A thermal compensation control system for a machine tool having a milling cutter and a cutter driver includes a tool setting probe, a temperature sensor, a workpiece touch probe, and a controller. The cutter driver is connected to the milling cutter to drive the milling cutter to process the work piece based on a control signal. The tool setting probe is configured to detect a cutter length of the milling cutter. The temperature sensor is configured to sense a measured temperature of the cutter driver or the milling cutter. The workpiece touch probe is configured to measure processing errors of the processed work piece. The controller is configured to generate the control signal based on a processing instruction, a temperature compensation model, the cutter length, and the measured temperature. The controller is further configured to determine whether to modify the temperature compensation model based on the processing errors.

The present disclosure is directed toward a method that includes logging offset data of a machine over a period of operational time having varying thermal conditions, comparing the logged offset data against a thermal model, estimating offsets for the machine based on the comparing, and adjusting offsets of the machine during operation.

The present disclosure generally describes a method for processing a workpiece in a machine, where the method determines an offset of the machine and adjusts for the offset during production operation. In one form, the method includes logging offset data of the machine over a period of operational time having varying thermal conditions, and comparing the logged offset data against a thermal model, where the thermal model is generated based on a probing routine and dry cycling for a plurality of test cycles on a calibration artifact. Based on the comparing, the method estimates offsets for the machine and adjusts offsets of the machine during operation.

A thermal compensation control system for a machine tool having a milling cutter and a cutter driver includes a tool setting probe, a temperature sensor, a workpiece touch probe, and a controller. The cutter driver is connected to the milling cutter to drive the milling cutter to process the work piece based on a control signal. The tool setting probe is configured to detect a cutter length of the milling cutter. The temperature sensor is configured to sense a measured temperature of the cutter driver or the milling cutter. The workpiece touch probe is configured to measure processing errors of the processed work piece. The controller is configured to generate the control signal based on a processing instruction, a temperature compensation model, the cutter length, and the measured temperature. The controller is further configured to determine whether to modify the temperature compensation model based on the processing errors.

The present disclosure generally describes a method for processing a workpiece in a machine, where the method determines an offset of the machine and adjusts for the offset during production operation. In one form, the method includes logging offset data of the machine over a period of operational time having varying thermal conditions, and comparing the logged offset data against a thermal model, where the thermal model is generated based on a probing routine and dry cycling for a plurality of test cycles on a calibration artifact. Based on the comparing, the method estimates offsets for the machine and adjusts offsets of the machine during operation.

In at least one embodiment, a method of analyzing and characterizing the thermal growth of a CNC machine is provided. The method may include mounting an artifact having a bore onto a CNC machine and performing a test cycle. The test cycle may include probing the bore of the artifact to determine its location relative to the CNC machine and performing a dry cycle including one or more CNC machining processes. The method may further include calculating a deviation of the bore location from a reference relative location between the bore and CNC machine. The method may be used to improve, troubleshoot, or assess the effectiveness of CNC machine thermal compensation mechanisms. The method may start at ambient temperature and include repeating test cycles until a steady state temperature is reached in the machine.

A machine tool of the present embodiment includes: a column that is disposed in a vertically standing manner and has a predetermined linear expansion coefficient; a spindle head that is supported by the column and supports a horizontal spindle for attaching a tool thereto; and a reference bar that is disposed separately from the column and has a linear expansion coefficient that is different from the linear expansion coefficient of the column wherein the column has a column-side measurement target zone, the reference bar has a reference bar-side measurement target zone, and a measurement means measures a distance between the column-side measurement target zone and the reference bar-side measurement target zone.

A robot controller able to suppress shaking of a tool tip of a robot due to operation of a travel axis. The robot controller includes a movement calculating part calculating an amount of movement of the travel axis and an amount of movement of the tool tip each time the travel axis operates in accordance with a command and a correcting part correcting a command value so that at least one command value of a speed and acceleration to the travel axis becomes smaller when the amount of movement of the travel axis is larger than a predetermined first threshold value and the amount of movement of the tool tip is smaller than a predetermined second threshold value.

A robot controller able to suppress shaking of a tool tip of a robot due to operation of a travel axis. The robot controller includes a movement calculating part calculating an amount of movement of the travel axis and an amount of movement of the tool tip each time the travel axis operates in accordance with a command and a correcting part correcting a command value so that at least one command value of a speed and acceleration to the travel axis becomes smaller when the amount of movement of the travel axis is larger than a predetermined first threshold value and the amount of movement of the tool tip is smaller than a predetermined second threshold value.

Disclosed are systems and methods for measuring the temperature change of one or more substrates within a semiconductor processing system. The temperature change information may be used to optimize throughput of substrates within the system and to troubleshoot quality issues that may be impacted by temperature.