Method for product acceptance by improving the accuracy of machines
First Claim
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1. A method for accepting a product by measuring its features in inspection tooling, comprising the steps of:
- (a) positioning a measurement probe in a spindle of a machine;
(b) measuring selected inspection features on the product in inspection tooling as a set of inspection measurements with the probe in accordance with an inspection sequence derived from the intended configuration of the product as specified in a digital definition of the product;
(c) measuring a set of reference features at known locations in three dimensions on the product;
(d) scaling the intended configuration of the product as specified in the digital definition to adjust the relative size and position of features on the product with a dimensional scale factor to provide a scaled digital definition determined in accordance with measurement of changes in the actual configuration of the product in the inspection tooling caused by changes in factory conditions as detected by changes in the positions of the reference features; and
(e) providing delta correction commands to the machine to move the probe to improve the machine accuracy and to complete the inspection measurements with reference to the scaled digital definition.
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Abstract
Product acceptance requires accurate measurement of product features. We augment machine control with true position feedback from an independent measurement system to allow such inspection to occur with conventional machine tools rather than expensive, special purpose, limited versatility Coordinate Measuring Machines.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. A method for accepting a product by measuring its features in inspection tooling, comprising the steps of:
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(a) positioning a measurement probe in a spindle of a machine; (b) measuring selected inspection features on the product in inspection tooling as a set of inspection measurements with the probe in accordance with an inspection sequence derived from the intended configuration of the product as specified in a digital definition of the product; (c) measuring a set of reference features at known locations in three dimensions on the product; (d) scaling the intended configuration of the product as specified in the digital definition to adjust the relative size and position of features on the product with a dimensional scale factor to provide a scaled digital definition determined in accordance with measurement of changes in the actual configuration of the product in the inspection tooling caused by changes in factory conditions as detected by changes in the positions of the reference features; and (e) providing delta correction commands to the machine to move the probe to improve the machine accuracy and to complete the inspection measurements with reference to the scaled digital definition. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13)
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11. An inspection system having improved positioning accuracy for product acceptance, comprising:
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(a) a machine tool, including an end effector carrying an inspection probe adapted for performing product acceptance measurement of a part; (b) a machine controller coupled with the machine tool for commanding movement of the machine tool to a commanded position through position control media derived from an engineering drawing or a digital dataset representation of the part; (c) at least one independent measurement system positioned remotely from the machine tool for measuring the true position of the end effector; (d) a computing system connected to the machine controller and measurement system for comparing the measured position of the end effector from the measurement system with the commanded position and for providing adjustment signals to the machine controller to offset a difference between the commanded position and the measured position; and (e) means for adjusting in substantially real-time the commanded position derived from the digital dataset representation of the part for time varying factory conditions that impact size or orientation of the part.
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Specification