SBIR Phase II: High-Resolution Shop Floor Video-Rate Surface Metrology System

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目将开发和生产一个强大的、手持式的、视频速率的三维表面测量系统，垂直和横向分辨率为几微米，以弥补现有精密加工表面的关键测量差距。许多现代制造部件，如涡轮叶片、传动轴、矫形器和各种增材制造部件，都需要高分辨率的原位计量，以便在制造和/或维护操作期间进行准确表征。目前的高分辨率表面测量系统速度慢，对振动敏感，并且是基于实验室的，因此对于制造技术人员的日常使用是不切实际的。同时，车间检查通常只是目视的，因此是定性的而不是定量的，导致可接受组件的拒绝和不合格组件的潜在接受。由于缺乏高精度的原位计量，制造商无法应用实时数据分析和闭环过程控制，从而提高产量并降低制造成本。该研究计划将产生一个手持式，易于使用，坚固，定量的车间测量系统，允许制造商提高寿命，性能和产量，因为他们快速评估测试中的特征，并将结果反馈给改进过程控制。在第一阶段，设计并实现了一个面包板系统，该系统采用基于偏振的条纹投影法和微偏振相位掩模技术，在紧凑的封装中实现了振动不敏感测量。第二阶段计划利用该研究设计一个视频速率，紧凑，坚固和便携式系统，用于车间环境中的手持表面测量。这将首先涉及通过改进光学设计和新的自校准测量模式来提高测量分辨率；新的光学元件将降低由早期设计缺陷引起的噪声伪影，并减小系统尺寸。一旦新设计的性能得到验证，必须为仪器创建一个符合人体工程学、紧凑、坚固、无线的外壳，以使车间使用；该系统必须能够处理超过一米的混凝土落差，电池寿命可用于扩展的现场作业，重量轻，不会使用户疲劳，并且具有直观的控制和反馈。最后，至关重要的开发工作将创建用于测量、分析和系统诊断的自动化软件例程，以使制造环境中的非熟练人员能够采用。最后，在该领域进行广泛的应用测试将允许优化系统以处理广泛的潜在用例和环境。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop and produce a robust, hand-held, video-rate three-dimensional surface metrology system with vertical and lateral resolution of several micrometers, in order to bridge a critical existing metrology gap for precision-machined surfaces. Many modern manufactured parts, such as turbine blades, drive shafts, orthopedics, and various additive manufactured components require in-situ metrology with high resolution for accurate characterization during manufacturing and/or maintenance operations. Current high-resolution surface measurement systems are slow, vibration-sensitive and laboratory-based and thus are impractical for everyday use by manufacturing technicians. Meanwhile, shop-floor inspection is often only visual, and thus qualitative rather than quantitative, leading both to rejections of acceptable components as well as potential acceptance of failing ones. The absence of high-precision, in-situ metrology has hindered manufacturers from applying real-time data analysis and closed-loop process controls that can improve yields and reduce manufacturing costs. This research program will yield a hand-held, easy-to-use, robust, and quantitative shop-floor measurement system, allowing manufacturers to improve lifetimes, performance, and yield as they rapidly assess the features under test and feed the results back to improve process control.During Phase I, a breadboard system was designed and implemented using a polarization-based fringe projection method and micropolarizer phase-mask technology to achieve vibration insensitive measurement in a compact package. This Phase II program leverages that research to design a video-rate, compact, robust and portable system for handheld surface measurements in shop-floor environments. This will first involve improvements to measurement resolution with an improved optical design and new self-calibrating measurement modes; new optical elements will lower noise artifacts caused by imperfections in the earlier design and to reduce system size. Once performance of the new design is verified, an ergonomic, compact, robust, wireless housing for the instrument must be created to enable shop-floor use; the system must handle drops of over one meter onto concrete, have useful battery life for extended field operations, be light enough to not fatigue users and have intuitive controls and feedback. A final, critically important development effort will create automated software routines for measurement, analysis, and system diagnostics to enable adoption by unskilled personnel in manufacturing environments. Lastly, extensive applications testing in the field will allow optimization of the system to handle a wide range of potential use cases and environments.