Acknowledge First and foremost, we appreciate the chance of doing this thesis work, which is given by School of Industrial Engineering and Management。

We are also grateful to our parents for their uncountable support both in finance and engagement。

We would like to show our deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr。 Amir Rashid, a respectable, responsible and resourceful professor, who has provided us with valuable guidance in every stage of the study of this thesis。 Without his enlightening instruction, impressive kindness and patience, we could not have completed our thesis。 His keen and vigorous academic observation enlightens us not only in this thesis but also in our future study。79610

We shall extend our thanks to Mr。Ove Bayard and Mr。Per Johansson for all their kindness and help。 We would also like to thank all our teachers who have helped us to develop the fundamental and essential academic competence。 Our sincerest appreciation also goes to the professors and students from KTH Royal institute of technology, who participated this study with great cooperation。

Last but not least, we’d like to thank all our friends, for their encouragement and support。

Abstract

In today’s industry, the competitive market, the short life time of the products and rapid change in customer demand forms a big trend of appearance of new manufacturing system。 Reconfigurable Machine Tool (RMT) is a kind of solution for future machining systems, thus it can not only provide customized solutions to the operation requirements but also is cost-effective。

Thethesis aims to create and implement methodology of RMT design for manufacturing industry。

The methodology is introduced and extended according to the five principals of modular machine tool design。 The methodology will be applied step by step herein so as to make the methodology more clear。

First of all is to get the concept or process requirements from the customer。 The customer requires three reconfigurable part families for a high speed milling application including tables, spindles, and cutters。 In this case, to fulfill customer’s requirements and concept, the dual spindle (Multi-tool) RMT is selected as an example to interpret the RMT design methodology。

Secondly, the most important point in methodology of RMT design is to analyze the valuable proposal of the four principles of modular design based on extensive experience。 This work turns the four principles, separation, and unification (standardization), connection, and adaptation, to practical design methodology。 Based on the classical four principles, the principle of reusability is an addition principal in consider of zero waste concept。

In order to perform the RMT design methodology effectively, it is necessary to complement the advantages of the reconfiguration in dual spindle RMT design  and the reconfiguration for other part families in according to the RMT design methodology。

A final step utilizes computer software to model the configuration in 3 dimensions。 And evaluations can be discussed in Degree of Freedom (DOF), stiffness analysis and number of modules。

Content

Acknowledge II

Abstract III

Abbreviations VI

Introduction 1

Reconfigurable Machine Tools 4

1。1What is The Reconfigurable Machine Tools (RMTs) 4

1。2Types of Reconfigurable Machine Tools (RMTs) 5

1。2。1Modular Machine Tools RMT 5

1。2。2Multi-Tool RMT 6

1。2。3Arch-Type RMT