Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2014) 1e7

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Journal of Cleaner Production

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A method for predicting the energy consumption of the main driving

system of a machine tool in a machining process
Fei Liu a, *, Jun Xie a, Shuang Liu b
a
b

State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China
College of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Chongqing University of Science & Technology, Chongqing 401331, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 17 November 2013
Received in revised form
16 May 2014
Accepted 15 September 2014
Available online xxx

The machining systems that mainly consist of machine tools are numerous and are used in a wide range
of applications in industry, which usually exhibit very low energy efciency; as a result, they have great
potential for energy savings and environmental emissions reduction. To achieve such energy savings, the
prediction of the energy consumption of the machining process has great signicance. Also, it can
provide a decision-support tool for the establishment of an energy consumption quota, the energysaving optimization of cutting parameters, energy efciency evaluation, and so on. Although existing
researches on the energy consumption prediction of machine tools have been performed, a practical
method is still lacking. Therefore, a new method for predicting the energy consumption of the main
driving system of a machine tool in a machining process is proposed. First, a machining process is divided
into three types of periods: start-up periods, idle periods and cutting periods. Second, the energy consumption prediction models for each type of period and the total prediction model for the machining
process are established. Third, by measuring energy consumption data of the start-up and idle processes
at discrete speeds, the functions of the tted curves of the energy consumption of start-up periods and
idle periods are obtained, which enables the energy consumption of the start-up period and the idle
period at any different speed to be predicted. Fourth, using the cutting power calculated based on the
machining parameters and the additional loss coefcients obtained based on the additional loss coefcients equation set, the energy consumption of the cutting periods can be predicted. Finally, the
prediction error analysis model is constructed, and the reasons why the error is not big in the prediction
are expounded. The results of a case study indicate that the method is practical and has good application
prospect.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Machine tool
Energy consumption
Prediction
Machining process

1. Introduction
The machining systems that mainly consist of machine tools are
numerous and are used in a wide range in industries. The total
amount of energy consumption by machining systems in the world
is extremely high. For example, machining in China involves over 7
million machine tools, whose total power is greater than 70 million
kilowatts; this is three times more than the installed capacity of the
Three Gorges Dam, which is the largest hydroelectric power station
of the world (Hu, 2012).
Hu (2012) also demonstrated that the average energy efciency
of machining process is less than 30%. For example, the energy
efciency of a case described by Gutowski et al. (2009) is only 14.8%.
As a result, machining systems have great potential for energy

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 86 23 65104172; fax: 86 23 65105098.

E-mail addresses: iu@cqu.edu.cn, 13908304060@139.com (F. Liu).

savings. According to the analysis of the environmental emissions

of machine tools provided by Gutowski (2009), the CO2 emissions
(calculated by the relevant data of the USA state power grid) corresponding to the annual energy consumption of a 22 kW machine
tool (congured with auxiliary assembly) is equal to that of 61 SUV
automobiles, which indicates that the potential of environmental
emissions reduction of machining systems is also high.
Because the machining systems have great potential for both
energy savings and environmental emissions reduction, the
research on the energy consumption of machine tools and the
machining process has grown rapidly in recent years, with a focus
on the following aspects.
(1) Energy efciency assessment: the US Department of Energy
established an Industrial Assessment Center, which is aimed
at promoting the energy efciency of manufacturing processes and at assessing and researching the energy

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.058
0959-6526/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Liu, F., et al., A method for predicting the energy consumption of the main driving system of a machine tool in a
machining process, Journal of Cleaner Production (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.058

