Thermal growth measurement and compensation for integrated spindles

Abstract

The errors which affect the processing tolerance of a machine tool are due to the built-in volumetric errors in the machine tool structure and also the thermal displacement of the machine tools during its cutting. In this paper, a dual-displacement meter compensation system is developed. The new model has a better tolerance control than the single-displacement compensation meter method; also, it has a great potential for saving a machine's warm-up time as well as enhancing productivity. A dual-displacement meter is designed to detect the variation of spindle thermal growth and a differential amplifier is applied which ensure a precise output signal tolerance of spindle thermal growth. The unstable signal which is an effect of flatness tolerance of spindle surface is then omitted. Finally, the spindle thermal growth compensations are successfully reduced. It meets the requirement of high-speed machining and high-precision machining application. © 2012 The Author(s).