[Contribution]TrendsinRecentMachineToolTechnologies.PDFVIP

NTN TECHNICAL REVIEW No.74 2006 Contribution Trends in Recent Machine Tool Technologies Dr. Toshimichi MORIWAKI Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering KOBE University Recent trends in the machine tool technologies are surveyed from the view points of high speed and high performance machine tools, combined multi- functional machine tools, ultraprecision machine tools and advanced and intelligent control technologies. The machine tools are bases of manufacturing industries and they are strategically important products for Japan. The views of the author towards the technical developments in both hardware and software are introduced together with the world wide trends in the relevant fields. In this section, I will focus on the avoidance of 1. Introduction chatter vibration, which is one outstanding advantage At present, the machine tool industry worldwide is of high-speed, high-efficiency machine tools, as other enjoying unprecedented demand, and the industry’s engineering topics are discussed in papers by other output is apparently even failing to satisfy current researchers. demand. Japan’s machine tool industry, in particular, In the period of the 1960’s and 1970’s, there were has boasted the greatest share in the world since research efforts worldwide on the chatter vibrat