Simulation, Modeling and Experimental Research on the Thermal Effect of the Motion Error of Hydrostatic Guideways

Hydrostatic guideways are widely applied in ultra-precision machine tools, and motion errors undermine the machining accuracy. Among all the influence factors, the thermal effect distributes most to motion errors. Based on the kinematic theory and the finite element method, a 3-degrees-of-freedom quasi-static kinematics model for motion errors containing the thermal effect was established. In this model, the initial state of the closed rail as a “black box” is regarded, and a self-consistent setting method for the initial state of the guide rails is proposed. Experiments were carried out to verify the thermal motion errors simulated by the finite element method and our kinematics model. The deviation of the measured thermal vertical straightness error from the theoretical value is less than 1 μm, which ensured the effectiveness of the model we developed.