Volumetric error measurement and compensation on medium and large milling machines is a key aspect in meeting the precision requirements of the most demanding applications. There are various solutions for the measurement of the volumetric error, normally either using a laser or calibrated measuring standards, which offer different specifications and have different precision levels, complexity of implementation and automation, equipment costs, measurement time, etc. For this reason, it is very important to have tools that allow the optimal calibration strategy to be analysed in each case, by providing criteria for evaluating different measurement equipment and measurement strategies.
To respond to this need, tools have been developed that can simulate the entire calibration process (machine, measuring device, model fitting, etc.) and apply optimisation methods to find the best measurement strategy for each application. The uncertainty propagation is carried out by modelling the error sources and carrying out Monte Carlo simulations of the entire process. The use of this tool will be demonstrated by analysing the influence of the main design parameters of a measuring strategy for the calibration of a 3 axis machine tool, based on the measurement of the position by means of a laser tracker.
