Abstract
Aerostatic bearing slideways have been increasingly applied in the precision engineering industry and other high-tech sectors over the last two decades or so, due to their considerable advantages over mechanical slideways in terms of high motion accuracy, high speeds, low friction, and environment-friendly operations. However, new challenges in air bearings design and analysis have been occurring and often imposed along the journeys. An industrial-feasible approach for the design and development of aerostatic bearing slideways as standard engineering products is essential and much needed particularly for addressing their rapid demands in diverse precision engineering sectors, and better applications and services in a continuous sustainable manner. This paper presents the multiscale modelling and analysis-based approach for design and development of the aerostatic bearing slideways and its digital twin. The multiscale modelling and analysis and the associated simulation development can be the kernel of the digital twin, which cover the mechanical design, direct drive and control, dynamics tuning of the slideway, and their entire mechatronic system integration. Using this approach and implementation, the performance of an aerostatic bearing slideway can be predicted and assessed in the process. The implementation perspectives for the sideway digital twin are presented and discussed in steps. The digital simulations and digital twin system can be fundamentally important for continuously improving the design and development of aerostatic bearing slideways, and their applications and services in the context of industry 4.0 and beyond.
Highlights
Engineering modelling and simulation have been widely applied over the past three decades or so [1]
While the influences of surface features of machine components are often discussed through mesoscopic modelling, much R&D attention has been paid to the crystal morphology of the component materials in microscopic modelling or the molecular dynamics
The most accepted definition of digital twin is the collection of all digital artifacts that accumulate during product development, integrating all data that is generated during product design and use [16,17]
Summary
Engineering modelling and simulation have been widely applied over the past three decades or so [1]. As the machine performance and precision are ever increasing, it is essentially important to develop a multiscale modelling and analysis-based approach for design and development of high precision machines, for overcoming the limitations in design and building of the machine systems for generating nanometric surfaces on an industrial scale Such an approach combining with digital twin will likely lead to continuous improvement of the performance of the machine system in operations and services, as well as their design and development in a predictable, producible, and highly productive manner in the competitive engineering marketplace [2]. As precision products, the air-bearings slideways or spindles are becoming technologically more complex because of the high-precision mechanical components, electrical direct drive, encoder devices as positioning feedback, and advanced control algorithms involved This further imposes challenges on the design and development of these products towards even higher precision and application performance requirements. The paper is concluded with further discussion on implementation perspectives of the simulation—digital twin system, and their application potentials
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