Industrial Familiarisation Report on

CNC ASSEMBLY

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Ever increasing demands, the need for high accuracy, scrap reduction etc have pushed for development in the field of machining and manufacture. All these have led to the invention and improvement of CNC machines, which can undoubtedly be termed as one of the milestones of the century. Apart from rocketing the productions sky high, CNC machines have made it possible to machine up to an accuracy of 1 micrometer at a modest cost. The growing popularity of CNC machines can also be attributed to the repeatability of CNC part programs and reduced skill demands of the laborers.

So, in a nutshell, CNC machines are the standard norm in a modern industry, notwithstanding the share of conventional machining units. HMT has in the very beginning of this revolution, started the design and production of CNC machining centers. HMT Kalamassery is famous for its world class CNC turning centers. It was in the late 80s that HMT-MTK started the production of CNC turning centers. Over the years that followed there has been many major and minor design changes and as a result of which a whole long list of variants has palpated. The unit produces heavy duty industrial turning centers such as the SBCNC-55 to the light duty Stallion-100 turning centers.

The earlier models of machines used Sinumerik and Hinumerik control systems and MCUs whereas the new generation CNC machines of the unit uses Fanuc/Siemens control systems. State-of-the-art technologies such as hydraulic jaws, ball-screws, feedback servomotors, encoders etc are incorporated, making the machine incredibly accurate. The assembly of CNC Turning Centers can be divided into:

Group Assembly Pre-final Assembly Final Assembly

GROUP ASSEMBLY This is the place where assembly of the headstock, tailstock, turret-indexing unit, power rack, turcite fixing etc. is done. The main CNC machines produced in the HMTK are STC-15, STC-20, STC-25, SBCNC-30, SBCNC-40, SBCNC-60, STALLION 100, STALLION 200 and ECONOCNC. The parts required for the assembly are produced by various units and kept in the store. As per requirement by the assembly unit, the store issues the required components for the assembly of the products. After the assembly of each part they are set to an extensive test and it is passed on to the pre-final assembly only after the inspection department certifies it . The CNC group assembly unit is equipped with various testing apparatus. It includes the head stock testing unit, turret indexing unit, the power rack testing unit etc..for example in case of turret which is assembled in group assembly section the hydraulic motor and power rack associated with it are tested independently and verified. Only after this certification, they are used in the assembly of turret. For assembly of head stock the bearings are put on to the spindle only after heating them to above 90OC for easy assembling of the part. The cast unit is again heated and only after testing again the spindle is put into it. The mechanism used for clamping and unclamping of the turret varies in different machines. The most commonly used method is the use of Curvic coupling. It has two gear like parts, one of them has a convex surface and other a concave surface for firm contact. Another method is to use hydraulic pressure of about 4 Mpa for clamping. When the pressure is released, the turret is unclamped and is ready for indexing. In case of turrets using curvic coupling, the coupling is disengaged by means of hydraulic pressure by using a piston. The power for indexing is provided by the hydraulic motor which reaches the spindle through a worm, worm-gear arrangement. The fluid circuits are controlled by solenoid valves. In the case of small head stocks lubrication is provided in the form of grease , which is put during the assembly of head stock. The grease used is a special variant called isoflex grease, which can withstand a temperature up to 148oC. The head stock is run at different speed and several parameters are noted down. Only after the temperature gets stabilized , it is shifted to next speed. This is continued until maximum speed is achieved.

PRE-FINAL ASSEMBLY Pre-final assembly is the section where the assemblies of various components of the CNC lathe like headstock take place to the lathe bed. The bed is moved from heavy parts store to the pre-assembly directly upon request. It is here that the alignment of ball screw is done. The assemblies of saddle, cross slide etc to the bed also take place here. Once the various parts are put together , lathe is taken to the final assembly. FINAL ASSEMBLY As the lathe is brought from the pre-final assembly the various electrical components required for the functioning of the lathe are installed. The electrical drives, systems and special accessories like tools, steady rest etc. are imported. The main suppliers are Siemens and Fanuc. The stabilizer unit and conveyer belt are also assembled during this stage. Then the machine is carried onto a series of tests.

