All machine tools need maintenance, adjustment, and calibration over time. For precision multi-axis machines, scheduled service including machine conditions, performance, and calibration are necessary to maintain machine performance, thereby reducing scrap or rework. Regular calibration is also a must for owners who rely on a machine’s probing or measurement capability to inspect their parts.

Too often, owners rely on simple checks with ball bars or positional lasers that just measure one major axis at a time to get an overall check of the machines accuracy. Unfortunately, these conventional devices don’t give the owner the total picture of the machine tool performance for many machines. Volumetric calibration is the answer.

The calibration and subsequent compensation of a medium to large, three-axis or more machine tool throughout its entire machining volume is critical for owners producing complex and accurate parts. True volumetric calibrations give owners confidence in a machine’s total accuracy throughout its entire volume and all axes, including the rotaries, and is the only way to eliminate minor angular errors other than mechanical adjustment.

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