Technical term for a type of CNC machining centres and routers with the working spindle and other units attached to a cantilever.
Construction
This technical type has its origins in the mechanical routers and today is more used for small, not too heavy machines. The advantages are a space-saving design, high flexibility (due to this construction one side is open, so bigger workpieces can be put on the table) and a cost-effective construction. Structurally-dependent the rigidity continuously decreases to the end of the cantilever. Therefore this type of design has its limits where large workpieces should be processed with high precision and high power.
Variants
- Fix cantilever and moving table in X and Y (so-called cross table, obsolete in the woodworking industry)
- Cantilever moving in one axis and table moving in the other axis. This type of machine can rarely be found. Occasionally it is used for machining centers, which are integrated in through-feed production lines. Here the workpiece-feeding movement at the same time is the movement of the X-axis.
- Fix table and cantilever support moving in X, carrying the cantilever. At the end of the cantilever the aggregates are fixely mounted. The movement of the Y-axis is done by the complete cantilever moving on the support. (Obsolete since the early 1990s due to the high space consumption)
- Fixed table and complete cantilever moving in X. The Y-movement is realized by the movement of the working spindle or aggregate support at the cantilever. Since this is the most compact version without disadvantages this is the common type of cantilever machines today.
- This design can be differentiated between single cantilever and double cantilever with an aggregates support inbetween
Special type since the early 2000s
The cantilever at its end is stabilized by a support moving on prismatic guides, looking like a moving gantry. This allows a higher rigidity of the cantilever with the same material cross section.
See also:
