EVALUATION OF ACCURACY AND REPRODUCIBILITY OF THE OPTICAL MEASURING SYSTEM IN CAST MACHINE TOOL BODY ASSESSMENT

S u m m a r y The hereby presented study puts forth the fundamentals of an innovative technology enabling rapid assessment of machine tool cast shape by elimination of manual marking out requirement and machining surplus minimization. The new technique is based on optical measuring system utilization for the design of virtual cast models and their comparative analysis with structural models. Two small scale machine tool body casts were selected for the investigation. The measurements were conducted in triplicate series for each cast labeled with reference markers, by means of Atos GOM II optical scanner. For further comparison, one of the casts was additionally scanned without labeling. Flatness parameters of selected cast surfaces were determined for geometric accuracy evaluation and the scanned cast shapes were compared with reference models. The comparison results were recorded as multicolored maps projected upon the experimental cast and reference model surfaces. Practical map interpretation was further elucidated and the surplus sizes on the machined surfaces were assessed accordingly. Comparative analyses of individual models were demonstrated for all measurement series of both casts, affording reproducibility evaluation of optical scanning system measurements. Economic viability of the proposed technology market implementation was unequivocally established, as it provides for considerable reduction in the cast machining scale as well as the quality control of 100%