High precision linear slide. Part I: Design and construction

The purpose of the linear slide project was to gain knowledge and experience in high precision machine design dedicated to short stroke single and multiple axes. The work presented is part of a research program developed by the Universite de Technologie de Compiegne to design a high precision linear slide. This paper discusses the design and construction of a linear stage with 16 nm positioning precision. A steel slide with a mass of 100 kg is fully floated by three hydrostatic bearings. The working motion length of the system is 220 mm. Very high axis stiffnesses are achieved. The linear axis is driven with a maximal translational speed of 10 mm/s using a friction drive actuator. A closed loop servo position control i.e. Internal Model Controller (IMC) is used to compensate automatically for unmodeled mechanical behaviors such as prerolling phenomena. The metrology frame including laser interferometer and optic linear encoder was used for the measurements.