F. Liu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2014) 1e7

consumption and energy efciency of industrial work site

(Industrial Assessment Centers (IACS), 2009).
(2) The design of energy-efcient machine tools: the International Standardization Organization (ISO) is drafting the
document entitled Machine Tools d Environmental evaluation of machine tools dPart 1: Design methodology for
energy-efcient machine tools (ISO/TC 39/SC, 2012), which
proposes a series of design methods and norms of energyefcient machine tools.
(3) Promoting the energy efciency of the machining process:
for example, Mori et al. (2011) analyzed the factors that
affect the energy consumption of machine tools and proposed methods to reduce the power consumption in machine tool operation. Kong et al. (2011) developed a webbased and application programming interface (API) based
process analysis software tools to estimate the energy
consumption of a CNC machine tool operation and to evaluate its environmental impact as a rst step towards a
sustainable manufacturing analysis. Pfefferkorn et al. (2009)
examined the ow of energy in thermally assisted
machining (TAM) in an attempt to determine the benets of
preheating and some efciency metrics are suggested and
used to study the data that have been collected to date. Liu
et al. (2012) proposed a method to achieve the on-site
processing energy efciency. The method will provide support for optimizing the energy efciency of machining
processes.
The above-mentioned studies are signicant, but the studies
primarily refer to the actual machining process, and still lack of a
method which can be used to predict the energy consumption and
energy efciency of machining process before the actual machining
process. The method is signicant, because it is capable of
providing support to promote energy efciency, to set the workpiece energy consumption quota, and to optimize the workpiece
design and process planning for reducing energy consumption.
These signicant contributions of the method are based on our
research on the energy consumption prediction method of
machining processes in recent years.
Some related studies regarding the prediction of energy consumption of the machining process are described below.
Dietmair and Verl (2009) presented a modeling framework for
tool machine energy consumption forecasting. A number of examples were presented on the application of the model for energy
efciency optimization.
Kara and Li (2011) presented an empirical approach to develop
unit process energy consumption models for material removal
processes. The methodology was tested and validated on eight
different CNC turning and milling machines. The presented model
predicted the energy consumption of machining processes with an
accuracy of over 90%.
Diaz et al. (2011) indicated that the machining time dominates
the energy demand for high tare machine tools and provided a
method for characterizing the specic energy of a machine tool as a
function of the process rate. The model allows a product designer to
estimate the manufacturing energy consumption of the production
parts without measuring the power demand directly at the machine tool during operation.
Diaz et al. (2012) reviewed the accuracy of a specic energy
characterization model to predict the electrical energy consumed
by a 3-axis milling machine tool during processing. The energy
characterization model exhibited good accuracy for the part manufactured under varied material removal rate conditions and
highlighted the potential for energy reduction using higher cutting
speeds.

Lau et al. (2008) proposed an energy consumption change

forecasting system using fuzzy logic. The approach can use to help
the manufacturer forecast the energy consumption change in the
plant when certain production input factors are varied.
In conclusion, some signicant research studies on the energy
consumption prediction of machine tools have been performed.
However, to enable practical application of the prediction methods,
the following problems must be solved. First, the existing research
studies mainly refer to energy consumption of a specic machining
process, a practical workpiece machining process consisting of the
start-up periods, idle periods and cutting periods is not fully
considered, which makes it difcult to predict the energy consumption of the entire machining process of a practical workpiece.
Second, the present methods of modeling and simulation based on
the historical production information and database of energy
consumption face difculties in predicting the energy consumption
of new workpieces. Third, the additional load loss in the machining
process is very complicated and cannot be neglected, which
sometimes is more than 20% of the cutting energy, so the prediction
of the additional load loss is a question.
The method proposed in this paper may solve all of the above
problems.
The main driving system (MDS) of a machine tool consists of the
spindle motor and the mechanical transmission system. The energy
consumption of the MDS is the principal part of the energy consumption of a machine tool, and the energy consumption law of the
MDS is the most complicated of all energy consumption. Therefore,
this paper mainly focuses on the energy consumption prediction of
the MDS.

2. The classication of the periods of the energy consumption

in the machining processes of a workpiece
Consider the example of the machining process of the workpiece shown in Fig. 1 to analyze the characteristics of the energy
consumption of the periods in the machining processes of a
workpiece.
The machining process of the workpiece includes the initial
cylindrical surface turning at low speed, followed by the head face
turning at high speed, and nally cutting off the workpiece at low
speed.
The power schematic diagram of the entire machining process is
shown in Fig. 2, which reveals that the process of energy consumption consists of three classes of periods.
start-up period (1)
idle periods (2) (4) (6) (7) (9) (10) (12)
cutting periods (3) (5) (8) (11)
There are different energy consumption characteristics in the
three classes of periods. The power process of start-up periods
changes sharply and the law of energy consumption is complicated

Fig. 1. The blank drawing of the workpiece.

