In fact, the term flexible processing has existed in the machining industry for a long time.

But it is just a legendary existence, because no company has ever truly realized it.

As for the reason, it is very simple, it is because it is too difficult.

In fact, a long time ago, companies engaged in machining discovered that when using machine tools to process workpieces.

Benches, fixtures, and even the ground where the machine tool is placed, another reaction force will be transmitted to the machine tool when the machine tool works.

This will affect the accuracy of machine tool processing.

So people thought of many ways to solve this problem at that time.

For example, the special metal used to make machine tool mounts and fixtures will be placed in the natural environment outside and use natural methods to eliminate the internal stress of these metal materials.

This process is like the Age of Discovery. It is the same for the British to put the tall trees that made large ships of keels in the natural environment to dry the dark.

Because I have only experienced the wind, sun and rain in nature, and the tempering of various extreme natural environments in the cold weather.

Only by eliminating stress between cells inside the trunk, the trunk is the best and most suitable for making keels.

The same is true for the metal used to make benches and fixtures, and is used by machine tool processing companies.

However, this process was so long that later machine tool companies had to use various modern means to deal with these special metals.

For example, they will use electromagnetic demagnetization, or when forging these metals, they will use special heat treatment methods to maximize the removal of stress inside the metal.

This process is like the Age of Discovery, in order to build merchant ships at a faster speed.

They adopted a different approach from the British, and they built many large drying furnaces.

Put the wood used as keels in a drying furnace and bake them, which greatly speeds up the purpose of quickly drying these keels and eliminating internal stress.

However, keels and merchant ships made using this method are generally not as strong and durable as those made by the British.

Modern machine tool factories are trying to use various methods to eliminate internal metal stress and shorten the production time of these benches and fixtures.

Someone has proposed a creativity, that is, why can the fixtures and workpieces not be moved back and forth during machining, so as to slow down the impact of the machining cutter heads on the workpiece when implementing hard links?

Because most machine tools are fixed when working, the fixtures and benches are fixed, so they can resist the impact of the fast-turning cutting heads and bring to the workpiece.

Even if the internal stress of your frame and tool is removed cleanly, the ground will exert reaction force on your machine tool.

So no matter how you adjust, the reaction force is impossible to eliminate except for increasing the processing cost.

So what if the workpiece and fixture can be moved during processing, so as to achieve the purpose of cushioning the impact force of the cutter head?

There are many benefits of this flexible processing.

The first is to greatly reduce the metal requirements for fixtures and pedestals, and even the special metal specification requirements for robotic arms holding tools will be greatly reduced.

Because in the original machining, the model was completely hard-linked, which was to clamp the workpiece and fix it, while the other was to use tools to continuously move around and turn and mill on the workpiece.

This hard link mode has very high requirements for machine tool mounts, fixtures and knife-holding robotic arms.

Not only should it be extremely hard, but it also needs to have very toughness to ensure that the reaction force can be resolved without causing deformation during long-term processing.

In addition, because of the hard link mode used, the requirements for servo motors and ball screw bearings are also very high.

The servo motor must amplify the torque and increase the speed of the cutter head so that it can turn and mill on the hard metal billet.

In this way, the servo motor not only consumes power, but also has very high requirements for internal electromagnetic components, and it must have very good durability.

In addition, the same is true for ball screw bearings. It is necessary to ensure that the cutting head can accurately advance and return, so the accuracy requirements for the cutting head forward and backward are very accurate.

When the cutting head rotates at high speed and processes it on the workpiece, the screw bearing will also bear very large reaction forces, so the smoothness of the bearing and the ball requirements are very high.

Therefore, under this hard link processing mode, the requirements for various parts are very high, and many key parts require parts made of special alloys.

These parts are not only expensive in raw materials, but also very cumbersome in processing technology, so the cost is high.

It can be said that at least 50% of the cost of a machine tool is consumed on these hardware devices.

The solution of using flexible processing has no such concerns as above.

Because of the concept of flexible machining, the metal specification requirements for fixtures, benches, and even mechanical arms holding the cutter head will not be as high as those of hard machining machines.

