MACHINE TOOL ENERGY ANALYSIS IN GENERAL MILLING OPERATIONS

Manufacturing processes have a high impact on global energy consumption: a growing number of existing and under development regulations request a documented increase in energy efficiency. It is therefore important to consider energy consumption as an independent performance index in comparing alternative machine tools and while evaluating different machining and process planning strategies. This paper describes a simulation and modeling approach that allows the estimation of machine tool energy consumption in general milling operations, indicating the contributions of the main machine sub-systems, supporting therefore the identification of possible "weak points". The model takes into account spindle, feed axes and auxiliary power consumption and can be fed by any workpiece geometry and part program. Finally, the implemented simulator is applied to a real industrial case: it is used to estimate the energy required by the spindle during the execution of a work cycle for the production of a motor basement on the COMAU Smart Drive machining center.