Concept and architecture of a new apparatus for cylindrical form measurement with a nanometric level of accuracy

In relation to the industrial need and to the progress of technology, Laboratoire National de M´etrologie et d’Essais (LNE) would like to improve the measurement of its primary pressure standards, spherical and flick standards. The spherical and flick standards are, respectively, used to calibrate the spindle motion error and the probe, which equip commercial conventional cylindricity-measuring machines. The primary pressure standards are obtained using pressure balances equipped with rotary pistons. To reach a relative uncertainty of 10−6 in the pressure measurement, it is necessary to know the diameters of both the piston and the cylinder with an uncertainty of 5 nm for a piston diameter of 10 mm. Conventional machines are not able to reach such an uncertainty level. That is why the development of a new machine is necessary. The purpose of this paper is to present the concepts and the architecture adopted in the development of the new equipment dedicated to cylindricity measurement at a nanometric level of a accuracy. The choice of these concepts is based on the analysis of the uncertainty sources encountered in conventional architectures. The architecture of the new ultra-high equipment as well as the associated calibration procedures will be described and detailed.Thèse CIFR

Reconstruction of freeform surfaces for metrology

The application of freeform surfaces has increased since their complex shapes closely express a product's functional specifications and their machining is obtained with higher accuracy. In particular, optical surfaces exhibit enhanced performance especially when they take aspheric forms or more complex forms with multi-undulations. This study is mainly focused on the reconstruction of complex shapes such as freeform optical surfaces, and on the characterization of their form. The computer graphics community has proposed various algorithms for constructing a mesh based on the cloud of sample points. The mesh is a piecewise linear approximation of the surface and an interpolation of the point set. The mesh can further be processed for fitting parametric surfaces (Polyworks® or Geomagic®). The metrology community investigates direct fitting approaches. If the surface mathematical model is given, fitting is a straight forward task. Nonetheless, if the surface model is unknown, fitting is only possible through the association of polynomial Spline parametric surfaces. In this paper, a comparative study carried out on methods proposed by the computer graphics community will be presented to elucidate the advantages of these approaches. We stress the importance of the pre-processing phase as well as the significance of initial conditions. We further emphasize the importance of the meshing phase by stating that a proper mesh has two major advantages. First, it organizes the initially unstructured point set and it provides an insight of orientation, neighbourhood and curvature, and infers information on both its geometry and topology. Second, it conveys a better segmentation of the space, leading to a correct patching and association of parametric surfaces.EMR

A newly conceived cylinder measuring machine and methods that eliminate the spindle errors

Advanced manufacturing processes require improving dimensional metrology applications to reach a nanometric accuracy level. Such measurements may be carried out using conventional highly accurate roundness measuring machines. On these machines, the metrology loop goes through the probing and the mechanical guiding elements. Hence, external forces, strain and thermal expansion are transmitted to the metrological structure through the supporting structure, thereby reducing measurement quality. The obtained measurement also combines both the motion error of the guiding system and the form error of the artifact. Detailed uncertainty budgeting might be improved, using error separation methods (multi-step, reversal and multi-probe error separation methods, etc), enabling identification of the systematic (synchronous or repeatable) guiding system motion errors as well as form error of the artifact. Nevertheless, the performance of this kind of machine is limited by the repeatability level of the mechanical guiding elements, which usually exceeds 25 nm (in the case of an air bearing spindle and a linear bearing). In order to guarantee a 5 nm measurement uncertainty level, LNE is currently developing an original machine dedicated to form measurement on cylindrical and spherical artifacts with an ultra-high level of accuracy. The architecture of this machine is based on the ‘dissociated metrological technique’ principle and contains reference probes and cylinder. The form errors of both cylindrical artifact and reference cylinder are obtained after a mathematical combination between the information given by the probe sensing the artifact and the information given by the probe sensing the reference cylinder by applying the modified multi-step separation method.Thèse CIFR

Concept and architecture of a new apparatus for cylindrical form measurement with a nanometric level of accuracy

