The Japan Machine Tool Industry Association and the new energy industry technology comprehensive development organization (NEDO) began to design a new generation of 5-axis NC machining. This equipment is expected to adopt carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) parts this year.
After adopting CFRP with light weight, not easy to thermal expansion and excellent vibration absorption, the energy efficiency of CNC machining center can be greatly improved by about 20% and the machining accuracy can be improved. It is expected to be practical in 2018.
According to Japanese media reports, Japan's OKUMA, FANUC, DMG Mori Seiji and other major machine tool enterprises have cooperated with many Japanese universities, NEDO and other institutions to analyze and determine the basic specifications of CFRP parts on the computer in the first half of this year, and plan to complete the "standard model" by 2018. At that time, companies can use CFRP standard parts on their machine tools as the standard.
Although there are already machine tools with CFRP components such as spindle, this development will design and adjust the CNC machining center from scratch to ensure that CFRP can play a role in machining more shapes after replacing metal components.
The proportion of CFRP is light, which is 1/4 of that of iron. CFRP parts can save a lot of energy during operation. At the same time, it is not easy to expand and transfer heat, which can reduce the reduction of machining accuracy due to the expansion of a part of the machine caused by heating during machining. However, there are many unsolved problems in CFRP parts, such as high price and difficult combination with other materials.
