Toyoda Koki Kabushiki Kaisha

Kazuo Machida

Yoshio Wakazono

Ryohei Mukai

Hiroyuki Takahara

Shoichi Sano

Hidekazu Hirano

Mamoru Katsuta

Katsuhiko Takeuchi

Wataru Iida

Goro Terahara

Tomohiko Yamaguchi

A combination grinding machine grinds a plurality of axially arranged portions of a workpiece by use of a grinding wheel supported rotatably on a first wheel head and a superfinishing wheel supported rotatably on a second wheel head. A numerical control unit controls feed units for the first and second wheel heads in order to move the first and second wheel heads independently of each other in the axial direction of the workpiece and in the direction perpendicular to the axial direction, such that each of the axially arranged portions is ground by the grinding wheel, and simultaneously with this, another ground portion is superfinished by the superfinishing wheel.

Combination grinding machine

A machine tool is structured enhance rigidity of a slide member opposing to a cutting force acting on a tool spindle with no extra increase in weight, thereby intending to lighten the slide member. The machine tool comprises a tool spindle rotating around an axis extending along an Z-axis, a slide member slidable in at least one of the X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis directions and a guide apparatus having a straight rail and movably supporting the slide member on the guide rail and disposed such that three supporting points for supporting the slide member form vertexes of a triangle as seen from the X-axis direction. Further, in another construction, two sets of linear guide mechanism and a linear motor for guiding each of an upper portion and a lower portion of a gantry are respectively disposed between a lower surface of the gantry and a base, and between a front surface of a cross beam and an upper back surface of the gantry, so that the cross beam does not lap over the upper surface of the gantry.

Machine tool

Each of plural workpiece transfer units 10 input from on end of a machining line 100 in turn is fed toward the other end thereof in a first horizontal direction by a linear motor. In this transfer process, the workpiece transfer unit 100 is indexed to the front of predetermined some of plural spindle heads 60 arranged along the machining line 100, in turn. At an indexed position of the workpiece transfer unit 10, a workpiece supporting device movably mounted on the workpiece transfer unit 10 in two direction mutually perpendicular to the first horizontal direction, performs the machining operation on a workpiece in accordance with an NC program with respect to a tool T attached to a tool spindle 66 of the spindle head 60. At generally the same time when the workpiece transfer unit 10 starts a transfer feed toward the next spindle head 60 after finishing the machining operation by one of the spindle heads 60, the tool spindle 66 of the next spindle head 60 is started to rotate.

Flexible manufacturing system and control method therefor

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Kariya, Japan

Kazuo Machida