High Precision Hybrid Milling Machine Using Dual-Stage

High precision machining technology has become one of the important parts in the development of a precision machine. Such a machine requires high speed on a large workspace as well as high precision positioning. For machining systems having a long stroke with ultra precision, a dual-stage system including a global stage (coarse stage) and a micro stage (fine stage) is designed in this paper. Though linear motors have a long stroke and high precision feed drivers, they have some limitations for submicron positioning. Piezo-actuators with high precision also have severe disadvantage for the travel range, and the stroke is limited to a few microns. In the milling experiments, the positional accuracy has been readily achieved within 0.2 micron over the typical 20 mm stroke, and the path error over 2 micron was reduced within 0.2 micron. Therefore, this technique can be applied to develop high precision positioning and machining in the micro manufacturing and machining system.