Technical and Economical Study of Thread Measurement/Calibration Method With Scanner Instrument
Technical and Economical Study of Thread Measurement/Calibration Method With Scanner Instrument
Technical and Economical Study of Thread Measurement/Calibration Method With Scanner Instrument
University of Liege
Mechanical Production Systems and Metrology
Chemin des Chevreuils 1, B 52/3
4000 Liège, Belgium
Tel&fax 32.4.3669166
E-mail: L.Masalar@ulg.ac.be
1. INTRODUCTION
=
Internal thread
The mechanical threaded parts are widely used, from a
H
regular assembly between two parts to high precision gauges α/2
for machines and instruments. =
D
α
A threaded surface is generated by moving a generating
H/4
Df
d1
External thread
or multiple helix (1), as shown in figure 1. P
The manufacturing of threaded surfaces depends on the field Figure 2 – Geometrical parameters of the triangular internal
of application and must respond to various requirements and external threads.
from very large tolerances (screws for wood) to very small
(micrometric screws). For specials cases, one may need additional information :
the pitch tolerance, the clearance at the bottom of the thread,
the angle of the generating profile, etc.
There are many methods to measure the threads and the
choice of one or another of it may be done according to the
equipment and the know-how that is available, as well as the
utilization field of the thread. For instance : optical methods,
three-wire method (external screw) or two-ball method
(internal screw), resin imprints, etc.
For mass production, instead of measuring the different
Figure 1 – Generating profiles and guiding curve. threaded elements, we can use the GO and NO GO gauges
in order to validate or not the part.
For a quality production or for a thread calibration we have operator qualification, all other methods ask a specialized
to use a more complex measurement procedure, which work, which is expensive and rare.
generally consists in following the steps :
−
ØM3
transposition on an adequate support;
− collation; ØM1
− signature. ØM2
x Mx
Figure 3 – The three-wire method.
P1
P2
3. ACTUAL TRENDS z
REFERENCES
Figure 6 – Cost comparison between the calibration
(1) Report of the "Study days on threading" organized by the
by traditional method and scanning method.
society TQ3 and the Metrology Laboratory of the Liege
University, the 17 September 1996.
We see that for a small numb er of calibration parts (till
(2) L.MASALAR, J.SIMONET - Evaluation of Master
intersection point) the traditional methods are preferable
Scanner measuring results. Internal report, Liège
while the scanner measurement is more attractive for a large
University 1998
number of parts.
(3) R. GALESTIEN – "XP - Master Scanner User-guide"
I.A.C. - Geometrical Engineers, Holland, 1997