Please cite this article in press as: Liu, F., et al., A method for predicting the energy consumption of the main driving system of a machine tool in a
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F. Liu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2014) 1e7

power loss of the mechanical transmission system when the MDS is

idle.
(3) In the cutting periods, Pc is not equal to zero. As the mechanical transmission system of the machine tool, especially
the spindle, is of high inertia, the angular speed of the motor
and the rotation speed of the transmission system change
slowly during the cutting periods. As a result, the magnetic
eld energy of the motor and the kinetic energy of the
moving parts change slowly, and the value of dEm/dt and dEk/
dt are approximately equal to zero. Therefore, the energy
consumption model of the cutting periods is as follows:

Fig. 2. The power schematic diagram of the machining process of the workpiece.

in this period. The power of the idle periods is nearly constant. The
cutting periods can be divided into constant load cutting, shown as
processes (3) and (5), and variable load cutting, shown as processes
(8) and (11). The power consumption of both forms of cutting is
greater than that in the idle periods.

(4)

In the cutting periods, the power loss Ple of the motor can be
divided into the power loss Pue in the idle periods and the loading
loss Pae in the cutting periods; the power loss Plm of the mechanical
transmission system can be divided into the power loss Pum in the
idle periods and the loading loss Pam in the cutting periods.
Therefore, equation (4) can be changed into equation (5).

Pi Pue Pae Pum Pam Pc Pue Pum Pae Pam Pc

Pi Pu Pa Pc

3. Energy consumption model of the main driving system

during machining processes

(5)

The authors have established a transient energy consumption

model in previous studies (Liu and Liu, 2012):

Pi t Ple t Plm t Pc t dEm =dt dEk =dt

Pi t Ple t Plm t Pc t

(1)

Pi is the input power of the motor. Ple is the power loss of the motor.
Plm is the friction loss power of mechanical transmission system. Pc
is the cutting power. Em is the magnetic eld energy of the motor. Ek
is the sum of the kinetic energy of the mechanical transmission
system and the motor rotor.
The model (1) has different forms corresponding to the three
classes of periods in the machining process.
(1) In the start-up periods, the machine tool does not cut the
workpiece, so the value of the cutting power Pc is zero; when
the rotation speed of the machine tools rise from 0 to the
target speed in a very short time, the magnetic eld energy of
the motor and the kinetic energy of the moving parts change
sharply, and the energy consumption also changes sharply.
Therefore, the energy consumption model of start-up periods is as follows:

where Pa is the total loading loss in MDS.

4. Energy consumption prediction models of a machining
process
According to the analysis described above, the total energy
consumption in the MDS of a machining process can be obtained by
the sum of the energy consumption of all periods. Therefore, the
model framework for predicting the energy consumption of a
machining process is as follows.

XQs

E
j1 sj

XQu

E
j1 uj

XQc

E
j1 cj

(6)

In model framework (6), E denotes the total energy consumption in the MDS of a machining process. Qs, Qu and Qc denote
amount of start-up periods, idle periods and cutting periods,
respectively. The subscript s, u and c denote start-up, unload (idle)
and cutting, respectively.
Next, the energy consumption prediction models and the
methods of three classes of periods are analyzed as follows.
4.1. Energy consumption prediction of the start-up periods

Pi t Ple t Plm t dEm =dt dEk =dt

(2)

(2) In the idle periods, the value of the cutting power Pc is also
zero and the rotation speed of the machine tools is constant,
so the magnetic eld energy of the motor and the kinetic
energy of the moving parts are nearly constant, i.e., the value
of dEm/dt and dEk/dt are both zero. Therefore, the energy
consumption model of the idle periods is as follows:

Pu n Pue n Pum n

(3)

Pu is the idle power or unproductive power of the MDS at a specic

rotation speed. Pue is the power loss of the motor, and Pum is the

According to model (2), if the rotation speed of the start-up

periods is n and the time of the start-up periods is t, then the energy consumption in this stage Es is:

Zt
Es

Zt
Pi tdt

Ple t Plm t dEm =dt dEk =dtdt

(7)

The energy consumption law of the start-up periods is complicated; in particular, dEm/dt and dEk/dt in formula (2) are difcult to
determine. However, when speed is certain, the start-up energy
should be a constant, which means there is a functional relationship between energy consumption and spindle speed, i.e., we can
predict the energy consumption of start-up periods by establishing

Please cite this article in press as: Liu, F., et al., A method for predicting the energy consumption of the main driving system of a machine tool in a
machining process, Journal of Cleaner Production (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.058

F. Liu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2014) 1e7

the energy consumption database or function library beforehand.

The detailed method rst involves, measuring the energy consumption at several selected speeds, followed by constructing the
energy consumption function with speed as variable, and nally
obtaining the prediction model similar to formula (8), which can be
used to predict the energy consumption of any start-up period of
any machining process.

Es x1 n2 x2 n x3

(8)

Pa a1 Pc a2 Pc2
Therefore formula (5) can be rewritten as formula (12).

