Successful applications find an optimal blend of speed and accuracy. But as technology advances, there is less room for compromise. And while machine tool builders steadily introduce machining centers with higher speeds and feeds, linear positioning accuracy and repeatability standards seem static.

The industry follows a wide variety of standards and definitions to ensure a machine tool performs its movements precisely and consistently. But one of the more exacting accuracy standards seems to go unmeasured and unnoticed-volumetric accuracy. An understanding of volumetric accuracy, of how it is measured, as well as machine tool and thermal characteristics that lend to it, is an important step toward obtaining continually shorter lead times and meeting increasingly high quality expectations.

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