Measuring apparatus for pulley

• US 6,564,466 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2001
• Issued: 05/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fuji Heavy Industries Limited (Subaru Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Heavy Industries Limited (Subaru Corp.)
• Inventors: Uwai, Chiaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Gutierrez, Diego
• Assistant Examiner(s): REIS, TRAVIS M
• Application Number:
  US09/962,603
• Publication Number:
  US 20020040611A1
• Time in Patent Office: 601 Days
• Field of Search: 335/03, 335/49, 335/51, 335/53, 335/54, 335/55, 335/551
• US Class Current: 33/549
• CPC Class Codes: F16H 55/56 of which the bearing parts are relatively axially adjustable
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 21/20 for measuring contours or curvatures, e.g. determining profile
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 5/20 for measuring contours or curvatures

Abstract

A measuring apparatus for a pulley which features a workpiece holding post, a slide table and a measuring post which are controlled and moved by a controlling board. A probe tip extends from a detecting head of the measuring post and, in operation, is brought into contact with the portion to be measured to carry out the copying measurement which involves one or more measurements directed at the groove diameter of the ball groove, angle of the intersection, a divided angle, over-ball diameter, between diameter, lead deviation, run-out, concentricity, tapered angle of the conical surface, straightness of the conical surface, and deviation of the conical surface.

Claims

1. A measuring apparatus for a pulley having a ball groove for a ball spline and a conical surface for varying a pulley width of the pulley, comprising:

a workpiece holding post for rotatably holding the pulley about an axis of the pulley;

a slide table slidable in a radial direction of the measuring apparatus;

a measuring post slidably mounted on said table in a tangent direction orthogonal to the radial direction of the measuring apparatus;

a detecting head slidably mounted on the measuring post in an axial direction orthogonal to both of the radial and tangent directions of the measuring apparatus, said detecting head having a probe including a ball of a specified diameter formed at the tip thereof; and

a processor for controlling movements of said slide table, said measuring post and said detecting head, to allow said probe to be brought into contact with a portion of the pulley to be measured, and for measuring the configurations and the positional accuracy thereof based on displacement data detected by the detecting head, and

wherein said processor measures an angle of intersection defined by intersecting a line connecting the center of an ideal circle and one of the two contact points and a line connecting the center of the ideal circle and the center of a measuring reference of the pulley when an ideal circle of a specified diameter is brought into contact with the ball groove at two contact points.

2. The measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor processes displacement data obtained by a copying measurement at many points, obtains a position of the center of the ideal circle assuming that the center of the circle obtained by approximating the ball groove, the contacting point, and the center of the ideal circle are on the same line, and obtains the angle of the intersection based on the position of the center of the ideal circle.

3. A measuring apparatus for a pulley having a ball groove for a ball spline and a conical surface for varying a pulley width of the pulley, comprising:

a workpiece holding post for rotatably holding the pulley about an axis of the pulley;

a slide table slidable in a radial direction of the measuring apparatus;

a measuring post slidably mounted on said table in a tangent direction orthogonal to the radial direction of the measuring apparatus;

a detecting head slidably mounted on the measuring post in an axial direction orthogonal to both of the radial and tangent directions of the measuring apparatus, said detecting head having a probe including a ball of a specified diameter formed at the tip thereof; and

a processor for controlling the movements of said slide table, said measuring post and said detecting head, to allow said probe to be brought into contact with a portion of the pulley to be measured, and for measuring configurations and the positional accuracy thereof based on displacement data detected by the detecting head, and

wherein said processor measures a divided angle defined by intersecting lines connecting the center of a measuring reference of the pulley and each of the centers of a plurality of ideal circles, wherein each of said ideal circles has a specified diameter and is brought into contact with the respective ball groove at two contact points.

4. The measuring apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the processor measures the divided angle based on the respective center positions of the ball at the moment when the probe with a ball diameter corresponding to one of said ideal circles is brought into contact with a plurality of ball grooves.

