Constructional Features of CNC Machines

Aspects of CNC machines to be considered in their designing

1. Machine Structure

2. Guideways

3. Feed drives

4. Spindle and spindle bearings

5. Measuring systems

6. Controls, software and operator interface

7. Gauging
Machine Structure
Main structure is load carrying and
supporting member of machine tool
All motors, drive mechanisms and
other functional assemblies are
aligned to each other and fixed
rigidly to structure.
All components must remain in
correct relative positions to maintain
geometric accuracy.
Basic design considerations involved are:
Static Load
- include weights of slides, work pieces
- forces due to cutting
to keep the deformation within limits, the
structure should have
- adequate stiffness
- proper structural configuration
to meet these demands there are two
basic configurations
Commonly used configuration of machine tools
 Dynamic Load
- These are constantly changing forces
- These cause the whole machine to vibrate
- origin of such vibrations
- unbalanced rotating parts
- improper meshing of gears
- bearing irregularities
- interrupted cuts while machining
- The effect of these vibrations on m/c performance can be
reduced by:
- reducing the mass of the structure
- increasing the stiffness of the structure
- improving the damping properties
 Thermal Load
Heat sources which setup the thermal gradient
include:
a. Electric motor
b. Friction in mechanical drives and gears
c. Friction in bearing and guideways
d. Temperature of surrounding objects
What these heat sources cause?
i. localized deformation
ii. Considerable inaccuracy in m/c performance
 Steps to reduce thermal deformation
1. External mounting of drives and gear boxes
2. lubricating bearings and guideways
3. Efficient coolant and swarf removal for
dissipation of heat generated
4. Thermo-symmetric designing of the structure
 Guideways
- control the direction of the carriage/
table on which the tool / workpiece held
- to absorb all the static and dynamic
forces
The shape of the workpiece depends on
the accuracy of movement and kinematic
accuracy of guideways
The geometric relationship of slide and the
guideway to the machine base determines
the geometric accuracy of the machine.
 Kinematic accuracy depends the straightness,
flatness, and parallelism errors in guideway.
These errors further result in variety of tracking
errors like pitch, yaw and roll that are difficult to
measure and correct.
Over a period of usage any kind of wear in the
guideway reduces the accuracy of guide motion
This results in movement and positioning errors.
When machining feed rate can vary from 20
mm/rev to 50 mm/rev
 Points to be considered while designing guideways
- rigidity
- damping capability
- geometric and kinematic accuracy
- velocity of slide
- friction characteristics
- wear resistance
- provision for adjustment of play
- position in relation to work area
- protection against swarf and damage
The positioning of drive mechanism relative to guiding
surface of the slide way is also important.
Drive mechanism should be placed in such a way that
the reaction and hence frictional forces are uniform in the
guiding system.
This ensures uniform wear on guideways.
Types of guideways
i) Friction guideways
ii) Antifriction linear motion (LM) guideway
Friction guideways:
Widely used in conventional machine tools
Have good damping properties
Low manufacturing cost
Operate under conditions of sliding friction and
do not have constant coefficient of friction.
Coefficient of friction varies with sliding velocity
 Coefficient of friction is high when movement
commences and as speed increases, it rapidly falls and
beyond certain velocity it remains almost constant
Therefore to start the movement high force is required.
This results in elastic deformation of drive mechanism
( such as screw)
The energy stored in screw together with applied force
causes carriage to slip and move at a faster rate.
As the speed increases the friction decreases and a
greater amount of movement than intended for the slide
takes place.
There is a possibility of repetition of this cycle of events
and results in positioning errors.
Results in jerky motion.
This phenomenon is known as stick-slip phenomenon
 To reduce the possibility of stick-slip there
should be minimum but constant friction
This is achieved by using strips of poly
tetra fluoro ethylene (PTFE) or turcite
lining at the guideway interface
Turcite is a special type of plastic with
particles of graphite embedded on its
surface
These materials have low coefficient of
friction. (of the order of 0.1)
 The strips can be replaced when worn and
the accuracy can be restored.
Coating can be carried out on flat, dovetail
and vee guideways.
Coated guideways
Antifriction Guideways:
 These guideways use rolling elements in the form of
balls or rollers in between the moving and stationary
parts of the machine
Advantages of Antifriction guideways
- Easy controlling of slick-slip motion of slides
- Low kinetic frictional resistance
- High durability
- High accuracy of movement
- High load carrying capacity
- High traverse speed
- Ease of assembly
- Operation without external hydrodynamic lubrication
Disadvantages
Low damping capacity
Quite expensive.
Combined rolling & sliding guideways
Use of balls and rollers requires a highly finished
and hardened guiding surface.
As the contact is on a curved line or point, the
waviness of the surface impairs the accuracy of
the motion.
To combine the advantages of both the sliding
(as regards to the accuracy of guided motion)
and roller guides (as regards to minimization of
motion) combined rolling and sliding guideways
are designed for various machine tools.
 There are several types of antifriction
guideways that can be employed in
machine tools.
They are
Recirculating ball bushings
Linear Bearings with ball and rollers
Recirculating roller bearings
Recirculating cross roller bearings
Recirculating ball bushings
 Figure illustrates the inner construction of
recirculating ball bush
Various kinds of ball bush like open type,
closed type are shown in figure
They are available with or without seals
 Different methods of mounting the shafts and ball bushes
Linear bearings with balls and rollers
These are very effective in providing
smooth and easy movement
Require an accurate form to be machined
in the casting.
The surface in contact with the rollers
have to be hardened and should have a
smooth structure.
 Hardened steel rails with special guide
forms may be fastened to the castings of
the machine to reduce machining.
Special blocks, a pair along each guide
rail, with recirculating balls can move
along the rails.
The balls provide the rolling motion and
the contact is line type, the coefficient of
friction is reduced.
There is no stick-slip phenomenon in this
arrangement.
 Linear bearing with balls
 Various forms of linear guideways
 SPINDLE DRIVE MOTOR

