CNC TECHOLOGY

Prepared By: Nipun Anand

DIFFERENT ELEMENTS OF CNC
MACHINE TOOL.

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 ELEMENTS OF CNC SYSTEM
Control Element Mechanical Element
 Software  Spindle drive
 Input Unit  Axis drive (X and Y Axis & Z
 Machine Control axis)
Unit(MCU)  Automatic tool changer
 Driving devices  Automatic pallet changer
 Feed back device  Automatic swarf removal
 Manual control unit mechanism
 Tool and work holding devices

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 1. Software

A series of instructions are required to control the actions of a NC machine. These instructions are
prepared based on the profile and the material of the part being manufactured. These instructions
and their storage media can be called as software.

2. Input Media
Different types of input media are used to store information and to provide input to various control units
of the NC machine. They are
Punched cards
Punched tapes
Magnetic tapes
Floppy disks

Punched cards and punched tapes are useful in storing data in the form a series of punched holes along
their length. Punched tapes may be made of paper, a plastic material known as mylar or Aluminium foils.
Magnetic tapes are made of plastic material and are coated with Gamma ferric oxide layer.
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3. Machine Control Unit (MCU)

Machine Control Unit consists of electronic circuits (hardware) that are useful in reading and
interpreting the instructions (NC program) fed by means of input media and convert them into
mechanical actions of the machine tool.

4. Driving Devices
Driving devices consist of different types of motors and gear trains. They convert the instructions form
the MCU into accurate mechanical displacements of the machine tool slides. The motors may be
electrical, hydraulic or pneumatic.

5. Manual Control Unit

Driving devices consist of different types of motors and gear trains. They convert the instructions form
the MCU into accurate mechanical displacements of the machine tool slides. The motors may be
electrical, hydraulic or pneumatic.
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MACHINE TOOL LAYOUT
It is the element of the NC machine which actually performs the useful work of converting the raw
material to finished components. It is designed to perform various machining operations. It consists of
a machine table, spindles,cutting tools, work holding devices such as jigs and fixtures, coolant systems,
swarf removal systems and other auxiliary equipments.

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MACHINE TOOL
• A CNC Milling’s Axes are
attached to the Machine
Frame. Their role is to
provide motorized motion in
each dimension as
commanded by the control
panel or g-code program
through the controller.

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MACHINE TOOLS

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Spindle Drives
In view of the large material removal rates used in the CNC machines,
large power motors are used. Further, the speed is generally infinitely
variable. Hence to provide such a control generally DC motors are used.
The speed is controlled by varying the voltage infi­nitely. However, with the
developments in the micro­processor controlled frequency converters, the
use of AC motors is being preferred in the current generation of CNC
machine tools.

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 AXIS DRIVE

A CNC Milling’s Axes are attached to the Machine Frame. Their role is to provide motorized
motion in each dimension as commanded by the control panel or g-code program through
the controller.

The axis drives that are used in CNC machine tools are the following.
 DC Servomotors
 Brush less DC Servomotors
 AC Servomotors
 Stepper motors
 Linear motors

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CNC Milling Machine Ways or SLIDEWAYS

 In the conventional machine tools, there is a direct metal to metal contact between the slide
way and the moving slides. Since the slide movements are very slow and machine utilization
is also low, this arrangement is adequate for conventional machine tools.

 However, the demand on slide ways is much more in CNC machines because of rapid
movements and higher machine utilization.

 The conventional type of arrangement with metal to metal contact does not meet the
requirements of numerically controlled machine tools.

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 CNC Milling Machine Ways or SLIDEWAYS

The design of slide way in a CNC machine tools should,

1. Reduce friction.
2. Reduce Wear.
3. Satisfy the requirements of movement of the slides.
4. Improve smoothness of the drive.

To meet these requirements in CNC machine tool slide ways, the techniques used include
hydrostatic slide ways, linear bearings with balls, rollers or needles and surface coatings.

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CNC Milling Machine Ways or SLIDEWAYS

• Box Ways / Dovetail Ways

Box Ways are most commonly made of cast iron because it has good
properties in terms of metal-on-metal sliding contact. Other kinds of
metals such as aluminum are not so good because they have a
tendency to gall.
• Linear Ways / Linear Slides
Aside from Box Ways, the other type of CNC Milling Machine Way is
called a Linear Way or Linear Slide.
While it is possible to fabricate a linear slide from scratch, this is most
commonly done for CNC Routers.
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 LINEAR SLIDE WAYS

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 LEAD SCREW

SLIDE WAYS

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Leadscrew
• The Leadscrew converts the rotary motion of the motion to linear
motion. Other CNC Machines such as CNC Routers and Plasma
Cutters may use alternatives to a leadscrew, such as belt or rack and
pinion drives, but for CNC Milling Machines a Leadscrew is the most
common solution.
• The Leadscrew must convert rotary to linear motion with as little
friction as possible and as little backlash as possible.
• Two major problems facing in leadscrew are Backlash, friction

