Experimental Evaluation of the Thermal Machine Tool Behavior for Model Updating

Thermally induced deviations are one of the most important issues for modern machine tools’ accuracy. Therefore, the numerical determination of the thermal machine behavior is becoming an essential part of the development process. The thermal models are highly dependent on the applied loads and boundary conditions. The experimental determination of the thermal machine tool behavior is therefore a critical point. Consequently, this paper presents an experimental evaluation of the thermal behavior of machine tools for model updating. In order to identify the thermal machine properties, temperature distributions as well as thermal displacements were detected. The experiments addressed the thermal influence of environmental parameters, the heat generation of main and feed drives and the cutting process. The tests were carried out on two different machine types, a lathe and a milling machine. Specific machining tasks were developed for each analysis to assure realistic load cases. The temperature and displacement measurements presented in this paper provide a strong parameter base for future thermal simulation models.