Integration of an open architecture controller with a diamond turning machine

Older machine tools are often mechanically sound but their proprietary cont rols are outdated and can be economically upgraded to modern open architect ure control. The objective of this paper is to present a procedure for inte grating these new flexible control architectures into machine tools. As an example, this paper presents the integration of an open architecture contro ller and a diamond turning machine. The open architecture control permits r esearch into various types of control such as position, velocity, force, an d adaptive control that will improve the quality of manufactured optics and other high precision components. The goal of incorporating an open architecture controller into an existing diamond turning machine required the identification, integration and instal lation of many components. After installing these components, the machine w as calibrated to improve its performance. The most important aspect in impr oving the overall performance of the machine was correcting its vibration c haracteristics. Spindle imbalance, the spindle shaft coupler and the table and slide amplifiers were found to play a significant role in producing vib ration. The sidewise amplitude of acceleration was reduced from approximate ly 2.5 to 0.6 g due to reduction in vibration after correcting these source s. The remaining level of vibration is normal for this type of diamond turn ing machine allowing it to produce finishes with 90.24 nm (3.56 mu in) RMS surface roughness using a radius tool and 24.13 nm (0.95 mu in) RMS with th e straight-edge tool. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All right s reserved.