Application of Design Rules for Thermally Insensitive Machines Regarding a Lathe with Enclosure

In a previous report, FEM (Finite Element Method) thermal simulation technology with 4 virtual models which are a virtual intake model, a virtual exhaust model, a virtual heat transfer model and a virtual convection model has been developed for analysis of the phenomenon of heat build-up in the enclosure. On the other hand, the heat from the internal heat source is transferred to the air in the enclosure and the warmed air causes thermal deformation of the machine structure, resulting in extremely complex thermal deformation. Therefore, in this research, thermally insensitive structure regarding a bench lathe with enclosure was considered by the previously proposed FEM thermal simulation. At first, an algorithm for the creation of thermally insensitive structure regarding the bench lathe with enclosure was considered. Then, the bench lathe with thermally insensitive structure was designed and evaluated using FEM thermal simulation. It is concluded from the result that (1) thermal deformation due to warmed air in the enclosure was identified, (2) the proposed structure can achieve a high degree of accuracy.