Research on a Novel Method for Measuring Volumetric Error of Coordinate Measuring Machine

CMM (Coordinate Measuring Machine) is used as an accurate measuring instrument in manufacturing and design of products. High accurate CMM is required by the development of super-finish, micro-machinery, micro-electronic mechanical systems (MEMS). The precision of CMM is influenced by its volumetric error and dynamic error. The volumetric error is the major component during slowly probing, but the dynamic error is not omitted during fast probing. Compensating the volumetric error is an effective approach to improve the precision of CMM. The volumetric error in the working space of CMM must be measured and the error model must be set up before compensating. In this paper, a novel method to measure 5 volumetric errors of a guide way at the same time by 3-beam laser interferometer is proposed. The error compensating model is validated by experiment. The method can also be used to measure the dynamical error of CMM and CNC machine in real-time. The research can be referred to design the super higher accurate CMM and the accurate CNC machine.