An open CNC system based on EtherCAT network

The introduction of Fieldbus technology makes the performance of the CNC system greatly improved. However with the development of mechanical engineering technology, equipment manufacturing, aerospace and defense industry and other industries for high speed and high precision machining requirements is greatly improved. Limited by transmission speed and bandwidth, traditional Fieldbus has been difficult to meet those demands. In order to solve this problem and improve the machining speed and accuracy of the open CNC system, EtherCAT network is used in this research. In this paper, the architecture of the open CNC system is given first, its hardware is designed based on two processors architecture and its software is designed adopting the idea of hierarchy and modularization. Then EtherCAT is introduced in the open CNC system and its related design is described in detail. Finally, a complicated workpiece is machined by a five-axis machining center to showcase the machining precision of the prototype CNC system.