Linked Ball Bar for Flexible Motion Error Measurement for Machine Tools

抄録

A measuring instrument, Linked Ball Bar (LBB), is developed to measure machine tool motion errors quickly, flexibly, and robustly. The LBB employs the concept of double ball bar (DBB) and measures the distance between two balls attached to the spindle and table. The problem of short measurement range, the drawback of the DBB, is solved using a link. The measurement accuracy of the LBB is investigated. The analytical resolution of displacement measurement using the LBB is under 30 nm when the displacement direction coincides with the sensitivity direction. The difference between the LBB and the laser interferometer is less than 1 μm in the center measurement range of 75 mm. The repeatability of the LBB is ±0.4 μm and is at the same level as the interferometer. The kinematic error of a five-axis machine tool is measured using the LBB to demonstrate its validity. The parallelism between the C-axis and Z-axis identified using the LBB agrees with the result measured using the cylindrical square. The difference between the LBB and the cylindrical square is about 10 μm/m at the maximum. The LBB can provide quick and flexible measurements of the motion errors of five-axis machine tools.