Design and Development of Rotary Fixture for CNC with Tribology Considerations of Mechanics Analysis and Dynamic Balancing as Pre-mortem Tool

Abstract

Tribology is the science and engineering of interacting surfaces in relative motion. It includes the study and application of the principles of friction, lubrication and wear. Rotary fixture is also a similar but novel concept which poses problems of friction and especially dynamic balancing in case of asymmetrical rotary components. Various areas related to tribology and fixture are already been described by renowned authors, still there is need to apply these research works to an industrial application. This paper presents design of rotary fixture with tribology considerations of mechanics analysis and computer aided mass balancing for real industrial component-Flow TEE body of petroleum refinery. The operations to be performed are front facing, outside diameter turning, grooving, boring and back facing. Tribology plays an important role in manufacturing especially in case of dynamic balancing of rotary components such as rotary fixture. In such cases, friction and dynamic imbalance problems if not resolved, increase tool wear and the power required to work a piece. This results in increased costs due to more frequent tool replacement, loss of tolerance as tool dimensions shift, and greater forces required to shape a piece. Methodology for mass balance of rotary components mostly act as post-mortem tool; calculating unbalanced mass after fixture is manufactured. In the present work, a pre-mortem tool is developed to predict unbalanced mass before manufacturing with three alternate methods for mass balancing.