Continuous measurements with single setup for position-dependent geometric errors of rotary axes on five-axis machine tools by a laser displacement sensor

This study proposes a continuous measurement method of 12 position-dependent geometric errors for rotary axes on five-axis machine tools with a tilting rotary table. Firstly, an algorithm for calculating the three-dimensional position deviations of the standard sphere is presented. The target points on the sphere surface are pre-distributed for the measurements. Then, the single setup continuous measurement method implemented by the standard spheres and a laser displacement sensor is designed. Before performing the measurements, the installation error of the laser displacement sensor is controlled in an acceptance range by an adjustment device with simple procedures. To expand this measurement idea, the application of this continuous measurement method on five-axis machine tools with one rotary axis on the spindle and another one on the worktable is illustrated. The standard uncertainties and the range of the uncertainty contributors are also provided. Finally, an experiment is performed to validate the identification accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.