In relation to the industrial need and to the progress of technology, Laboratoire National de M´etrologie et d’Essais (LNE) would like to improve the measurement of its primary pressure standards, spherical and flick standards. The spherical and flick standards are, respectively, used to calibrate the spindle motion error and the probe, which equip commercial conventional cylindricity-measuring machines. The primary pressure standards are obtained using pressurebalances equipped with rotary pistons. To reach a relative uncertainty of 10−6 in the pressure measurement, it is necessary to know the diameters of both the piston and the cylinder with an uncertainty of 5 nm for a piston diameter of 10 mm. Conventional machines are not able to reach such an uncertainty level. That is why the development of a new machine is necessary. The purpose of this paper is to present the concepts and the architecture adopted in the development of the new equipment dedicated to cylindricity measurement at a nanometric level of a accuracy. The choice of these concepts is based on the analysis of the uncertainty sources encountered in conventional architectures. The architecture of the new ultra-high equipment as well as the associated calibration procedures will be described and detailed.International audienceIn relation to the industrial need and to the progress of technology, Laboratoire National de M´etrologie et d’Essais (LNE) would like to improve the measurement of its primary pressure standards, spherical and flick standards. The spherical and flick standards are, respectively, used to calibrate the spindle motion error and the probe, which equip commercial conventional cylindricity-measuring machines. The primary pressure standards are obtained using pressurebalances equipped with rotary pistons. To reach a relative uncertainty of 10−6 in the pressure measurement, it is necessary to know the diameters of both the piston and the cylinder with an uncertainty of 5 nm for a piston diameter of 10 mm. Conventional machines are not able to reach such an uncertainty level. That is why the development of a new machine is necessary. The purpose of this paper is to present the concepts and the architecture adopted in the development of the new equipment dedicated to cylindricity measurement at a nanometric level of a accuracy. The choice of these concepts is based on the analysis of the uncertainty sources encountered in conventional architectures. The architecture of the new ultra-high equipment as well as the associated calibration procedures will be described and detailed

Design of an ultra-high precision machine for form measurement

International audienceIn today's business environment, the trend towards more product variety and customization is unbroken. Due to this development, the need of agile and reconfigurable production systems emerged to cope with various products and product families. To design and optimize production systems as well as to choose the optimal product matches, product analysis methods are needed. Indeed, most of the known methods aim to analyze a product or one product family on the physical level. Different product families, however, may differ largely in terms of the number and nature of components. This fact impedes an efficient comparison and choice of appropriate product family combinations for the production system. A new methodology is proposed to analyze existing products in view of their functional and physical architecture. The aim is to cluster these products in new assembly oriented product families for the optimization of existing assembly lines and the creation of future reconfigurable assembly systems. Based on Datum Flow Chain, the physical structure of the products is analyzed. Functional subassemblies are identified, and a functional analysis is performed. Moreover, a hybrid functional and physical architecture graph (HyFPAG) is the output which depicts the similarity between product families by providing design support to both, production system planners and product designers. An illustrative example of a nail-clipper is used to explain the proposed methodology. An industrial case study on two product families of steering columns of thyssenkrupp Presta France is then carried out to give a first industrial evaluation of the proposed approach

Comparison of tactile and chromatic confocal measurements of aspherical lenses for form metrology

Both contact and non-contact probes are often used in dimensional metrology applications, especially for roughness, form and surface profile measurements. To perform such kind of measurements with a nanometer level of accuracy, LNE (French National Metrology Institute (NMI)) has developed a high precision profilometer traceable to the SI meter definition. The architecture of the machine contains a short and stable metrology frame dissociated from the supporting frame. It perfectly respects Abbe principle. The metrology loop incorporates three Renishaw laser interferometers and is equipped either with a chromatic confocal probe or a tactile probe to achieve measurements at the nanometric level of uncertainty. The machine allows the in-situ calibration of the probes by means of a differential laser interferometer considered as a reference. In this paper, both the architecture and the operation of the LNE’s high precision profilometer are detailed. A brief comparison of the behavior of the chromatic confocal and tactile probes is presented. Optical and tactile scans of an aspherical surface are performed and the large number of data are processed using the L-BFGS (Limited memory-Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno) algorithm. Fitting results are compared with respect to the evaluated residual errors which reflect the form defects of the surface.EMR

Material standards design for minimum zone fitting of freeform optics

International audienceIn most cases, ultra-high-precision coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) are used to measure manufactured parts especially in the presence of freeform surfaces. The obtained data should be then processed to determine a quality measure of the surface. The least value of peak-to-valley (PV) is the widely used quality measure since it conforms to the ISO Geometrical and Product Specification (GPS) standards. To determine the minimum value of PV, a number of fitting methods exist but minimum zone fitting is the most suitable since it directly minimizes the PV. In the measurement process, fitting algorithms are essential elements. For this reason, their quality must be assessed as well; this could be achieved using either softgauges or material artefacts. In this paper, a design of a reference thermo-invariant material standard for minimum zone fitting is suggested and manufactured. The artefact was then measured by a number of partners participating to the FreeFORM 15SIB-01 project so as a comparison could be made in the light of gathered measurements

