At the Department of Wood Science and Technology of the Biotechnical Faculty, a 3-axis CNC wood router has been constructed. The thesis describes an implementation of an additional, 4th axis, in combination with a turning operation. The first additional operation enabling this is CNC turning, and the 2nd is 4-axis routing. Main shaft is driven by a 2-pole asynchronous electric motor used for turning, and a servo motor with a simple gearbox for positioning. The asynchronous motor is driven by a frequency converter regulating the speed of the motor. Between the servo motor and the drive belt, there is a planetary reduction unit for speed reduction/torque increase. Constant axial force on the mounting chuck is provided by a pneumatic cylinder. The entire machine has been modelled/blueprinted using the SolidWorks CAD package, which is also used for modelling the objects that are to be produced using the machine. The CAM program used is SolidCAM, which is available as an upgrade of SolidWorks. The CNC control programme used by the machine is Mach3. We have found that it is possible to extend the capabilities of a CNC machine with some additional operations relatively simply and without much expense.
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