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Leadscrew

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Backlash
• Backlash literal meaning is lost motion. Typically when you reverse
direction with a leadscrew, there’s a small amount of turning required
before the direction reverses to take up the slack in the threads.
• There are many ways to reduce backlash. It can never be totally
eliminated, Like
• Ball Screws, Bearing Blocks, and Anti Backlash Nuts

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Friction
• Most Manual Machine Tools use ACME thread leadscrews, and it’s
even possible to reduce the backlash there using a double nut
scheme. The problem that arises is friction. The more we tighten
things up to get rid of backlash, the more friction it introduces.

• ACME lead screws are typically undesirable to unusable for normal

CNC backlash tolerances. If you do get them tightened down enough,
they’re very hard to turn and the nuts wear extremely fast. This
requires constant readjustment and is generally unsatisfactory.

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Ballscrews
• Ballscrews are the ideal
leadscrew for CNC because they
minimize backlash and friction to
the highest degree possible.
They’re called “ballscrews”
because the circulate ball
bearings in the ballnut. The ball
bearings ride in a groove on the
ballscrew, and it’s the use of ball
bearings that makes the high
precision, low backlash, and low
friction possible.
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Feedback system
Types of feedback devices

1. Velocity feedback
To measure and monitor the speed of the drive motor.

2. Positional feedback
To measure and monitor the position or displacement
of the machine slides.

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1. Velocity Feedback
 Velocity feedback is normally provided by a device called “Tachogenerator”.

 A tachogenerator is simply a voltage generator that gives voltage output which is proportional
to its speed.

 The tachogenerator is normally built in the servomotor case and is directly fitted on the
servomotor shaft.

 The output voltage from the tachogenerator is used as feedback to monitor the motor speed.

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Positional Feedback
 The ideal methods of measuring the displacement or position
of the cutting tool will be continuously measure the position of
the cutting tool edge relative to the datum point.

 This will result in accurate displacements and it will take into

account the tool wear, etc.

 But measurements from cutting edge are not possible due to

the presence of chips, coolants, holding devices and in some
cases, due to the component geometry itself.

 The positional feedback is provided by measuring the slide

movements with measuring device.
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Automatic Tool Changers
• The ATC consists of a tool magazine for storing the tools and a
tool change unit for transferring the tool from tool magazine to
spindle.

• The tool already fitted on the spindle is removed and replaced

in the tool magazine. The initial position of various tools is fed to
the control system, which then keeps updating the data
regarding tool number fitted in the particular pocket in the tool
magazine.

• Tool magazines with up to Prepared

60 tools are quite common.
By: Nipun Anand
Automatic Tool Changers
• The CNC machines are designed to perform a number of
operations in a single setting of the work piece.
• The tool is automatically selected and changed based on the
tool control function (T-word) in the part programme.
• On the machining centres, automatic tool changers (ATC) are
provided to reduce the idle time between change over from one
operation to another.

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 The tool change cycle consists of two parts

(i) Tool Selection Cycle

• The tool for successive operation is selected during the previous machining
operation. The selected tool comes to the tool change position, whenever the tool
selection command is received by the system.
• (ii) Tool Transfer Cycle
• In this part of the tool change cycle, the tool which is lying selected in the
magazine, is transferred to the spindle and the tool which is in the spindle is transferred
to the magazine.

• Before the tool transfer takes place, the spindle is turned off and moves to the
tool change position, so that the tools will not hit the work piece.

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AUTOMATIC PALLET CHANGE / MULTI PALLET
MACHINES
• To further reduce the non-productive time, the CNC machines
are provided with automatic pallet change systems. Twin-pallet
CNC machines are very common but machines with up to 5
pallets are also being used.

• The muIti pallet system enables the operator to load the work
piece on one pallet while machining of work piece on second
pallet is going on. This helps in rapid change of work piece,
thereby reducing the idle time of the machine.

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Swarf removal

• In addition some auxiliary functions like automatic component

loading or automatic tool change may also be affected by
accumulation of swarf.

• To avoid these problems an efficient swarf control system

should be provided with the CNC machine tools with some
mechanism to remove the swarf from the cutter and cutting
zone and for the disposal of swarf from the machine tool area
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Work Holding Devices
• The work piece must be securely fastened, and the set-up must be rigid enough to withstand the
forces which will be developed during machining operation.
• The work piece or holding device becomes loose during machining, damage can result to the
tooling and/or machine.
• The machine operator should be sure that all work holding devices are free from burr and chips
before using.
• The work holding devices, generally specified by the part programmer, should be located in the
proper position on the machine table.
• To reduce the clamping /unclamping time, hydraulic and pneumatic actuation is widely used in work
holding devices.

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