Development and verification of a high-precision laser measurement system for straightness and parallelism measurement

A laser measurement system for measuring straightness and parallelism error using a semiconductor laser was proposed. The designing principle of the developed system was analyzed. Addressing at the question of the divergence angle of the semiconductor laser being quite large and the reduction of measurement accuracy caused by the diffraction effect of the light spot at the long working distance, the optical structure of the system was optimized through a series of simulations and experiments. A plano-convex lens was used to collimate the laser beam and concentrate the energy distribution of the diffraction effect. The working distance of the system was increased from 2.6 m to 4.6 m after the optical optimization, and the repeatability of the displacement measurement is kept within 2.2 m in the total measurement range. The performance of the developed system was verified by measuring the straightness of a machine tool through the comparison tests with two commercial multi-degree-of-freedom measurement systems. Two different measurement methods were used to verify the measurement accuracy. The comparison results show that during the straightness measurement of the machine tool, the laser head should be fixed in front of the moving axis, and the sensing part should move with the moving table of the machine tool. Results also show that the measurement error of the straightness measurement is less than 3 m compared with the commercial systems. The developed laser measurement system has the advantages of high precision, long working distance, low cost, and suitability for straightness and parallelism error measurement