Comparison of Motion Characteristics of High Performance CNC Rotary Tables

Abstract

In this paper, the motion performances of the two rotary tables which are driven by roller gear cam and direct drive motor are measured and compared. The table with roller gear cam was controlled in semi-closed loop and full-closed loop methods while the other was controlled only in full-closed loop method. In the measurements, the positioning accuracy and repeatability, rotational fluctuation, frequency response, step response and etc of the systems were measured. All these tests were carried out without any kind of compensation methods such as pitch error or cogging torque compensation etc. Three rotary encoders for rotary table with roller gear cam and one rotary encoder for rotary table with direct drive motor were used for measurements. Furthermore, the simulations were carried out by mathematical models and the results were compared with measured results. The comparison shows that the measured and simulated results have a good agreement. From the simulation results, the friction torque was identified and also compared. The results imply that though both the tables show high performances, the performances of the rotary table driven by roller gear cam are comparatively higher than that of rotary table driven by direct drive motor.