Parameter studies of a machinal feed axis testbed in time domain by application of multibody simulation

Abstract

The machine tool is a highly sophisticated technological product, which purpose is to provide capabilities to manufacture other products. This type of machine usually is not publicly recognized and, therefore, the advances and researches in the machine tool environment are widely unnoticed in the public. In recent years, the pressure on the manufacturers is increasing due to the necessity to improve the quality of these products while reducing the product development time and cost. For this reason, the use of virtual prototypes in the product development processes is being well accepted in this field. The benefit of using virtual prototypes is that it makes possible the simulation and the optimization of the machine properties in early stages. For it, the introduction of advanced engineering software tools is essential. Of these, the most commonly used in the machine tool industry is the finite element analysis (FEM), although at the moment, the multi-body simulation (MBS) is also being widely used to carry out many researches [Broos-2006].