Methods for numerical compensation for elastic deformations in CNC machine tools

This paper simulates, measures and verifies the elastic deformations of machine tools beyond the state of the art under unstable temperatures and process loads and across the entire working area of the machine tool. The model-based simulation uses a thermoenergetic subsystem to determine temperatures based on the power consumption during the power-on phase. Using these temperature values, the thermoelastic subsystem calculates the elastic deformations in the kinematic chain for the distance between the tool center point (TCP) and the workpiece. Influence analysis, thermal stiffness and potential energy savings are presented. The conclusions and proposed procedures offer an innovative strategy for the numerical compensation of geometric, kinematic, dynamic and thermal deformations under a load. The compensated machine tool complies with accuracy requirements through real-time elastic model compensations, considering the actual process variables, without requiring warm-up time or a controlled climate environment. The conclusions open new scientific and technical questions to be answered by future research work.