Laser Measurement on Machine Tools

Bohrwerk
Picture above: Laser measurement of a drilling machine after installation.
Rohrschneideanlage
Picture above: Laser measurement of a pipe cutting machine

Laser measurement provides the ultimate accuracy and traceability for each parameter of machine positioning and geometry. Such information obtained, can direct any machine maintenance required to optimize for highest accuracy and best quality.

Our Laser system accuracy of +/- 0,7 ppm is maintained throughout its operating range of O°C to 40°C, a standard level of performance that no other competitive system can match.

We measure following parameters ...

  • Linear positioning
  • Repeatability
  • Rotary positioning(indexing accuracy)
  • Straightness
  • Flatness
  • Squareness
  • Pitch and Yaw angular errors
  • Parallelism
  • Geometry

    • ... at following machines

  • Gantry milling machine
  • Machining centres
  • Surface grinding machines
  • Cylindrical grinding machines
  • Laser cutting machines
  • Pipe cutting machines
  • Nipple machines
  • Water jet machines
  • Turning lathes
  • PC-board cutting machines
  • Linear slide bars

    • Furthermore, we measure and align linear guide ways as well as bedplates of machines. For specific measurement tasks we have developed and produced the necessary equipment ourselves.
    Linear error compensation (compensation of spindle pitch error) can be realized by us through most of the controllers used in the machines. (Release of error correction option). These values can then be viewed, printed and statistically analysed to national and international standards.


    Fehlerdiagramm unkompensiert
    Figure 1: Linear positioning measurements of bidirectional movement with 50 mm measuring distance at the z-axis. Deviation increases linear with increasing distance. The two outside lines represent the backlash of the spindle resp. of the bearings.

    Fehlerdiagramm kompensiert
    Figure 2: Error diagram of same machine after “error compensation”.

    Referenzanzeige Laserinterferometer
    Figure 3: Measurement results of the Laser interferometer as reference data.

    Linear measurement is the most common form of measurement performed on machines. The system measures linear positioning accuracy and repeatability by comparing the position displayed on a machine’s readout with the true position measured by the laser. These values can then be viewed, printed and statistically analysed by the system’s software to national and international standards. On many of today’s machine tools, it is also possible to take this process one step further and automatically download the measured data to a compensation table in the machine’s controller. In this way a machine’s positioning accuracy can be verified and significantly improved, quickly and easily.