The average effect of multi-divisions cutting method on thermal error in cutting horizontal grooves array on roller mold

Microstrutured surfaces can be manufactured by roll-to-roll process with roller mold in a high precision and high efficient way. The roller mold machined by drum roll lathe has a large cutting area and takes long time, and thus, the machining precision of roller mold is very sensitive to the thermal error of machine tool. This study analyzes the influence of thermal error on the machining horizontal grooves array on roller mold and proposed a processing method to improve the machining precision. First, the thermal error of hydrostatic guideways system in drum roll lathe was analyzed by simulation and measured through experiments, respectively. Given the diamond tool position offset caused by thermal error, the pitch error of horizontal grooves array with sequential cutting method was discussed. And then, multi-divisions cutting method is proposed to average the pitch error to multiple horizontal grooves instead of cumulative error in the seam position of horizontal grooves array, compared with sequential cutting method. Finally, the experiments with Four Divisions Method were carried out to verify the validity of multi-divisions cutting method. The experimental results demonstrate that multi-divisions cutting method can considerably improve the machining precision of horizontal grooves array.