Drive system for multiple spindle machine tool
AssigneeCone-Blanchard Machine Company
InventorDavid H. Youden
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A drive system for a multiple spindle machine tool which includes a separate servo motor for powering the drum shaft which serves as the basic control element for the timing and movement of tools which are operable upon the workpieces carried in the spindles. The speed of the servo motor is regulated by a tachometer in a feedback loop to hold the speed of the motor at any chosen value. The drum shaft rotates at either high speed during tool traverse or low or feed speed during machining operations. A second tachometer driven by the spindle drive system generates a signal proportional to the spindle speed and that signal coordinates the low feed speed of the drum shaft with the spindle speed. Conventional clutches for high-speed and reverse operation of the drum shaft are replaced by switches and potentiometers.
Claims9
In a machine tool having a drive system which includes a drive motor and at least a workpiece-holding spindle rotatably driven by said drive motor, tool-carrying cross and end slides and a drum shaft for controlling the operations upon said workpiece of said tools carried by said sliders, the combination of a variable speed direct current servo motor for driving said drum shaft, switch means positionally controlled by said drum shaft in a predetermined sequence determined by the rotational position thereof, a source of control voltage for said servo motor and means connected between said switch means and said source of control voltage for varying the control voltage applied to said servo motor in accordance with the instantaneous rotational position of said drum shaft.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.