Kinematic errors evaluation of five-axis machine tool using direct cutting method

To inspect the kinematic errors of five-axis the machine tool, the inspection methods can be divided into direct cutting test and indirect cutting test. Due to the kinematic errors of the machine tool is varied depending on different cutting speed, different moving strokes and different feed rate. Therefore, the cutting performance and accuracy of the machine tool are inspected usually using the direct cutting method. In this paper, a kinematic errors evaluation method for five-axis machine tool is proposed using direct cutting method. According to the specification of ISO 10791-7, a CAD/CAM model of pyramid workpiece is established here. There are several cutting patterns designed based on this workpiece for the five-axis machining test. In each machining pattern, an end mill is used to perform a simple straight edge cutting. Therefore, some of the kinematic errors of a fiveaxis machine can be clearly measured on the cut pyramid workpiece. A five-axis kinematic error analysis model is developed in this paper. The relationship between geometric errors of the pyramid workpiece and kinematic errors of the machine tool is formulated based on the developed kinematic error model. The kinematic errors of a five-axis machine can be evaluated and analyzed from the geometric errors of the cut pyramid workpiece which is measured using Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM). The understanding of kinematic errors of fiveaxis machine tool would be very helpful in compensating the errors and improving the machining performance effectively.