Thermal investigations on cnc lathe fitted with epoxy granite bed

Abstract

The demand for high quality of products along with improved productivity has necessitated research on enhancing dynamic performance of machine tools. Polymer concrete or epoxy granite based alternate materials are becoming more popular over the past two decades for beds, bases, and other structures of precision machine tools, owing to their excellent damping characteristics. Epoxy granite has a low elastic modulus; to maintain the same static rigidity as cast-iron structures, Steel-Reinforced Epoxy Granite (SREG) structures are more successful than designing bulk structures. But, due to the vast differences in the thermal properties of steel and Epoxy Granite (EG), the use of SREG structures are likely to cause higher magnitudes of thermal error. The primary objective of this research work is to investigate the thermal behaviour of a Computerized Numerical Control (CNC) lathe built with a novel dynamically enhanced SREG bed and compare its performance with the lathe with a cast iron bed. newline