A Novel Intelligent Turn-Milling Machine for Processing Huge Workpiece

Abstract

This paper presents a novel intelligent turn-milling machine, which processes the plastic material on the surface of huge cylindrical aluminum tank equal-thickness. The workpiece is too huge and cannot be processed by traditional lathe for turning operation. In order to make the plastics smooth and equal-thickness, the distance between the cutter and the surface of the tank is kept constant according to the feedback of position sensor placed before the cutter. Via the position sensor, the data of the workpiece shape can be obtained real-timely and the cutter feeding can be controlled by NC system to trace along the workpiece parts figure intelligently. Finally, experimental results verify the effectiveness of the processing method.