Title: Strategies for measurement of sculptured surfaces using coordinate measuring machines in continuous scanning mode

Authors: G. Rajamohan; M.S. Shunmugam

Addresses: Department of Manufacturing Engineering, National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology, Ranchi – 834 003, India ' Manufacturing Engineering Section, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai – 600 036, India

Abstract: Coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) equipped with continuous scanning probes are widely used in the measurement of sculptured or freeform surfaces. The complex nature of such surfaces requires suitable sampling strategies to ensure adequate measurement. Sampling strategy involves the identification of number of isoparametric scan lines and their locations over the entire surface. When the number of isoparametric scan lines is assumed, the sampling strategy is expected to distribute them so as to ensure the measurement adequacy. A new sampling strategy has been proposed in the present work, considering the complexity of isoparametric scan lines. Freeform surfaces of varying complexities have been used to compute the effectiveness of the proposed sampling strategy, which is measured in terms of lower positional deviations with fewer isoparametric scan lines. The results obtained are compared with uniform and curvature-based isoparametric lines sampling strategies.

Keywords: sculptured surfaces; freeform surfaces; coordinate measuring machines; CMMs; isoparametric lines; positional deviations; surface measurement; continuous scanning probes; sampling strategies.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMMS.2013.057127

International Journal of Mechatronics and Manufacturing Systems, 2013 Vol.6 No.4, pp.335 - 350

Received: 17 Sep 2012
Accepted: 13 Mar 2013

Published online: 12 Jul 2014 *

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