DESIGN EVALUATION USING CAE TOOLS FOR A 3-AXIS VERTICAL MILLING MACHINE FOR SCULPTURED SURFACE MACHINING

CNC technology has proved to be of great importance for manufacturing sector. The use of contemporary CNC systems along with higher computational and memory storage capacity of modern computer systems has redefined the shop floor automations strategies for modern manufacturing sectors. One of the biggest challenges today is how to make the CNC technology affordable, simpler and available to an extent that even a hobbyist/ occasional user can think of owing such technology. The aim of the present work is to evaluate the design of a new 3-axis CNC milling machine tool structure designed for sculptured surface machining using Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis in ANSYS . Conceptual design for the machine tool which was achieved after a number of iterations, has been analyzed using finite element method (FEM) using ANSYS for its stability under different loading conditions. The detailed FEM study has been carried out in two main phases, for analysis of overall machine structure and secondly for router assembly. As discussed in results and discussion, it has been found that the machine structure design is safe and the maximum level of deflections and stresses found during FEM analysis are in safe limit. The logical conclusions drawn from the present study have also been discussed along with the future scope of work in this area.