Modeling and Calibration of the Orthogonality Deviation between the "X" and "Y" Axes of Coordinate Measuring Machines

Abstract

The increase of the quality in a productive process allows reduction of costs besides adding value to the product. When manufacturing a product within the tolerances specified in the design it is possible to obtain a correct operation of this product, ensuring the minimum time of use and with a lower risk of early failure. In this sense, machines and equipments involved in the manufacturing and inspection processes must also maintain an acceptable quality of operation by knowing the errors present in the machine structure through the calibration, such as errors due to lack of orthogonality between the axes, caused by inaccurate assemblies. The calibration errors in these machines allow elaborate error compensation plans and thus improve the rate of flawless products in production. The objective of this paper was to identify the influence of errors due to a lack of orthogonality in a bridge type coordinate measuring machine (CMM) through calibration and mathematical modeling of errors. Error calibration is performed with a linear displacement transducer, a granite square and a set support brackets for the granite square. By means of the calibration data and the mathematical modeling of the orthogonality deviation an influence of the measured deviation on the "X" and "Y" directions of the CMM is obtained. The error due to the lack of orthogonality between the "X" and "Y" axes of the CMM was approximately 8.9558 negative arcoseg; in this way, it is evidenced that the angle formed between these axes is 89.9975°. Through this study it can be concluded that orthogonality deviation in the main plane of the machine produces negative components for the axes "X" and "Y", with higher influence on the points collected as it away from machine scales, making greater the error intensity on the results of measurements made at positions farthest from the "X" and "Y" scales.