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Measurement 41 (2008) 526537 www.elsevier.com/locate/measurement

A method for evaluating spindle rotation errors of machine tools using a laser interferometer
H.F.F. Castro
*
Escola Politecnica, Universidade Federal da Bahia, CTAI, Rua Aristides Novis, 022 andar, Federacao, Salvador, BA 40210-630, Brazil Received 10 July 2006; received in revised form 10 June 2007; accepted 11 June 2007 Available online 21 June 2007

Abstract This paper presents a method for assessing radial and axial error motions of spindles. It uses the Hewlett Packard 5529A laser interferometer. The measurement is made using reection directly from a high-precision sphere. Such object is used as the optical reector. The sphere is axed at the end of a wobble device, which is clamped in the spindle. The principle of measurement is similar to that of a linear interferometer, except that the high-precision sphere is used in place of the usual retroreector. A convergent lens is utilized to focus the laser beam to a small spot on the sphere surface. This minimizes the dispersion of the beam due to the reection on the spherical surface. A software package has been developed for data acquisition and presentation of the error motion polar plots of the spindle. Application of this spindle error calibrator on a CNC machining centre is undertaken. The results are presented and discussed. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Spindle rotation errors; Laser interferometer; Machine accuracy; Spindle metrology

1. Introduction Nowadays, there is constant pressure on machine tool builders to improve the accuracy, manufacturing capabilities and productivity of their machines. Part tolerances in conventional machining have decreased dramatically over the past two decades. Also, better surface nish has been required for most applications. The geometrical shape and surface roughness of workpieces depend substantially

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on the rotational accuracy of the machine tool spindle. In view of the facts mentioned above, the evaluation of the spindle rotation errors has become very important. Such errors cause degradation in surface nish, roundness, feature size and feature location. Furthermore, the analysis of spindle rotation errors can predict the quality of the machined part. It can also be used to evaluate the machine tool precision for purchasing and maintenance purposes. The spindle errors comprise two parts as follows: (a) Error motions. These are small departures of the axis of rotation relative to a stationary reference coordinate axes (X, Y, Z). The ve components of these error motions are the translations in the X,

0263-2241/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.measurement.2007.06.002

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Y and Z directions and the rotations (or tilting) about the X and Y-axes [1,2]. The error motions in the X and Y directions at a specied axial location on the Z-axis are called radial error motions. Axial error motion is the error motion colinear with the Z-axis. Tilt (angular) error motions are the error motions in the X and Y angular directions relative to the Z-axis [1,2]. (b) Spindle thermal drifts are motions of the axis of rotation due to the thermal expansion or contraction of the components belonging to the structural loop associated with the spindle. There are three types of spindle thermal drifts: axial, radial and tilt thermal drifts [1,3]. In the following, a brief review of the recent works on the measurement of spindle rotation errors is presented. A simple technique is to use ve LVDT (Linear Variable Displacement Transducer) sensors for measuring the radial, axial and angular error motions. This is achieved by means of a masterball and a master plate, which are employed as reference [4]. The radial error motion can be determined by threepoint [5] and four-point methods [6]. They are able to separate the radial error motion of the spindle from the roundness error of a precision sphere. Further development of these works resulted in the multi-point method [7]. It permits the assessment of the radial, axial and tilt error motions of the spindle. Park and Kim [8] developed an optical Moire technique to evaluate the radial motion of a spindle without using a mechanical master (for example, masterball). Another approach to assess radial error is oered by the Vector Indication Method [9]. The radial error is evaluated by means of the vector of radial error motion of the spindle. A measuring system based on a Fizeau interferometer [10] has been developed for assessing the axial and angular error motions of an ultra-precision air spindle. In another technique, three capacitance-type sensors were employed to measure the three-dimensional positions of a masterball. This technique [11] traces the centre of the rotating masterball in 3D space using polar plot. An angular three-point method [12] that employs three 2D surface slope sensors is capable of measuring simultaneously the workpiece out-of-roundness and the spindle radial and angular error motions. Liu et al. [13] developed a measuring system for evaluating the radial and tilt error motions of the spindle without using a master sphere or cylinder. This system uses a rotational xture with a built-in laser diode which is mounted on