5. A measuring apparatus for a pulley having a ball groove for a ball spline and a conical surface for varying a pulley width of the pulley, comprising:

a workpiece holding post for rotatably holding the pulley about an axis of the pulley;

a slide table slidable in a radial direction of the measuring apparatus;

a measuring post slidably mounted on said table in a tangent direction orthogonal to the radial direction of the measuring apparatus;

a detecting head slidably mounted on the measuring post in an axial direction orthogonal to both of the radial and tangent directions of the measuring apparatus, said detecting head having a probe including a ball of a specified diameter formed at the tip thereof; and

a processor for controlling movements of said slide table, said measuring post and said detecting head to allow said probe to be brought into contact with a portion of the pulley to be measured, and for measuring configurations and positional accuracy thereof based on displacement data detected by the detecting head, and

wherein said processor measures at least one of (a)-(k);

(a) a groove diameter of the ball groove;

(b) an angle of intersection defined by intersecting a line connecting the center of an ideal circle and one of the two contact points and a line connecting the center of the ideal circle and the center of a measuring reference of the pulley when an ideal circle of a specified diameter is brought into contact with the ball groove at two contact points,

(c) a divided angle defined by intersecting lines connecting the center of a measuring reference of the pulley and each of the centers of a plurality of ideal circle, wherein each of said ideal circles has a specified diameter and is brought into contact with the respective ball groove at two contact points,

(d) a diameter of an outer circle of an ideal circle, wherein said ideal circle has a specified diameter and is brought into contact with the respective ball groove at two contact points,

(e) a deviation between the center of a measuring reference of the pulley and the center of an outer circle to which a plurality of ideal circles are inscribed, wherein each of said ideal circles has a specified diameter and is brought into contact with the respective ball groove at two contact points,

(f) a diameter of an inner circle to which a plurality of ideal circles are circumscribed, wherein each of said ideal circles has a specified diameter and is brought into contact with the respective ball groove at two contact points,

(g) a deviation between the center of a measuring reference of the pulley and the center of an inner circle to which a plurality of said ideal circles are circumscribed, wherein each of said ideal circle has a specified diameter and is brought into contact with the respective ball groove at two contact points,

(h) circumferential and radial deviations in a lead of the ball groove,

(i) a tapered angle of the conical surface;

(j) a deviation in a normal direction with respect to a specified angle line of the conical surface, and

(k) a dimensional deviation with respect to a measuring reference of the conical surface; and

wherein the processor controls said slide table and said measuring post simultaneously to move said probe in the radial and tangential directions while in the state of being in contact with the ball groove to carry out a copying measurement at many points, carries out circular-approximation by processing data on displacement in the radial direction and data on displacement in the tangential direction detected by the detecting head during the copying measurement at many points, and obtains an approximated diameter of the circle obtained by the circular-approximation as the groove diameter of the ball groove.

6. The measuring apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the processor determines a measuring reference circle to which the tip of the probe should move based on several sampling data obtained prior to the copying measurement at many points, and controls said slide table and said measuring post simultaneously.

7. A measuring apparatus for a pulley having a ball groove for a ball spline and a conical surface for varying a pulley width of the pulley, comprising:

a workpiece holding post for rotatably holding the pulley about an axis of the pulley;

a slide table slidable in a radial direction of the measuring apparatus;

a measuring post slidably mounted on said table in a tangent direction orthogonal to the radial direction of the measuring apparatus;

a detecting head slidably mounted on the measuring post in an axial direction orthogonal to both of the radial and tangent directions of the measuring apparatus, said detecting head having a probe including a ball of a specified diameter formed at the tip thereof; and

a processor for controlling movements of said slide table, said measuring post and said detecting head to allow said probe to be brought into contact with a portion of the pulley to be measured, and for measuring configurations and positional accuracy thereof based on displacement data detected by the detecting head, and

wherein said processor measures at least one of (a)-(k);

(a) a groove diameter of the ball groove;

(b) an angle of intersection defined by intersecting a line connecting the center of an ideal circle and one of the two contact points and a line connecting the center of the ideal circle and the center of a measuring reference of the pulley when an ideal circle of a specified diameter is brought into contact with the ball groove at two contact points,

