A new method for measuring and compensating pitch error in the manufacturing of lead screws

A new method for measuring and compensating pitch error in lead screw machining is presented. This method includes the measurement of the actual pitch error and a forecasting technique based on time series analysis. The measured data is used to develop an autoregressive model of the error from which the forecasts and corrections are determined.

The objective of this work is to investigate the feasibility of compensating the pitch error by using the forecast pitch error data. The paper describes the experimental setup, explains the modeling, forecasting and compensation procedure of the pitch error. The compensation method discussed has been found feasible in all cases in which the machining accuracy directly depends on the accuracy of the kinematic relationship between a rotational transmission element and the machine tool table. The results indicate that on the average 89% of the single pitch error and 99% of the cumulative pitch error can be compensated for.