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Mechanical module interfaces for reconfigurable machine tools

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Abstract

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) enable industrial companies to adapt to frequent and unpredictable changes of production requirements in a cost-efficient way. RMS are constituted by modular machine tools that provide variable overall functions with the ability to add, remove, rearrange and replace functional sub-units. The performance of these machine tools as regards the quick and flexible arrangement of modules and high work piece quality strongly depends on the properties of the mechanical module interfaces. In this paper, performance parameters for mechanical module interfaces were defined and their influence on the machine tool’s performance discussed. Then flexibly arrange-able quick-coupling interfaces as a promising solution for module assembly were analyzed. Finally, tools for the determination for those interface performance parameters are presented, which require technical testing.

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Acknowledgments

This approach is a result of the “METEOR” research and development project, which is sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as a part of the “Research for the Production of Tomorrow” frame concept and supervised by the Project Execution Organization (PFT-PTKA) of the BMBF for production and manufacturing technology, the Research Centre Karlsruhe.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools, Darmstadt University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany

    Eberhard Abele & Arno Wörn

  2. Institute of Production Science, Universität Karlsruhe (TH), Karlsruhe, Germany

    Jürgen Fleischer & Jan Wieser

  3. Laboratoire de Génie Industriel et Production Mécanique, École Nationale Supérieure d’Arts et Métiers CER Metz, Paris, France

    Patrick Martin & Robert Klöpper

Authors
  1. Eberhard Abele
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  2. Arno Wörn
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  3. Jürgen Fleischer
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  4. Jan Wieser
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  5. Patrick Martin
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  6. Robert Klöpper
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jan Wieser.

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Abele, E., Wörn, A., Fleischer, J. et al. Mechanical module interfaces for reconfigurable machine tools. Prod. Eng. Res. Devel. 1, 421–428 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11740-007-0057-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11740-007-0057-1

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