CNC machine tools have been around for more than half a century. They have gone from digital control and direct digital control to computer numerical control that is commonly used in manufacturing today. Looking to the future, what is its development trend?
The basis of numerical control technology is the programmable automation of the processing equipment. The machine tool can automatically run according to the set program, so that the operator and the processing equipment can be separated in time and space, giving the machine tool and the processing system certain intelligence and autonomy. The basic trajectory is the interaction, processing and integration of information. It can be predicted that in the next 3 to 5 years, machine tool manufacturers and R&D institutions in various countries will compete for the commanding heights in the following fields:

• 1. Virtual machine tool. Through the development of mechatronics, hardware and software integration simulation technology, to achieve the improvement of machine tool design level and performance.
• 2. Green machine tool. Emphasize energy saving and emission reduction, and strive to minimize the environmental load of the production system.
• 3. Smart machine tools improve the reliability, processing accuracy and comprehensive performance of the production system.
• 4. e-machine tool improves the independence of the production system and the ability to interact with users and managers, making the machine tool not only a processing device, but also a node in the enterprise management network.

Among them: green machine tools will become a research hotspot. The so-called green machine tool is a working mother machine that converts blanks into parts. In use, it not only consumes energy, but also generates solid, liquid and gas wastes, causing direct or indirect pollution to the working environment and the natural environment.
The author believes that green machine tools should have the following characteristics: First, the main parts of machine tools are made of recycled materials. 2. The weight and volume of the machine are reduced by more than 50%. 3. The power consumption is reduced by 30% to 40% through measures such as reducing mobile quality and reducing idling power. 4. All kinds of wastes generated during use are reduced by 50% to 60%, ensuring a basically pollution-free working environment. 5. 100% of machine tool materials can be recycled after scrapping.
According to statistics, the power used to remove metal during the use of the machine is only about 25%, and various losses and auxiliary functions account for most of it. The first measure for machine tool greening is to build a machine tool with ecological benefits by significantly reducing the weight of the machine tool and reducing the required driving power. The green machine tool proposes a brand-new concept: greatly reducing the weight of the machine tool and saving materials; at the same time reducing the energy consumption when the machine tool is used.
The traditional design concept of the machine tool is “only sufficient stiffness can guarantee the machining accuracy, and to increase the stiffness, the weight of the machine tool must be increased”. Therefore, 80% of the weight of existing machine tools is used to “guarantee” the rigidity of the machine tool, while only 20% is used to meet the needs of machine tool kinematics.
The green machine tool is to reduce the weight of the moving parts of the machine tool on the premise of ensuring the rigidity of the machine tool, so as to achieve the purpose of saving materials and saving energy. There are three ways to achieve this goal: through structural optimization or the use of new structures to achieve light weight; using new materials or composite materials to achieve light weight; using adaptive compensation technology to improve the accuracy of machine tools.