Empirical Study of the Power Efficiency of Various Machining Processes

Machining is one of the most widely used subtractive processes, and many studies have reported methods to improve the quality, productivity, and effectiveness of the process. Moreover, in recent years, energy efficiency has become an increasingly important consideration, largely as a result of new legislation and standardization in response to environmental concerns. However, the analysis of the energy efficiency of machine tools is not straightforward because of the complexity of the components and process. This study compared the power efficiency of various machining processes at different scales. Here, power efficiency is defined as the ratio of the process power to the total power consumption, and it was calculated using experimental results from conventional milling, micro-scale drilling, and brushing. The calculated power efficiency is compared for the processes reported here, as well as with selected published data. We found that the power efficiency varied regardless of machining scales or specific energy consumed, and also can vary widely in terms of the peripheral devices used. Moreover, for the case of laser-assistant machining, the present power efficiency metric decreased as the cutting load decreased. Therefore, it is need to consider the effect of the surrounding environment and effectiveness of machining, and suggestions were shown for the concept of novel power efficiency.