Designing an optical set-up of differential laser triangulation for oil film thickness measurement on water

Abstract

Based on the differential laser triangulation principle, an optical system configuration for measuring the oil film thickness on water is designed and developed. A semiconductor laser of 650 nm wavelength with the maximum power of 5 mW is used as a light source, the magnification of the imaging system is 1.4; the range of the measurement is 0.1 mm-10 mm; the resolution is 2.3 μm and the measurement accuracy is 10 μm theoretically. Experiments are conducted with block gauges and feeler gauges, and the experimental results, with absolute error less than ±25 μm and the maximal measurable thickness 12 mm, indicate that this system presented in this paper can fulfill high accuracy.