New Method Based on Improved Double Ball Bar for Measuring Geometric Motion Errors of Coordinate Measuring Machine

Abstract

In this paper, an optimized method of measuring the geometric motion errors of a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) is proposed. The method is based on an improved double ball bar (DBB) that acquires the motion and link errors of the CMM and its actual rotation angles through simultaneous circular tests. The improved DBB has embedded a ring encoder system to the bottom of a commercial DBB on an auxiliary platform. In addition, an improved motion and link error separation algorithm is established by considering the difference angle Δθ between the actual rotation angle and the theoretical rotation angle of the DBB. Both influential factors of the center offset of the DBB and Δθ are discussed through simulations. When geometric motion errors are compensated for and measured on a 400 mm × 400 mm × 150 mm CMM, the standard deviations of the roundness errors decrease to 1.9 μm and 1.5 μm on the XY and ZX planes, respectively.