CONTRIBUTION Á LA CONCEPTION D'UN MICRCONVERTISSEUR D'ÉNERGIE MÉCANIQUE VIBRATOIRE EN ÉNERGIE ÉLECTRIQUE

The market expansion of the moveable electronic instruments and their consumption reduction in terms of energy, promote the idea to convert mechanical vibratory energy, existing in great quantity in our environment, into electrical energy. The goal of this research work is the design of a current microgenerator, based on the harvesting of mechanical vibratory energy. In order to obtain a high efficiency of the microsystem, the energy losses need to be minimized. In this approach, a study of the airflow effect on the dynamic behaviour of clamped cantilever beams made of quartz, silicon and lithium niobate is carried out via two experimental methods in dynamics (random excitation and release dynamic test) at various pressure levels surrounding the vibrating structure between the primary vacuum and the atmospheric pressure. It turns out that the energy dissipated by the effect of surrounding air is secondary compared to the energy dissipated by the microsliding phenomenon. The latter is modelled by finite element analysis using a regularized Coulomb law to simulate friction effects. Thought, the dynamic study on assembled structures (a lithium niobate plate and a silicon beam) by adhesive material (SU8 epoxy resin of 5 µm and 1 µm and compressed gold) is performed between the secondary vacuum and the atmospheric pressure with dynamic release method. All the performed experiments and modelling made possible to choose a preferred architecture of the microconverter and to determine the most favourable assembly for the energy harvesting application. The capability of shock excitation regime to transfer mechanical energy from low to high frequency vibrating modes is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. Finally, a theoretical model is developed in order to describe the microconverter system in order to estimate the power generated under given mechanical excitation pressure, amplitude and frequency.Avec l'expansion du marché des appareils électroniques portables, des capteurs embarqués et la diminution conjointe de leur consommation d'énergie, l'idée de convertir l'énergie vibratoire, disponible en grande quantité dans notre environnement quotidien, en énergie électrique suscite un intérêt croissant. Le but de ce travail de recherche est de proposer des éléments d'aide à la conception d'une microgénératrice de courant efficace par récupération d'énergie vibratoire. Le principal objectif visé est la minimisation des pertes d'énergie quelle que soit leur nature. En premier lieu, une étude de l'effet de l'air libre sur la dynamique de poutres encastrées-libres en quartz, en silicium et en niobate de lithium est réalisée par deux méthodes expérimentales en dynamique (excitation aléatoire et lâcher dynamique). Différents niveaux de pression de l'air qui entoure la structure vibrante sont appliqués entre le vide primaire et la pression atmosphérique. On réalise que l'énergie dissipée par l'effet de l'air est secondaire par rapport à celle dissipée par le phénomène de microglissement au sein de l'encastrement. L'effet amortissant de ce microglissement est confirmé par un modèle d'éléments finis utilisant une loi de Coulomb régularisée. Une étude similaire (caractérisation expérimentale entre le vide secondaire et la pression atmosphérique) est alors réalisée sur des structures collées par trois procédés différents : avec une couche de SU8 de 5 µm, de 1 µm et avec de l'or compressé. L'ensemble de ces expériences a permis de fixer l'architecture du microconvertisseur et de déterminer l'assemblage le plus favorable à cette application. Le transfert d'énergie vibratoire à partir d'excitation par chocs est ensuite étudié en détail, par voie analytique et expérimentale. Enfin, une modélisation complète de la microgénératrice est proposée, permettant l'estimation de la puissance générée sous l'effet d'une contrainte mécanique de forme, d'amplitude et de fréquence données

Evaluation of roundness error using a new method based on a small displacement screw

International audienceIn relation to the industrial need and to the progress of technology, LNE would like to improve the measurement of its primary pressure, spherical and flick standards. The spherical and flick standards are respectively used to calibrate the spindle motion error and the probe which equips commercial conventional cylindricity measuring machines. The primary pressure standards are obtained using pressure balances equipped with rotary pistons with an uncertainty of 5 nm for a piston diameter of 10 mm. Conventional machines are not able to reach such an uncertainty level. That is why the development of a new machine is necessary. To ensure such a level of uncertainty, both stability and performance of the machine are not sufficient and the data processing should also be done with an accuracy less than the nanometre. In this paper, the new method based on the Small Displacement Screw (SDS) model is proposed. A first validation of this method is proposed on a theoretical dataset published by the European Community Bureau of Reference (BCR) in report n°3327. Then, an experiment is prepared in order to validate the new method on real datasets. Specific environment conditions are taken into account and many precautions are considered. The new method is applied to analyze the least squares circle, minimum zone circle, maximum inscribed circle and minimum circumscribed circle. The results are compared to those done by the reference Chebyshev best-fit method and reveal a perfect agreement. The sensibility of SDS and Chebyshev methodologies are investigated, and it is revealed that results remain unchanged when the value of the diameter exceeds 700 times the form error.