Under the background of automation equipment industry 4.0 and "Internet +", the future development and competition of CNC systems have undergone new reforms. More competition in China will focus on how to use the advantages of the Internet to obtain the computing power of CNC systems. Unlimited expansion, and through the understanding of emerging business models such as the sharing economy, rationally creating functions that are compatible with it has become an important trend in the future.

1. Intelligent requirements of CNC system

The demand for intelligent CNC machine tools

From the perspective of manufacturing technology itself, the intelligence of the CNC system is carried out in four aspects as shown in Figure 4: operation intelligence, non-standard processing automation, maintenance intelligence and management intelligence.

In the process of machining, the machine tool further improves the performance of the machine tool by using various sensors, with the help of real-time monitoring and compensation technology. Japanese companies such as Mazak and Okuma have provided many advanced technologies in terms of intelligence, such as spindle vibration suppression and intelligent anti-collision functions. Shenyang Machine Tool i5 CNC provides features such as feature-based programming and graphical diagnostics.

2. CNC system based on cloud platform

On the basis of cloud computing, the University of Stuttgart in Germany proposed the "glocalized" cloud CNC system. Its concept, as can be seen from the figure, the human-machine interface, CNC core and PLC of the traditional CNC system are all moved to the cloud, and only the local For the servo drive and safety control of the machine tool, communication modules, middleware and Ethernet interfaces are added to the cloud to communicate with the local CNC system through the router. In this way, there is a "Digital Twin" of each machine tool in the cloud, and the configuration, optimization and maintenance of the machine tool can be carried out in the cloud, which greatly facilitates the use of the machine tool. Realize the so-called Controller as a Service CaaS (Control as a Service).

The concept of cloud CNC system

A digital twin is a digital mirror image of a specific physical object, including design specifications and engineering models that describe its geometry, materials, components, and behavior, as well as production and operational data specific to the entity it represents. and new and accurate real-time mirroring of state, including shape, position, state and motion. The digital twin of a machine tool can exist in multiple information domains at the same time, and has multiple "avatars". It undertakes the role of solution demonstration, structure and function verification, and performance parameter optimization in the product design stage; it participates in the completion of layout planning, System optimization, simulation and other work; processing state judgment and prediction in the running phase, to realize intelligent control and preventive maintenance of machine tools, until the end of product scrapping, and even exist after that.

3. Internet CNC system and its ecosystem

Under the Internet conditions, the CNC system must become a transparent intelligent terminal that can generate data, making the manufacturing process and its entire life cycle "data transparent". Through the "transparency" of the intelligent terminal, the transparency of the manufacturing process is realized, which not only facilitates the processing of parts, but also generates real-time data for management, finance, production and sales, and realizes equipment, production planning, design, manufacturing, supply chain, manpower, Resource integration and information interconnection in a series of production and management links such as finance, sales, and inventory.

Provides data dictionary mapping for different devices to unify the access methods of different devices. The cloud APP can subscribe to various events and data information through standard service or parameter naming to achieve unified device access. End users can install APPs on different terminals to implement various Internet applications on the device. The production capacity collaboration ecosystem established under this platform has been connected to thousands of machine tools, and about 2,500 machines are currently connected online daily.

The intelligence and networking of machine tool numerical control system is the general trend. Based on the concept of CPS, the development of intelligent numerical control system is guided, and the intelligence of numerical control machine tools is realized from the perspective of the whole system through the network and platform.

The development of intelligence is a gradual process. At present, there are different understandings of intelligence, and there is no universally applicable solution. The innovation and real implementation of the business model of CNC machine tools must depend on the intelligence and networking of the CNC system. The future CNC system will increasingly penetrate the influence of the Internet into the manufacturing process. Through the accumulation, transmission and mining of data, more and more intelligent manufacturing capabilities will be born. Transparency and sharing will help manufacturing The industry has brought earth-shaking changes.