Five-axis machine tool, the full name is five-axis linkage machine tool, refers to a machine tool with at least three linear coordinates and two rotation coordinates. In order to process the needs of complex workpieces, sometimes the five axes will be further extended to seven axes, eleven axes, thirteen axes, etc., the basic principle is similar, and sometimes they are unified into the list of five-axis machine tools.

The so-called linear coordinates refer to the coordinates of three dimensions up and down, left and right, front and back, and traditional machine tools can do it, for example, when some milling machines are processing, the workpiece moves back and forth, and the milling cutter moves up and down, so that two coordinate axes can come out.

The rotation coordinates are a little more complicated, which means that the workpiece or tool rotates around a certain axis during machining, so that a specific surface can be machined on the workpiece.

In fact, the human hand is the most typical five-axis machining system, which can move back and forth, left and right, up and down, and at the same time can rotate around each joint to a certain extent, so the human hand can complete a variety of complex work. The craftsman's carving on wood is a multi-axis machining process, which is impossible to achieve with traditional machine tools.

With the development of computer technology, developed countries have developed five-axis machine tools, which can use computers to control the relationship between various axes, so as to complete the dexterous work similar to human hands.

In the 80s of the last century, five-axis machine tools belonged to high-tech products that were restricted from Western developed countries to Eastern countries. The famous Toshiba incident in military history was due to the fact that the Toshiba Company secretly exported several five-axis machine tools to the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union used them to process submarine propulsion propellers, which greatly reduced the noise of submarines. After this incident, Toshiba was severely sanctioned by the United States.

In addition to the military field, in the civilian field, whether it has five-axis machining capability is also one of the important indicators to measure the industrial level. Complex molds, engine blocks, marine crankshafts, and more all need to be machined using five-axis machines. Until the beginning of the 21st century, China began to gradually form its own five-axis machine tool design and production capacity, to around 2010, a large number of Chinese-made five-axis equipment has been able to achieve import substitution, and at the same time can be exported to Western developed countries.

At this point in the early 80s of the last century, Populus euphratica was able to imitate the effect of five-axis machining on ordinary machine tools through mathematical simulation, which is a commendable thing.

Lin Zhenhua couldn't help but want to shout: What kind of spirit is this? This is the greatest cottage spirit!

Out of this understanding, Lin Zhenhua readily agreed to Populus euphratica's experimental request and immediately put it into practice.

The first step of the Populus euphratica experiment is to transform the original machine tool, from two axes to four axes, and the linkage between several axes needs to be controlled by computer chips. The workpiece designed by Populus euphratica is large in size and cannot be processed with an ordinary universal milling machine, so a gantry milling machine must be used.

Naturally, the factory could not allow Lin Zhenhua and others to unload the gantry milling machine for numerical control transformation, and Hu Yang's design did not try to do so. The method he took is not to change the original structure of the machine tool, but only to install the fixture on the original structure, the object of the control chip is the fixture, after removing the fixture, the machine tool is still the original state, so that there is no conflict with the provisions of the factory.

Wei Jingwen is also very interested in this scientific research, although he is engaged in electronics, but also very aware of the significance of five-axis machine tools for the industrial system. It is the last semester before the college entrance examination, Wei Jingwen's work in school is extremely busy, but as long as he can spare time, he will ride a bicycle and fly to the Hanhua factory, discuss with Lin Zhenhua and Hu Yang, and even roll up his sleeves and follow Lin Zhenhua and others to explore on the machine tool with one hand.

These three people are a very perfect combination, Lin Zhenhua has advanced concepts, Hu Yang has an extremely solid foundation in machinery, and Wei Jingwen is an excellent electronic engineer. The three stinkers got together and pondered for a month, and a new era of wooden oxen and flowing horses finally took shape.

Peng Gang and several other senior technicians were also invited to participate in this research group, and they put forward many valuable opinions on the design of the simulated five-axis system based on their own practical experience. At the end of the stage, when it comes to converting the design drawings into real objects, the role of several veteran workers is even more significant, and many very precise control components can only be processed with their technology.

