Estimation and compensation of geometric errors for rotary axes are among methods to improve machining accuracy of five-axis machine tools. Studies have been conducted on various methodologies for estimating geometric errors for rotary axes, which are essential for improving machining accuracies of five-axis CNC machine tools. This paper presents a method for estimating geometric errors of a rotating/tilting table using a cross-shaped calibration artifact with a touch trigger probe. The proposed method includes rotary axes error estimation equations for angles of each rotary and tilt axis based on locations of probing points. Computer simulations were performed based on a MATLAB/Simulink and ADAMS cosimulation system using the probing cycle process to verify the proposed method. Computer simulation results confirmed the usefulness of the proposed method in terms of volumetric errors.

In CNC machining, NC data created by CAM software is usually linearly interpolated. This linearly interpolated tool path, however, may degrade the dynamic motion performance of the machine tool and the geometric accuracy in comparison with the reference CAD data. Tool path smoothing can be an effective way to address these problems. In this paper, a five-axis tool path smoothing method is proposed based on dual cubic B-spline curves. The proposed smoothing method includes two steps. First, the tool orientation is adjusted to reduce drastic changes in tool orientation movement. Then, dual B-spline curves are generated for smooth interpolation of tool position and orientation, wherein their control points are created by using modified internal division points between the top and bottom points of the tool defined by given tool position and orientation vectors. The B-spline curves pass through the junctions of straight line segments comprising the top and bottom points, respectively. Smooth tool position and orientation vectors are finally obtained by simultaneous interpolation of the B-spline curves. The proposed method is implemented in a PC-based five-axis control system and experimentally demonstrated to show improvements in the dynamic motion performance and the geometric accuracy compared with the conventional linear interpolation.

In CAD/CAM, NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline) is used to represent a wide variety of free-form curves. NURBS interpolation is advantageous in the processing of smooth curves and is capable of high-speed and high-precision CNC machining. In this paper, a real-time 5-axis NURBS curve interpolator is proposed. The proposed interpolator is based on tool center point control and can produce smooth tool orientations as well as accurate tool paths, thereby realizing high precision and efficient 5-axis machining. Using newly defined G codes, tool orientations are described by vectors and the proposed interpolator can be applied to any 5-axis machines regardless of their rotary axis configurations. In addition, the proposed interpolator calculates both tool positions and orientations simultaneously using a shared interpolation routine and we can reduce the computation load. The proposed NURBS interpolator is implemented on a PC-based 5-axis CNC testbed. The performance of the proposed interpolator is compared with the conventional linear interpolator in terms of smoothness of feedrate, contour errors, and tool orientation errors.

Machine tools usually consume more energy in cooling systems than in spindle motors. This is largely because circulation pumps in the cooling systems are continuously powered to measure the temperature of spindle motors. In this paper, energy saving algorithms are proposed, which modify this behavior of the circulation pumps in such a way that the circulation pumps run only when it is likely that the information on the temperature is critical to bang-bang control of compressors in cooling systems. A mathematical model is established that explains heat transfer phenomena near the spindle motors. The power consumptions are measured for individual components in a machine tool, and the parameters that appear in the mathematical model are estimated. Computer simulations are performed with the estimated parameters, and the results are compared with the experimental ones. It turns out that a large amount of energy can be saved by using the proposed method.

Energy cost has been increasing rapidly to comply with environmental regulations worldwide and the manufacturing industry who consumes more than half of the total energy needs to improve their cost competitiveness considering environmental costs. Machine tools are essential elements in manufacturing industry and efforts have been made recently to increase their energy efficiency mainly by German and Japanese machine tool builders. In this paper, trends in energy saving technology are described on the hardware and software sides of peripheral equipment of machine tools. In addition, the power consumption of a machining center is measured and analyzed to develop a software-based standby strategy for energy saving with peripheral equipment of machine tools.

