Let It Shine: Reflective and Composite Part Non-Contact Inspection Challenges

Abstract

Non-contact scanners are sold on their specifications and bought on their behaviour, and reflective and composite parts are where the two part company. Tom Clary works through what actually goes wrong: the primary laser hit followed by secondary reflections that leave spurious artifacts in the cloud, and composite surfaces whose reflectivity ranges from clear to flat black within a single part. He then sets out how to buy sensibly – ask what the system's throughput is rather than its speed, and establish accuracy and repeatability on your own parts using a golden part with CMM'd features and a known artifact such as a ball bar, rather than on the vendor's chosen artifact. Ball-bar results from a Vought Aircraft sample illustrate the method.