(c) a divided angle defined by intersecting lines connecting the center of a measuring reference of the pulley and each of the centers of a plurality of ideal circles, wherein each of said ideal circles has a specified diameter and is brought into contact with the respective ball groove at two contact points,

(d) a diameter of an outer circle of an ideal circle, wherein said ideal circle has a specified diameter and is brought into contact with the respective ball groove at two contact points,

(e) a deviation between the center of a measuring reference of the pulley and the center of an outer circle to which a plurality of ideal circles are inscribed, wherein each of said ideal circles has a specified diameter and is brought into contact with the respective ball groove at two contact points,

(f) a diameter of an inner circle to which a plurality of ideal circles are circumscribed, wherein each of said ideal circles has a specified diameter and is brought into contact with the respective ball groove at two contact points,

(g) a deviation between the center of a measuring reference of the pulley and the center of an inner circle to which a plurality of said ideal circles are circumscribed, wherein each of said ideal circles has a specified diameter and is brought into contact with the respective ball groove at two contact points,

(h) circumferential and radial deviations in a lead of the ball groove,

(i) a tapered angle of the conical surface;

(j) a deviation in a normal direction with respect to a specified angle line of the conical surface, and

(k) a dimensional deviation with respect to a measuring reference of the conical surface; and

wherein the processor determines a measuring reference circle to which the tip of the probe should move based on several sampling data obtained prior to a copying measurement at many points, and controls said slide table and said measuring post simultaneously so that the tip of the probe moves along the measuring reference circle.

8. A measuring apparatus for a pulley having ball grooves for a ball spline and a conical surface for varying a pulley width of the pulley, comprising:

a workpiece holding post for rotatably holding the pulley about an axis of the pulley;

a slide table slidable in a radial direction of the measuring apparatus;

a measuring post slidably mounted on said table in a tangent direction orthogonal to the radial direction of the measuring apparatus;

a detecting head slidably mounted on the measuring post in an axial direction orthogonal to both of the radial and tangent directions of the measuring apparatus, said detecting head having a probe including a ball of a specified diameter formed at the tip thereof; and

a processor for controlling movements of said slide table, said measuring post and said detecting head to allow said probe to be brought into contact with a portion of the pulley to be measured, and for measuring configurations and positional accuracy thereof based on displacement data detected by the detecting head, and

wherein said processor obtains the diameter of a circle passing through respective center positions of the ball when the probe with a ball diameter is brought into contact with the plurality of ball grooves, and adds or subtracts a ball diameter of the probe to or from the obtained diameter of the circle to determine the diameter of an outer circle in which a plurality of ideal circles are inscribed or the diameter of an inner circle to which a plurality of ideal circles are circumscribed, and wherein the ideal circles are of a specified diameter corresponding to the ball diameter and are brought into contact with respective ball grooves at two contact points.

9. A measuring apparatus for a pulley having a ball groove for a ball spline and a conical surface for varying a pulley width of the pulley, comprising:

a workpiece holding post for rotatably holding the pulley about an axis of the pulley;

a slide table slidable in a radial direction of the measuring apparatus;

a measuring post slidably mounted on said table in a tangent direction orthogonal to the radial direction of the measuring apparatus;

a detecting head slidably mounted on the measuring post in an axial direction orthogonal to both of the radial and tangent directions of the measuring apparatus, said detecting head having a probe including a ball of a specified diameter formed at the tip thereof and

a processor for controlling movements of said slide table, said measuring post and said detecting head to allow said probe to be brought into contact with a portion of the pulley to be measured, and for measuring configurations and positional accuracy thereof based on displacement data detected by the detecting head, and

wherein said processor measures a tapered angle of the conical surface; and

wherein the processor determines a line containing the apex of the conical surface obtained by controlling the measuring post to move in the tangent direction with the probe kept in contact with the conical surface of the pulley as a measuring reference centerline,

carries out a copying measurement at many points by controlling the slide table and the measuring post simultaneously while moving the probe along the measuring reference centerline, and

obtains the tapered angle of the conical surface based on data on displacement in the radial direction and data on displacement in the axial direction detected by the detecting head during the copying measurement at many points.