Investigation on sampling size optimisation in gear tooth surface measurement using a CMM

Coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) are widely used in the gear manufacturing industry. One of the main issues for contact inspection using a CMM is the sampling technique. In this paper the gear tooth surfaces are expressed by series of parameters and inspection error compensation and initial value optimisation method are presented. The minimum number of measurement points for 3D tooth surfaces are derived. If high precision is required, more points need to be inspected. The sampling size optimisation is obtained from the criterion equation. The surface form deviation and initial values are optimised using the minimum zone method and genetic algorithms. A feature-based inspection system for spur/helical gears is developed and trials and simulations demonstrate that the method developed is suitable and very effective. This revised version was published online in October 2004 with a correction to the issue number.