Prototyping of the Microfactory and Conceptual Design of a Miniature Machine Tool.

摘要

Institute of Mechanical Systems Engineering, AIST, Japan proposed a concept of a microfactory which consists of tiny machine tools and robots. In terms of energy efficiency, a large machine represents considerable waste. Miniaturization of machine tools to size compatible to the target products without compromising machining tolerance leads to enormous savings in energy and space. In 1996, an ultra miniature lathe only 1 cubic inch large was developed. The success of the lathe was the driving force to prototype a factory that performs several processes on a desktop. For the machine tools of the microfactory, the existing experience of machine tool design may not be applicable. Machine tool designers will need a general design guideline to appropriately reduce the size of machine tools. The latter half of this study combines an analytical procedure representing the machining motions known as form-shaping theory with a robust design procedure. The effort identifies the effect that the machine tool structure has on its machining performance. From two design candidates of the miniature milling machines, the method can tell which design has a better theoretical performance. The result leads us to conclude that the design evaluation method is applicable to conceptual design of machine tools.