After the equipment transformation was completed, Lin Zhenhua took several old workers to install fixtures and other accessories on the gantry milling machine, and Wei Jingwen personally connected and debugged the circuit. Zhao Yongqun brought the blank of the workpiece from the sand turning workshop, which was made by Hu Yang himself, and then cast by the sand turning workers in the sand turning workshop.

"Alright, let's get started." Hu Yang announced.

Three old workers stepped forward, facing the process drawings, and loaded the blanks on the fixture, and then, Peng Gang presided over the work, and the lathe Zhou Houcheng and fitter Sun Changyuan assisted on the side.

The motor whined, the workpiece was pushed by the fixture, slowly moving forward, the milling cutter rotated rapidly, cutting off pieces of fine chips from the surface of the blank, and the cutting fluid flowed out of the nozzle, poured on the cutting surface, and brought the chips into the waste tank.

A wonderful sight appeared, and the fixture, guided by the instructions issued by the Z80 chip, began to do all kinds of incredible movements. The milling cutter is about to cut to a certain position, but the workpiece automatically rotates, sending another position to the cutter edge of the milling cutter, and a beautiful curved machining surface is slowly displayed in front of everyone's eyes.

"It's amazing!" Zhou Houcheng and Sun Changyuan clapped their hands, Peng Gang's face was full of nervousness and seriousness, but a strange look of joy was clearly flowing in his eyes.

"Okay, change the next position!" Hu Yang shouted.

Before his words fell, Sun Changyuan had already stepped forward, skillfully loosened the hexagonal screws on the fixture, and adjusted the workpiece to a position. Several workers were busy with gauges, calipers and other tools to make sure that there was no deviation in the position of the workpiece, and then took a step back and let Peng Gang start the milling operation again.

The processing work lasted for six hours, and everyone was excited and did not feel tired. Yang Xin and Qin Ying took charge of the logistics and brought delicious meals to everyone. As the technicians and workers ate, their eyebrows fluttered and they talked about this epoch-making processing experiment.

"How's it going, did it work?" Zhu Tiejun appeared behind everyone at some point, and greeted everyone happily.

Lin Zhenhua and others had to report to the factory in advance because this experiment did not have any visible benefits for the factory, so the factory said that all experimental expenses, including overtime pay for workers, could not be reimbursed by the factory. Lin Zhenhua didn't care about this, he included this experiment in the research and development plan of the labor service company, and all the funds were paid from the labor service company.

Although he could not contribute money, Zhu Tiejun still gave moral support to the experiment. He didn't know what five-axis linkage was, but he felt that something that could make Lin Zhenhua and Hu Yang so obsessed with it must have some meaning. Seeing the joy of everyone around a finished workpiece, he couldn't help but come forward to share everyone's joy.

"Director Zhu, look at it, this is the workpiece we just processed." Peng Gang excitedly reported to Zhu Tiejun.

"What is this for?" Zhu Tiejun didn't know this thing either, it looked really weird.

Lin Zhenhua smiled: "This is a toy, just to test whether our simulated five-axis system is effective." Now it seems that our experiment was a complete success. ”

"This thing is very delicately processed." Zhu Tiejun stroked the surface on the workpiece, feeling the wonderful streamlined shape, "What you said about five-axis linkage is to be able to process such a complex surface?" ”

"If we have enough time, we can use this machine to make a statue of Venus." Lin Zhenhua said with a smile.

"That's right, Director Zhu. You don't know, if in the past, we could only do it by hand to process such a surface, but now it's okay, with this machine from Kobayashi, it's much easier. Zhou Houcheng was also full of excitement, as a worker, he knew too well the difficulty of such complex surface processing, and he never thought that such a surface could be produced in his own hands.

"Well, that's pretty good." Zhu Tiejun also understood a little, but he still had to ask: "Does this kind of technology help us in production?" Kobayashi, are you planning to produce any complex parts? ”

Lin Zhenhua shook his head awkwardly and said, "At present, it shouldn't be of much help. This can only be regarded as a technical reserve, maybe one day, in case ......"

Hu Yang said depressedly: "This technology is one of the most advanced processing technologies in the world, but at present, our factory really can't use it." Hopefully, though, it will be useful one day. ”

Zhu Tiejun nodded and said, "It's okay, be prepared." Otherwise, this artifact will be placed in the office of your labor service company as your honor. ”