Page 121 - Modular design for machine tools

Engineering Guides and Future Perspectives of Modular Design 83

quality can be commissioned to the NC information, which can correct
the unfavorable deterioration in performance.
In contrast, one might expect that the highly value-added machine tool
could be manufactured by assembling the modules with higher quality
and obtainable through the world-class supply chain. In this case, the
machine design should be carried out so that the modules function very
well as exemplified in the case of the grinding complex of Taiyo Kouki
brand in the 1990s.

Multiple-function integrated entity-based type. As exemplified in the fierce
competition among the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean molding die man-
ufacturers, the focus now lies in how to differentiate the function, per-
formance, and quality of the product. In this context, the Japanese
enterprise has been very keen to conduct product innovation, where the
product consists of multiple-function integrated entities. In general, the
product has hierarchical structure in the order of the part, functional
complex, unit, unit complex, and product itself. The part itself thus has
no functions, but single function even in the preferable case. The multiple-
function integrated element can be interpreted as the entity of translayer
type and can be expected to be a core when the more multiple-function
integrated product becomes a reality. In fact, a typical example of the
multiple-function integrated element is an innovative rolling bearing
called CARB of SKF make. This bearing has been contrived by integrat-
ing advantageous features of the cylindrical, spherical, and needle roller
bearings. Importantly, highly sophisticated and skillful technology
enabled the multiple-function integrated element to be realized, and thus
only industrial nations such as Japan can produce it, resulting in the
desirable remedy to the differentiation between Japan and other Asian
nations. The machine tool design with multiple-function integrated
module is based on such an idea, and thus it appears to be called the plat-
form, which was recently proposed by Metternich and Würsching [4].

Culture- and mindset-harmonized type. The culture- and mindset-
harmonized machine tool can be characterized by its design specifica-
tions. In this type, the culture- and mindset-harmonized attributes are,
in fact, newly considered as having the same weight as those related to
the engineering and shipping destination, and to the commodity in part
so far used in the design, as shown in Fig. 2-11. In this case, knowledge
about the “culture of manufacturing” [17] dominates the machine design,
where the culture of manufacturing is a synergy of the manufacturing
technology and cultural issues, e.g., economics, social and labor sci-
ences, geopolitics, and folklore. In short, a handful of representative
machine tools, shown in Table 2-2 [18, 19], were designed by placing par-
ticular emphasis upon the culture- and mindset-harmonized attributes.