A Computer Aided System for Kinematic Error Calibration on Lathes and Thread Grinding Machines

A method has been developed to enable ‘on-the-fly’ measurement of the axial displacement of lathe and thread grinder carriages while in the screw generating mode. A precision polygon is used mounted in the spindle, in conjunction with a tooling laser and photo detector, to accurately synchronise the rotation of the spindle with the displacement of the carriage. The error components considered are progressive pitch error, cyclic error and spindle free float.