Different directions in machining center motion.(Metalworking Technology In Brief) From: Modern Machine Shop | Date: April 1, 2005| Author: Zelinski, Peter | COPYRIGHT 2005 Gardner Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

The traditional machining center has axis motors that push in one direction or the other along X, Y and Z. In the 1990s, all of us who attend machine tool trade shows learned that this wasn't the only way to design the machine. A variety of builders brought out "hexapod" and/or "parallel kinematic" machines in which a daddy-longlegs arrangement of linear-motion members used CNC interpolation to achieve precisely the same X-Y-Z motion as a standard machine.

These novel m...