The PhD thesis of Liang Zhou, which is expected to be completed about two years after the SEC&TEC Project. Higher accuracy machines are always a growing industrial demand, which is continuously drawing researchers' efforts for cost-effective solutions. The progress gained in machine design, production technology, measurement and modelling technology have greatly improved machine performance, especially since the computer and their software tools began to be adopted for machine tool applications. However, the machining errors caused by temperature changes still remain a big topic for industry and researchers, because 30% to 70% of the errors on machine are thermally caused.
The major work of this thesis research is to study and enhance the machines' performance by eliminating/compensating the thermal errors. By optimisation of machine design, part of the thermal errors can be eliminated or reduced, but the research will be based more on application of measuring devices and software error compensation. The activities involved in error compensation will cover error measurement techniques, error modelling techniques and compensation algorithms. The results of the research will be passed to relevant industrial partners or published in form of technical paper, conference article and thesis text.