Compensation Method and Apparatus for Thermal Displacement

This invention relates to a method and apparatus used to compensate for thermal displacement. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus which enable, a spindle positioning error attributed to thermally induced displacement to be compensated for in a simple manner.

In a machining center of the like a spindle holding a tool is, rotated at high speed and is at the same time, moved toward a workpiece along the Z-axis to position the tool with respect to the workpiece. The workpiece, on the other hand, is transported relative to the spindle along the X- and Y-axes so that it may be machined by the tool into the shape specified by the machining program. It is obvious then, that any positional error along the Z-axis will make it impossible to achieve a high degree of machining accuracy.

In machine tools of the foregoing type a DC motor is employed to rotate the spindle. In DC motor structures an armature winding is wound on approximately the central portion of a spindle, and a field winding for generating a magnetic flux is disposed around the armature winding. When the spindle is rotated the armature and field windings produce heat, as do the bearings supporting the spindle. The total amount of such heat is enough to cause as much as 40 to 50 microns of spindle elongation, the result being a decline in positional accuracy along the Z-axis. Until now highly precise machining has not been possible because of such displacement along the Z-axis.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus which make it possible to compensate for a positional error caused by the thermally induced displacement of a spindle or other movable element of a machine tool.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a compensation method and apparatus for thermally induced displacement that enable a workpiece to be machined to a very high precision.

Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a side view of a machine tool to which the present invention may be applied;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of a headstock provided on the machine tool of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a graph showing the relationship between spindle elongation and time;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a first embodiment of the compensation apparatus according to the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a second embodiment of the compensation apparatus according to the present invention.

The machine tool illustrated in FIG. 1 includes a column 1 and a knee 2. The knee 2 is capable of being transported vertically along the column 1, namely along the Y-axis, by means of a Y-axis feed motor MY and feed screw LSY. A table 3 is carried on the knee 2 and is capable of being transported back and forth along the knee 2 (perpendicular to the plane of the drawing), namely along the X-axis, by an x-axis feed motor MX and feed screw LSX. The table 3 carries a workpiece 4. Numeral 5 denotes a headstock having a spindle 6 extending along the Z-axis which is perpendicular to both the X- and Y-axes, the spindle 6 is holding a spindle tool 7 in the illustration. The column 1 is provided with a horizontal rail 8 on which the headstock 5 is capable of being transported in the Z-axis direction by a Z-axis feed motor MZ which rotates a feed screw, not shown.

Integrated with the column 1 is a vertical column 9 which supports a tool magazine 10 of the rotary type by means of an support shaft 44. The tool magazine 10, driven by a air cylinder AC, is adapted for movement at right angles to the spindle 6, namely along the Y-axis, and, for rotational movement in the direction of arrow A about the support shaft 44. Formed along the entire circumferential edge of the tool magazine 10 are a plurality of equally spaced-apart receptacles 11 each for holding a tool parallel to the spindle 6. In FIG. 1, the receptacle at the lowermost end of the tool magazine 10 is not holding a tool and is located immediately above the tool 7 mounted in the spindle 6. The vacant receptacle 11 can be mated with a retention groove 12 on the tool 7 by lowering the tool magazine 10 to a predetermined distance in the +Y direction. Then, by transporting the headstock 5 in the +Z direction, the tool 7 can be withdrawn from the spindle 6 while being retained in the receptacle 11. If the magazine 10 is now rotated to bring the next receptacle into position opposite the spindle 6, since the headstock 5 is in retracted, the tool being held by said receptacle will be coaxially aligned with the spindle 6. Moving the headstock 5 a predetermined distance in the -Z direction under these conditions will now mate the spindle 6 with the new tool. The tool change is completed by raising the tool magazine 10 in the -Y direction, leaving the new tool mounted in the spindle 6. The spindle 6 may now be moved toward the workpiece 4, namely in the -Z direction, by means of the headstock 5 to position the tool 7 relative to the workpiece which, when moved in the X and Y directions, will be machined by the tool to the prescribed specifications.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view showing the headstock 5 in greater detail. The headstock 5 can be transported to both the left and right (along the Z-axis) in FIG. 2 by the motor MZ which drives the feed screw LSZ. Provided within the headstock proper is a field winding 31, while an armature winding 32 is wound around the outer periphery of the spindle 6. The field winding 31 and armature winding 32 constitute a DC spindle motor, the armature shaft and the spindle 6 being fabricated from the same member. The forward end of the spindle 6 has a tapered bore 33, as is well known in the art, and the holder 34 of the tool 7 has a tapered surface which mates with the tapered bore 33. The spindle 6, supported by bearings 35 through 38, is provided with heat-dissipating fins 39 which are cooled by a fan driven by a motor 40. It will be appreciated that a considerable amount of heat is generated when the spindle is driven since the armature winding 32 is wound on the outer periphery of the spindle 6. Once power is applied to the machine, the heat attributed to rotation of the spindle causes the spindle to elongate exponentially with the passage of time, as depicted by the solid line in FIG. 3. The maximum displacement due to such heat is indicated at L.sub.m and has a magnitude of from 40 to 50 microns. This will occur at time T.sub.m if a straight line is used to approximate the exponential curve.

