Energy chains are a source of vibrations in machine tools
Lukas Czaja | 3. April 2020
It is every machine operator’s nightmare. The machine tool suddenly becomes jerky. The user’s pulse starts to race. Sweat breaks out on their forehead. They are worried about the workpiece clamped into the machine. Each vibration damages the cross section. The workpiece will soon be beyond help. This is doubly irritating. It costs time and material. Hardly anyone knows that energy chains are a source of vibrations in machine tools. A targeted selection helps here.
German innovativeness vs. Asian price spiral
Competition in mechanical engineering is heating up. For years, Asian manufacturers have been waging a fierce price war with the rest of the world. German manufacturers are countering with innovativeness. For instance, machines are continuously refined. The innovation gap must be maintained at any cost. No machine tool country in the world is as focused on research and development as Germany is. At the same time, there is intensive meshing with higher education institutes. It allows quick leaps in innovation. And developers often focus on increasing productivity. The new machines produce in continuous operation and downtime is not tolerated. Topics that were current at the last EMO trade show are suddenly ancient history.
The requirements of energy chains are rising.
The requirements of machine tool components are rising, too. Speeds and precisions are increasing. To make things even more difficult, installation spaces are becoming continuously more compact. Even inconspicuous components such as energy chains have immediate effects on machining quality. As dynamics increase, energy chains tend to vibrate. The development in the area of energy chains must keep pace with development in machines so as to contribute to the overall goal of minimising vibration. Expectations are likely to continue to rise over the next few years.
You can find out how this could work in the comprehensive case study entitled “Vibration behaviour: a scientific comparison of energy chains”. This includes vibration energy measurements by the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering at the RWTH University in Aachen, Germany.
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