Automated CNC Lubrication System

Loo, Hang Yang (2016) Automated CNC Lubrication System. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

The main objective of automated CNC lubrication system is to reduce electrical energy consumption. This project is designed with an automated CNC lubrication system to ensure the machining work piece is within proper temperature range using automated adjusting coolant flow rate. Improper machining temperature will result in poor quality surface and tool defect. This project is worked by two persons. Where one person worked on the design and structure while the other person worked on the programming. There is an infrared temperature sensor fixed to detect the temperature of the work piece while machining so that coolant flow rate will be adjusted automatically according to the temperature in order to maintain suitable cutting temperature range. With the improvement of CNC lubrication system, it can reduce electricity consumption with the help of variable speed coolant pump. The target market of this automated CNC lubrication system is industrial sector. For long and heavy usage of CNC machine with automated lubrication system will result in significant cost saving through electricity conservation. As this is an automated system, PLC programming is included in this project. The experiment result shows that, the machining temperature is at suitable range by adjusting the coolant flow rate. The lower the coolant flow rate, the lower the electric consume. In a normal CNC machine, the coolant will be on during the entire machining process. With our invention of the automated CNC lubrication, when the temperature of the work piece is low, the coolant pump will run at an idle peed of rpm to avoid wasting coolant and electricity. In this case, comparing to maximum speed and idle speed of coolant pump, there is about 0.03A difference in the use of electricity. As the temperature increase gradually, the coolant will release gradually. The relationship between temperature of machining work piece and coolant flow rate is directly proportional.