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

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将进行关键研究，最终形成一个坚固的、手持的、视频速率的表面测量系统，以弥补精密加工表面的关键现有测量差距。该项目的更广泛影响将是提高包括汽车、航空航天和医疗设备在内的广泛美国关键行业的零部件的产量、性能、安全性和寿命。例如，边缘或其他关键区域的微小表面缺陷可能会对涡轮叶片、刀具或其他高应力元件等部件的性能产生重大影响。在汽轮机行业中，在维护检查期间，必须对可能导致灾难性故障的磨痕或腐蚀坑进行量化，以确保只进行必要的维修和更换；目前的检测技术导致良好零件的高废品率，因为缺乏良好的量化需要保守地处理零件报废。这种高精度的便携式车间量具将极大地提高此类特征的量化能力，从而增强美国多个关键制造业的竞争力，这些行业采用了广泛的加工技术。在最初确定的应用领域，这种仪器的总市场估计每年超过4500万美元。该项目的智力优势是展示了一种新的瞬时全场光学方法，用于测量微米分辨率和厘米视场的粗糙表面。瞬时全场采集使高分辨率测量能够在当前技术不可能实现的环境中进行。这项技术的好处从提高航空航天的制造能力(例如，以更高的效率生产涡轮叶片)到运动和振动固有的医学成像等领域。该计划的研究目标是开发和/或展示几个关键组件的可行性：一种生成基于偏振的条纹图案以实现瞬时测量的有效方法、一种最先进的光源、能够高效照明和大面积成像的紧凑型光学元件以及强大的数据处理技术。将结合广泛的建模和实验，以确保每个技术目标的成功。一旦开发出关键部件，将建立一个面包板系统，并针对各种关键的计量目标进行全面测试。在第一阶段工作结束时，预期的结果将是一种能够防震的工作面板，具有微米级横向和垂直分辨率的三维表面测量，适用于广泛的精密加工表面。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will perform the critical research that ultimately leads to a robust, hand-held, video-rate surface metrology system to bridge a critical existing metrology gap for precision-machined surfaces. The broader impact of this project will be to improve yield, performance, safety, and lifetime of components in a wide range of critical U.S. industries including automotive, aerospace, and medical devices. For example, minor surface imperfections on edges or in other critical areas can have a dramatic effect on performance of components such as turbine blades, cutting tools, or other high-stress elements. In the turbine industry, during maintenance inspections, wear scars or corrosion pits that can lead to catastrophic failures must be quantified to ensure only necessary repairs and replacements are performed; current inspection technologies lead to high rejection rates of good parts since lack of good quantification necessitates conservatism in part rejection. This high-precision, portable, shop-floor gage will greatly enhance quantification of such features, leading to enhanced competitiveness across multiple critical U.S. manufacturing industries that employ a wide range of processing technologies. The total available market for such an instrument is estimated to be greater than $45 million annually in the initially identified application spaces.The intellectual merit of this project is the demonstration of a novel instantaneous whole-field optical method for measuring rough surfaces with micron resolution and centimeter field of view. Instantaneous whole-field acquisition enables high-resolution measurements to be made in environments not possible with current technology. Benefits of this technology range from increased manufacturing capability in aerospace (for example, production of turbine blades with improved efficiency), to fields such as medical imaging where motion and vibration are intrinsic. The research objectives for this program are to develop and/or demonstrate feasibility of several key components: an efficient method of generating polarization-based fringe patterns to enable instantaneous measurement, a state-of-the-art light source, compact optics capable of high-efficiency illumination and large-area imaging, and robust data processing techniques. Extensive modeling and experimentation will be combined to ensure success of each of the technical objectives. Once key components are developed, a breadboard system will be built and comprehensively tested against a variety of critical metrology goals. At the end of this Phase I effort, the anticipated outcome will be a working breadboard capable of vibration-immune, three-dimensional surface metrology with micron-level lateral and vertical resolution, applicable to a wide range of precision machined surfaces.