Author(s)

A.J. White, S.R. Postlethwaite, D.G. Ford

Abstract

It has been found that ball-screw expansion is the single largest thermal error source within a broad range of CNC machine tool configurations and over a wide range of running conditions when rotary encoder position measurement is used. This paper describes thermally related axis positioning errors exhibited by ball- screw with rotary encoder and linear encoder feedback systems when used within CNC machine tools. Indicative data resulting from many thermal tests has been used to support the analyses. The paper details the thermal error components that make up the total thermal error in both types of positioning system. I

Keywords