Development of a Hybrid Table System (Combination of the Rolling Guideway and the Slideway)

Recently, rolling guideways have been actively applied to the machine tool tables because of their low friction and ease of maintenance. The weak point of this guideway is, however, the low damping ability which causes the chatter vibration during machining. In this study, a new type of table system is developed by combining the rolling guideway with the slideway. The motion of the table is guided by the rolling guideway while the damping force is given by the sliding units. The contact force between the guideway and the sliding shoe of sliding unit can be varied by adjusting the charged voltage to the electric magnets installed in the sliding shoe. The dynamic characteristics of the developed table system are analyzed by means of the impulse force method, and the effect of the sliding unit of the damping ability of the table system is evaluated.