Construction of virtual measurement datum in measuring gear tooth flank by laser interferometry

A measurement datum is crucial in measuring a gear tooth flank by laser interferometry. Manufacturing a physical reference tooth flank as a measurement datum has many drawbacks: many different reference tooth flanks are needed with the changing of the measured gear’s parameters; the reference tooth flank’s manufacturing error lowers the measurement precision; the installation error between the measured and referenced tooth flank lowers the measurement precision also. The drawbacks restrain the practical use of measuring gear by laser interferometry. A construction method of a virtual measurement datum has been proposed to solve the problem. First, a virtual error-free model of the measured tooth flank is built according to its parameters and actual measurement position. Subsequently, the interferogram of the virtual tooth flank is simulated as a measurement datum through the ray tracing. To harvest the actual measurement position of the measured tooth flank, a compensation approach for optical system error and a tracing algorithm for actual installation position are developed. Experimental results prove that a virtual measurement datum can be constructed and used in measuring a gear tooth flank. Furthermore, this research verifies that ray tracing can be used to construct a virtual measurement datum in the relevant comparative measurements processes by laser interferometry.