DRIVES:

Drives are employed for systems that require

motion control .
e.g. transportation system, fans,robots, pumps,
machine tools, etc.
In a CNC machine tool there are three major groups
of elements:
Control and Electronics
Electric drives (Electromechanical drives)
Mechanical elements (table, slide,tool holder etc)
Also, Hydraulic and Pneumatic systems are
integrated with the CNC machine tool
The primary function is to cause motion of the
controlled machine tool member to conform as
closely as possible to the motion commands issued
by the CNC system

InCNC machines, the metal is removed as a result of

the movement of the workpiece and the cutting tool
as shown in following figure:

CNC machine tool .

To

maintain a constant metal removal

rate, the spindle and tool movement
to be coordinated such that the spindle
has a constant power and the - slide
has a constant torque.
In order to ensure a high degree of
consistency in production, CNC machines
are built up with variable speed drives
with higher control accuracies.
The electric motor for spindle drive and
feed drive are shown in the following
figures.

Electric Drives on a CNC

lathe

Various electric motors used in

machine tools are given below:
Spindle

drive motors
1. DC shunt Motor (Separately excited)
2. Three phase A/c induction motor
Feed

drive motors
1. DC Servomotor
2. AC servo motor
3. Stepper motor
Note:
Spindle drives require constant power
Feed drives require constant torque.

Spindle drives
Spindle is an important part of the machine tool.
It gets power from its drive unit and deliver to the work in
case of lathe and to the tool in case of drilling and milling
operations.
Spindle is used to
1. Center the workpiece (or) tool
2. Hold the workpiece (or) tool
To increase the stiffness and minimize the torsional
strain on the spindles, they are designed as stiff as
possible.
In case of lathe, when a chuck (work holding device) is
mounted on the spindle, the accuracy of rotation is
important as it affects the roundness of the workpiece.
The rotational accuracy of the spindle is mostly
dependent on the design of the bearings used and
preloading

Spindle is used to.

The

accuracy and the quality, of the

workpiece depends directly on the geometric
accuracy, running accuracy and stiffness of the
spindle assembly.
The various types of spindle bearings used in
the design of a spindle for CNC machine tools
are:
1. Hydrodynamic bearings
2. Hydrostatic bearings
3. Antifriction bearings
The work (or) tools carrying spindles are
rotating at the order of 30-6000 rpm.
The main function of the drive is to cause
motion to the spindle (or) slide to execute
motion commands issued by the CNC system.

The following are the

requirements CNC spindle
drives:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Excellent running smoothness

High rotational accuracy
Wide constant power band.
Fast dynamic response .
High speed up to 9000-20000 pm
High load capacity
Compactness

Normally,

the dc spindle drives are used in machine tools.

With the availability of microprocessor-based AC
frequency inverter, the ac drives are preferred to DC
drives
Be used for C- axis applications for speed control in the
range of 1:10, 00, 000 with positioning.

Feed drives
A feed drive comprises of a feed servomotor and
an electronic controller.
Feed motor has special characteristics like
constant torque and positioning.
In continuous path (contouring) operations, several
feed drives have to Work simultaneously since the
desired profile path has to be followed continuously.
The following are feed drive used in CNC machine
tools.
1. DC servomotors
2. Brush DC servomotors
3. AC servomotors
4. Stepper motors
5. Linear motors

Requirements of CNC feed drive:

1. The CNC feed drive should have constant torque
for overcoming frictional and working forces.
2. It should be able to provide variable speed with
a speed range of 0.1 rpm to 2000 rpm without
waviness.
3. It should be able to position the tools with the
smallest increment of 1-2 .tm.
4. Low electrical and mechanical time constants.
5 High torques to weight ratio.
6. High torque for quick responses.
7. It should be totally enclosed non-ventilated
design.

DC servomotors
DC

servomotors are the high performance

motor and are used in CNC machine tools
where the start and stop must be made
quickly and accurately.
The light weight and low - inertia
armatures of DC servomotors respond
quickly to the excitation voltage changes.
Brushless DC servomotors
In this type, the construction of iron cored
motor is turned inside out:
The rotor becomes a permanent magnet
and the stator becomes a wound iron core.

Stepper motor
A

stepper motor steps (rotates slowly) in- fixed

angular increments.
Step size (or) step angle (or) angular increment is
determined by the construction of the motor and
the type of drive system used to control it.
Normally the step angle is 1.80. i.e., 200 steps per
revolution (step angle= 1.8)
Nowadays, micro step motors are capable of giving
angular increment of 0.0144 step resolution.
Advantages of stepper motor 1. Low cost
2. Ruggedness
3. Simplicity in construction 4. High reliability
5. No maintenance.

Linear motors
Most

of the CNC machine tools use-the linear

motors.
The linear motor consists of a series of
magnets attached to the machine base and a
set of electrical coils plotted in a steel
laminate core attached to the moving slide.
Machines built up with linear motors can
produce parts with higher accuracy and close
tolerances at higher speeds and feeds.
Linear motors reduce the non machining time
with high acceleration and deceleration rates.