DYNAMIC ANALYSIS AND COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT DESIGNS OF MILLING MACHINE BEDS MADE OF MINERAL CASTING

Machine-tools represent a fundamental area of interest in engineering. More and more machine-tool builders have started to use composite materials, with an emphasis on a class of polymer concrete called mineral casting that is used in producing structural components such as beds, columns, tables, portals etc. The paper presents a simplified three axes milling machine bed designed by the author and a series of numerical analyses which simulate the behavior of the component when subjected to the vibrations caused by the machining process. Four different versions  of bed designs are studied in order to assess several common shapes. Ribbing comes out as a good compromise between cost and performance, both being important metrics.