors enable closed
loop control and ensure velocity and positional accuracy.
2.1. Vertical axis slip
When a job machining is being done on a vertical CNC
machine and whenever there is a power failure, the vertical
axis of the CNC machine falls down because of its own
moment of inertia and also due to gravity. The falling of its
own axis is usually termed as ‘‘slip’’ or ‘‘axis run away’’.
Due to this, the work piece will be damaged. The
seriousness of the accident will be higher when the work
piece is of high cost and when the axis is running at higher
speeds. In the case of servomotor without brake, manual
brake should be applied or some other method is used to
counter the movement of the axis. But in the case of a
servomotor with brake, the brake module will hold the axis
thus preventing the slip. There will be a certain time lag in
the operation of the brake module because of the electrical
and mechanical elements involved in the CNC machine.
2.2. Analysis of vertical axis slip
The slip of the motor was measured in the CNC machine
for the following conditions:
1. Idle condition—machine enabled, and axis standstill.
2. Rapid traverse—moving downwards at it maximum
rapid rate.
3. Feed traverse—traverse rate during programmed mo-
tion.
1611
Table 1
Observed data for CNC machine
States of the machines Observed readings
Idle condition 100–120 mm
Feed traverse 3–5 mm
Rapid traverse Max. of 10 mm
In the idle condition of the machine, the reading were
noted by means of a micron dial gauge, and in rapid and
feed traverse the readings were noted by means of a laser
interferometer. The readings for the servomotor with brake
for the above states are as shown in Table 1.
From the above results it is clear that the vertical axis of
the CNC machine falls downward during power failure and
is more in the case of feed traverse and rapid traverse
movements. It is necessary to arrest the slip in this axis in
the case of power failure, to maintain the job accuracy.
3. Existing solutions for braking in CNC machines
The present solutions employed for the above problems
are analyzed first in similar machines and their merits and
demerits are discussed. Each method has it own disadvan-
tages, hence the methods are not very accurate in the case
of high tolerances.
Some of the methods employed in machine tool
industries are as follows:
1. Servo self-braking method
2. Counter balance weight method
3. Hydraulic counter balance method
4. Uninterrupted power supply
A case study is made on each of the above-mentioned
methods and data are collected and shown in Tables 2–4,
respectively.
3.1. Servo self-braking method
Most of the servomotors used in CNC machine tool,
especially for vertical or slant bed, are mounted with an
inbuilt self-brake system. As soon as the power to the
motor is switched off, this brake is activated by releasing of
the brake pad from the electromagnetic core. When the
power is applied to the brake coil, the coil is energized and
attracts the non-rotating pad towards the coil and the
brake is released. The arrangement of the self-brake system
is as shown in Fig. 1.
The readings are measured in a vertical machining center
with the self-braking system alone. The observed readings
are as shown in Table 2.
As this system alone is not safe during power failure
conditions, servo brake systems with the following addi-
tional protections are currently employed in industries.
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3.2. Counter balance weight method 3.3. Hydraulic counter balance method

Similar to the elevators, some of the CNC machines are In a vertical machining center, double-acting hydraulic
also provided with the counter balance weight in order to cylinders are mounted vertically in the column itself and
balance the weight of the spindle head at the opposite end. the end of the piston cylinder is rigidly fixed to the vertical
It ensures a fail-safe mechanism that will not allow it drop slide at a point on the side of the slide. The pressurized fluid
or deviate from the cutting path in the event of a power is supplied to one port of the cylinder, which will act
failure. Two support chains, cables, or linkages capable of opposite to the slide movement such that when the fluid is
independent redundant support of the head and counter- passed to the cylinder it opposes the movement of the slide;
weight shall attach the counterweight. thereby it ensures smooth movement of the slide.
Even though it will come into act whenever the power The readings are measured in a vertical machining
fails, this counter weight reduces the speed of operation. center, with the hydraulic counter balance technique and
The readings obtained for vertical CNC machines with servo brake system shown in Table 4.
the counter balancing weight method and servo brake are The repeatability of this is not found to be consistent,
shown in Table 3. and regular maintenance of the cylinders is required which
adds up to the maintenance cost.
Table 2
Observed data for CNC machine with servo self-brake 3.4. Uninterrupted power supply (UPS)
States of the machines Observed readings
Even though it gives a best solution for the problem of
Idle condition 200–400 mm power failure without any sort of error, the cost of the UPS
Feed traverse 3–5 mm [3] is found to be more than the CNC machine itself. For
Rapid traverse More than 5 mm machine shops with more number of machines, implemen-
tation of an UPS is extremely difficult and, hence, this is
not a practical solution for machine tool industries.
Table 3
Observed data for CNC machine with counter balance weight
4. Proposed power failure detector module
States of the machines Observed readings
The proposed technique is by detecting the power failure
Idle condition 30–50 mm
Feed traverse 1–2 mm and actuating the brake circuit as shown in Fig. 2, much
Rapid traverse Max. of 3 mm faster by a microcontroller-based system. The detection of
power failure within microseconds after the failure occurs
ensures that there is no slip in the vertical axis of the CNC
machine. This can be implemented by constructing a power
Table 4 failure detector module [4] and keep the module in parallel
Observed data for CNC machine with hydraulic counter balance
to the CNC machine, so that it does not interfere any other
States of the machines Observed readings CNC component.
The above block diagram of the controls to the CNC
Idle condition 20–40 mm machine gives a clear idea about the methodology. Voltage
Feed traverse 0.5–1 mm
Rapid traverse Max. of 2.5 mm
to the brake motor coil is given through the normally
closed (NC) contact of the control relay (CR) operated

Electromagnetic Coil
Spring force on
non-rotating
brake pad

Nonrotating Brake pad

Electromagnetic Core Magnetic force on
Rotating Brake pad
Motor Shaft (Attached to Motor Shaft) nonrotating Brake pad

Motor

POWER OFF POWER ON

Fig. 1. Servo self-brake arrangement.

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from the PFDM signal. When the servo drive is enabled the
brake release control relay closes its normally open (NO)
contact and the brake is released. The brake release is
ensured by the detection of current flowing through a field
failure relay connected in the brake circuit. This input is
connected to the machine control logic circuit and protects
the respective motor from overloading, if the brake is not
released. Whenever a power fail occurs, the signal from
PFDM activates the brake control circuit and the motor
brake is clamped immediately.
Detecting power failure by checking the AC power
source directly has two problems to be solved. Firstly, the
detector has to possess the period data in the circuit.
Otherwise the detector may not distinguish the zero-cross
voltage appearing twice in one cycle. The second problem
is that, in a power line, a half-wave lack and a momentary
undervoltage are occasionally observed when the transmis-
sion line is exchanged or a heavy load is started. For these
reasons conventional quick detectors are assembled by
using a crystal oscillator, a counter and so on. In this way,
high accuracy of operation is realized but, on the other
hand, high cost and circuit complication are brought. So
there is a great need to monitor the input supply voltage for
judging the power failure.

4.1. Microcontroller module

In this method the three-phase voltages are continuously

Fig. 2. CNC machine control with PFDM.
Fig. 3. Block diagram of microcontroller module.
monitored for every 1 ms and, if any power failure occurs,
the microcontroller [5] output will drive the relay coil of the
brake circuit of the servo motor. The block diagram of the
microcontroller module is as shown in Fig. 3.
In the microcontroller module, the three-phase input
supply voltage is stepped down to a suitable value and then
rectified. The microcontroller receives the three-phase
voltages and they will be continuously monitored every
1 ms. Any failure in the input supply will make the output
port of the microcontroller to LOW value, thus driving the
relay circuit of the brake coil. Whenever any unprecedented
power failure occurs, the microcontroller sends a signal to

400V

0V

-400V
V(V1:+)
400V

0V

SEL >>
-400V
V(V2:+)
400V

0V

-400V
0s 20ms 40ms 60ms 80ms 100ms
V(V3:+)
Time

Fig. 4. Waveforms of three-phase AC power supply.

