Innovative Design and Machining Verification of a Dual Axis Swivel Table for a Milling Machine

This study was aimed to develop a dual-axis rotary table for small and medium-sized five-axis milling machines. The rotation and tilting axis of swivel table were respectively driven by servo motor with gear reducer to achieve low speed, high torque, high rigidity and high precision machining capability. Essentially, the dynamic interaction between the workpiece and the cutter in the cutting process is an important factor that affects the machining performance, which also implies that the structural characteristics of the rotary table with the tilting angle will affect the cutting performance of the five-axis machine. Therefore, at the design stage of a five-axis machine tool, it is a prerequisite to evaluate change of dynamic characteristics of the rotary module within the desired feeding range. To this purpose, this study employed the finite element method to analyze the dynamic characteristics of the rotary table under different configurations. In order to evaluate the application feasibility of the dual-axis module on a milling machine, ISO S-shaped machining tests were carried out. Meanwhile, considering the influence of machining vibration on the surface quality of the work piece, the vibration induced at spindle tool and rotary table were assessed for comparisons and used to evaluate their variations with the milling cycles. Based on various experimental results, it is confirmed that the proposed dual-axis rotary table has good structural dynamic charac - teristics with stable vibration features during a small batch production tests. Current results clearly demonstrate the potential and capability of the proposed dual-axis rotary table in practical application and commercialization.