Development and evaluation of ferrocement legs for a lathe

The feasibility of using ferrocement as a replacement material for cast iron in the fabrication of supporting legs (columns) for a centre lathe has been investigated in this project. These machine tool structures were designed with the aid of a finite element package so as to have static stiffnesses at least equal to those of the corresponding cast iron legs. Tests were carried out to evaluate the performance of the ferrocement legs with reference to the traditional cast iron legs. The highly improved dynamic performance as exhibited by the ferrocement legs indicates that this new construction materials has a great potential in the machine tool industry.