CNC machine tools as the foundation of modern manufacturing industry

is a vital sign for the evaluation of the national whole industry. With the development of science and technology

the requirement of machining accuracy is getting higher and higher. The accuracy and precision stability of CNC machine tool is facing serious challenging. Therefore

how to measure the error of machine tool quickly and accurately is one of the research hot points. The main measuring method are reviewed from the perspectives of measuring instrument and measuring strategy

which include the laser interferometer

laser tracer

laser volumetric error measurement

double ball bar

cross grid encoder

R-test

standard artefact measurement. Also the research status of thermal error and cutting force induced error are briefly reviewed

and the main challenging of the error measurement technology and the next development trend are analyzed. Also some proposals for our unique techniques of the error measurement are given.