Adaptronic Machine Components

Adaptronic Strut. Process loads as well as errors in manufacturing and assembly of machine components cause the displacement of a machine tools tool-center point, which influences its accuracy of work in a negative way. Since in many cases an improvement of the production accuracy of machine components is not favorable either for economic or for technological reasons, the insertion of active components that autonomously register a state of load or deformation and can perform a corresponding compensation movement. 

The described strut was implemented in welded steel construction with the dimensions 0 70 x 700 mm. Here a piezo transducer of 015 x60 mm was used and the wire in the form of a strip of spring steel oscillating with a fundamental frequency of 1200 Hz. Comprehensive tests with this prototype in an experimental set-up showed that under the maximum load of 2000 N a stroke of 25 pm could be reached, while the expectations on the dynamic behaviour of the strut for stepped external loads have been completely fulfilled. 

Hydrostatic MR Fluid Bearing. A hydrostatic bearing consists principally of two sliding surfaces that are separated by a thin film of oil. The oil is pressed with a constant flow rate Q by an external pump through the evolving gap, see Fig. 8.44. A disadvantage of hydrostatic bearings is that the 

Up to now, adaptronics has mainly been an object of research at universities, and the industry has only just started to apply adaptronic systems a most recent example is an intelligent mineral casting mould [182]. This machine bed for machine tools is to adapt itself to changing thermal conditions, thereby preventing the structure from any deformations. To accomplish this, temperature sensors are embedded into the mineral casting material (polymer concrete) cooling elements, which are integrated into the bed, serve as actuators. 

Finally, it is worth noting that the development of adaptronic components to be used for the most diverse machine tools and manufacturing plants is a multidisciplinary task requiring the collaboration of production, civil, machine and control engineers. A multidisciplinary approach of this task is crucial for the successful implementation of optimised systems with structurally integrated actuators and sensors and adaptive control algorithms in machine tool applications. 

---

Active Damping and Reduction of Structural Oscillations. Under this heading, the research groups develop fundamental concepts of optimized positioning and integrating adaptronic components (actuators, sensors) in machine tool structures. Research focuses on approaches and implementations that will reduce structure-born noise by means of control techniques. 

---