Semiautomated Inspection of Superfinished Spherical Surfaces

摘要

Lapping and polishing techniques are used at Bendix Kansas City to fabricate superfinished spherical metal surfaces. A laser-light reflection method has been developed for semiautomated inspection of the surfaces. The reflected and diffracted light intensity distributions from the spherical surface are measured with an array of photodetectors interfaced with a data sampler and a minicomputer programmed to distinguish between pits and scratches. For automated measurement, standard deviations for scratch width and depth are 3 and 0.3 mu m (120 and 12 mu in.), respectively, and for pit diameter and depth are 5.8 and 0.9 mu m (230 and 36 mu in.), respectively. A laser interferometric displacement measuring system interfaced with the computer is used for automated measurement of surface waviness. (ERA citation 05:024508)