Conversion of a Conventional Bench Lathe to CNC Machine

Abstract

in factory automation. Machine tool is heart of the Flexible Manufacturing Systems. Ex example Lathe machine is the general type of machine tool used by almost all the FMSs. During the operation of this machine tool, different kinds of failures are faced by the industry. A systematic study of such failures can help in identifying the critical subsystem of these machine tools. This will be useful for identifying the condition monitoring needs of the machine tools. This deals with the identification of critical subsystem based on the failure data analysis for different type of machine tools. Initially lathe has been classified into various subsystems as shown in Figure. In the frequency of failures for each subsystem and failure modes have been considered for finding out the weakest subsystem. In analysis, failure frequency and downtime have been taken into consideration for deciding critical subsystems of machine tools. It can be observed that the maximum failures took place in headstock and carriage subsystems. These subsystems face failures in components like gear, gearbox bearing, spindle bearing, clutch and cross slide jib. Here it could be observed that the bearing failures cause longer downtime. Wearing Parts of Conventional Bench lathe On histogram different failure modes and their relative failure frequencies have been grouped into four-failure modes, component damage, fuse burnt, circuit fault and looseness. It can be observed that the dominant failure mode is because of component damage. The components are electrical, electronics and of mechanical categories. In 2013, V. Roy & S. Kumar [2] from J institute Engineering, India published development of Lathe machine attachment for CNC machine. He has developed attachment for an existing CNC machine. The CNC machine operates on mechatronic controls and a computer interface called CAMSOFT, and is used as a CNC Lathe after installing the respective attachment to it. He has design the attachment using CAD software & fabricated different model. He has successfully design & fabricated the model. The working of the CNC Lathe attachment is tested & checked by making proper machining operation like turning and thread cutting. The machining operations are successfully done. The CNC machine becomes multifunctional with the presently developed lathe attachment and can be used accordingly by installing the respective attachment to it. The CNC machine is useful for research work in both the fields, when installed with the proper attachment. The figure of developed attachment is shown below, Fig. 1: Developed attachment Developed design is successfully implemented in the proposed work for the development of the lathe attachment including headstock, tailstock and tool post. The work shows the process of the conceptual design and use of proper process planning for the development of the different components of the lathe attachment. The previously attachment and developed lathe attachment make the CNC machine multifunctional. Thus further research can be carried out in both the fields respectively. The CNC machine is based on the mechatronic controls and the computer interface CAMSOFT. Various lathe operations like plain turning, step turning, taper turning, arc turning, threading operations and manufacturing of a bolt are successfully performed on the CNC machine, when installed with lathe attachment. The successful development of the lathe attachment for the CNC machine is done. In 2013, Karl-Heinz Schumacher [3] is invented about Multi Spindle Lathe. Multi spindle lathe comprising a machine frame as spindle drum which is arranged in the machine frame is rotatable about a spindle drum axis and is made up at least partially of segments which are cut out from flat material in a stacking direction parallel to the spindle drum axis and extend in stacking planes transverse to the stacking direction these segments having receiving cutouts and cooling channel cutouts which overlap with one another such that the spindle drum has spindle motor receptacles for spindle motors and a cooling channel system separated there from by wall webs characterized in that the cooling channel system has several channel subsystems for a liquid cooling medium Which are fed in parallel. In 2013, M. Moses & Dr. Denis Ashok [4] M. Tech, Mechatronic from School of Mechanical and Building Science, VIT University, Vellore, India published titled as Development of a new machining setup for energy efficient turning process. In the production unit, lathe is one of the important protection machines. This paper focuses on producing a quality product in lathe machine with less power consumption. In order to achieve that, a special setup is developed in the lathe machine for turning and finishing of the components, to achieve quality product and also to improve the productivity. As a result of this new approach, profuse amount of energy can be saved, quality product can be obtained and tool life can be increased. The study aimed at evaluating the best process environment which could simultaneously satisfy requirements of both quality and as well as productivity. By conducting many experiments it was found that this special setup process improves the quality and also reduces the power consumption as compared with the existing process.