Tool Positioning for Noncircular Cutting With Lathe

This paper presents the design and implementation of a digital controller for a lathe to machine workpieces with noncircular cross sections. Noncircular cutting is accomplished by controlling the radial tool position in the direction normal to the surface of workpiece. A discrete time model for the tool carriage in the radial direction is obtained by a least squares method applied to input and output data. The model is used for designing digital feedback and feedforward controllers. The zero phase error tracking control algorithm is applied as a feedforward control law for positioning of the tool along desired time varying signals. The effectiveness of the proposed controller is demonstrated by experiment and simulation.