Novel thermal error modeling method for machining centers

Abstract

Thermal deformation is one of the main contributors to machining errors in machine tools. In this paper, a novel approach to build an effective thermal error model for a machining center is proposed. Adaptive vector quantization network clustering algorithm is conducted to identify the temperature variables, and then one temperature variable is selected from each cluster to represent the same cluster. Furthermore, a non-linear model based on output-hidden feedback Elman neural network is adopted to establish the relationship between thermal error and temperature variables. The output-hidden feedback Elman network is adopted to predict the thermal deformation of the machining center. Back propagation (BP) neural network is introduced for comparison. A verification experiment on the machining center is carried out to validate the efficiency of the newly proposed method. Experimental verification shows that the adaptive vector quantization network clustering algorithm and output-hidden feedback Elman neural network is an accurate and effective method.