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1614 B. Vinod et al. / International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 46 (2006) 1610–1616

5.0V

0V

-5.0V
V(V1:+)
5.0V

0V

-5.0V
V(V2:+)
5.0V

0V

SEL>>
-5.0V
0s 20ms 40ms 60ms 80ms 100ms
V(V3:+)
Time

Fig. 5. Waveforms of step down three-phase power supply.

2.0V

1.0V

SEL>>
0V
V(V1:+)
2.0V

1.0V

0V
V(V2:+)
2.0V

1.0V

0V
0s 20ms 40ms 60ms 80ms 100ms
V(V3:+)
Time

Fig. 6. Waveforms of three-phase inputs to microcontroller.

the driver circuit through the output port. The relay circuit
is simply a transistor driven switch and gives signal to the
CNC brake circuit.
5. Simulated results
The result of this project meets the requirements
of detection of power failures within 1 ms. A model
of the power failure detection module is implemented
in the hardware and the output is obtained with the
help of Lab View. The simulation results of the
hardware module are obtained through ORCAD9.2-
PSPICE [6].
The waveforms at various points of the circuit are as
follows. The three-phase input supply for which the failure
has to be determined is shown in Fig. 4.
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B. Vinod et al. / International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture 46 (2006) 1610–1616 1615

The three-phase input supply is thus given to the
resistor–capacitor combination which will work as a
transformer, i.e., it will step down the input voltage as
shown in Fig. 5.
Further, the step down three-phase supply is given to a
diode and Zener combination which will give a three-phase
+1.5 V supply to the microcontroller as shown in Fig. 6.
5.1. Microcontroller-based hardware module
The microcontroller-based hardware module [7] inter-
faced with Lab View software is shown in Fig. 7. Fig. 8
shows the three-phase input supply along with the
microcontroller output.
Similarly, for single-phase failure the input output
waveforms are as shown in Fig. 9.
5.2. Results of the module with CNC machine
After the module is tested individually, it has been
interface with a CNC machine to measure the actual
droop in the axis in the event of power failure. The CNC
machine is tested with three conditions as mentioned
above.

Fig. 7. Microcontroller module interfaced with Lab View software.

Fig. 8. Waveforms of three-phase supply and microcontroller output.

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Fig. 9. Waveforms of single-phase failure and microcontroller output.
Table 5
Readings of CNC machine with power failure detector module
States of the machines Observed readings
Idle condition 0 feed traverse and rapid traverse conditions. In all the three
Feed traverse 3–7 mm
Rapid traverse 10–15 mm
In the idle condition of the machine, the reading are
noted by means of a micron dial gauge, and in rapid and
feed traverse the reading are noted by means of a laser
interferometer.
The readings of the CNC machine with the power failure
detector module are shown in Table 5.
From Table 5 it can be concluded that the droop in the
axis under idle conditions is almost negligible. Under the
feed traverse condition the droop is limited to 3–7 mm, and
in the rapid traverse condition it is limited to 10–15 mm.
The readings are considered to be less when compared to
any other method and is a low-cost technique which can be
implemented in any existing CNC machine.
6. Conclusion
A low cost and reliable system was implemented on a
CNC machine and the performance analysis was carried
out. It is not only used in CNC machines but in
applications where power failure plays a major role such
as computer applications, etc.
In this project, the microcontroller technique is used to
detect power failure. As the clock frequency at which the
microcontroller operates is on the order of MHz, it is
possible to monitor the input voltage on the order of ms.
Whenever there is power failure the microcontroller output
port becomes high thus driving the relay of the brake
circuit. The time taken to detect the power failure with the
PFDM is nearly 50 ms. The module is interfaced with the
CNC machine and tested with three conditions like idle,
cases the droop in the vertical axis is within the limits of
industrial requirements.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Department of Science
and Technology, Government of India as part of its
funding to research and development projects under
Sanction Order no. SR/S3/RM/46/2003. The authors also
wish to thank the management of PSG Industrial Institute,
Coimbatore, India, to carry out the study on their CNC
machines.
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