In CNC machines DC or AC servomotors are used as spindle drive

motors. Spindle drive motor selection is depending upon the torque
requirement of particular machine. If heavy material is to be
machined, high capacity motor should be selected. Motor capacity
can be measured in horsepower (HP).
CNC machines commonly have high spindle power and wide speed
range. They have step less variation of spindle speeds. Availability
of full power at and above a particular speed which is as low as
possible is desirable . The spindle speeds are usually obtained
through 1 or 3 step gear boxes for range selection. Some machines
use direct drive from the motor through belting without any
intermediate gear box.
 GEAR BOX SHIFTING MACHANISM

The main function of a change gear mechanism used for the spindles
of CNC machines are :
1) To reduce or increase a speed suitable for spindle drive.
2) To reduce the load inertia reflected on the motor shaft and to reduce
the torque requirements on the motor shaft.
They are more frequently used where the reduction is required
between the shafts, which are not co-axial or parallel.

Generally in CNC machines 2 or 3 spindle gear ranges are used for

required speed range selection . An hardened and fine ground gears
are assembled with the headstock of the machines. Shifting of the
gears according to speed command is performed by hydraulic
cylinder, which is operated by hydraulic system pressure.
 TIMING BELTS AND PULLEYS

Timing belt is essentially a rubber belt with teeth that act like gears
and thus combines the advantage of v belts with the advantage of
gears. They solve the slippage problem inherent with v belts and the
noise, wear, and lubrication problem inherent with gears.
Timing belts are supplied along with timing pulleys having evenly
spaced axial grooves cut their periphery to make correct positive
engagement with mating teeth of the belt.
The moulded teeth are designed to make positive engagement with
mating axial grooves on the pulleys. The teeth enter and leave the
grooves in a smooth rolling manner with negligible friction.
The helically wound cables (steel or glass fibre cord) are pulling or
load carrying element. The neoprene or polyurethane elastomer is
moulded to form teeth around cables. Nylon facing protects the tooth
surface from wear
TIMING BELTS AND PULLEYS
 Feed Drives:
The function of a feed drive is to impart motion
to the slide carrying the tool for removal of
material from the job or workpiece.
In the case of CNC machines the degree of
precision and accuracy of motion of the slide are
high and hence the feed drive should have
efficiency and response.
The feed drive generally adopted in conventional
machine tools is rack and pinion.
But the feed drives in the case of CNC machines are,
Servo motor
Mechanical transmission system of very precise
type.
Servo motor:
Direct current (dc) servomotors and alternating
current (ac) servomotors are the cornmonly
employed feed drive motors in CNC machines.
Earlier d.c servomotors and drives were
employed in CNC machines, because they
provided excellent speed regulation, high torque
and high efficiency and therefore ideally suited
for precise motion applications.
AC servo motors quite cost effective, torque over
the entire speed range, less maintenance due to
brushless operation, have better response and
dynamic stiffness and higher reliability compared
to dc servomotors.
Mechanical Transmission system:
The mechanical transmission system of a feed
drive consists of all necessary elements required
for transmission of force and motion from prime
mover (motor) to the slide.
They are,
Elements to convert rotary motion to linear
motion.
Elements for transmission of torque.
In the design of mechanical transmission
system, the main criteria is to keep the
transmission error to a minimum.
In achieving this, the essential requirements are,
Natural frequency should be high.
High stiffness.
Sufficient damping.
Very low friction.
Backlash free motion.

