Page 125 - Modular design for machine tools

86 Modular Design Guide and Machine Tools Description

somewhat. As a result, Mori Seiki, one of the leading Japanese manu-
facturers, seeks a new strategic technology, i.e., modular design avail-
able for larger volume and smaller batch size production to reinforce the
competitiveness. In certain cases, furthermore, the conventional MC
and NC turning machines are designed with unit construction (BBS),
and thus another remedy is simplification and ease of assembly by
improving the machining accuracy of each unit. As is well known, the
bedway grinding machine of German make can finish the guideway
with acceptable accuracy, which is a reference surface for linear form-
generating movement. In contrast, we do not have a machine for line
and face grinding of the main bearing seats in the headstock so far.
This means that we have no sophisticated grinding machines to finish
a reference surface for rotational form-generating movement. Thus,
Taiyo Koki has, with the best reputation, contrived a grinding complex
in the late 1990s to respond to such a requirement. As can be readily
seen, a combination of both the bedway grinding machine and the grind-
ing complex renders the adjustment work nearly needless and can facil-
itate the process innovation in the assembly of the conventional MC and
NC turning machines with unit construction.

2.4 Characteristic Features of Modular
Design Being Used in Machine Tools
of the Most Advanced Type
The application of modular design ranges from the conventional NC
machine tool and five-face processing machine, through the system
machine including MC of line type, to the machining and processing com-
plexes at the beginning of 2000. Of these, both the five-face processing
machine and the MC of line type have, in principle, been designed using
the modular design of well-known type from the old days. In contrast,
the system machine and its successors, i.e., machining complex includ-
ing the processing complex, have been designed either not using mod-
ular design or using modular design of the advanced type.
When we consider the future potential, the emphasis in this section
must be on the delineation of the system machine and its successors. In
other words, claims about the machine tool have become multifarious,
simultaneously emphasizing the realization of the highly integrated
functionality with the advance of human society. Currently it appears
that machine tool technology is about to return to the era of the engine
lathe, which reveals the growing importance of the machining and pro-
cessing complexes. In due course, the modular design being requested
may be assumed to be the modernized version.
Given such present and future perspectives, Figs. 2-12 and 2-13 show
the modular construction in the five-face processing machine and MC