Physical and technical principles of improving contact measuring heads for coordinate measuring machines based on fiber sensors

The article aims at considering the possibilities and finding new ways to constructively improve contact measuring heads for high-precision 3D control of geometric parameters of complex products on coordinate measuring machines. Technical solutions based on optical methods and measuring instruments, in particular, fiber-optic sensors are also considered.

The article discusses two types of contact measuring heads with rigid and movable measuring rods. The features of two variants of measuring heads of the first type are considered, implemented on the basis of measurements of micro bends of the measuring rod by means of sensors with fiber Bragg gratings or fiber interferometric sensors built into it. Options for the second type of measuring heads with a movable measuring rod and measuring its displacements when touching a controlled part based on the use of a fiber-optic scanner or a three-axis fiber interferometric sensor are also discussed.

It is shown that in the latter case, the sensitivity threshold along three axes can potentially have subpicometric values. The option of embedding a miniature wide-angle Fisheye video camera to visualize the approximation of the measuring tip to the controlled part by recording and measuring the geometric parameters of the formed Newton rings is discussed.

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