Strategies for measurement of sculptured surfaces using coordinate measuring machines in continuous scanning mode

Coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) equipped with continuous scanning probes are widely used in the measurement of sculptured or freeform surfaces. The complex nature of such surfaces requires suitable sampling strategies to ensure adequate measurement. Sampling strategy involves the identification of number of isoparametric scan lines and their locations over the entire surface. When the number of isoparametric scan lines is assumed, the sampling strategy is expected to distribute them so as to ensure the measurement adequacy. A new sampling strategy has been proposed in the present work, considering the complexity of isoparametric scan lines. Freeform surfaces of varying complexities have been used to compute the effectiveness of the proposed sampling strategy, which is measured in terms of lower positional deviations with fewer isoparametric scan lines. The results obtained are compared with uniform and curvature-based isoparametric lines sampling strategies. Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.