Axis geometrical errors analysis through a performance test to evaluate kinematic error in a five axis tilting-rotary table machine tool

Geometrical work piece errors in milling process are commonly generated by different error sources. Axis geometrical errors, such as the straightness error for linear axis and the offset location error of the origin of rotary axis, introduce kinematic error in the tool path. Direct measurement of kinematic error requires special devices such as laser interferometers, grid plate encoders or double ball bars, which impose production stop and specialized staff. These problems could be analyzed using indirect measurements obtained by means of a cutting performance test that is already a standard for three axis machine tools. Because of the different architectures of five-axis milling machines these tests are hardly standardizable, therefore this paper proposes a devised easy-to-use and time efficient cutting performance test to identify and quantify axis geometrical errors for a five axis tilting-rotary table machine tool. This test can be performed as a periodical checkup or, in case of production, as a re-start test. The main goal of this study is to develop a kinematic analytical model capable of correlating the work-piece geometrical errors to the axis geometrical errors of the machine tool. The model has been implemented on a multi-body software in order to simulate the axes motion sequence of the performance test and validated to decouple the kinematic error into the geometrical axis errors. The developed models have demonstrated to be capable of correcting a generic five axis tool path by predicting the tool-path error displacement. The overall validation of this approach has been carried out by comparing the simulated and experimentally measured profile of the NAS 979 standard five axis contouring cone frustum profile.