Reference will now be had to FIG. 4 to describe an apparatus for practicing a method of compensating for the thermally induced displacement according to the present invention. In FIG. 4, numeral 101 denotes a parameter memory for storing the parameters L.sub.m and T.sub.m, namely the maximum displacement due to heat and the time at which the maximum displacement occurs, respectively. A timer 102 is set to deliver a pulse at a certain time t.sub.i following the application of electric power to the machine. The pulse is applied to a processing unit 103 which is adapted to compute spindle elongation dZ.sub.i+1 between the time t.sub.i and a subsequent point in time t.sub.i+1. More specifically, the processing unit 103, using the time t.sub.i+1 and the parameters L.sub.m, T.sub.m, performs the following arithmetic operation, expressed by Eq. 1, at predetermined time intervals .DELTA.t: ##EQU1## thereby computing the spindle elongation .DELTA.Z.sub.i+1 at time t.sub.i+1. Then, using the aforesaid value of .DELTA.Z.sub.i+1 as well as the spindle elongation .DELTA.Z.sub.i at time t.sub.i which is earlier than t.sub.i+1 by the time interval .DELTA.t, the processing unit 103 performs the operation:

thereby deriving the elongation dZ.sub.i+1 which has occurred between the points in time t.sub.i and t.sub.i+1. The processing unit 103 stores the value .DELTA.Z.sub.i+1 in a built-in memory and produces a signal which is indicative of the value dZ.sub.i+1.

Numeral 104 denotes a paper tape which bears NC command data in punched form. The data on the paper tape 104 is read by a tape reader 105 connected to a numerical control unit 106. The latter issues a movement command as well as a sign DS that are read in from the paper tape 104 by the tape reader 105. In this case the amount of commanded movement is Z.sub.c along the Z-axis. The command Z.sub.c, the sign DS, and the value dZ.sub.i+1 from the processing unit 103 are applied to an arithmetic circuit 107 which adds or subtracts the values of Z.sub.c and dZ.sub.i+1 in accordance with the sign of Z.sub.c, namely in accordance with the direction of movement along the Z-axis. Thus subtraction (Z.sub.c -dZ.sub.i+1) is performed when the sign of Z.sub.c is positive (DS=logical "1"), and addition (Z.sub.c +dZ.sub.i+1) is performed when the sign of Z.sub.c is negative (DC=logical "0"). The arithmetic circuit 107 produces a signal Z.sub.o which is indicative of the result of the addition or the subtraction operation. The signal Z.sub.o is applied to a Z-axis pulse distributing circuit 108 which performs a pulse distribution operation on the basis of Z.sub.o, generating pulses Z.sub.p which serve as command pulses. These command pulses enter a Z-axis servo circuit 109.

