Practical performances of high-speed measurement of gear transmission error or torsional vibrations with optical encoders

Abstract

We evaluated in this paper an improved technique for measuring gear transmission error (GTE) at high speed, by using low pulse per revolution optical encoders. The originality of this technique lies in the fact that highly precise, completely digital measurements of torsional vibration or transmission error (TE) at high speed are achievable by the use of low-price, basic optical components. The lengths of encoder pulses are estimated with a high-frequency timer (100 MHz): thus, it appears that the theoretical precision of this device depends only on the angular speed of shafts, not on the number of pulses per revolution of the encoder. In practice, the intrinsic encoder accuracy (namely the grating or electronic signal processing precision) directly affects precision measurements. Alternatively, the number of pulses per revolution of the encoder specifies the resolution. We examined the possibility of calibrating encoders through using a specific test rig. The determination of corrective data assigned to each grating leads to an insignificant improvement of the precision measurement. The coherence from one revolution to another does not present any significant deterministic component. The overall precision achieved is less than 0.03 second of arc for each frequency of the power spectral density. This calibration device only gives a good assessment of eccentricity induced by mechanical mounting of optical discs on a shaft, compared with the direct measurement on grating discs. The correlation between the two measurements is less than 3% of the magnitude of the relative eccentricity. Thus, the encoder technique seems to be a cheap and easy way to implement transmission error measurement on real mechanical systems with high precision and sufficient reliability.