Modeling Quasi-Static Errors in a Five-Axis Gantry Machine Tool

Enhancing the accuracy of machine tool is a key goal of machine tool manufactures and users. To characterize the Quasi-static errors and then use software compensation is an important step for accuracy enhancement. The effectiveness of an error compensation scheme relies heavily on the error model. The model must be concise and roust which can be applied to any machine tool. The total Quasi-static errors within the workspace of a five-axis gantry machine tool is composed of geometric error, kinematic error, thermal error. This paper presents an error model which can be used for practical compensation scheme. Homogeneous transformation matrix, rigid body kinematic and small angle approximations are used in this paper for error modeling.