An on-machine separation method for straightness, yawing and rolling errors of a linear slide

A novel method based on Fourier series for the measurement of motion, yawing and rolling error is proposed in this study. In this method, a stationary stage with eight sensors, three of which are laid in the upper row and the rest are positioned in the lower row, is used as the data acquisition device. While the carriage of a lathe is sliding on the bed in one direction, the sensors capture the displacement data from the facing machine profile. Based on the existing "F5S" method, a new method is proposed to obtain the three major time-varying error components, which are the on-machine motion error, the yawing error and the rolling error, together with the shape functions of the machine profile. Mathematical proof and working principle are included in the paper. Verification of the method applicability is carried out by computer simulation. To evaluate the results of the method, the input data and calculated data are compared. It is shown that the new method is capable to separate all input error components with acceptable accuracy.