Because they do not have to bear too high force and reaction force, even motors and ball screw bearings.

In the past, for hard processing machine tools, perhaps the motor had to make the cutter head speed reach more than 100,000 revolutions per minute before it could be processed on certain special metal workpieces.

In terms of flexible processing, because the fixture and the mechanical arm holding the cutting head each share the general action and reaction forces, the cutting head speed does not need to be too high, and processing can be completed on hard workpieces.

This way, the requirements for servo motors will not be so high.

For controlling the depth and accuracy of the cutting head, ball screw bearings will not have much reaction force, so there is no need to have too high specifications for metal materials.

Moreover, using flexible processing also greatly reduces the environmental requirements for extra bed processing.

For example, in the past, hard processing machine tools had very high requirements for the processing environment, especially the floor of the workshop.

Not only should sand be used to fill the factory floor to achieve the purpose of buffering the force during processing, but also a large number of buffer layers must be laid when laying the ground.

This kind of buffer layer is very expensive because it uses a lot of rubber.

If flexible processing can be achieved, the requirements for the ground of the new machine tool will not be so high, and it can even be produced on ordinary cement floors.

In this way, if the line of sight can be processed in a truly flexible line of sight, the costs of machine tool manufacturing companies and companies using machine tools will be greatly reduced.

At that time, some machine tool factories also tried this proposal for flexible processing.

However, several major machine tool manufacturers soon gave up because it was too difficult to do so.

The cost is even higher than that they spend a high price to eliminate metal stress and fill the floor of the machine tool factory, and the buffer layer.

Because the first thing you need to solve is to put the hydraulic buffer on the base of the fixture.

The second is to adjust the control system of the processing software.

It is necessary to strictly control the amount of retreat of the fixture and workpiece during processing, and at the same time, it is necessary to strictly control the inflow of the tool.

To put it bluntly, when the clamp clamps the workpiece backwards, your knife head must keep up and ensure that it is in close contact with the processed workpiece and cannot leave too far.

Because once you leave contact, when you want to reconnect, there will inevitably be errors, and the difficulty of reconnecting will be greater.

Moreover, the most perfect solution to process a finished workpiece is to complete it in one go, and the most taboo thing is to walk and stop.

Because every time the work is shut down and the docking is reconnected, the operating system must be set up again, which is very troublesome and cumbersome.

There are even many processing companies that would rather scrap the workpiece than reconnect and restart the processing after the processing is stopped.

Therefore, this flexible processing requires very high coordination between fixtures and tools during processing.

This is mainly a test for the machine tool control software system, in terms of the computer software programming technology at that time.

It would be a fantasy to complete such an industrial control system.

So even though people who are very good at processing know the benefits of this flexible processing.

But there are not many people who really implement this processing technology.

Because the cost is too high, this is a new path different from the traditional machine tool processing concept in the past.

With the current technological level, it is not realistic to achieve such a breakthrough in many people.

And now, in the factory of Xinghuo Technology, Huang Haibin looked at the "machine tool" in front of him in amazement, and he was completely shocked!

Isn’t this the legendary flexible processing?

This is completely different from the mainstream technology used in the CNC machine tool field currently dominated by the United States, Japan and Germany!

This means that we have taken a different approach and embarked on a machining path that is completely different from them!

When Huang Haibin thought of this, he couldn't help but burst into tears!

At this moment, he really wanted to say that our high technology has stood up!

As a veteran who has been engaged in scientific research for decades, he is well aware of the shortcomings in my country's technology field.

It can be said that the main reason why our country has been calling for technological transformation and upgrading for ten years, but has not been able to improve is only two points.

It is in two fields that we have been stuck in our necks abroad.

One is the material and the other is precision processing!

Although 3D printing technology has been very popular in recent years, this kind of additive manufacturing will completely replace subtractive manufacturing represented by machine tools, it is impossible for this kind of additive manufacturing to be completely replaced by machine tools.

He never thought before that we could catch up in the field of subtractive material manufacturing...

Because in this field, we are too far behind.
Chapter completed!