the spindle. Two measuring devices with two position sensitive detectors (PSD) are xed on the machine table in order to measure the laser point position from the laser diode. Grejda et al. [14] have used a portable master axis of rotation (ultra high-precision air-bearing spindle) and a capacitance probe for assessing radial and axial error motions of spindles at the nanometer level. Donaldson [15] and Estler [16] reversal techniques are employed to separate the master axis error motion from that of the spindle under test. This reversal is achieved by using a rotary table and a reversal chuck which eliminates the need for relocating the capacitance probe. Many methods described above use LVDT and capacitance sensors that may interact with the device under test inducing noise in the measurement signal, especially at spindles that run at very high speed. Other ones are capable of assessing only radial error motion. The measuring system that employs a Fizeau interferometer is very complicated and expensive. In the method that uses three 2D slope sensors, it is dicult to align the optical components accurately around the cylindrical workpiece mounted on the spindle. These optical components are laser diodes, beam splitters, mirrors, autocollimator lenses, quadrant photodiodes, etc. The measuring system devised by Liu et al. [13] uses also many optics and devices that need to be mounted and aligned accurately on the machine. This system is very time-consuming, thus resulting in large machine downtime. Finally, the technique that employs the master axis requires a rotary table for supporting and rotating the stator of the spindle under test. However, for medium- and large-size machines, the mounting of the spindle headstock on a rotary table is not feasible because this headstock is xed on the machine structure. Therefore, this technique is only applicable for very restricted cases, for example, for testing a small-size spindle that can be xed on a rotary table. In order to overcome some problems associated with the methods mentioned above, a method based on a laser interferometer is proposed in this paper. It is capable of evaluating the radial and axial error motions of spindles at very high speed and at the nanometer level. 2. Method for evaluating spindle rotation errors The principle of measurement is similar to that of a linear interferometer, except that instead of having

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the retroreector, a masterball with high-surface nish and accuracy is used to reect the incident beam back to the interferometer. A convergent lens is utilized to focus the laser beam to a small spot on the sphere surface. This will minimize the dispersion of the beam due to the reection on the spherical surface of the masterball. A Hewlett Packard (HP) 5529A laser interferometer system (nowadays, Agilent Technologies Company) has been used in this research. It is capable of performing dynamic calibration due to its high-sampling rate. In this application, the laser interferometer makes the measurements by using the Time Base Generator (TBG). This is a circuit that uses a 10 MHz crystal-controlled oscillator to create a timer circuit that causes a laser position sample to occur repeatedly at a predetermined time interval. The TBG can produce an output frequency of 10 MHz/(4JK), where J and K each may be set between 1 and 65535. When J and K assume value 1, the frequency will be 2.5 MHz [17]. This is the maximum sampling rate. The laser performance (accuracy, resolution, etc.) in this application is approximately the same as for a standard measurement with a linear interferometer. The resolution is about 1 nm. This method for evaluating the spindle errors oers some advantages over other non-contact measurement techniques. They are the following: (a) The laser interferometers provide higher resolution and precision. The spindle errors are measured in resolution of 1 nm. (b) As mentioned above, by using the TBG, the sampling rate of 2.5 MHz can be achieved. Therefore, a very good picture of the spindle rotation errors can be obtained even at very high-spindle speed. (c) The spot size (measurement area) may be made as small as necessary, whilst the measurement area (spatial resolution) of other methods is often too large [18]. (d) Lasers do not interact with the devices under test, so they do not produce measurement defect like other techniques. For example, when measuring radial run-out of spindles at very high speed, the air currents often set-up a vortex (air turbulence) trailing o mechanical transducers, inducing noise in the run-out signal [18]. This is more probable to occur when the set-up is not sti enough, especially the sensor holders.

