Unit II

NC ACTUATION SYSTEMS

NC actuation system is provided to carry out various functions of Machine Control

Unit (MCU) . These actuation systems come into the desired action on receiving
the command signal from the MCU. Thus the MCU converts the information from
the tape program into the desired command signals (Fig.1.)

Fig.1.MCU converts part program information into suitable signals for NC

actuation systems

Three types of actuation systems are commonly used in NC equipment are:

i) Electromechanical

II) Hydraulic

iii) Pneumatic.

Typical NC Actuation Systems for Positional Control

Lets us examine some typical actuation systems for the automatic control of one
function namely the positional control (say of X-side). The group of mechanical
and electrical , hydraulic or pneumatic components to control the position of a
machine slide is also know as servo. This servo control is basically approached in
two ways.

i) open-loop servo systems

ii) closed-loop servo systems

Open loop servo Systems

A typical open-loop approach is shown in Fig.2. A stepper motor is generally

employed as the driving component to provide the machine-slide motion. This
motor responds in incremental steps. For each impulse (say10-20V) of the digital
input signal it moves precisely by one step(a step angle of 1.80 is very common).
Thus one step of stepper motor rotates by 1/200th of revolution. This corresponds
to linear movement of 0.02mm* for a lead screw with a lead of 4mm if the stepper
motor is directly coupled to the screw.

Fig.2.Open-loop machine slide control

The open loop application in general, is restricted to smaller machines because of

the limited power output availability with the stepper motors (a typical maximum
is 4-5 kW and torque of 200N.m). Again the pulses per second restrict the speed of
the drive. A typical maximum for stepper motors is 8000 pulses per second.
Where this is applied to a system requiring 0.001 mm accuracy, the resultant
maximum speed would be 0.48m/min. Again for high-precision applications like
jig boring where an accuracy of 0.001m is to be maintained, an open-loop system
does not serve the purpose. Open-loop servo control suitable for light duty
machinery where the problems of instability are absent and also the requirements
are not of high precision,.

Closed loop Servo Systems

A block diagram of a closed-loop positioning control is shown in Fig.3.In this case,

the control makes use of position transducer referred to as a feedback device. This
sensing device measures the actual position of the slide. The difference between
the required position and the actual position is detected by the comparator circuit
and the action is taken, within the servo, to minimize this difference / error. Such a
control can typical have capabilities of upto 0.0001 mm resolution and speeds up
to 10m/min.

Fig..3 .Closed Loop Positioning Control

Nature of the command Signal

The MCU must provide a suitable signal for the actuation system. For instance in
the above mentioned typical cases of servo control, the command signal and the
feedback signal, if any, have to be electrical in nature.

A digital signal is distinguished from an analog one as described below.

A slide can be positioned with an analog signal as shown in Fig.4., i.e. a

potentiometer is used to vary the magnitude of the voltage to the servo motor. A
functional relationship between slide position and voltage can be determined and
accordingly the potentiometer calibrated in terms of slide movement.

Fig.4. Analog Signal Approach to Position a Machine Slide

The digital approach to this positioning is shown in Fig.5. A switching device is
employed to generate digital signals. Each time the switch is closed an electrical
pulse is sent to a servo motor which moves the slide by definite amount . This
small movement, in fact, may determine the resolutions of the system. If the
switch is sequentially opened and closed , discrete pulses are generated. The
desired number of pulses can thus be generated to attain the desire position.

Fig.5. Digital Signal to position a machine slide

MCU ORGANIZATION

A typical MCU can be represented as shown in Fig.6. Most of the MCUs first
convert the BCD information into binary and transfer this data to the buffer
storage. The purpose of this storage is to permit faster transfer of d.tia to other
active areas of the MCU. Without buffer storage, the MCU must wait for the tape
reader to read a block of information. If this read I:me happens to be too long. the
machine motion pauses, thereby resulting marks on the part being machined. For
proper machine operations, internal data processing in the MCU must he properly
synchronized. It has to follow logical sequences and has to perform many logical
checks like that of the parity check.

The circuitry for tins logical control is built from the basic AND . OR and NOT
circuits. Diodes, transistors and capacitors are therefore extensively used in the
control circuits. By the use of integrated circuits entire sets of circuitry can be
contained on solid state modules that offer compactness at high degree of
reliability. Major part of this control takes place in the data decoding and control
area.

Fig. 6. Block Diagram Representation of Typical Buffered MCU

The auxiliary function area is machine related, e.g. spindle and coolant on/off,
speed range of spindle, program stop, rewinding of tape, tool change etc. The
output from this control area to the machine tool can be BCD decimal, varying
voltage (in the case of s word), or a combination of the output types.

The feed rate control area converts the f word value into a rate signal which
causes machine motion at the programmed rate. This signal is applied to the
interpolator.

The interpolator provides to the servo area a position/rate signal. The output of
servo area is usually a drive signal for electric or hydraulic motor control. Feed
back from the machine tool is generally about its position and velocity. The
position feed back is normally from an encoder, a resolver or a linear scale. The
resolver and linear scales are analog devices and therefore require their output to
be converted into digital data.
To generate an actuation (command) signal, the MCU must convert the data stored
in the active register to the corresponding pulses. The electronic pulse corresponds
to the resolution of the machine's positioning accuracy.

If single pulse represents a movement of 0.005 mm, command to the servo motor
would he in increments of 0.005 mm. As the MCU would not be generating
fractional pulses, a movement of less than 0.005mm shall not be possible. For a
movement of 50 mm along an axis, this control has to generate 10000 pulses. Now
if a pulse is generated every 1/10000 s then the feed rate possible is 50 mm/s or 3
m/min. The pulse generation gets complex when simultaneous motion takes place
along two or more axes. The pulses have now to be so timed that proper direction
as well as desired feed rate are maintained. For instance, if the X component is four
times the Y component for a given two dimensional movement, the number of X-
axis would be four times the number of Y-axis pulses over the same time span.

The control panel provides operator intervention capability. This permits manual
operation of the machine movements such as job and spindle control, overriding
the programmed feeds and speeds, manual input, and emergency intervention.