Thermal distortions are regarded as one of the major error factors in machine tools. ISO 230-3 and ISO 10791-10 describe tests to evaluate the influence of thermal distortions caused by linear motion and spindle rotation on the Tool Center Position (TCP). However, for five-axis machine tools, no thermal test is described for a rotary axis. Therefore, in this paper, a method for observing thermally induced geometric errors of a rotary axis with a static R-test is proposed. Unlike conventional thermal tests in ISO 230-3 and ISO 10791-10, where the thermal influence on the positioning error at a single point is tested, the present test measures the thermal influence on the error motions of a rotary axis. The R-test measurement clarifies how the error motions of a rotary table change with the rotation of a swiveling axis and how they are influenced by thermal changes. The thermal influence on the error motions of a rotary axis is quantitatively parameterized by geometric errors that vary with time.
On-machine identification of rotary axis location errors under thermal influence by spindle rotation
