Tool magazine and automatic tool changer (ATC) is used to store and change tools in a machining center, which plays an important role in automatic manufacturing. Therefore, the stability and ...reliability of tool magazine and ATC is very important to a machining center. Failures of tool magazine and ATC would increase ramp-up repair time and repair cost. So early warning system of failures for tool magazine and ATC becomes a research hotspot. The main vibration signals of tool magazine and ATC would occur obviously when the tool arm grasps a tool holder, draws a tool holder out of a tool into spindle or tool pocket and inserts a tool holder into spindle or tool pocket. To predict failures of tool magazine and ATC and improve the availability of machining center, a vibration test procedure and calculation method of vibration signal threshold of pull nails looseness which can lead to tool falling failures are proposed based on the vibration detection theory. Then, the vibration signals of tool changing are analyzed and the relationship between the maximum amplitude of vibration signals and the looseness severity of pull nails is also illustrated. The final experiment results show that the tool falling failure warning method is feasible to reduce the failures of tool magazine and ATC through the early warning system based on the threshold of vibration signals.
An Automatic tool changer (ATC) is a device used in a tapping machine to reduce process time. This paper presents the optimization of a Peak torque reduction mechanism (PTRM) for an ATC. It is ...necessary to reduce the fatigue load and energy consumed, which is related to the peak torque. The PTRM uses a torsion spring to reduce the peak torque and was applied to a novel ATC mechanism, which was modeled using inverse dynamics. Optimization of the PTRM is required to minimize the peak torque. The design parameters are the initial angle and stiffness of the torsion spring, and the objective function is the peak torque of the input link. The torque was simulated, and the peak torque was decreased by 10 %. The energy consumed was reduced by the optimization.
Recently, the intelligent systems of technology have become one of the major items in the development of machine tools. One crucial technology is the machinery status monitoring function, which is ...required for abnormal warnings and the improvement of cutting efficiency. During processing, the mobility act of the spindle unit determines the most frequent and important part such as automatic tool changer. The vibration detection system includes the development of hardware and software, such as vibration meter, signal acquisition card, data processing platform, and machine control program. Meanwhile, based on the difference between the mechanical configuration and the desired characteristics, it is difficult for a vibration detection system to directly choose the commercially available kits. For this reason, it was also selected as an item for self-development research, along with the exploration of a significant parametric study that is sufficient to represent the machine characteristics and states. However, we also launched the development of functional parts of the system simultaneously. Finally, we entered the conditions and the parameters generated from both the states and the characteristics into the developed system to verify its feasibility.
In the field of manufacturing engineering, it is seen that the trend is to produce quicker, proficient and high multifaceted products, which includes utilizing an awesome number of tools in the ...machining procedure. One of the significant answers for rapid and effective assembling depends on adjusting the procedure which is completely robotized. This intention is satisfied by CNCs. The smooth keep running of the innovative procedure on CNCs is guaranteed by the programmed tool changers (ATC) through the complete automation of the tool change operation grouping and legitimate holding of the tools in both of the tool holders of mechanical arm. For satisfying this reason, Lubrication assumes principle part as when ointment separates the two surfaces of the relative movement, it diminishes the friction between them. In this research an effort is made to solve the lubrication issue associated with the ATC mechanical arm and an embedded system is designed as a solution to that problem.
This paper presents a robotic die polishing station controlled by a PC and a robot controller. The station consists of a six-degree-of-freedom industrial robot manipulator, a pneumatic grinding tool, ...and grinding abrasives. The station also includes an automatic tool changer which is specifically designed to exchange the grinding tool such that the operation is completely unmanned. Since die and mold manufacturing is typically low volume production, it is not practical to use a robotic automation system and manually program the serial robot with a teach pendant. Therefore, this paper proposes a procedure where the path data for the robot end-effector is generated automatically from the NC data of a previous die or mold machining process. A PC automatically generates a program for the die or mold polishing process and this program is uploaded to the robot controller. The program not only includes the path data, but can generate several polishing patterns and will control the automatic tool changer. To improve the quality of the finish, the posture angle between the grinding tool and the surface of the part is computer-controlled. Also, to further enhance the performance of the system; i.e., to improve the grinding contact, an elastic material is inserted between the polishing pad and the holder.
This paper introduces a novel automatic instrument changer that allows for fast and precise tool changing in robot-assisted microsurgery. The importance of such a system is usually ignored and ...therefore most of the existing robotic surgical systems still require manual operation to change surgical instruments. To achieve automatic instrument changing, we apply a clamp mechanism which consists of an instrument adapter and an instrument holder. The instrument adapter creates a unified interface between the surgical instrument and the holder. The instrument holder clamps the instrument through the adapter. The instrument can be transferred to another holder when these two holders are connected. A prototype of the proposed automatic instrument changer was implemented and mounted on a surgical robot. The experimental results validate the capability of the prototypical design in automatic, precise, and fast instrument changing.
With a view of increasing the productivity on CNC machine tools one of the main solution is to reduce, as much as possible, the auxiliary time consumed with the set-up and replacement of the tools ...and work pieces engaged in the machining process. Reducing the total time of the tool changing process by the automatic tool changer system can be also achieved through minimizing the number of movements needed for the actual exchange of the tool, from the tool magazine to the machine spindle (the optimization of the tool changing sequences). This paper presents a new design method based on the tree-graph theory. We consider an existing automatic tool changing system, mounted on the milling and boring machining centre, and by applying the new method we obtain all the possible configurations to minimize the tool changing sequence of the automatic tool changer system. By making use of the method proposed we obtain the tool changing sequences with minimum necessary movements needed to exchange the tool. Reconfiguring an existing machine tool provided with an automatic tool changer system by making use of the proposed method leads to obtaining the smallest changing time and thus high productivity.
In the field of manufacturing processes it is observed that the trend is to produce more and more fast, efficiently parts with high complexity, which involves using a high number of tools in the ...machining process. One of the main solutions for high speed and efficient manufacturing is based on the full automation of the entire manufacturing process. The automatic changing of the tools involved in the manufacturing process is carried out by the automatic tool changing mechanism, thus the auxiliary non-productive time consumed with the tool change is highly minimized. In this paper we present a novel automatic tool changer which is both simple and compact, and any milling machining center provided with chain or disc tool magazine can be equipped with. Also by adopting the use of this tool changing mechanism other subassemblies of the tool changing system, such as the tool transfer mechanism and the waiting position, are substituted by this changing mechanism. The auxiliary movements needed to bring the tool from the magazine into the waiting position are overlapped with the machining time, so that the total time for exchanging the tool in the spindle with the tool from the magazine is minimized.
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