Derivation and Evaluation of Machining Area for Non-Orthogonal Five-Axis Machine Tools

Abstract

Recently, five-axis machine tools with non-orthogonal rotation axes have been developed to achieve a high stiffness and large machining area. Such machine tools are customarily developed as partial modifications of conventional orthogonal five-axis machine tools. However, significantly modifying the traditional structures of machine tools has the possibilities to improve several characteristics. Then, if there is an evaluation method of the several characteristics quantitatively before new non-orthogonal five-axis machine tools are developed, development efficiency is improved. Therefore, this paper classifies the machining area into four categories based on the posture conditions and derives the machining area for the three current mainstream types of configurations. Finally, it is shown that the relationship between the axis configuration obtained from the evaluation and the machining area of the five-axis machine.