Diagram of the industrial low-coherence measurement method.

The high-precision measurement of industrial part dimensions and key parameters is crucial for ensuring manufacturing accuracy and assembly reliability. Recently, a research team under the Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has made new advancements in the field of industrial part measurements. They proposed an optical low-coherence measurement method suitable for industrial parts with significant variations in surface reflectance, and realized high-precision measurement of key parameters for industrial parts with various reflective properties, including specular, quasi-specular, and diffuse reflection surfaces.

The low-coherence measurement method utilizes optical interference phenomena, offering advantages such as high accuracy, wide measurement range, and non-destructiveness. It has shown significant potential in the field of industrial measurements. However, most current industrial low-coherence measurement methods assume a constant or minimally variable surface reflectance of the parts. This limitation results in poor adaptability and a limited range of applicability for these methods.

To address this issue, the research team introduced an industrial optical low-coherence measurement method tailored for measuring key parameters of parts with significant variations in surface reflectance. The team established an industrial low-coherence model, theoretically demonstrating its feasibility for measuring parts with varying surface reflectance. Based on this proposed measurement model, they designed the optical setup and constructed an industrial low-coherence system, effectively validating the method through experiments.

Experimental results reveal that this approach is applicable for the measurement of industrial parts under conditions including diffuse reflection, specular reflection, and quasi-specular reflection.

The research findings was published online in the international journal IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.