Type synthesis, unified kinematic analysis and prototype validation of a family of Exechon inspired parallel mechanisms for 5-axis hybrid kinematic machine tools

Abstract

• A family of Exechon inspired PMs are synthesized through the screw theory. • The synthesized PMs are comparatively analyzed based on unified kinematics. • The engineering potentials of the synthesized Exechon inspired PMs are experimentally validated by fabricated prototypes. • An Exechon inspired PM integrated hybrid kinematic machine tool is developed to perform 5-axis machining tasks. To fully disclose potential configurations of parallel mechanisms (PMs) that are performance-comparable to the commercially successful Exechon, a family of one translational two rotational (1T2R) over-constrained Exechon inspired PMs is synthesized through the screw theory. The synthesized PMs are further comparatively analyzed in terms of inverse kinematics, singularity occurrence and reachable workspace based on a unified kinematic model. The kinematic analyses indicate that the inherited overconstraints benefit for eliminating the constraint singularity of all synthesized Exechon inspired PMs and the workspace distribution of an Exechon inspired PM is closely related to its topological arrangement. Based on the kinematic evaluations, a preferred configuration of 2U P R-1R P S PM (‘R’: revolute joint, ‘U’: universal joint, ‘S’: spherical joint, ‘ P ’: prismatic actuated joint) is selected as a candidate for 1T2R spindle head. A laboratory prototype is fabricated and experimentally tested to verify the feasibility of the type synthesis and the correctness of the kinematic analyses. By integrating the selected PM with a 2-degree of freedom sliding gantry, a full scale prototype of a novel hybrid kinematic machine tool is developed to perform 5-axis machining tasks. The well match between the machined workpiece and its designed shape fully proves the engineering potential of the synthesized PMs that are expected to be employed as the functional module to construct 5-axis serial-parallel hybrid machining devices.