China's machine tool new breakthrough, the world's first intelligent CNC machine tool success

China's machine tool new breakthrough, the world's first intelligent CNC machine tool success

CNC machine tools play a vital role in industrial production, it can not only improve production efficiency, but also ensure the accuracy and consistency of products. Numerical control machine tools through accurate control and automatic operation, greatly reducing the error rate and labor intensity of manual operation, is an indispensable equipment of modern manufacturing industry.

A typical successful case is Shenyang Machine Tool Company successfully developed the world's first intelligent CNC machine tool "i5". The machine tool, which came out in 2017, marked a major breakthrough for China in the high-end machine tool sector, breaking the long-standing monopoly of Western countries. The intelligent CNC machine tool "i5" has the ability of independent thinking, learning and manufacturing, and can autonomously adjust the processing strategy according to the task demand, which greatly improves the production flexibility and efficiency.

The i5 intelligent machine tool launched by Shenyang Machine Tool Group is a self-developed intelligent network energy equipment with core technology. i5 refers to the effective integration of industry, information, internet, intelligent and integrated. As an Internet-based intelligent terminal, i5 intelligent machine tool realizes the intelligence of operation, programming, maintenance and management. It is a new generation of intelligent manufacturing equipment based on information-driven technology, taking the Internet as the carrier, providing customers with "easy manufacturing" as the core, and effectively connecting people, machines and things.

In 2014, Shenyang Machine Tool successfully launched i5 series of intelligent machine tools in "Shanghai Machine Tool Show". i5 series intelligent machine tools are intelligent products with intelligent and interconnected functions launched by Shenyang machine Tool relying on i5 intelligent numerical control system. The i5 intelligent machine tool has the characteristics of intelligent compensation, intelligent diagnosis, intelligent control and intelligent management, which can realize high-precision, high-efficiency and low-energy consumption processing. The i5 intelligent machine can not only meet the processing tasks, but also transmit data in real time. At the same time, the unique Internet function of i5 intelligent machine tool makes it an intelligent terminal, realizing distributed, hierarchical and sharing manufacturing, truly changing the production mode of the world.

i5 intelligent machine tool product line has been expanded to intelligent horizontal turning center i5T1, i5T3, i5T5, intelligent machining center i5M4, intelligent drilling center i5M1 and i5M8 platform intelligent machine tool and other product series, covering two axis, three axis, four axis and five axis intelligent machine tool. Can complete turning, milling, drilling, tapping, copying milling and other simple to complex processing technology, mainly serving the automotive, 3C electronics, aerospace, health care, information communication, new energy and other industries. i5 intelligent machine tool has become the intelligent terminal that customers need for future manufacturing, providing the best solution for customer product replacement and industrial upgrading.

Since its world debut in 2014, the i5 intelligent machine tool has gradually entered an explosive growth situation. The first year, i5T3 intelligent lathe sales exceeded thousands. In 2015, the orders of i5 series intelligent machine tools exceeded 6,000 units, among which the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta regions achieved explosive growth. In 2016, i5 intelligent machine tools in the downturn of the machine tool market, orders amounted to 18,000 units, intelligent machine tools accounted for nearly half of the annual sales of the country, and within a year, the layout of the construction of 46 intelligent factories.

In 2017, Shenyang machine Tool accelerated the industrialization process of existing technologies, accelerated the research and development of the i5OS platform, and promoted the construction of the application ecosystem on the "i5" terminal.
The i5 intelligent CNC system is not only the machine tool motion controller, but also the intelligent terminal of the factory network. The i5 intelligent CNC system not only contains intelligent functions such as process support, feature programming, graphic diagnosis, online machining process simulation, but also realizes intelligent operation, intelligent programming, intelligent maintenance and intelligent management.

The intelligent performance of i5 numerical control system is as follows:
 Intelligent operation. The whole system can be operated through the touch screen, and the data of the machine tool processing state can be synchronized to the mobile phone or tablet computer in real time, which symbolizes the user's "factory on the fingertips". No matter where the user is, a machine in the hand can operate, manage and monitor the equipment, and transfer and exchange the processing information of the machine tool in real time.

 Online machining simulation. The online process simulation system can simulate the machining state of machine tool in real time and realize the data accumulation of process experience. Further, it can quickly respond to the user's process support request and obtain the experience support from the "process master" on the Internet.

 Intelligent compensation. The pitch error compensation technology based on mathematical model is integrated, which can make the i5 intelligent machine tool achieve the positioning accuracy of 5μm/300mm and the repeat positioning accuracy of 3μm/300mm.

 Intelligent diagnosis. The traditional CNC system in the diagnosis feedback is the code, and the i5 CNC system feedback is the event, it can replace people to find the code, help operators determine the problem; It can monitor the motor current and provide data for maintenance personnel to help with fault analysis.

 Intelligent workshop management. The i5 CNC system is highly integrated with the Workshop Management System (WIS), which records the operation information of the machine tool, including the use time, processing progress, energy consumption, etc., and provides the analysis of the order and plan completion for the workshop management personnel. It can also integrate the material consumption and labor cost of the machine tool through the financial system, and collect the operating cost of the whole workshop in time.

Under the condition of Internet, the i5 numerical control system can not only realize the interconnection between machine tools, but also be a network terminal that can generate workshop management data and exchange data with relevant departments. Through the "data transparency" of manufacturing process, the seamless connection between manufacturing process and production management is realized. This not only facilitates the processing of parts, but also generates real-time data serving management, finance, production and sales. The resource integration and information interconnection of a series of production and management links such as equipment, production planning, design, manufacturing, supply chain, human resources, finance, sales and inventory are realized to reduce waste and improve efficiency.

In the case of "transparent" data provided by CNC systems, cloud platforms and cloud applications that are compatible with business models are needed. The cloud manufacturing platform (i-Smart Engineering & Services Online, iSESOL) developed by the Intelligent Cloud Science company of Shenyang Machine Tool Group has created a cloud capacity sharing platform through the online information of i5 intelligent machine tools. Users can publish idle capacity on iSESOL capacity platform, and users with capacity demand can quickly obtain manufacturing capacity without purchasing equipment. In this way, the capacity provider can obtain profits by using idle capacity, and the capacity demander can obtain manufacturing capacity at a lower cost, and both sides can maximize benefits through sharing. This sharing mode of manufacturing capacity will change the organizational form of manufacturing industry, and fully tap the social idle manufacturing resources to maximize the benefits from the idle resources. The Internet application framework of intelligent machine Tools based on iSESOL platform.

All kinds of i5 intelligent machine tools distributed all over the country can access iSESOL network through iPort protocol. A screenshot of a recent day shows that the total number of devices joining the cloud platform is 2477, the cumulative service hour is 175,746 hours, and the number of orders is 1266. The number and opening rate of the six types of machine tools are shown at the bottom of the figure, indicating which machine tools are resources that can be shared. Click on the blue dot on the map to show the number of i5 smart machines in the region. The data produced by each machine tool can be shared by related production personnel, management personnel and operators.

It is not difficult to see that the future trend of CNC system will be the new architecture of the combination of cloud and end, and through the in-depth analysis and understanding of industry applications, the design of Internet applications and business models in line with the future development trend, through the intelligent terminal to connect people, people and equipment, people and knowledge. It makes the talent (knowledge) resources, manufacturing resources, financial resources and other resources to share and maximize the value, and the CNC system needs to take on the important role of the link bridge between human and manufacturing resources.