Genetic Optimization for the Design of a Machine Tool Slide Table for Reduced Energy Consumption

Reducing the energy consumption of machine tools is important from a sustainable manufacturing perspective. Much of a machine tool's environmental impact comes from the energy it consumes during its use phase. To move elements of a machine tool requires energy, and if the mass of those elements can be reduced, then the required energy would be reduced. Therefore, this paper proposes a genetic algorithm to design lightweight machine tools to reduce their energy consumption. This is specifically applied to optimize the structure of a machine tool slide table, which moves throughout the use of the machine tool, with the goal of reducing its mass without sacrificing its stiffness. The table is envisioned as a sandwich panel, and the proposed genetic algorithm optimizes the core of the sandwich structure while considering both mass and stiffness. A finite element model is used to assess the strength of the proposed designs. Finite element results indicate that the strength of the lightweight tables is comparable with a traditional table design.