(e) The method proposed here uses a masterball as a metrological reference. The masterball roundness errors are measured on a very high accuracy roundness tester. Next, these errors are input in the software by the user. The data acquisition program subtracts the roundness errors from the radial run-out sampled by the laser interferometer. Therefore, in this measuring system, the masterball roundness errors are compensated for via software. With a laser interferometer system, the user/manufacturer can evaluate many other types of geometric errors of the machine tools and coordinate measuring machines, such as, positional, straightness, yaw, pitch, atness, parallelism, squareness (perpendicularity of the two axes of movement), etc. Therefore, in this respect, the laser interferometer is a cost-eective calibrator. It does not make sense to purchase this system only to calibrate spindle rotation errors. 2.1. Measuring set-up for assessing the radial motion Fig. 1 depicts the set-up for measuring the spindle radial error on a universal lathe. The measuring system comprises an HP laser head, an HP linear interferometer, a reference cube-corner, a screw driven device, a convergent lens, a masterball, a masterblock, a plane mirror, a laser diode system, a pulse generator, an HP 10887A card, a microcomputer and a printer. The laser interferometer measures the radial runout of the spindle through the masterball. The laser measurements contain the eccentricity of the masterball (set-up error), the roundness errors of the masterball and the radial error motion of the spindle. The masterball is axed at the end of the masterblock, which is mounted to the chuck of the spindle. The masterblock is utilized to reduce the centring error of the masterball by means of a wobble device and adjusting screws. The laser interferometer acquires the radial runout during consecutive number of spindle revolutions, which was dened in the data acquisition program by the user. The radial data are stored in memory of the microcomputer. Next, the data are interpolated and saved in a datale in the hard disk of the computer. The number of samples per revolution, which is desired, can be set in the software. The data acquisition program controls the HP 10887A card, which is installed in the backplane slot of the

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Fig. 1. Set-up for evaluating the spindle radial errors on a universal lathe.

microcomputer. The lens holder is attached to the back of the linear interferometer. The purpose of this procedure is to facilitate the alignment of the optical system. The lens holder is designed for providing high accuracy of mounting of the lens. In order to start and end the sampling process at the same point, it is necessary to detect precisely one revolution of the spindle. For this purpose, a Laser Diode System (LDS) and a pulse generator are employed. The former produces a pair of analogue signal from a photo-quadrant sensor embedded in the LDS. The latter converts the analogue inputs into a narrow square pulse. This signal is sent to the HP card in order to initiate the sampling process and count the number of revolutions by means of the software. In order to achieve the beam alignment, the following manual adjustments are provided: vertical (Vh) and transversal (Th) of the laser head; longitudinal (Lp) and transversal (Tp) of the cross-slide (machine toolpost); vertical (Vd) of the screw driven device. It is possible to obtain an adequate laser beam alignment (better than 90%) using this technique. Owing to the eventual alteration of the spindle speed during the test, the number of samples actually acquired over each revolution may vary. With the purpose of plotting the error motion, the number of samples should be the same over each revolution. The number of data per revolution (rev) Nc, which is wanted by the user, is entered in the System Setup program through the keyboard. It is stored in the conguration le of the software. In

order to convert the actual number of samples per revolution in the number of data/rev Nc desired by the user, an interpolation technique is employed. It consists of generating processing run-out data at the angular resolution provided by Nc by means of a linear interpolation between the two adjacent run-out raw data. Although the masterball (diameter = 12.000 mm) has a roundness accuracy within 0.1 lm, for highprecision spindles it may be necessary to separate the masterball roundness error from the spindle radial motion. In this research, the roundness errors of the masterball are input in the software by the user. The program subtracts these roundness errors from the interpolated radial data before saving the data in the hard disk of the computer. The procedures for compensating for the masterball roundness errors are the following: (1) The masterball roundness errors are input in the software in the anticlockwise direction as the viewer is facing the ball. To do so, it is necessary to establish a starting point by using a very thin ink mark on the masterball surface. From this point, going around in the anticlockwise direction, the roundness errors, previously measured on a very high-accuracy roundness tester, are picked at a uniform angular interval. Let us suppose 36 values of the roundness errors are considered over an angle of 360. Thus, in this case, the angular resolution is 10.

