Abstract: Research on error modeling of tailored blank laser welding machine which has four linear axes is introduced. The number arrays of low-order body are used to describe the topological structures which are taken to generalize and refine MBS, and the characteristic matrices are employed to represent the relative positions and gestures between any two bodies in MBS. Position error transfer function which can reflect the influence of each error origin on the positioning error of the machine tool is given to describe transmission error of the machine in detail. Based on this method, the error model of the tailored blank laser welding machine is put forward. The measurement and evaluation of their error parameters start, after completed error modeling of the machine. Leica laser tracker is introduced to measure the errors of the machine and to check the result of the error model. The comparison results indicate that the error model can effectively predict errors of the tailored blank laser welding system.

Key words: Error modeling, Laser tracker, Multi-body system theory, Position error transfer function, Tailored blank laser welding