Patent ID: 8116902

Claim:
A method of detecting a dynamic path of a five-axis machine tool having three linear axes (X-, Y- and Z-axes), two rotation axes (A- and C-axes), a spindle defined along the Z-axis of the five-axis machine tool and a turning table defined below the spindle and rotated about the Z-axis of the five-axis machine tool, and the method comprising: a preparing step comprising: preparing a detecting assembly with a detector and a cat-eye reflector mounting the detector on the spindle of the five-axis machine tool; mounting the cat-eye reflector on the turntable of the five-axis machine tool to align with the detector at a fixed distance; emitting a laser light of a mini-interferometer in the detector to the cat-eye reflector and reflecting back to the mini-interferometer by the cat-eye reflector; and setting a spectroscope in the detector between the reflected laser light and the mini-interferometer to split the reflected laser light into two light beams, one of the light beams emitted to the mini-interferometer and the other light beam emitted to a four-quadrant position sensitive detector of the detector to obtain a three-linear position signal; a correcting step comprising: rotating the detector with the spindle of the five-axis machine tool at an angle of 360°; detecting signals of the laser light between the cat-eye reflector and the detector by the mini-interferometer and the four-quadrant position sensitive detector to find an offset between the detector of the detecting assembly and the spindle of the five-axis machine tool; and eliminating the offset by correcting the position of the detector of the detecting assembly relative to the spindle of the five-axis machine tool; and a detecting step comprising detecting the positions of at least two of the linear axes (X-axis, Y-axis and Z-axis) and at least one of the rotation axes (A-axis and C-axis) to find the dynamic path of the five-axis machine tool.