EMO 2019

••• 7 ••• Innovationen New kinematics for high-precision milling Industrial robots capable to create geometrical shapes for made-to-order, customised products The production facilities of tomor- row will need to be efficient and versatile if they hope to meet in- creasingly stringent requirements and the specific needs of each customer – all while mastering the pressure of rising costs. High- precision machine tools that im- part a certain geometrical shape to workpieces remain the solution of choice. Conventional industrial robots have simply been unable, due to their insufficient precision, to supplant such machine tools. Us- ing robots for milling operations remains particularly challenging. Primarily due to the gear units, low robot stiffness deflects the tool – reducing its appeal for use. Researchers working on Fraun- hofer’s “Flexmatik 4.1” joint re- search project are developing an industrial robot designed for the high-precision milling of light- weight materials. The project partners are the Fraunhofer Insti- tutes for Production Systems and Design Technology (IPK), for Man- ufacturing Technology and Ad- vanced Materials (IFAM), and for Structural Durability and System Reliability (LBF). The researchers must overhaul the kinematics if the robot is to prove successful. Sascha Reinkober, department head at Fraunhofer IPK, explains: “We’re engineering a multi-axis kinematic chain that is specially designed for continuous path pro- cesses.” The robot proceeds from point A to point B of the compo- nent being machined by travers- ing a linear unit, a type of rail. “The system simulations we con- ducted during the design phase indicate that we can achieve a precision objective of plus/minus 0.1 millimetres. This will be pos- sible starting from the very first component, despite the process forces acting on it. Manufacturers can therefore customise produc- tion, even for a batch size of just one unit,” says Jan Hansmann, project leader at Fraunhofer LBF. The new designed robot offers key benefits compared to ma- chine tools: the cost of acquisition decreases by as much as a factor of 10 and the energy consump- tion by as much as a factor of 15. Thanks to its linear unit, the Flex- matik exhibits a workspace on par with large portal milling machines – and better accessibility. Com- pared to a portal milling machine, the Flexmatik does not require a special heavy foundation. This keeps construction costs lower and grants users flexibility in set- ting it up. Machining robot Flexmatik Photo: Fraunhofer IFAM Continued from page 1 Spindles since 1947 People. Passion. Precision. Fokus 2019 Spindelfamilie zum Abrichten Hochfrequenz-Spindeln MHF-80 Besuchen Sie uns in Halle 17 Stand B01 MDS-38 I MDS-58 I MDS-72 www.meyrat.com