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(2) After the roundness errors are entered, the software saves them in a le in two columns. In the rst one, the errors are ordered in the anticlockwise direction. The second column contains the roundness errors in the clockwise direction. This is done so as to take into account the direction of the spindle rotation. Therefore, if the spindle rotates in the clockwise direction (the viewer is facing it), the software uses the rst column of the le for compensating for the masterball roundness errors. If the spindle revolves in the anticlockwise direction, the program uses the second column of roundness errors. The direction of spindle rotation is specied by the user in the System Setup program. Such direction of rotation is evaluated as the viewer is facing the spindle. This information is stored in the conguration le of the software. (3) As mentioned earlier, the sampled data, i.e. run-out data are interpolated so as to produce the number of samples per revolution Nc desired by the user. Thereby, the number of data/rev is made equal to Nc over each revolution. In order to compensate for the masterball roundness errors, the number of roundness errors over 360 should be equal to Nc also. This requires that the masterball roundness errors be also interpolated so as to obtain the same angular resolution as previously. For example, let us suppose Nc = 500 data/rev and the number of roundness errors, which was entered previously in the software be 36. To proceed with the compensation of the masterball errors, the computer program interpolates the 36 values of roundness errors so as to produce a new set of 500 roundness error data. Now, these masterball roundness errors are subtracted from the interpolated radial data. Therefore, this new run-out data do not contain the roundness errors of the masterball anymore. (4) Fig. 1 shows a plane mirror axed on the masterblock. It is employed to reect the laser diode beam back to the Laser Diode System. Thereby, a pulse is sent to the HP card so as to initiate the data acquisition process. In order to compensate for the masterball errors, it is essential to begin the data acquisition at exactly the starting point (ink mark on the masterball), which was dened previously

(see Item (1) above). In this way, the measurements made by the laser interferometer will be synchronised with the right sequence of the roundness errors of the masterball. Therefore, to achieve this aim, the plane mirror has to be aligned with the ink mark on the masterball surface. This alignment should be done with high accuracy. As said earlier in this section, the radial run-out data contain the eccentricity of the masterball. Therefore, before displaying the radial motion of the spindle, it is necessary to remove the masterball centring error from the radial data. This is done by using the least squares method [1]. The software displays on the computer monitor the error motion polar plots and their respective error motion values in respect to the least squares circle (LSC) centre [1]. The following polar plots can be output to a printer: total error motion; average error motion; asynchronous error motion; outer error motion; and inner error motion. Also, the linear plot of the total error motion can be printed. 2.2. Measuring set-up for assessing the axial motion Basically, the set-up to assess the axial error motion on a universal lathe is similar to that described in the previous section. Fig. 2 shows the set-up to undertake the test in the axial direction. The interferometer is mounted in the screw driven device so that the reference cube-corner is aligned with the laser head. The optical axis of the lens is made coincident with the spindle centre line. The data acquisition program is the same as the case of radial motion. The software displays the polar plots of axial error motion and its components with respect to LSC centre. The polar graphs that can be printed are the following: total error motion; average error motion; asynchronous error motion; residual error motion; outer error motion; and inner error motion. The linear plot of the axial total error motion can be also output as a function of the angular position of the spindle. As shown in Fig. 2, the laser beam is focused on the surface of the masterball on a small area (laser spot size). The spindle centre line coincides with the optical axis of the lens. Thus, theoretically speaking, the laser measurements are made on the same spot of the masterball. As consequence, for this case, it is not necessary to compensate for the masterball roundness errors.

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Fig. 2. Set-up for evaluating the spindle axial errors on a universal lathe.

