Abstract. One of the most complex situation in establishing the principles of modern complex lathes design is that the tool machine has to fulfill special purposes, like working with computer numerical controls and commands, adaptive cutting force control system and use in some manufacturing phases copying functions. The main issue in this case is choosing between adding an additional axis to the basic CNC machine or equipping the machine with a special subsystem purposed for the task. This paper compares the two possibilities mentioned above from the point of view of their capacity to satisfy the needs of the copying process, the complexity, and the cost of the machine, the precision achieved in the manufacturing process, and the complexity and cost of the process itself.
IntroductionIn order to clarify the content of this paper it is necessary to have a general image of our team research field, that mainly involves the goal of "perfect" cutting (splinter) tool machine manufacturing. Our directions are oriented towards: a) developing a sustainable frame, not implying necessarily a very rigid one, but a structure for which we can predict (anticipate) the deformations, different movements and vibrations, in order to be able to correct them right the moment they are to begin acting [1, 2, 3]. b) creating sources of movement for small and very small displacements (like magneto-strictive engine) able to create the compensation movement of the tools [4,5,6,7]. c) analysing (comparing) and improving command systems able to coordinate the process in order to obtain maximum results, which in our field means high precision manufacturing. When the first two issues are solved, the command system must "keep the rhythm" with the whole machine.In this case we tried to match the right command system with the most complex manufacturing conditions that we consider to be when the machine is working with adaptive control of the cutting forces and the processed surface is a particular one "coping" a particular profile or matching a profile generated by a complex equation.The second factor to be considered is how often we are changing the type of profile manufactured. It is obviously that if the profile manufactured is repetitive, even in short series, with limited variants of particular profiles, we prefer to use a quite simple command system based on a physical