Thermal Error Measurement and Real Time Compensation System for the CNC Machine Tools Incorporating the Spindle Thermal Error and the Feed Axis Thermal Error

Thermally induced errors have been significant factors affecting machine tool accuracy. In this paper, the thermal spindle error and thermal feed axis error have been considered, and a measurement/compensation system for thermal error is introduced. Several modelling techniques for thermal errors are also implemented for the thermal error prediction; i.e. multiple linear regression, neural network, and the system identification methods, etc. The performances of the thermal error modelling techniques are evaluated and compared, showing that the system identification method is the optimum model having the least deviation. The thermal error model for the feed axis is composed of geometric terms and thermal terms. The volumetric errors are calculated, combining the spindle thermal error and feed axis thermal error. In order to compensate for the thermal error in real-time, the coordinates of the CNC controller are modified in the PMC program. After real-time compensation, the machine tool accuracy improved about 4–5 times.