Precision inspection of deviations of machined surfaces

Abstract

The deviations of machined surfaces of high-precision mechanical components are one of the major error items that affect the precision, and hence the performance, of the components. However, industrial standards concerning profile deviations are still not available for many components with curved surfaces, due to lack of accurate inspection and error evaluation methods, although general purpose coordinate measuring machines are widely available. Proposed in this paper are two such methods that detect and process surface form deviations using coordinate measuring machines. Possible measurement error sources of these methods have been investigated and necessary remedies suggested. Both are seen to lead to higher inspection accuracy than the methods reported in the literature. Experiments were designed and carried out to confirm and illustrate the validity of these proposed methods.