If the machine is found working as required , the customer is informed. The machine is then operated in front of the customer and necessary adjustments are executed as the customer demands. The various functional groups are explained briefly as follows.

Bed:
Most of the CNC turning centers of HMT is of slant bed type. There are many reasons behind such a design. A few can be listed as: Reduced thermal growth: thermal growth, during machining can be considerably reduced by using slant beds. Chip removal becomes easier when it comes to slant beds. Loading/unloading becomes much less tedious in slant bed machines. More load taking capacity is another reason why these types of beds are gaining popularity.

Beds of turning centers produced at HMT are all placed at an angle of 20 o (rather than 18.5 which is the optimum, due to technical reasons). The saddle carrying the turret slides over this bed, over a ball screw. These beds are planed and super-finished with great care.

Head Stock:
Unlike the headstock of conventional lathes, the CNCs do not have speed shift gears incorporated. Since the DC servomotors used to power the spindles are of variable speed type, gear boxes arent a necessity. Still a few models have hydraulically controlled gear boxes so as to optimize the speed ranges. Two types of pulleys are use to transfer power from the main motor to spindle: Tapered pulleys and Keyed pulleys. Moreover two types of belts are used: V-belts and parallel belts. The pulleys are drilled to remove material for balancing.

The main spindle is mounted on angular contact bearings which could take both axial as well as radial loads. These bearings are packed with Isoflex grease which would be enough for the entire life of the machine. But one disadvantage of these angular contact bearings is that a supporting surface is required to avoid the loosening of the recess. So more than one bearings are packed together. In some cases a supporting bush is introduced. The bearings are preloaded due to the taper on the main spindle. The flange at the front side is tightly fit and the one at the rear is allotted around 200micrometer for expansion during machining.

In modern machines, in order to reduce the setting time, hydraulic clamps/jaws are used. These work by means of a piston cylinder arrangement tat is controlled by the main hydraulic pump of the machine. As the piston moves inward the jaw close to clamp the work-piece. The main spindle also has an encoder which acts as the feed back to the servo motor so that the required speed is attained.

All spindles are seasoned (starting from slow speed the speed of the spindle is gradually increased to its maximum rated speed) and then put on test run before mounting on the machine. Manufacturing the spindles free of vibrations is critical to maintain accuracy in machining and for the life of the entire unit.

Drives:
The machine contains three servomotors-one for main-spindle, one for the saddle traverse over the bed and the third one for turret movement across the saddle. The driving units are often supplied by the manufacturer of the control unit and are directly controlled by the computer while on run. These servomotor are specially designed so as to reduce the inertial effects and at the same time provide relatively constant torque at all speeds. Usually the mains spindle drive is of 15kW though it varies between variants and on customer orders.

Saddle:
Saddle is that portion which carries the turret and slides over the bed. The saddle actually is fixed toa ball-nut. The ball screw mounted on bearings is powered by a servomotor. As the screw rotates, the nut moves, causing the turret, and hence the cutting tool to move in the axial direction (Z). To avoid falling down of the saddle, a braked motor is used for cross feed. To avoid the stick-slip problem faced by conventional machines a special coating-teresile- is applied over the sliding surfaces. A limit switch is provided at the end of the bed to avoid accidents due to excessive travel. An encoder is coupled to the ball-screw to get feedback on the current position of the tool. The whole saddle is connected to a telescopic body that would expand and shrink according to the saddle motion.

Turret:
Turret is that part of a CNC machine that holds various tools and would position the required tool to perform the cutting. The turret moves over the saddle in the radial direction (X) over a ball screw powered by a servomotor. The process of moving the required tool to the position by rotation is done in high precision and is called indexing. This indexing is powered by a hydraulic motor mounted over the turret housing. The sequence of operations that takes place during indexing is as given below: 1. Unclamping: The turret male part unclamps from the Curvic coupling. This is actuated by a pistoncylinder arrangement enclosed within the turret housing.

