Miniaturization of an optical 3D sensor by additive manufacture of metallic mirrors

What is it about?

Based on progress in the field of additive manufacturing optical components can now be printed with rapid prototyping technologies. In this contribution the possibilities of rapid prototyping for optical metrology are exemplified by the fabrication of miniaturized reflectors and the construction of a miniaturized metrology system designed for an industrial metrology application. Focusing on the manufacturing and post processing steps the process chain to fabricate the miniaturized mirror is described. This includes an evaluation of the mirror based on roughness measurements. The reflectors are later utilized in a miniaturized sensor system to scan the interior of small pipes. The additively manufactured mirror is used in the metrology system to create a defined sampling signal within the cavity. Thereby the sensor system generates a point cloud of the internal surfaces using a 3D acquisition algorithm based on the laser triangulation principle. Part of this contribution will be the setup, the 3D acquisition and calibration principle as well as an evaluation of the metrology system. To optimize the point cloud acquisition three different hardware setups were designed using different cameras and calibration algorithms. These three approaches are evaluated and compared.

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Why is it important?

In this contribution the basics of additive manufacturing of metallic mirrors are exemplified by printing an optical reflector. The potential of additvely manufactured mirrors for optical metrology is illustrated by utilizing the reflector for an industrial inspection system designed for cavity inspection.

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