The virtual design of machining centers for HSM: Towards new integrated tools

The virtual design of machining centers is a modern and well-known computer aided technique. Several modeling and simulation architectures, based on the lumped mass approach and on finite element method, are now well established and widely exploited worldwide. These solutions rapidly allow the basic setup of the kinematics of the feed drives and make possible a dynamic optimized dimensioning of all the main subsystems and structures of the machining center. This paper deals with research efforts aimed at developing an innovative and open design platform which allows the integration, in a user friendly framework, of the main procedures cited above with other design tools and facilities. An operator interface procedure and a package of input-output graphic routines, managed through a multilevel data base, are now active in this framework and interact with lumped mass and finite elements modules. According to these considerations the proposed tool allows to quickly and easily analyze alternative design solutions and makes possible to optimize the dynamic performances of the machine tool, helping the designer in the definition of the optimum machine tool characteristics before the manufacturing of the physical prototype. In order to demonstrate the potential of the proposed platform an example concerning the mass optimization of the Y axis of a gantry machining center is presented