Sensory Z-Slide for Machine Tools

Due to the advancements in high speed and high performance cutting, further improvements of machine component design and process monitoring are nec-essary. For this purpose, new machine components with process monitoring capabilities and overall enhanced abilities to monitor the process have to be devel-oped. In this paper, a new spindle carrying Z-slide for a 5-axis machining centre with integrated sensing capabilities for process monitoring is presented. First, the overall system design is described. The sensing capabilities to enable process monitoring abilities are realized by application of a micro-strain gauges network onto the structure of the slide. The optimal sensor positions are computed by application of a special placement algorithm. The prototype of the slide has been built up to investigate the system behaviour. The electronic system of the prototype to realize the signal amplification and the communication via an industrial bus are presented. Furthermore, the results of the system analysis of the prototype are described. Because the sensor amplitudes, which can be monitored by micro-strain gauges on stiff structures are generally small, a method to increase these amplitudes by use the notch effect and new micro-strain sensors is discussed at the end of the paper. With this method, the signal amplitudes can be increased significantly while the surface of the structure is adapted without degrading the stiff-ness.