Energy Consumption of Feed Drive Systems Based on Workpiece Setting Position in Five-Axis Machining Center

Abstract

Energy consumption of numerical control (NC) machine tools is one of the key issues in modern industrial field. This study focuses on reducing the energy consumed by a five-axis machining center by changing only the workpiece setting position. Previous studies show that the movements along each axis in five-axis machining centers depend on the workpiece setting position, regardless of whether the same operation is performed. In addition, the energy consumptions required for the movements are different along each axis. From these considerations, an optimum workpiece setting position that can minimize the energy consumed during these motions is assumed to exist. To verify this assumption, in this study, the energy consumed by the feed drive systems of an actual five-axis machining center is first measured and then estimated using the proposed model in this study. The model for estimating the energy consumption comprises the friction, motor, and amplifier losses along each axis. The total energy consumption can be estimated by adding the energy consumptions along each axis. The effect of the workpiece setting position on the energy consumption is investigated by employing the cone-frustum cutting motion with simultaneous five-axis motions. The energy consumption that depends on the workpiece setting position is first measured and then estimated. The results confirm that the proposed model can estimate the energy consumption accurately. Moreover, the energy consumption is confirmed to depend on the workpiece setting position; the minimum energy consumption is found to be 20% lower than the maximum one.