Among the techniques for shaping materials, it is historically possible to distinguish processes that cut and deform plastically. Additive manufacturing has been used for several years as an alternative and/or complementary process. The fact remains that the machining processes by removal of material, therefore by cutting, retain a preponderant place in the industrial production of various and varied components.
In this context, machine tools are the instruments that have made it possible to industrialize production since the industrial revolution of the 19th century.e century. Like any technology integrated into productivism, machine tools have undergone considerable evolution. Moreover, they are continuing their transformations by being part of the current movement of the digitization of the world.
Since the 1990s, with the almost generalized use of numerical control, machine tools have become veritable mechatronic systems whose complexity is growing with the perpetual integration of new technologies.
The design and manufacture of a machine tool involves many disciplines and know-how. This requires high demands in terms of kinematics, static and dynamic behavior, cost rationalization, etc. The development and design process still relies heavily on experience. Perhaps this is probably why many machine tool builders maintain a certain form of traditionalism. In doing so, the current situation is about finding the right balance between new ideas and proven techniques.
The selection of a machine tool is not a purely objective process, but is often rather a matter of judgment determined by individual considerations and situations. Many factors determine and de facto complicate the decision-making process.
This article offers a technical inventory of the main components of a machine tool. The main electromechanical components that make up contemporary machine tools are thus described. The aim is to help the prescriber and/or the designer of the machine tool make informed and pragmatic technical choices for a long-lasting investment.
In the first section, the technical requirements that frame the choice of a machine tool will be discussed in order to understand how to orient one’s choices according to the technological possibilities that can make up a machine tool.
In sections 2 to 7, the main technological possibilities that characterize a machine tool will be detailed in order to master the issues that condition the choices.
In the last section, the final stage of reception will be the subject of a descriptive approach to apprehend the verification phase of the capability of the production tool on the basis of the requirements determined upstream.