Design of a Multi-Point Kinematic Coupling for a High Precision Telescopic Simultaneous Measurement System.

This paper covers the design of a new multi-point kinematic coupling specially developed for a high precision multi-telescopic arm measurement system for the volumetric verification of machine tools with linear and/or rotary axes. The multipoint kinematic coupling allows the simultaneous operation of the three telescopic arms that are registered at the same time to a sphere fixed on the machine tool spindle nose. Every coupling provides an accurate multi-point contact to the sphere, avoiding collisions and interferences with the other two multi-point kinematic couplings, and generating repulsion forces among them to ensure the coupling's fingers interlacing along the machine tool x/y/z travels in the verification process. Simulation presents minimal deformation of the kinematic coupling under load, assuring the precision of the sphere-to-sphere distance measurement. Experimental results are provided to show that the multi-point kinematic coupling developed has repeatability values below ±1.2 µm in the application.

Measuring Sensors Calibration in Worm Gear Rolling Testers.

The ISO standard regulating gear-rolling measurement does not specify in detail the calibration and verification procedures for this type of equipment. This may be one of the reasons for the lack of reproducibility in these rolling tests. The uncertainty budget method, which is the most appropriate way to know the accuracy of this dynamic measurement, shows that the measuring sensors' accuracy is only a part of the total measurement process uncertainty. In this work, a new calibration and verification procedure for a worm gear rolling tester is presented, based on machine tool, coordinate measuring machine and gear measuring instruments' calibration techniques. After compensating numerically for the measuring instruments, it has been evaluated how the error components of each movement affect the meshing point, a fundamental factor to ensure a good gear transmission. The study shows that there are unintentional position variations, not detected by the measuring sensors, that have to be identified and quantified in the calibration for their later inclusion in the uncertainty budget. In this way, the measurement uncertainty could be reduced, and thus improve the reproducibility of these testers, as a preliminary stage to the development of optimized rolling measurement equipment to solve current limitations.

Virtual Distances Methodology as Verification Technique for AACMMs with a Capacitive Sensor Based Indexed Metrology Platform.

This paper presents a new verification procedure for articulated arm coordinate measuring machines (AACMMs) together with a capacitive sensor-based indexed metrology platform (IMP) based on the generation of virtual reference distances. The novelty of this procedure lays on the possibility of creating virtual points, virtual gauges and virtual distances through the indexed metrology platform's mathematical model taking as a reference the measurements of a ball bar gauge located in a fixed position of the instrument's working volume. The measurements are carried out with the AACMM assembled on the IMP from the six rotating positions of the platform. In this way, an unlimited number and types of reference distances could be created without the need of using a physical gauge, therefore optimizing the testing time, the number of gauge positions and the space needed in the calibration and verification procedures. Four evaluation methods are presented to assess the volumetric performance of the AACMM. The results obtained proved the suitability of the virtual distances methodology as an alternative procedure for verification of AACMMs using the indexed metrology platform.