Development of Hexapod-based machine tool

Machine tools with parallel structures have been the subject of discussion for a while now. Users are still largely unaware of the advantages offered by these new machine structures. This paper describes the design and variants of parallel-structured machine tools. Different design variants are compared with regard to the load of the structures and the singularity. Starting out from the requirements of die and mold making, this paper presents the development of an hexapod machine tool prototype. The paper is finishing with a processing simulation and a outlook for further investigations.