Introduction

Tools and production equipment have always played a key role in the economic and social development of society. The mechanization of manufacturing processes and the provision of, initially, mechanical, and later of electrical, energy was at the heart of the Industrial Revolution: This started in the late eighteenth century and brought about fundamental changes in society and hitherto unknown economic growth, initially in England and Europe, later in the USA and Japan, and now in nearly every part of the world. Production equipment is also required to manufacture the necessary manufacturing and energy generation systems. Machine tools represent the most important element of this production equipment in the industrial field. For this reason, the machine tool is known as the “mother of all machines” [CIUP16; KÖHN16].