Contouring accuracy of CNC machine tools is very important for high-speed and high-precision machining. In particular, large contour error may occur during corner tracking. In order to reduce the corner contouring error, acceleration and deceleration control or tool-path planning methods have been suggested. However, they do not directly control the corner contouring error. In the meantime, network servo systems are widely used because of their easiness of building and cost effectiveness. Communication latency between the master controller and servo drives, however, may deteriorate contouring accuracy especially during corner tracking. This paper proposes a control strategy that can accurately calculate and directly control the corner contouring error. A prediction control is combined with the above control to cope with communication latency. The proposed control method is evaluated through computer simulation and experiments. The results show its validity and usefulness.

5-axis CNC machining now is getting popular because it can deal with complex shapes such as impeller, turbine blade and propeller without additional equipment or process, proving a set of various tool orientations. CAM software related to 5-axis machining is being developed quickly so that users can take advantage of potential capacities of 5-axis machine tools. However, only a few researches can be found in the area of control strategy development for 5-axis machining. This paper proposes a 5-axis cross-coupling control system based on a novel tool orientation error model. The proposed tool orientation error model provides accurate information on the tool orientation error in real time, which in turn enables directly controlling the tool orientation accuracy. The proposed control system also employs a contour error model to calculate the contour error and reflect it in the control as well. The accuracy of the proposed tool orientation error model is verified and the performance of the 5-axis cross-coupling control system in terms of both contouring and tool orientation accuracy is evaluated through computer simulations compared with existing 5-axis control systems.

Machining systems have been evolved to produce more detailed products of high added value. This has been possible, in large part, due to the development of highly accurate multi-axis CNC machine tools. The conventional CNC of machine tools has individual axis controllers to maximize tracking performance. On the other hand, cross-coupling controllers can be integrated into the conventional CNC to enhance contouring performance. For this multi-axis cross-coupling control system, it is necessary to automatically adjust the controller gains depending on operating conditions and/or other external conditions from an optimization perspective. This paper proposes automatic modeling of feed drive systems that minimizes the difference in behavior between the system model and the actual system. Based on the modeling, an integrated auto-tuning method is also proposed to improve both tracking and contouring accuracy of a 3-axis cross-coupling control system as well as users’ convenience. The proposed methods are evaluated by both simulation and experiments.

The present CNC machining system if without any CAM software has been limited to 2D or 2.5D plane cut using lines, arcs and curves. If the CNC is equipped with a surface interpolation module and a surface reorganizing module inside it, we can easily try 3D surface machining without aid of CAM software. The existing NURBS surface interpolator is simple and direct to use for a unit surface. However, it enables only machining of each reference surface individually even when machining a simple composite surface. In this paper, we propose a method which can unify and reorganize various reference surfaces with a newly defined NURBS surface cycle command: a multi-repetitive cycle command such as in a CNC turning center. We also introduce a reorganizing rule for reference surfaces using NURBS properties. The usefulness of the proposed method is verified through computer simulation.

The purpose of this study is to improve the machining of free-formed NURBS surfaces using newly defined G-codes which can directly deal with shapes defined from CAD/CAM programs on a surface basis and specialize in rough and finish cut. To this purpose, a NURBS surface interpolation system is proposed in this paper. The proposed interpolation system includes online tool-path planning, real-time interpolation and feedrate regulation considering an effective machining method and minimum machining time all suitable for unit NURBS surface machining. The corresponding algorithms are simultaneously executed in an online manner. The proposed NURBS surface interpolation system is integrated and implemented with a PC-based 3-axis CNC milling system. A graphic user interface (GUI) and a 3D tool-path viewer which interprets the G-codes for NURBS surfaces and displays whole tool-paths are also developed and included in our real-time control system. The proposed system is evaluated through actual machining in terms of size of NC data, machining time, regulation of feedrate and cutting force focused on finish cut in comparison with the existing method.

This paper proposes a controller design analysis for three-axis CNC systems considering both contouring and tracking performance. The proposed analysis inclusively combines axial controllers for each individual feed drive system together with cross-coupling controller at the beginning design stage as an integrated manner. These two controllers used to be separately designed and analyzed since they have different control objectives. The proposed scheme includes a stability analysis for the overall control system and a performance analysis in terms of contouring and tracking accuracy. Computer simulation is performed and the results show the validity of the proposed methodology. Further, the results can be used as a basic guideline in systematic and comprehensive controller design for multi-axis CNC systems.