Author(s)

J.M. Freeman and D.G. Ford

Abstract

There is currently much interest in non-Cartesian machines in the machine tool industry. For example, an adaptation of the Hexapod configuration with six supporting struts attached to a machine head has successfully been used in the Variax machine by Giddings and Lewis. Such machines have the advantage of stiffness and lightness compared with conventional machines, where bending moments of the structure provide the machining forces. In the hexapod the machining forces are along the struts and each member is uniformly stressed. The disadvantage of the non-Cartesian machine is the complex mathematics required to convert a predetermined path in Cartesian space into changes in lengths of the struts. This paper analyses the general non-Cartesian

Keywords