MEASURING SYSTEM EMPLOYING A MEASURING METHOD BASED ON THE TRIANGULATION PRINCIPLE FOR THE NON-CONTACT MEASUREMENT OF A DISTANCE FROM THE SURFACE OF CONTOURED OBJECT TO A REFERENCE LEVEL

摘要

Measuring system employing a measuring method based on thetriangulation principle for the non-contact measurement ofa distance from the surface of a contoured object to areference level.ABSTRACTAn apparatus for the rapid and accurate dimensionalinspection of an object. In particular, the apparatus isadapted for the acquisition of object range data. The appa-ratus includes a source for emitting a slender beam ofradiation, first beam guide means for causing the beam toimpinge on a desired spot of the object under inspection,second beam guide means for causing radiation reflected fromthe spot of impingement to traverse a predetermined path,and a linear radiation-sensitive detector disposed in thispredetermined path for receiving the reflected radiation.The second beam guide means are adapted to imagefocussed spots on the detector of only those object spotswhich are irradiated by a predetermined sectional lengthportion of the emitted beam of radiation.A preferred embodiment includes third beam guidemeans for causing radiation reflected from the spot of im-pingement to traverse a further predetermined path alsoleading to the detector.The second and third beam guide means are structurallydifferent from each other in such a manner that one and thesame object spot irradiated by the predetermined beam portionis imaged on the detector as two separate, focussed spotsspaced a fixed distance from each other. Thereby a reliablediscrimination can be made between true and false reflectionsfrom the object under inspection.