A Novel Design of Through-Hole Depth On-Machine Optical Measuring Equipment for Automatic Drilling and Riveting

Abstract

In the aerospace manufacturing industry, it is impossible to achieve precise and efficient automatic drilling and riveting for largescale composite board parts. The bottleneck is that the depth detection of rivet holes still relies on manual operation, which seriously affects the assembly efficiency and stability of composite board parts. In order to realize accurate and efficient on-machine automatic measurement for through holes in the automatic drilling and riveting process of largescale composite board parts, this paper presents a novel hole depth measuring device. Its mechanical structure is developed based on our newly designed measurement scheme and optical path, the purpose of which is to convert the hole depth data into displacement data of the probe motion. Its electrical hardware consists of three units: a laser transceiver unit to pick up laser spots; a displacement measuring unit to capture the probe movement in real time; and a driving unit to achieve motion control of the probe. Finally, the experimental results indicated that the proposed method and device are capable of performing automatic measurements for through-hole depth. In addition, factors affecting the measuring accuracy and stability of the device are initially analyzed and discussed, which lay a foundation for subsequent research on error compensation and probe calibration.

Special Issue on Precision Dimensional Measurements

“…Gaska et al searched the optimal path control algorithm for probe heads used on five-axis CMMs [30]. Wu et al developed on-machine optical measuring equipment for drilled holes [31].…”

Hole Depth Prediction in a Femtosecond Laser Drilling Process Using Deep Learning

“…There is also a way of directly examining the cross-section of the blind hole by polishing [9], although objective depth measurement is problematic owing to grinding parameters. To objectively and accurately measure, numerous measuring tools and methodologies have been proposed [10][11][12][13].…”

“…Wu [11] investigated the depth measuring of through holes in the field of automatic drilling and rivets. A probe was placed in a hole, and the depth was measured by receiving the laser signal according to the location via the charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor.…”

Simple Modification of a Commercial Laser Triangulation Sensor for Distance Measurement of Slot and Bore Side Surfaces

“…The inner profiles of engine cylinders and other parts must be measured [ 9 ]. Optical instruments such as borescopes and endoscopes are intended for bore inspection, although they may also provide other information [ 10 , 11 ]. However, these are not suitable for measuring the inner profile since the main purpose of them is observation [ 12 ].…”