A pyramid-shaped machining test to identify rotary axis error motions on five-axis machine tools: software development and a case study

The pyramid-shaped machining test was proposed to evaluate error motions of a five-axis machine tool. This paper presents software to perform and analyze the pyramid-shaped machining test. The paper presents an extension of the analysis algorithm to a five-axis machine tool with two rotary axes on the tool side. An experimental case study shows that position and orientation errors (location errors) of rotary axis average lines, as well as position-dependent error motions of a rotary axis, can be numerically identified from geometric errors of the finished test piece. Experimental demonstration of the numerical compensation of rotary axis geometric errors based on the R-test is also presented, along with its performance investigation by the present machining test. The developed software is commercially available.