Page 105 - Modular design for machine tools

Engineering Guides and Future Perspectives of Modular Design 69

Principle of adaptation. The principle of adaptation can be defined as
follows.
Various structural configurations with the multifarious functionalities, per-
formances, and dimensional specifications should be arbitrarily produced
from a group of modules. The crucial problems are to establish the prefer-
able combination method and interfacing method among modules and to
evaluate the compatibility of the generated configuration with the design
requirements.

For example, the adapter is very popular as an interfacial module in
the special-purpose machine tool; however, the conventional machine
renders this remedy useless, because of the uncountable combinations
of modules. In addition, so far we have no reliable and effective meth-
ods and methodologies to evaluate the dimensional and performance
specifications as well as the functionality of the machine tool at the
design stage. In this regard, at further burning issue is to establish a
conversion method of uncertain design attributes, e.g., ease of operation,
compatibility with individual differences and penchant for configuration,
and customer satisfaction and delight, into the quantified design
specifications.
In the late 1990s, Tönshoff and his colleagues were actively involved
in research into the remaining problems related to the four principles
of modular design, especially those of separation and adaptation. More
specifically, Tönshoff et al. developed a guideline for modular machine
tools in a subproject “MAREA (Study and Definition of Machining
Workstation Reference Architecture)” within the BRITE EuRam II 1
commenced in 1993, as well as a configuration method based on the
functional modularity in a subproject “MOSYN (Modular SYNthesis
of advanced machine tools)” within BRITE EuRam III [6]. In the
MAREA, the reference architecture consists of (1) the formalization of
component specifications, (2) estimation of possible interfaces among
components, and (3) enhancement of configurability. As can easily be
imagined, this architecture appears to be very similar to that of Doi
of Toyoda Iron Works in the 1960s. In the MOSYN, they have dealt
with the generation of the structural configuration based on the func-
tional module. This appears again to be similar to that of Shinno of the
Tokyo Institute of Technology apart from the use of the QFD (quality
function deployment) [7].
Importantly, Tönshoff and Böger have proposed an idea for the prin-
ciple of separation, in which the entity is the functional module [8]. The
functional module can be determined on the basis of the analysis of the

1
BRITE EuRam is one of the EU Projects, and its firsthand view can be obtained by
searching the Web with a key term “BRITE EuRam”