Design, manufacture, and development of a novel automatic scraping machine

Scraping is a basic and key technique for high-precision machine tools. The accumulated tolerance from a machine tool can be eliminated by scraping. In general, the traditional scraping process is a time-consuming and tedious manual labor. To overcome these shortcomings, a novel automatic scraping machine with efficiency higher than manual scraping that comprise an automatic scraping mechanism, a three-dimensional (3-D) measurement system, a computer program, and a three-axis CNC machine tool has been developed in this study. The self-developed computer program is utilized to automatically determine the scraping location, depth, and pattern of the 3-D surface of a workpiece before scraping and then generate a set of NC codes which is sent to the machine tool to process the scraping motion. Three types of scraping pattern, namely, quadrate, triangular, and plover-shaped pattern, can be produced by the automatic scraping machine. The proposed 3-D measurement system and scraping mechanism can be utilized by the user to easily and precisely obtain, evaluate, and even control the scraping parameters of the workpiece to meet the demanded specifications for maintaining prolonged accuracy life of machine tools.