3. Optical system In order to return enough light energy to the laser head, the laser beam must be focused to a small spot size so that the loss of energy due to the reection on the spherical surface is minimized. Also, the surface must be smooth and reective enough (over measurement area) to transmit an adequate signal. As mentioned earlier, the measuring set-up employs a single lens so as to focus the laser beam on the masterball surface. Two parameters are important in this technique: the spot size and the depth of eld of the single lens. The spot size is the radius of the beam waist at the focal point of the lens. The depth of eld is the distance, centred about the lens focal length, over which the object will be in focus and a measurement can be made [18]. The selected lens is a positive achromatic doublet. It is composed of two elements which are cemented, a positive low-index (crown) element and a negative high-index (int) one. These elements are chosen so as to minimize the spherical and chromatic aberrations as well as coma. The lens diameter of 25.4 mm was selected to t the diameter of the interferometer (23 mm). Its focal length is f = 60 mm. This provides a laser spot radius of 4.8 lm and a depth of eld of 50 lm. It has been veried that a beam alignment of 96% reection can be obtained using a tungsten carbide

masterball of 12 mm with surface nish Ra = 0.02 lm (arithmetic average). This indicates that this spot size is quite satisfactory. The value of the depth of eld covers the range of the radial and axial error motions which are intended to measure. 4. Application of the spindle error calibrator on a CNC (computer numerically controlled) machining centre The tests were undertaken on an 11-year old CNC machining centre which has the following specications: Type: Takisawa Mac-V3 machining centre of three-axis vertical spindle bed type. Working travel (mm): 510 400 360 (longitudinal lateral vertical spindle travel). Control system: FANUC System 6MB Series. Spindle: diameter = 55 mm, drive motor 7.5 hp, speed range 606000 rpm.

4.1. Radial and axial error motions The origin of the polar graphs of Figs. 39 is the least squares circle centre. The term Error Band written in these graphs is the error motion value [1]. According to ANSI/ASME B89.3.4M standard

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Fig. 3. Radial total error motion polar plot of Takisawa spindle at speed of 1000 rpm.

Fig. 4. Radial average error motion polar plot of Takisawa spindle at speed of 1000 rpm.

[1], the error motion value is the dierence in radii of two concentric circles from a specied polar plot centre that will enclose the corresponding error motion plot. For assessing the radial error motion, the laser head was aligned with the X-axis of the machine. In order to assess the radial and axial motion, the spindle was run in anticlockwise direction (as the viewer faces it) at a speed of 1000 rpm. The radial

and axial motions were recorded over ve revolutions at a sampling rate of 500 data/rev. The radial total and average error motion polar plots of the machining centre spindle are shown in Figs. 3 and 4, respectively. In general, the radial average error motion polar plot indicates the roundness errors of the workpiece which is capable of being produced by the machine under ideal cutting conditions (tool without deection, wear, built up edge, etc.) [1].

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Fig. 5. Axial total error motion polar plot of Takisawa spindle at speed of 1000 rpm.

Fig. 6. Axial average error motion polar plot of Takisawa spindle at speed of 1000 rpm.

Figs. 5 and 6 depict, respectively, the axial total and average error motion polar plots of the machine spindle. Experiments also were carried out at maximum speed of 6000 rpm. Fig. 7 shows the radial total error motion polar plot of the spindle in that speed. The error motion value is 1.08 lm which is smaller than the value 1.49 lm obtained with the spindle running at 1000 rpm (Fig. 3). Other tests have been

done with spindle speed of 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000 rpm. The test results indicated that as the spindle speed increases the radial error motion value is gradually reduced. Perhaps, this behaviour may be explained on the basis of the increase of the preload or change in the dimensions and geometry of the spindle rolling bearings and their housings as the rotational speed increases. As known, the preload may augment as a result of temperature rise in the

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Fig. 7. Radial total error motion polar plot of Takisawa spindle at speed of 6000 rpm.

