Geometric characterisation and simulation of position independent geometric errors of five-axis machine tools using a double ball bar

A double ball bar (DBB) is extensively used to evaluate the geometric and dynamic performance of three-axis machine tools by means of the XY, YZ and XZ planar circular tests. Errors can be estimated by comparing them with known error profiles. However, such geometric interpretation of error plots of five-axis machine tools is limited. In this paper, a five-axis machine tool model is established with Homogeneous Transformation Matrices (HTMs), laying the foundation for characterising particular geometric shapes induced by various Position Independent Geometric Errors (PIGEs) of all five axes. A testing scheme is proposed to evaluate the target five-axis machine tool in two major steps: testing the rotary axes individually and testing the linear-rotary axes couples. In the first step, each rotary axis is tested with two substeps, with and without the extension bar on the DBB. The second step requires each linear and rotary axes combination to move simultaneously. Both approaches are performed with only one setup, thus simplifying the setup procedure and reduce the machine down time. To show the validity of the method, PIGEs for each axis are simulated with the given machine tool model. Several DBB trajectories are simulated using the machine tool model. Compared with the actual testing plots, the simulated DBB error plots are helpful to diagnose the PIGEs of linear and rotary axes based on their particular geometric shapes. The results suggest that the proposed method along with the given error characteristics can be used as a fast indication of a five-axis machine tool’s performance.