Elements to convert rotary motion to linear motion:

Many types of actuating mechanisms are used in CNC
machines to convert rotary motion into linear motion.
The accuracy of the job produced is influenced by the
efficiency and responsiveness of the actuating mechanism
employed.
The two actuating mechanisms used in CNC machines are,
Screw and Nut.
Rack and pinion.
Screw and Nut:
Screw and Nut system is one of the most
common and oldest method adopted for
conversion of rotary motion into linear motion.
The simplest example being vice, screw jack, tail
stock etc. This combination is effective for
medium traverses, because for longer traverses
the screw sags under its own weight.
The traverse speed is low for longer screws due
to reduction in critical speed.
 Conventional thread forms like V, square, trapezoidal are not
suitable for CNC machines, because of high friction and
sliding action of the contacting surfaces of the threads on
screw and nut, resulting in fast wear.
The efficiency of these threads is 40 per cent.
To achieve smooth and uniform motion of slides on
guideways, recirculation ball and roller bearings are used to
avoid surface to surface contact.
Similarly, recirculation ball screws and roller screws are
employed as screw and Nut system in CNC machines.
These recirculating ball and roller screw and nut system
provides low wear, smooth and uniform motion, reduced
friction accuracy over a very long period, higher efficiency,
better reliability, higher traverse speed, little temperature
range and without stick-slip effect
 Recirculating ball screws
Recirculating balls are extensively used in
CNC machines because of the many
advantages.
Gothic arc and Circular arc are the two
forms of threads employed on the screws
and nut of the recirculating ball screws.
Fig. below illustrates the two forms of
threads used on screws of the
recirculating ball screws.
Forms of threads used on screws
 Recirculation of ball through external &
internal path
 The balls after rotating between nut and
the screw comeback to the starting point
of the thread in the nut hence called
recirculating ball screw
The figure illustrates the two
arrangements external path and internal
path
Preloading of Nuts
There should be not be any back lash and if any should
be minimum amount between the screw and the nut so
that the slide can travel on either direction without
significant error in positioning.
One method of achieving bear minimum backlash is by
using two nuts, which are forced apart (tensional load) or
alternatively squeezed (Compression load).
This is called preloading.
By doing so the balls in one nut contact one side of the
threads in the nut and the balls in the other nut the
opposite sides of the threads in the nut as shown in fig
below.
Efficiency as high as 90% can be achieved by this
method.
 Preloading of nuts
Roller Screws
In case of ball screw the intermediate element
making physical contact with the threads of the
nut and the screw are balls where as in the case
of roller screw, it is the grooved roller elements
which make physical contact with the threads on
the nut and screw.
The balls in the case of ball screw have highly
polished spherical shape, where as in the case
roller screw, the rollers have circumferential
grooves which may have threads matching with
the threads on the screw and nut
They are two types of roller screws generally in
use. They are,
Planetary and
Recirculating
Advantages of Roller screws:
Roller screw provide backlash free movement
unlike ball screw where preloading is necessary
for avoiding or reducing backlash
More accurate position control is possible with a
less complex electronic circuit because the pitch
of the screw is smaller than the minimum pitch
of the roller screw.
 Differences between ball and roller screws:

Ball screw Roller Screw

Balls in the intermediate element Rollers with circumferential

which make physical contact with grooves make physical contact
the threads on the screw and the with the threads on the screw and
nut the nut
Back lash exists and is reduced by Backlash free
preloading using two nuts
Accurate position control is difficult Accurate position control is
possible
Contact between screws and the Contact between the roller and the
ball is point contact screw is surface contact
Comparatively less expensive Expensive

