Application of synthetic grey correlation theory on thermal point optimization for machine tool thermal error compensation

This paper presents two new methods to optimize the selection of minimum number of thermal sensors for machine tool thermal error compensation. The two methods, namely, direct criterion method and indirect grouping method, are based on the synthetic grey correlation theory. They are applied to analyze the data of an air cutting experiment on a CNC turning center. After optimization, the number of thermal points reduced from 16 to four. Thus, for machine tool thermal error modeling, the number of temperature variables is greatly reduced while coupling problems among temperature variables can be avoided. A real cutting experiment is then conducted to verify the efficiency of the presented optimization methods under practical manufacturing conditions. The comparison of the results between the model with all 16 thermal sensors and the model with four optimized thermal sensors indicates that, after optimization, the model accuracy is greatly improved.