Effect of Coolant Temperature on the Thermal Compensation of a Machine Tool

Abstract

Machine tool (MT) accuracy is an important factor in the industry and is affected by heat generation through internal and external moving parts; the electrical components used; and variable environmental temperatures. Thermal errors lead to 40–60% of all MT errors. To improve MT accuracy, efficient techniques to minimize thermal errors must be identified. This study investigated the coolant temperature effects under different rotating speeds of a standalone built-in spindle system and computer numerical control (CNC) machine with a direct-drive spindle on the accuracy of thermal deformation prediction. The z-axis thermal deformation of the standalone built-in spindle system and CNC machine with a direct-drive spindle was conducted at different spindle rotating speeds and coolant temperatures at a constant coolant flow rate of 5 LPM. All experiments were conducted in a steady and dynamic operation according to ISO 230-3. For the standalone built-in spindle system, in comparison to the Mares model, the developed new model based on the coolant temperature effect on the Mares model (Mares CT model) can improve the thermal deformation prediction accuracy by 18.17% to 39.50% at different coolant temperatures of 12 ∘C to 26 ∘C and the accuracy can be controlled within the range of 0.03 μm to 5.24 μm, while the supply coolant temperature is above 16 ∘C. However, the thermal compensation analysis of the Mares CT model for a CNC machine with a direct-drive spindle shows a thermal deformation prediction accuracy improvement of 58.30% to 66.35% at different coolant temperatures of 22 ∘C to 28 ∘C and the accuracy can be controlled within the range of 0.14 μm to 4.05 μm. To validate the feasibility of the compensation model in real machining processes, dynamic operational analysis was performed for a standalone built-in spindle system and a CNC machine with a direct-drive spindle, and the thermal deformation prediction accuracy improved by 12.19% to 35.53% with the standalone built-in spindle system and 40.25% to 60.33% with the CNC machine with a direct-drive spindle. The compensation model analysis shows that the coolant temperature has a high impact on thermal deformation prediction and markedly affects system accuracy within certain limits.