Citation: Tang, T.; Luo, H.; Tang, W.;
Zhang, J. An Equilibrium
Decision-Making Approach for
Cutting Parameters of a Novel
Five-Axis Hybrid Kinematic
Machining Unit. Machines 2022, 10,
824. https://doi.org/10.3390/
machines10090824
Academic Editors: Yuansong Qiao
and Seamus Gordon
Received: 5 August 2022
Accepted: 15 September 2022
Published: 19 September 2022
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Article
An Equilibrium Decision-Making Approach for Cutting
Parameters of a Novel Five-Axis Hybrid Kinematic
Machining Unit
Tengfei Tang
1,2
, Haiwei Luo
3
, Weimin Tang
2
and Jun Zhang
1,2,
*
1
The State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmissions, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
2
School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350116, China
3
Capital Aerospace Machinery Corporation Limited, Beijing 100076, China
* Correspondence: zhang_jun@fzu.edu.cn
Abstract:
To fully disclose the machining potential of a newly developed five-axis hybrid kinematic
machining unit (HKMU), an equilibrium decision-making approach for cutting parameters is pro-
posed. With this proposition, a response surface method-based surrogate model is developed to
describe the mapping relationships between three design objectives and five cutting parameters. A
multi-objective optimization model is further established to find feasible Pareto solutions to cutting
parameters. Based on this, the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS)
and engineering decision preferences are adopted to make the final decision of cutting parameters.
To illustrate the application of the proposed approach, a case study is carried out on face milling of
an exemplary HKMU. The equilibrium decisions of three customized machining schemes lead to the
machining duration, the cutting force, and the surface roughness reduction by 44%, 43%, and 9%,
respectively. This result supports that the proposed equilibrium decision-making approach is able to
find the best-compromised solutions for cutting parameters of the HKMU. It is expected that with
minor modifications, the proposed approach can be applied to other multi-axis machining devices
for finding accurate yet efficient cutting parameter solutions.
Keywords:
equilibrium decision-making approach; multi-objective optimization; cutting parameters;
hybrid kinematic machining unit
1. Introduction
Hybrid kinematic machining units (HKMUs) with five-axis machining ability have
been proposed as a kind of supplement to traditional five-axis machine tools and multi-axis
articulated machining robots [
1
–
4
]. From a topological view, an HKMU is constructed as
a serial-parallel hybridized mechanism which may promote the merits and complement
the shortcomings of individual parallel and serial mechanisms [
5
–
7
]. Hence, HKMUs
have been regarded as a promising alternative solution for efficient five-axis machining
in many industrial fields [
8
–
10
]. Examples of commercially successful HKMUs include
the famous Tricept robot [
11
], the Eco-speed machining center [
12
], and the Exechon
machine tool [
13
]. Inspired bythese successful examples, the authors recently proposed a
novel five-axis HKMU by integrating a redundantly actuated parallel manipulator with
two translational sliding gantries [
14
]. Our previous studies indicate that thiskind of
HKMU has the conceptual advantages of compact structure, better dexterity, and a larger
workspace volume ratio [
15
,
16
]. Untilnow, the determination of cutting parameters for
the proposed HKMU was dependent on the user’s engineering experience. Therefore, it is
of great necessity to construct an appropriate decision-making approach to fully disclose
the machining potential and to find the best cutting parameters for the HKMU before it is
employed as a precision machining device.
Machines 2022, 10, 824. https://doi.org/10.3390/machines10090824 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/machines