Less numbers of components Relatively more number of

easy assembly components, making assembly
Planetary Roller Screw
This consists of roller with threads cut on it.
At the end of the rollers are provided gear teeth which
meshes with the annular provided in the nut,
These screws are equally spaced circumferentially and
held in their position with the help of spigot, provided at
its end which is held in a ring.
Because of the meshing of the gear teeth with the
annular provided in the nut, the roller are kept rolling and
there is no axial movement of the rollers relative to the
nut,
These types of roller screws are capable of transmitting
high loads at high speeds. Fig below shows the cross
sectional view of the assembled planetary roller screw
and cross sectional view of the components used in it.
 Planetary roller screw
 Elements of planetary roller screw
 Elements of recirculating roller screw
Recirculating Roller screw
In this case, the rollers have circular grooves in
the form of thread shape of the screw or nut and
do not have threads on it.
Components of a recirculating roller screw, such
as rollers are equally spaced around the screw
and held in that position by a cage.
There is axial relative motion between the nut
and roller.
A small axial gap is provided in the nut.
At the end of one rotation of the screw, one of
the roller gets into the gap provided in the nut,
thereby disengaging itself both from screw and
nut (fig next slide)
 Recirculating roller screw
 A cam provided on a ring inside the nut
pushes the screw back into its starting
point, there by recirculating the roller.
When one of the roller is in the recess
(i.e., not being engaged) the remaining
rollers will provide the necessary driving
power.
This type of roller screws are slower in
operation than planetary type but are
capable of transmitting more loads with
greater accuracy.
Spindle and spindle bearing
The speed attained by the spindle is of the order of 600
to 1800 m/min
It is subjected to radial and torsional deflections
They are also subjected to thrust forces depending upon
the nature of machining operation
Desired characteristics of spindles are
Stiffness
Minimum deflection under varying loads
Running accuracy
Axial load carrying capacity
Thermal stability
High speed of operation
Long service life
 These characteristics can be achieved by proper bearing
selection
The different types of bearings used are
Hydrostatic bearing
Hydrodynamic bearing
Antifriction bearing

Hydrostatic bearing
Spindle is separated from the hydrostatic pockets by an oil film of
high pressure
Oil is supplied to the bearing through a throttling system to the
controlled pressure and volume
The spindle is supported by a relatively thick film of oil.
Leakage of oil is prevented by using oil seals.
The load carrying capacity is independent of the rotational speed of
the spindle
The bearing oil temp is maintained low using heat exchangers
 Hydrostatic & Hydrodynamic bearings
 These type of bearing have good damping properties
High running accuracy
High wear resistance
But very expensive
Used in grinding and boring machines

Hydrodynamic bearings
Spindle is supported on a thick film of oil called hydrostatic pockets
The oil in the pockets is stationary
The temperature is maintained using heat exchangers
There is constant flow of oil round the spindle maintaining thick film of oil
Pressure in the oil is created by the rotation of the spindle
Oil is forced into the wedge shaped cavities due to the centrifugal action
Clearance should be maintained between spindle and casing of bearing for
oil film (50 to 200 microns)
Suitable for low load carrying capacity
Have good accuracy and damping characteristics and are simple
 Factors influencing the selection of spindle bearings
Type of load (i.e axial, radial or combination)
Intensity of load
Speed of rotation
Thermal stability
Spindle stiffness
Accuracy of spindle depends on
Radial run out and
Axial run out
For ideal conditions both should be zero
For speed ranges of 10000 to 20000 rpm ceramic balls and
rollers are used.
They have low coefficient of friction, greater thermal stability,
high wear resistance and high hardness
 Tension preload
Required amount of preload is exerted by
providing spacer of specified width between nuts
Each nut exerts pressure on its respective ball,
thus forcing the balls away from each other

Compressive preload
Preload is achieved by insertion of spacer
between two nuts
Pressure is applied to the nuts in opposite
direction
Thickness of the spacer corresponds to the
amount of preload
 Preloading methods
 Oversize ball preload
This is accomplished by using balls which are just
slightly larger than the space provided between the nut
and the screw shaft
Best suited for comparatively light preload ( to the extent
of eliminating axial clearance)
In this case balls have 4-point contact, thereby increasing
the operational efficiency
Integral preload
Appearance same as single nut oversize ball or non
preloaded ball screws
However there is dimensional allowance in the nut
internal rotating element which provides proper amount
of preload
Best suited for light and moderate preloads
Other preload methods
Coil or belleville spring may be inserted between two nuts
to provide a constant pressure preload
 Integral and other preload methods