The Use of 3-DOF Laser Interferometer for Rapid Estimation of CNC Drives Settings

Although machine geometry measurements are an important part of mechanical engineering, they alone do not deliver enough information to set up or verify a CNC machine. The behaviour of the machine controller and its drive control settings usually need to be at least checked and in many situations corrected. In this article, on the basis of a developed machine error model, we show that it is sufficient to use a laser interferometer with a straightness measurement module to gather enough information in a single measurement to verify axis geometry and, at the same time, proper settings of machine servo loop gain. The results obtained during dynamic diagonal measurement can then be used to directly amend the servo settings. We prove our assumption in a series of real-world measurements.