Fig. 8. Radial average error motion polar plot of Takisawa spindle at speed of 6000 rpm.

spindle. The preload not only removes play but also reduces the kinematic error caused by the error in the reference part. This eect is known as error averaging eect or principle of elastic averaging. Fig. 8 shows the radial average error motion polar plot at a speed of 6000 rpm. The average error motion value is 0.21 lm which is less than half of the average error band of 0.51 lm at a speed of 1000 rpm (Fig. 4). Theoretically, this means that as the spindle speed increases, the machine produces

workpieces with better accuracy. Test result for axial total error motion is presented in Fig. 9. The error band for total error motion is 0.87 lm which is greater than the value 0.30 lm obtained with the spindle running at 1000 rpm (Fig. 5). Tests carried out at various speeds have indicated that the axial error motion value increases as the spindle runs faster. Also, it can be seen that the axial polar graphs at 6000 rpm (Fig. 9) are smoother than at 1000 rpm (Fig. 5). All these features may have been

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Fig. 9. Axial total error motion polar plot of Takisawa spindle at speed of 6000 rpm.

caused by the temperature rise and temperature gradient of the spindle, which in turn, produced the axial growth and thermal instability of the spindle. For evaluating the radial and axial error motions, the deadpath error of the laser interferometer system was not compensated for in the software. This error is caused by an uncompensated length of the laser beam between the interferometer and retroreector (masterball), with the machine stage at zero position. It occurs whenever environmental conditions change during a measurement. As the spindle tests were of short duration, the atmospheric conditions (air temperature, barometric pressure and relative humidity) have not changed and, as consequence the deadpath error is null. Similarly, the laser wavelength compensation was not implemented in the data acquisition program. The error in the laser reading due to the change of the laser wavelength in the air is negligible because the measured distance (spindle error motions), in this case, is very small. This is demonstrated by considering the following example. WCN is the Wavelength Compensation Number. It is the inverse of the index-of-refraction n of air, that is WCN ka 1 kv n 1

spheric conditions, i.e. air temperature Tair = 20 C, air barometric pressure Pair = 760 mm Hg and air relative humidity = 50%, the WCNs = 0.9997288. Let us suppose that the spindle test is carried out in an environment which has the following atmospheric parameters : Tair = 29 C, Pair = 750 mm Hg and relative humidity = 50%. In this case, the WCNa is 0.9997407. If the wavelength compensation is not considered, the laser reading error will be Laser reading error DWCN measured distance 2 For measured distance (spindle error motions) of 105 m (10 lm), it obtains Laser reading error 0:9997407 0:9997288105 m 0:12 nm 3

where, kv and ka are, respectively, the laser wavelength in vacuum and in air. For the standard atmo-

This error is very small, thus justifying not taking into account the wavelength compensation in this experiment. Air turbulence due to the rotation of the spindle does not aect the laser measurement accuracy. The linear interferometer is a bit more than 60 mm far from the spindle and is mounted to the toolpost with high stiness. Therefore, the air turbulence does not produce strong pressure waves on it so as to cause vibration on this set-up. On the contrary,

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in case of capacitive sensor, the distance between masterball and sensor is of magnitude order of micrometer. For example, a C23-C capacitive sensor manufactured by Lion Precision Company with range of operating of 50 lm, the values of near gap and far gap are 75 lm and 125 lm, respectively. Obviously, in this case, because of very small distance between masterball and sensor, the waves of pressure which hit the sensor are much stronger than those which hit the laser system set-up. Therefore, the air pressure may cause noise in the sensor signal at spindles that run at high speed. The temperature gradient of the air due to the temperature rise in the spindle does not produce inaccuracy in the laser measurement in this application. The reasons for that are described as follows: (1) The temperature of air aects the deadpath error and the wavelength compensation error of the laser interferometer system. However, the deadpath error only occurs if the atmospheric conditions vary during the measuring process. As the experiments to evaluate spindle error motion were of short duration (less than 1 s), the temperature of air did not change while the laser system made the measurements. (2) As shown in Eq. (3), wavelength compensation error is about 0.12 nm. This example shows that air temperature, air barometric pressure and air relative humidity do not inuence the values of the laser readings signicantly. Particularly, this is due to the very small measured distance (10 lm). Therefore, the temperature of air nearby the spindle is not relevant to the uncertainty in the laser interferometer system in this application. Finally, the method presented here is also capable of measuring the radial and axial thermal drifts of spindles. This will be described in another paper. 5. Conclusions (1) A method has been developed for evaluating the radial and axial error motions of machine tool spindles using a laser interferometer. The measurement is made using the reection from a precision sphere, which is utilized as a reector. (2) A convergent lens has been used to focus the laser beam to a spot of radius 4.8 lm. The depth of eld of the lens is about 50 lm. This is sucient to measure the spindle errors described in Item (1) above. (3) The laser calibration system is able to evaluate the accuracy performance of high-precision