The Z-axis servo circuit 109 includes a Z-axis feed motor 109a, which corresponds to the motor MZ shown in FIG. 2; a speed sensor 109b, such as a tachogenerator, for producing an actual speed signal voltage ASV which is a function of the actual speed of motor 109a; a pulse coder 109c for generating single feedback pulse FP each time motor 109a rotates by a predetermined angle; an arithmetic circuit 109d for computing the difference E.sub.r between the number of command pulses Z.sub.p and the number of feedback pulses FP; an error register 109e for storing the computed difference E.sub.r ; a digital-to-analog converter 109f for generating an analog voltage which is proportional to the contents of error register 109e which is proportional to the difference E.sub.r, the analog voltage serving as a speed command voltage VCD; an arithmetic circuit 109g for computing the difference between the speed command voltage VCD and the actual speed voltage ASV; and a speed control circuit 109h which responds to the signal from the arithmetic circuit 109g and controls the speed of motor 109a.

In operation, processing unit 103 uses Eqs. 1 and 2 to compute the spindle elongation dZ.sub.i+1 caused by the thermal displacement which occurs between time t.sub.i, namely a point in time following power-up, and time t.sub.i+1. The arithmetic circuit 107 receives the commanded movement Z.sub.c from the numerical control unit 106 as well as the elongation value dZ.sub.i+1 and, through the addition or subtraction operation described above, compensates the value of Z.sub.c by the value dZ.sub.i+1 to produce the compensated value Z.sub.o which is sent to the pulse distributing circuit 108. As a result, the pulse distributing circuit 108 produces command pulses Z.sub.p of a number corresponding to the value Z.sub.o, these pulses being applied to the Z-axis servo circuit 109 which functions in the manner described above to correct, in accordance with the amount of thermally induced displacement, the amount by which the motor 109a is rotated.

A second embodiment of an apparatus for practicing the method of the present invention is shown in FIG. 5, wherein portions identical with those of FIG. 4 are designated by like reference characters. In FIG. 5, numeral 201 denotes a thermal displacement memory for storing thermally induced displacement .DELTA.Z.sub.i+1 (i=0, 1, 2, ... ) of the spindle at each of a plurality of points in time t.sub.i+1 (i=0, 1, 2, . . . ) following power-up. Numeral 202 denotes a processing unit which, after reading out of memory 201 the thermally induced displacement .DELTA.Z.sub.i+1 at the current time t.sub.i+1, performs the operation specified by Eq. 2 using said elongation .DELTA.Z.sub.i+1 at time t.sub.i+1 and the elongation .DELTA.Z.sub.i at the earlier time (by .DELTA.t) t.sub.i, thereby deriving the elongation dZ.sub.i+1 from time t.sub.i to time t.sub.i+1, the signal indicative of dZ.sub.i+1 being delivered to the arithmetic circuit 107.

It should be noted that performing the operation specified by Eq. 2 can be dispensed with if the spindle elongation from time t.sub.i to the points in time t.sub.i+1 (i=0, 1, 2, . . . ) is stored in the memory 201.

In accordance with the present invention as described above, highly precise machining is made possible since the positional error along the Z-axis can be compensated to offset the positional displacement due to the heat generated in the spindle.

In the foregoing description the elongation versus time characteristic is approximated by a single straight line. However, it is possible to approximate the curve by a plurality of straight lines, and to establish parameters based on the data for each straight line. Furthermore, it has been described that the operations defined by equations 1 and 2 are performed at time intervals .DELTA.t. There are cases, however, where a considerable amount of time is required until the numerical control unit issues a command for movement along the Z-axis. In such cases the operations defined by Eqs. 1 and 2 may be performed n-number of times. When such is the case it is possible to so adapt the arithmetic circuit 107 as to perform the operation

and, when the command for movement along the Z-axis is issued, to perform the operation z.sub.c -DZ or Z.sub.c +DZ in accordance with the logic level ("1" or "0") indicated by the direction signal DS.

As many apparently widely different embodiments of the present invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments thereof except as defined in the appended claims.