Advancing machine tools and technology

Research in advanced drive and guideway systems for machine tools has been a matter of interest for decades. Recently, activities to lower the energy consumption have increasingly come into focus. Contradictory to common perception, both objectives are not counteracting goals. Hence, strategies and solutions for low power consumption and high performance drive characteristics of machine tools are investigated and presented. A requirement-oriented control of auxiliary units as well as a reduction of process time allows for substantial improvements of the former. By promising implementations of advanced drive systems by means of active guides, jerk decoupling mechanisms and planar motion technologies the latter is taken into account.