Error due to compliance and vibration

We have, in past chapters, looked into various sources of error and in the last chapter developed a methodology to allow the estimation of the magnitude of an error source and its contribution to dimension, form or surface characteristics of a workpiece. In general, the error terms considered were “macroscopic” in nature. That is, they dealt with the kinematic errors in machine axes and components, thermal errors as well as system error, for example, the resolution of an encoder feeding back positional information. In this chapter we will delve a little deeper into other sources of error in manufacturing – those due to structural compliance and vibration (or chatter).