Error modelling and measurement for the rotary table of five-axis machine tools

Rotary tables are widely used with multi-axis machine tools as a means for providing rotational motions for the cutting tools on the three-axis machine tools used for five-axis machining operations. In this paper, we present a comprehensive procedure for the calibration of the rotary table including: geometric error model; error compensation method for the CNC controller; error measurement method; and verification of the error model and compensation algorithm with experimental apparatus. The methods developed were verified by various experiments, showing the validity and effectiveness of the presented methods, indicating they can be used for multi-axis machine tools as a means of calibration and precision enhancement of the rotary table.