Laser line triangulation for fast 3D measurements on large gears

Abstract The causes of geometrical deviations from the production process and the prediction of application properties, such as noise behavior, wear or material fatigue, are only possible by having detailed information about the gear geometry. The gold standard for the gear quality inspection is represented by dimensional measurements with a tactile sensor system. As a result for industrial applications, the slow serial measurement leads to the compromise of a random inspection of the gear geometry. For the purpose of a faster and more extensive surface acquisition, a laser line triangulation sensor is investigated providing 1280 points at a line width of 25 mm with up to 200 lines/s. The results at the tooth of a large cylindrical involute gear with a pitch circle diameter of 922 mm and a face width of 246 mm show the qualification for fast three-dimensional measurements of the convex and reflective surface. The detection of the complete profile line at once is possible. It is shown that the measurement deviation of laser line triangulation can be minimized by increasing the dynamic threshold. The measurement deviations amount to ± 8.2 µm and can be attributed to random and systematic errors. Compared to the standard gear inspection, an acceleration factor of 5700 was attained. An optical scanning of the complete tooth flank provides the prerequisite for an identification of surface defects in the form of breakouts and blemish.