spindles. The compensation of the masterball roundness errors from the spindle radial runout has been carried out through software. A good picture of the spindle errors at very high speed can be obtained due to the highsampling rate of the HP 5529A laser interferometer. (4) The use of low-cost components, such as a linear interferometer, focus lens, etc. makes this laser interferometer-based calibrator a costeective system.

Acknowledgement I would like to express my thanks to Dr. Carlos C. Tu, from the Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil, for his valuable suggestions. References
[1] ANSI/ASME B89.3.4M, Axes of Rotation Methods for Specifying and Testing, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1985. [2] ISO 230-7: 2006, Test Code for Machine Tools Part 7: Geometry Accuracy of Axes of Rotation, International Standardisation Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland, 2006. [3] ISO 230-3: 2001, Test Code for Machine Tools Part 3: Determination of Thermal Eects, International Standardisation Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland, 2001. [4] H. Park, Development of a computer aided spindle error analyser, M.Sc. Thesis, UMIST, 1992. [5] K. Mitsui, Development of a new measuring method for spindle rotation accuracy by three-point method, in: Proceedings of the 23rd MTDR Conference, Manchester, 1982, pp. 115121. [6] G.X. Zhang, R.K. Wang, Four-point method of roundness and spindle error measurements, Ann. CIRP. 42 (1) (1993) 593596. [7] G.X. Zhang et al., A multi-point method for spindle error motion measurement, Ann. CIRP. 46 (1) (1997) 441 445. [8] Y.C. Park, S.W. Kim, Optical measurement of spindle radial motion by Moire technique of concentric-circle gratings, Int. J. Mach. Tool. Manu. 34 (7) (1994) 10191030. [9] S. Noguchi, T. Tsukada, A. Sakamoto, Evaluation method to determine radial accuracy of high-precision rotating spindle units, Precis. Eng. 17 (4) (1995) 266273. [10] A. Idowu, A.E. Gee, Wide aperture interferometric spindle metrology: sensitivities and strategies, in: Proceedings of the Applied Optics Divisional Conference, Reading, 1996, pp. 182187. [11] E.S. Lee, H.G. Wi, A comprehensive technique for measuring the three-dimensional positioning accuracy of a rotating object, Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Tech. 14 (1998) 330335. [12] W. Gao, S. Kiyono, E. Satoh, Precision measurement of multi-degree-of-freedom spindle errors using two-dimensional slope sensors, Ann. CIRP. 51 (1) (2002) 447450.

H.F.F. Castro / Measurement 41 (2008) 526537 [13] C.H. Liu, W.Y. Jywe, H.W. Lee, Development of a simple test device for spindle error measurement using a position sensitive detector, Meas. Sci. Technol. 15 (9) (2004) 17331741. [14] R. Grejda, E. Marsh, R. Vallance, Techniques for calibrating spindles with nanometer error motion, Precis. Eng. 29 (1) (2005) 113123. [15] R.R. Donaldson, A simple method for separating spindle error from test ball roundness error, Ann. CIRP. 21 (1) (1972) 125126.

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[16] C.J. Evans, R.J. Hocken, W.T. Estler, Self calibration: reversal, redundancy, error separation and absolute testing, Ann. CIRP. 45 (2) (1996) 617634. [17] Anon., HP 10887P Programmable PC Calibrator Board Operating Manual, Serial Prex Numbers: 3322 and 3340, Hewlett Packard, 1993. [18] Anon., Non-contact Measurements with Laser Interferometers, Application Note 325-12, Hewlett Packard.