|
In recent years, the manufacturing of parts with compound surfaces relies more and more on computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) because of the ever increasing complexity of surface features. For a standard CIM cycle, it starts from a computer aided design (CAD) model which was designed previously be experienced mechanical drafters. The CAD model is then interpreted as numerical controlled (NC) machining codes according to which the part is finally manufactured, this is usually referred to as the normal manufacturing process in Figure 1. However, in many cases, a CAD model of a part is not always readily available to begin the CIM cycle. For instance, in automobile industry, the development of new car models takes a long time from concept to model because of the tedious manual digitization process. Also, in some other cases, the mechanical design of a product may need frequent modification, such as ship hulls, aeroplane fuselages, wings and turbine blades, etc. This was traditionally done by copymilling of a master model. In a computer aided manufacturing (CAM) environment, a mathematical model or representation of a part is required to begin a CIM cycle. The automation of the whole manufacturing system requires a rapid part modeling tool. Fortunately, this becomes possible with the advent of recent development in optical sensing devices and many non-contact sensing techniques. Before a part model is established, surface digitization should first be implemented so that enough measurement points can be fitted later, and this is the most important step of the reverse engineering process as in Figure 1. And also, it is obvious that the efficiency and accuracy of the surface modeling relies heavily on the efficiency and accuracy of the surface digitization. The present paper aims at achieving surface digitization accurately and rapidly with a coordinate measurement machine (CMM) and an inexpensive laser range-finding probe. By making full use of the control system of the CMM and the sensing device, a feed-back control module has been developed to achieve accuracy, speed, and economy at the same time. This economical system can achieve the same or higher level of accuracy than expensive machine vision systems.
|
