Dynamic performance test under complicated motion states for five-axis machine tools based on double ballbar

During five-axis CNC machining, the dynamic tracking error of the five-axis machine tool caused by imperfect servo dynamic performance is the major factor affecting the accuracy during high-speed and high-precision manufacturing. Rotation tool center point (RTCP) test has become a typical kinematic test for the dynamic tracking error of five-axis machine tools. According to the mechanism and characteristics of dynamic tracking error, during the RTCP test, relating the measured dynamic tracking error to corresponding occurring situation is helpful for the research of calibration or reduction of dynamic tracking error. In this paper, a new method to relate dynamic tracking error to occurring situation based on additional rectilinear motion is attempted. During this method, rectilinear motions are added into the RTCP test process, and the dynamic tracking error and corresponding occurring position can be calculated from the scale of rectilinear motion. By six tests with rectilinear motions in and against X, Y and Z directions, the additional error and uncertainty of the test process can be offset by calculation. This method can be implemented without any addition or modification to the instrument or NC system.

The double ballbar (DBB) test, which captures actual data from multiple error origins of axes interaction, was defined as sinusoid error map model plus noise. When the number of sinusoids is the same as the number of individual errors of moving axis in the test map, we can extract a single source geometric error value from the DBB error map by modeling the well-known geometric error of linear axis. We considered the “noise” as mixed errors from other sources than geometric errors. This method is applicable to both a full circle and a truncated DBB test path.

The rotary axis is crucial for the machining accuracy of five-axis machines, and its motion accuracy is significantly influenced by the dynamic motion error. A test of circular and elliptical test piece cutting is proposed to identify and analyze the dynamic motion error of the rotary axis. The influence of the feed rate on the dynamic motion accuracy is explained. The dynamic motion error can be divided into two types, depending on its source and manifestation: dynamic error inside the servo loop (DEIS) and dynamic error outside the servo loop (DEOS). At different feed rates, elliptical test piece cutting and kinetics analyses are conducted to identify the DEIS, and circular test piece cutting together with double ball bar (DBB) tests are conducted to identify the DEOS. On-machine inspection and the coordinate measuring machine (CMM) calibration are performed. By combining the DBB test and kinetics analysis results, the DEIS and DEOS are identified and analyzed. The experimental verification shows that the DEIS and DEOS change according to the feed rate and can be determined from the machining error of the test piece. Consequently, the proposed method offers an effective reference for improving the motion accuracy of the rotary axis.

The five-axis machine tools are increasingly popular for meeting the demand of machining the workpiece with growing geometric complexity and high accuracy. This paper studies the volumetric error modeling and its sensitivity analysis for the purpose of machine design. The volumetric error model of a five-axis machine tool with the configuration of RTTTR is established based on rigid body kinematics and homogeneous transformation matrix, in which 37 error components are involved. The sensitivity analysis of volumetric error regarding 37 error components is carried out respectively. The analysis results are successfully used for the accuracy design and manufacture of a five-axis ultra-precision machine tool. The preliminary experiment of machining sine grid surface testifies the high accuracy and effectiveness of the designed five-axis machine tool.

Accuracy enhancement of five-axis CNC machines through real-time error compensation

This paper proposes a novel measuring method which uses double ballbar (DBB) to inspect the kinematic errors of the rotary axes of five-axis machine tool. In this study, kinematic error mathematical model is firstly established based on the analysis of the rotary axes errors which originated from five-axis machine tools. In the simulation, working conditions considering different error origins are simulated to find the relationship between the DBB measuring patterns and the kinematic errors. In the measuring experiment, the machine rotary axes move simultaneously along a specified circular path while all the linear axes are kept stationary. The original DBB measuring data are processed to draw the measuring patterns in the polar plots which can be employed to observe and identify the kinematic errors. Rotary error compensation is implemented based on the function of external machine origin shift. Both the simulation and the experiment results show the convenience and effectiveness of the proposed measuring method as well as its operability as a calibration method of five-axis machine tools.

High accuracy contour error estimation and direct contour error control are two major approaches to reduce the contour error. However, two key factors make them complex for five-axis machine tools: the nonlinear kinematics and the coupling between the tool position and orientation. In this study, by finding the reference point nearest to the current actual position, and interpolating the point with two neighboring reference points and using the distance ratio, a new contour error estimation method for five-axis machine tools is proposed, which guarantees high accuracy while depending on only the reference points. By adding a weighted contour error on the tracking error in the workpiece coordinate system, and specifying a desired second-order error dynamics based on the error variable, an effective contouring control method is proposed, which can alleviate the problem: when the contour error components are introduced into the controller, the contour errors increase instead in some regions of the tracking trajectory. A series of experiments are performed on a tilting-rotary-table (TRT) type five-axis machine tool. The results reveal that the proposed estimation method has high accuracy, and compared with the case without contour error control, the proposed control approach can reduce the contour error along the whole trajectory.

Geometric errors are one of the primary potential sources of error in a five-axis machine tool. There are two types of geometric errors: position-dependent geometric errors and position-independent geometric errors. A method is proposed to identify and measure the position-independent geometric errors of a five-axis machine tool with a tilting head by means of simultaneous multi-axis controlled movements using a double-ball bar (DBB). Techniques for identifying position-independent geometric errors have been proposed by other researchers. However, most of these are based on the assumption that position-dependent geometric errors (such as linear displacement, straightness, and angular errors) are eliminated by compensation, once the position-independent geometric errors have been identified. The approach suggested in this paper takes into account the effect of position-dependent geometric errors. The position-dependent geometric errors are first defined. Path generation for circle tests with two or three simultaneous control movements is then carried out to measure the position-independent geometric errors. Finally, simulations and experiments are conducted to confirm the validity of the proposed method. The simulation results show that the proposed method is sufficient to accurately identify position-independent geometric errors. The experimental results indicate that the technique can be used to identify the position-independent errors of a five-axis machine tool with a tilting head.

