Page 151 - Modular design for machine tools

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Chapter
3

Description of Machine Tools

Within a modular design context of machine tools, we need both the
design technology and the design methodology; however, the design
methodology is far from the completion compared to the design tech-
nology, e.g., computational method of static and dynamic stiffness. In
fact, the design methodology can assist the systematization of the design
data related to three of the four principles of modular design, i.e., the
principles of separation, standardization, and adaptation (see Chap. 2).
Regarding these principles, at issue is the establishment of a method-
ology for the principle of adaptation, i.e., rational combination of the
modules from a group of predetermined modules in accordance with
the design speciﬁcations. Such a combination problem could be solved
easily using the computer, once the machine tool could be represented
with a certain description method, i.e., machine tool description, which
is understandable by the computer in the same way as the parts descrip-
tion within the computer- aided drafting. This means that a core tech-
nology for the principle of adaptation is the machine tool description. In
addition, we must be aware that the machine tool description is one of
the preconditions to promote the efﬁcient use of the computerized design
of machine tools.
In contrast, another intake objective is the system design of ﬂexi-
ble manufacturing including agile manufacturing. After the estab-
lishment of its ﬁrst stage, ﬂexible manufacturing can be classiﬁed
into the (1) FMS, (2) FMC, (3) FTL, and (4) FML. In general, the
FMS, FMC, FTL, and FML are designed by the modular principle, and
with the advent of ﬂexible manufacturing, the NC machine tool
launched another noteworthy development, i.e., that for the system
machine. In due course, the system consists often of the system
machine, which is of modular design type to some extent. In short, we

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