Reducing Engineering Time for Compensation of Large CNC Machines

Abstract

Machine compensation challenges increase with machine size. Increased production of large CNC machines led to the pursuit of improved methods for machine compensation. These methods included the use of volumetric compensation, implementation of a custom software solver tool, the use of API’s Active Target, the development of various laser tracker triggering tools, and eventually a custom software solution for communication between the CNC and tracker PC. The resulting process reduces station time for taking measurements, eliminates many blunder points, increases process flexibility, and reduces postmeasurement analysis, as well as decreases overall engineering time. between the number and location of stations and the desired accuracy. Combining these different technologies can reduce overall compensation time while improving compensation accuracy.