Retrofitting a Conventional Lathe Machine Type BV20-1L to a Semi CNC Lathe Machine

Retrofit is one of methods to apply new technology and functionality in improving the performance and security of outdated systems. The application of retrofit can be done on conventional lathes because the machining process takes a long time. Furthermore in the operation of this conventional lathe the results of the work piece depend on the ability of the operator so the results are less consistent. Therefore, there is an innovation to this lathe that can control it automatically. The process of retrofitting this lathe used two stepper motors to move the carriage on the X axis (diameter feeding) and Z (depth of cut). The stepper motor is driven by TB6600 driver module that will be controlled via raspberry pi 3 B+ with python programming language. The Control and monitoring process of cut tool movements can be done through the interface that has been created using the LabVIEW 2020 application. There were two tests conducted, namely step work piece feeding testing and average total delay testing. Testing of the feeding of the work piece is carried out using the type of aluminum material as work piece. Based on the results of the test of the feeding of the work piece called Step, it came to the conclusion that the accuracy rate on the X axis is 99.37% and on the Z axis is 98.68%. The different accuracy rate is caused by the mechanical backlash and the quality of DDA program. Testing on the delay time process depicts that the average delay value is around 11.7 seconds.