Pi Pu Pc a2 Pc2 a1 Pc a2 Pc2 1 a1 Pc Pu

(12)

Referring to formula (12), the energy consumption of the cutting

periods can be calculated by the integral of power over time, which
is:

Ec
4.2. Energy consumption prediction of the idle periods

(11)

Ztc 


a2 Pc2 1 a1 Pc Pu dt

According to Fig. 2 and formula (3), we know that idle power

remains steady at a certain rotation speed. Thus, the energy consumption of idle periods can be calculated by multiplying the idle
power by the idle time, that is.

Eu Pu  tu

(9)

Theoretically, the idle power of a certain rotation speed is a

constant, which means an idle energy consumption database or
function library could be constructed beforehand. By having
done so, the energy consumption of the idle power at any speed
can be predicted. The method of constructing the database
and function library for the idle periods is similar to that of the
start-up periods. The function of idle power is in the form of
formula (10).

Pu gn

(10)

4.3. Energy consumption prediction of the cutting periods

4.3.1. Energy consumption prediction model of the cutting periods
According to formula (5), Pa is the load loss of the MDS that is
caused by cutting power Pc. Many experiment results indicate that
Pa can be tted by a quadratic function of the cutting power Pc. As a
result, the load loss Pa can be expressed as formula (11).

Ztc

Ztc
Pc2 dt 1 a1

a2
0

Pc dt tc  Pu

(13)

4.3.2. Methods of obtaining the basic parameters a1, a2 and the

cutting power Pc
Because Pu in formula (13) was obtained by the above method,
the key to energy consumption prediction of the cutting periods is
to obtain the parameters a1, a2 and the cutting power Pc.
(1) Methods of obtaining the basic parameters a1 and a2
Parameters a1 and a2 reect the characteristics of the MDS, and
each transmission chain of machine tools corresponds to different
parameters a1 and a2.
For each transmission chain, taking k(k  2) groups of different
cutting parameters and measuring the corresponding Pi, Pu and Pc,
the equation set can be obtained as follows.

8
2
< Pi1  Pu1 a2 Pc1
1 a1 Pc1
:::
:
2
1 a1 Pck
Pik  Puk a2 Pck

(14)

According to the least squares method:

8
2
2


2
2
>
>
 1 a1 Pc1 Pik  Puk  a2 Pck
 1 a1 Pck
4 Pi1  Pu1  a2 Pc1
>
>
>
>
>
<
v4
0
va
>
2
>
>
>
>
>
v4
>
:
0
v1 a1

(15)

Solving (15)

8
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
P
3
3
2
2
2
2
>

Puj Pcj

Puj Pcj

Pij Pcj
Pij Pcj
Pcj
Pcj
Pcj
Pcj
>
>
>

a


2
>
X
X
X
2
>
>
>
P3 
P2
P4
<
P
>
2
>
Puj Pcj
>
>
>
1

>
1
>
>
:

3
Pcj

cj

cj

3
Pcj

cj

X
X
X
4
4
Pij Pcj

Puj Pcj

Pij Pcj
Pcj
Pcj


X
2
P 2X 4
3
Pcj
Pcj
Pcj 
X

(16)

Please cite this article in press as: Liu, F., et al., A method for predicting the energy consumption of the main driving system of a machine tool in a
machining process, Journal of Cleaner Production (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.058

F. Liu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2014) 1e7

(2) Methods of calculating the cutting power Pc

error of the energy consumption prediction can be calculated by

formula (20).

The cutting power can be calculated by referring to cutting

manuals. Here, we adopt the method by calculating the cutting
force that is associated with the cutting depth ap, feed rate f, and
cutting speed vc according to the literature (Editorial Board of
Mechanical Engineering Manual, 1997); the resulting calculating
formula of the cutting force is as follows.

error



P

PQu
PQc
 Qs

 j1 DEsj j1 DEuj j1 DEcj 


E0

error

jE  E0 j
E0

(20)

According to models (6) and (19) and the formula (20), we can
calculate the error analysis model as:


1
0


Z tcj 

P

PQu
P c B
 Qs
C
2
t
a
dt
tuj DPuj Q
DP

DP

a
DP

 j1 DEsj j1
A
@
2
1
cj
uj
cj
cj
j1


0



(21)

E0

DEsj, DEuj, and DEcj denote the energy consumption prediction deFc

x
n
CFc apFc f yFc vc Fc KFc

(17)

In formula (17), CFc, xFc, yFc, nFc, and KFc are obtained from the
look-up tables in the manual.
The cutting power is given by the following.

