Development of a computational model of a lightweight vertical lathe with the use of superelements

Abstract This article presents a process of developing a computational model of a light construction vertical lathe. The model is made using the finite elements method. Due to the complexity of the machine tool and the optimization of the computation time superelements have been used in the model. The application of this method has reduced the computation time allowing the analysis of many variants of the mutual position of the machine components. The results of the analyzes led to the indication of weak links of the machine tool. After the improvement of the machine tool construction the movement of the tool tip and the workpiece was much smaller.