Identification and compensation of position independent geometric errors of dual rotary axes for hybrid-type five-axis machine tool based on unit dual quaternions

In the manufacturing industry, computer numerical control (CNC) machine tool has been applied widely due to their high adaptability and precision in the machining of diversity shape, especially five-axis CNC machine tools. However, more error terms related to rotary axes, in which location errors are always considered as one of the most fundamental error sources, affect directly to machine tool performance. Thus, ensuring that a five-axis machine tool is machining within tolerance is a crucial demand in the market. This study investigates an efficient strategy using a specific 3D artifact to identify and characterize the location errors in rotary axes of a five-axis machine tool. The intended 3D artifact consists of a base plate, 2 standards ball with high roundness embedded on the top surface of the base. A Touch Trigger Probe will be utilized as the calibration instrument to capture the coordinate of 6 arbitrary contact points of the balls, then an optimization algorithm is applied to calculate the coordinate of the centers of the balls. By comparisons the relative position of the imaginary circles made of those centers with the ideal ones, all location errors will be measured individually.

In the integrally shaping process from a simple material shape to an objective shape, it is necessary to reduce the time required for the machining process in order to improve cost savings and the effectiveness of mass production. For the purpose of achieving high efficiency in the integral shaping from simplicity materials, we have focused on a rough cutting process that requires the most time in the manufacturing process. The purpose of this research is to propose a method for realizing high-speed rough machining using five-axis machine tools with a voxel model, and confirm the high efficiency of the rough cutting. In this research, we use five-axis controlled machine tools for material machining, and suggest two machining methods for the rough cutting process using the voxel model. The first method derives the tool posture where the cutting removal quantity becomes the maximum; this method also carries out a rough cutting process via 3+2 axis controlled machining. The other method carries a complete convex shape that includes the required shape, and simultaneously machines via five-axis machining based on the complete convex shape. This paper demonstrates the 3+2 axis control machining method that uses the voxel model to perform the rough machining process with high efficiency, and the simultaneous five-axis control machining method that uses a complete convex shape model for rough machining. We confirm the results with a computer simulation and actual machining experiments.

Accuracy test of five-axis CNC machine tool with 3D probe-ball. Part II: errors estimation

Wide area measurements are becoming the norm of power system monitoring, protection and control. Frequency monitoring network (FNET) is a low-cost, easily deployable system at 120V distribution level. The frequency disturbance recorder (FDR) is actually a single-phase phasor measurement unit (PMU) in the sense that it measures the voltage phase angle, amplitude, and frequency from a single-phase voltage source. This paper discussed a calibrating and dynamic testing procedure developed for assuring the quality and accuracy of FDRs. Voltage magnitude and angle are calibrated, and two types of dynamic performance test, step and ramp, are performed for verifying the dynamic performance of FDRs. A detailed FDR calibrating and testing case is given. The test results demonstrate that the quality and accuracy of FDRs can satisfy the requirement of wide area measurement system.

With the development of gears towards high temperature, high pressure, high speed and high stress, gear measurement, in which only the static geometric accuracy is considered, is unable to meet the current application requirements. While, the low precision and single function gear tester constrains the measurement of gear dynamic performance. For the resolution of this problem, based on the principle of gear system dynamics and several precision mechanical design techniques, a gear dynamic testing machine has been developed, providing new instruments for gear testing. On the basis of research of the principle of dynamic performance test, the primary measurement items of the testing machine have been determined. The measuring principles of each item and the driving and loading form of the testing machine have been examined. The measurement and control system of the testing machine and its corresponding software have been developed. The instrument can not only obtain the static precision index of the gear, but also obtain the dynamic performance index of the gear in variable working conditions. According to the actual test, the uncertainty of instrument is 3.8 μm and the external disturbance caused by the shaft vibration is less than 0.6 μm, which can meet the 5–6 grade precision gear testing requirement.

The relative position and orientation deviation between grinding wheel and workpiece caused by geometric errors affect the machining accuracy of five-axis CNC gear profile grinding machine tools directly. Therefore, geometric error modeling and compensation are presented according to homogeneous transformation and differential motion matrix based on the multi-body system theory for the accuracy enhancement of the machine tools. Firstly, the open kinematic chain and the ideal homogeneous transformation matrix from workpiece to grinding wheel are established according to the topological structure of the CFXZAY-type, five-axis gear profile grinding machine tools and the basic homogeneous transformation matrix between coordinate frames. Secondly, the homogenous transformation matrices of linear pairs and rotary pairs with geometric errors are calculated, and the relationships of the error propagation from workpiece to grinding wheel are acquired as well on the basis of 37 geometric error components analysis. The geometric error models including position and orientation errors of grinding wheel in workpiece coordinate system are obtained with matrix multiplication by using small-angle approximation and ignoring the second-order and high-order error terms. Then, the Jacobian is obtained by using transforming differential motion matrix of each motion axis to compensate the integrated error components of the grinding wheel, which can make the compensation effective and convenient with using the corresponding homogeneous transformation matrix. Finally, error measurement, error compensation, and machining experiments are carried out on a five-axis CNC gear profile grinding machine tool SKMC-1200W/10 to verify the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed error modeling, error compensation, and research approach.