Pc

Fc  vc
60

(18)

4.4. Total energy consumption prediction model of the MDS

After predicting the energy consumption of all periods, the total
energy consumption prediction model of the MDS can be obtained
based on the model framework (6) as follows.

Qs 
X

Qu 
 X

x1 n2j x2 nj x3
Puj  tuj

j1

j1

3
2
Ztcj 
Qc

X


7
6
a2j Pc2 1 a1j Pc Puj dt 5

4
j1

(19)

5. Error analysis
5.1. Error analysis model
When E represents the predicted energy consumption of
0
the MDS and E represents the actual energy consumption, the
Table 1
Relevant parameters of the CNC lathe.
Type: C2-6136HK/1
Speed range of low gear (rpm): 0e1000
Speed range of high gear (rpm): 300e2100
Main motor rated power (kW): 5.5

viation of the start-up periods, the idle periods, and the cutting
periods, respectively.
5.2. Error analysis
(1) The degree of prediction deviation of the start-up periods
and the idle periods mainly depends on the accuracy of the
database. Because the database is obtained by measurement
on the practical machine tool, the deviation is small.
(2) Comparing to the prediction deviation of the start-up periods and those of the idle periods, the prediction deviation
of the cutting periods is relatively high. However, the method
mainly focuses on the total machining processes of a workpiece which usually contains rough machining, semi nish
machining and nish machining, the average cutting energy
consumption takes a part of the total energy consumption,
and the proportion is usually less than 30% on statistical
average. As a result, the average degree of prediction deviation of the cutting periods does not signicantly affect the
total energy consumption prediction error of the MDS.
(3) In a machining process, various types of random factors may
appear. However, the effects of these random factors will
cancelled out to a certain degree, so the prediction error is
little inuenced by the random factors.
(4) Because the motions of CNC machine tools are strictly
controlled by the NC code, the time consumption of the idle
periods and the cutting periods can be accurately obtained
from the NC code, which improves the accuracy of energy
consumption prediction.
6. Case study
To verify the practicability and the accuracy of the energy consumption prediction method, it is applied to predict energy consumption in the MDS of a CNC lathe (C2-6136HK/1) in a machining

Table 3
Machining steps and parameters.
Table 2
Information of the cutters and blank material.
Type of cutter 1: 90 cylindrical-cutter
Material of cutter 1: YT15
Type of cutter 2: MGMN400-M cut-off tool
Material of cutter 2: NC3020
Blank material: 45 steel

Machining steps

Cylindrical turning of the front part

Cylindrical turning of the rear part
End-face turning
Cut-off

Machining parameters
n (rpm)

f (mm/min)

a (mm)

400
400
1000
400

40
40
48
35

5
1
0.2
4

Please cite this article in press as: Liu, F., et al., A method for predicting the energy consumption of the main driving system of a machine tool in a
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F. Liu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2014) 1e7

Table 4
Machining processes.
Step

Type

Contents

1
2
3

Start-up
Idle
Machining

4
5

Idle
Machining

6
7
8
9
10

Idle
Idle
Machining
Idle
Idle

11
12

Machining
Idle

Start-up
Plunge
Cylindrical turning of
front part
Withdrawal
Cylindrical turning of
rear part
Withdrawal, fast moving
Accelerate, approach
End-face turning
Withdrawal, tool-changing
Decelerate, fast moving,
approach
Cut-off
Fast moving, shutdown

Speed

Time (s)

Energy (J)

400
400
400

e
10.5
75

Es1
Eu1
Ec1

400
400

6
15

Eu2
Ec2

400
1000
1000
1000
400

3.6
9.1
12.5
10
8.75

Eu3
Eu4
Ec3
Eu5
Eu6

400
400

24
2.74

Ec4
Eu7

process, and the predicted value is compared to the actual value

measured by an electricity meter.
6.1. Preparation of the fundamental database for the CNC lathe (C26136HK/1)
Before applying the method, the fundamental database for the
CNC lathe (C2-6136HK/1), including the start-up energy consumption data, idle, or unproductive power data and the parameters a1 and a2 should be prepared. Because the basic data are closely
related to the machine tools, some basic information of the CNC
lathe (C2-6136HK/1) is listed in Table 1.
According to Section 4.1, the measured start-up energy consumption of high gear and low gear at respective different speeds
were used to obtain the following tting function of the start-up
periods.

