Highly Accurate Digital Processing of Large Stroke Guideway with an Optical Material-Corning Code 7972

Area of Science:

• Precision Engineering
• Manufacturing Technology
• Surface Metrology

Background:

• Achieving nanometer accuracy on meter-long guideways is hindered by processing challenges like material limitations and edge effects.
• Existing methods struggle to meet the stringent precision requirements for ultra-precision machine tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a set of optimization processing methods for fabricating meter-long guideways with nanometer-level accuracy.
• To address and mitigate issues such as warping, edge effects, and surface errors in long guideway manufacturing.

Main Methods:

• Design of a specialized grinding tool to enhance reciprocating processing and reduce warping.
• Comparison of three polishing techniques, selecting magnetorheological finishing combined with polyurethane disc technology.
• Integration of magnetorheological finishing and smoothing to suppress edge effects and high-frequency errors.

Main Results:

• Successfully fabricated meter-long guideways with accuracy in the dozens of nanometers range.
• Achieved surface figures of 20.33 nm, 22.78 nm, 39.23 nm, and 26.58 nm RMS for different surfaces (1000 mm x 240 mm and 1000 mm x 160 mm).
• The resulting profile measurement system demonstrated an X-axis straightness of 200 nm/600 mm.

Conclusions:

• The proposed optimization processing methods effectively overcome limitations in meter-long guideway fabrication.
• The achieved nanometer accuracy is critical for advancing the performance of ultra-precision machine tools.
• Magnetorheological finishing and smoothing are key to suppressing surface errors and achieving ultra-high precision.