China has made high-end machine tools with an accuracy of 4μm, repeatable positioning of 2μm, and motion acceleration of 2G!

China has made high-end machine tools with an accuracy of 4μm, repeatable positioning of 2μm, and motion acceleration of 2G!
When we hold exquisite and thin mobile phones, when we take high-speed and convenient high-speed trains and airplanes, we rarely connect these common life scenes with the machine tool industry. However, the fact is that machine tools, the "machine for making machines", are also the "important weapon of the country" related to the improvement of comprehensive national strength.
Although China's machine tool industry continues to grow, it is followed by many difficulties such as the intensification of international technology blockade and bottlenecks in independent research and development. Especially high-end machine tools involved in important fields such as aerospace and aerospace are still controlled by others. The development of the industry is faced with the problem of "big but not strong". "dilemma.
Creating the Chinese’s own high-end machine tools has become an urgent “proposition of the times” that needs to be addressed.
At the recently held China (Beijing) International Machine Tool Exhibition (CIMT2021), the "High-speed Vertical Five-Axis Machining Center VMC40U" jointly developed by the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (hereinafter referred to as SIMT) and Qinchuan Machine Tool Group attracted attention as soon as it was unveiled. caught the attention of the industry. This school-enterprise team, composed of Shanghai Polytechnic teachers and Qinchuan engineers, took only two years to transform domestic machine tools, catching up with and surpassing the technical level of similar international machine tools. This "breakout battle" awakened the domestic Manufacturing potential of traditional industries.
Be a new “trend maker” in the machine tool industry
The technical gap between the existing high-precision machine tools in China is not large. High-precision manufacturing can be achieved only by increasing the weight. However, high-speed machine tools require the machine tool structure to be light in weight, which will lead to accidents during high-speed operation. Vibration, high accuracy cannot be achieved. Therefore, it is difficult to satisfy both high-precision and high-speed modes at the same time.
Yan Jianbo, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Qinchuan Group, once said that if machine tools can be vividly described in one sentence, it is: from a distance, they are mechanical products, from a close look, they are handicrafts, and if you look closely, behind them are mathematics, physics, chemistry, etc. Application of basic subjects. For example, the thermal characteristics of CNC machine tools have an important impact on machining accuracy. The thermal characteristics here involve knowledge of physics.
"Machine tools in the aerospace field can only rely on imports. Two years ago, we wanted to purchase a 'rotary table' for machine tools from a German company, but we were directly rejected." The team leader in charge of this research and development project, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Polytechnic Institute Professor Li Haolin said, "This also inspired our fighting spirit. We must build one ourselves and no longer look at other people's faces." Coincidentally, at that time, Qinchuan Group also aimed at providing services to the aviation industry. "High-precision machine tools" are not about quantity, but about making the world's top machine tools. So the Shanghai Polytechnic team and Qinchuan engineers hit it off and started research and development.

Professor Li Haolin guided the team’s experiments. Photo courtesy of interviewee
In the view of Professor Li Haolin, the research and development process is also a matter of course. Shanghai University of Science and Technology is good at design and research and development, while Qin Chuan is proficient in manufacturing and assembly. In the end, the "High-speed Vertical Five-Axis Machining Center VMC40U" they created became my country's first high-end CNC machine tool with a motion acceleration of 2G, achieving a positioning accuracy of 4 microns and a repeatable positioning accuracy of 2 microns. In terms of accuracy and high-speed technical indicators All have reached the world-class level, and this school-enterprise cooperation R&D team will also become a new "trend maker" in the machine tool industry.
Success comes from the "logical method" that has been repeatedly polished
"Major structural changes to machine tools must be made with caution." This is an "unwritten" rule in the machine tool industry. From an enterprise perspective, a set of molds can easily cost hundreds of thousands, and if it is handed over to universities with “no practical experience” to research and transform, the cost of trial and error is too high. However, universities that are proficient in scientific research methods have no place to conduct experiments to prove their methodology, and they can only talk on paper. This has become one of the obstacles to school-enterprise industry-university-research cooperation.
In 2015, more than 1,000 machine tools of Shenyang Machine Tool Group were in urgent need of solving vibration problems. Group Chairman Guan Xiyou approached Shanghai University of Science and Technology. After three months of machine tool testing and modification, Professor Li Haolin's team effectively solved the machine tool vibration problem. Since this cooperation, the two parties have reached a consensus on continued cooperation and jointly established the Shenyang Machine Tool-University of Shanghai for Science and Technology i5 Intelligent Machine Tool Joint Laboratory. Shenyang Machine Tool Group directly sent a team of engineers to "station" in the school laboratory, and students from the School of Mechanical Engineering also took advantage of the winter and summer vacations to go to Shenyang Machine Tool Factory for practical operations, greatly improving the efficiency of design, R&D, and production.
In addition to strengthening cooperation with factories, Professor Li Haolin also led the team to conduct research and study. "Shanghai University of Science and Technology is next to the Shanghai Machine Tool Factory. I used to go to the factory three or four times a week. I often met factory leaders on the factory road. They would tease me and say that 'Shanghai University employees' are here again. "Li Haolin recalled with a smile.
In addition, whenever he has time and opportunity, Li Haolin will also study at leading foreign research institutes such as the University of Stuttgart in Germany. “Only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you be invincible. We will learn from foreign teams. If they encounter problems with a certain machine tool, take a look. How they solve it and what they are studying and focusing on helps us develop ideas and compete with the international level."
It is in this process of close cooperation with enterprises and non-stop research and learning that Li Haolin's team gradually transformed from providing technical services and technical consultation to enterprises to verifying machine tool design methods. Finally, after repeated polishing, it formed a model that can withstand the test of the industry. The "scientific method" has injected "core strength" into the "high-speed vertical five-axis machining center VMC40U" project unveiled at the exhibition.
Li Haolin said that next, the team will set its goal to establish "industry standards" in order to optimize the existing machine tool design method and make it a unified reference standard for the domestic machine tool industry, thereby promoting the overall improvement of the quality of domestic machine tools. .