Esl 0:0045n2 0:1024n 70:393

(22)

Esh 0:0024n2  0:2862n 164:28

(23)

According to Section 4.2, the idle power of high gear and low
gear at respective different speeds are measured and used to obtain
the following tting function of the idle periods.

Pul 0:00002n2 1:2426n 90:115

(24)

Puh 0:000005n2 1:0232n  0:6835

(25)

Several groups of input power Pi, cutting power Pc, and idle or
unproductive power Pu are measured, and the values of a1 and a2
are obtained according to Section 4.3.2.

a1l 0:1939
a2l 3  106

(26)

a1h 0:1574
a2h 8  106

(27)

6.2. Energy consumption prediction

The energy consumption prediction of the machining process of
the workpiece shown in Fig. 1 is taken as an example. The information about the cutters and the blank material are listed in
Table 2, the machining steps and parameters are presented in

Table 3. The whole machining process is divided into 12 periods,

which are listed in Table 4.
Substituting the speed of start process 1, n 400 rpm, into the
start energy formula (22), Es1 831 J is obtained.
Substituting the speed values of idle process 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, and
12 into formula (24) separately to obtain the idle powers, these idle
powers together with the process time in Table 4 are substituted
into formula (9) to obtain Eu1 6311 J,Eu2 3606 J,Eu3
2164 J,Eu4 12,048 J,Eu5 13,240 J, Eu6 5259 J and Eu7 1647 J.
Taking the coefcients, indices, and correction factors from the
literature (Editorial Board of Mechanical Engineering Manual, 1997)
along with the spindle speed n, feed rate f, and cutting depth ap of
cutting process 3, 5, 8 and 11 into formula (17), where vc npd/
1000, the cutting power of these process are obtained.
Pc1 712.5 W, Pc2 142.5 W, Pc3 43.3 W, Pc4 472.9 W
Substituting the cutting power, basic parameters of the low gear
shown in formula (26), and the time of each process presented in
Table 4 into formula (13), we obtain Ec1 114,388 J, Ec2 12,648 J,
Ec3 20,146 J, and Ec4 29,718 J.
Finally, according to model (6), by taking the sum of the energy
consumption of all of the sub-machining process, the total energy
consumption E can be obtained.

Es

Eu

Ec 222; 006J

(28)

6.3. Validation
In the machining process of the CNC lathe, the actual energy
0
consumption E measured by an electricity meter is 240,716 J; thus,
the prediction error is.

error

jE  E0 j
7:773%
E0

(29)

7. Conclusions
A method for predicting the energy consumption of the main
driving system (MDS) of a machine tool in a machining process is
proposed in this paper, which can be used to predict the energy
consumption before real machining only based on the basic database of the machine tools, workpiece drawing and planned process
planning.
The method includes the following: (1) dividing the machining
process into three classes of periods: start-up, idle and cutting; (2)
establishing the energy consumption prediction model of the three
periods and the total energy consumption prediction model of the
MDS in a machining process; (3) measuring the energy consumption data of start-up and idle processes at discrete speeds in order
to obtain the function of the tted curve of energy consumption of
start-up periods and idle periods energy consumption; thus, the
energy consumption of the start-up processes and the idle processes at different speeds can be predicted; (4) predicting energy
consumption for the cutting process using the method of calculating the cutting power based on the machining parameters and
the method of obtaining the additional loss coefcients based on
the additional loss coefcients equation set. The prediction error
analysis model is constructed, and the reason why the error of
energy consumption prediction method is relatively small was also
expounded.
The case study indicates that the energy consumption prediction method is practical and relatively accurate.

Please cite this article in press as: Liu, F., et al., A method for predicting the energy consumption of the main driving system of a machine tool in a
machining process, Journal of Cleaner Production (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.058

F. Liu et al. / Journal of Cleaner Production xxx (2014) 1e7

The method has good application prospect for the prediction of

the energy consumption of machining processes. The prediction
method is signicant and can provide a decision-support tool for
promoting the energy efciency of machining systems, whose
world-wide total energy consumption is large.
Acknowledgments
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51375513) and the National Hi-Tech R&D
Program (863) (Grant No. 2012AA041306). Their support is greatly
appreciated.
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Please cite this article in press as: Liu, F., et al., A method for predicting the energy consumption of the main driving system of a machine tool in a
machining process, Journal of Cleaner Production (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.058