A novel iterative-based field search technique for roundness evaluation

Circularity is one of the frequently observed features in manufacturing industry. Most of the components manufactured are unions of the fundamental shapes, one of which is the circle. Due to very close tolerances, micro and nano-sized components' manufacturing serves a very challenging task. Slight variance in the manufactured component can lead to incorrect assembly and inefficient system performance. Hence, the roundness evaluation of any circular component is important. The present article proposes a novel algorithm to evaluate the roundness error based on the minimum zone circle (MZC) concept. The proposed algorithm is an iterative field search technique. Compared to the existing approaches, the proposed method is very effective in determining the roundness error. Furthermore, it also performed well both on uniformly and non-uniformly spaced data. The results show that it is simple, robust and flexible enough to vary the search field area for better computational efficiency.