A noncontact laser technique for circular contouring accuracy measurement

The worldwide competition in manufacturing frequently requires the high-spe ed machine tools to deliver contouring accuracy in the order of a few micro meters, while moving at relatively high feed rates. Traditional test equipm ent is rather limited in its capability to measure contours of small radius at high speed. Described here is a new noncontact laser measurement techni que for the test of circular contouring accuracy. This technique is based o n a single-aperture laser Doppler displacement meter with a flat mirror as the target. It is of a noncontact type with the ability to vary the circula r path radius continuously at data rates of up to 1000 Hz. Using this instr ument, the actual radius, feed rate, velocity, and acceleration profiles ca n also be determined. The basic theory of operation, the hardware setup, th e data collection, the data processing, and the error budget are discussed. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.