2. Rotation: The hydraulic motor is actuated by means of a DCV. This rotation is fed back to the controller by another encoder. This rotation takes place in the direction of shortest possible angle. 3. Creep: As the turret reaches the desired angle, an opposite flow is given to the motor so as to reduce the speed of rotation. 4. Clamping: Once the desired position is attained, the turret clamps back into the coupling and is ready for machining. For operations such as drilling/milling a special C-axis motor is required and is fitted only on customer request.

Tail-stock:
The tailstock of a CNC machine is highly advanced. Instead of a dead centre, a rotating centre is used to reduce heat generation. The tailstock quill is attached to a moveable cylinder and the tailstock body acts as the piston. Pressurized fluid is pumped in to clamp the work-piece. The tailstock body is moved by means of a special hook-like mechanism provide at the end of the saddle. The tailstock is clamped to the guide way by plunger in and plunger out operations, and movement are only possible if the plunger in is executed. A check valve is provided to avoid the loosening of the tailstock under pressure. A pressure switch continuously monitors the cylinder pressure and terminates the operation if any sudden drop is detected.

Hydraulic Systems:
Many of the critical operations of the CNC machine, including fool proofs set ups are hydraulic systems (owing to their flexibility and controllability). In a CNC machine all these systems are powered by a piston pump. The oil used in the system is servo 22. The major hydraulic systems are briefly described below: 1. Head stock: As explained above the work-piece is clamped by means of a piston-cylinder arrangement. The flow to the cylinder are controlled by solenoid controlled DCVs. These solenoids are further controlled by the controller. There are pressure switches to monitor the pressure inside the cylinder to ensure safe working of the machine.

2. Tailstock: The tailstock cylinder is also controlled by solenoid controlled valves. The plunger too is hydraulically controlled. The tailstock too has a check valve and a pressure switch to ensure proper holding of the work piece. 3. Turret: As aforementioned the turret clamping/unclamping, indexing, creeping all are controlled hydraulically. 4. Gear box: The gear shifts in CNC machines are actuated by hydraulic systems. The levers are shifted when the piston inside a cylinder pushes them.

The pressure switches alarms and terminates the operation if any pressure drop is detected. This avoids accidents occurring from loosening for work while machining. Check valves are used where the pressure is to be kept constant while running.

Lubrication System: Ensuring sufficient lubrication for the rotating as well as sliding parts are essential to maintain smooth running for the machine as well as to reduce vibrations, heat generation and errors.The lubricant is consumed and is not returned back to the system. The lubricant used in common CNC machines is servo-68. The lubricant is pumped at certain intervals as determined by the controller. The lubrication pipes are made of copper pipes and flow is controlled by metering cartridges.

Other Systems:
A few other systems associated with the CNC machine includes: Cabinet cooling set up to keep the electronic circuits at optimum temperature. Power supply system to provide constant voltage to the pumps and servomotors. The MCU ( supplied by the control system manufacturer).

Axis alignment:
Axis alignment is done on every machine produced at HMT. But for a CNC machine it is of slightly higher importance, because the accuracy of a machine is determined by this process. This is different from those

done on conventional lathes produced here in that, slight errors beyond allowable values are compensated for in the control system. This is done by giving the tool a predefined feed and then comparing with the actual position of the tool. The actual position is measured by means of laser interferometry. The data is then converted to standard forms and fed to the machines control unit. The process is tedious and costly and so the cost of a machine heavily depends upon its accuracy. The maximum permissible lost motion at HMT is 3 micrometer and error is 8 micrometer. Inversion of the data is done if the motion is inverted from that of the servo motor.

CONCLUSION:
CNC lathes have much more productivity compared to the conventional lathes. Also it does not require a skilled labour to operate, but it demands a skilled engineer. The production of CNC lathes in HMT kalamassery has improved the name of the company. This has enabled the company to meet the increasing demand from the customers. Also it has brought much profit to the company in terms of money and customers. We came to know about the electrical controls used inside the machine, which is a main difference compared to conventional machines. HMT is manufacturing CNC lathes of a wide range of accuracy. With improving technologies, HMT company is improving the accuracy of CNC lathes that are being manufactured here.

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