How to automate the geometrical tolerances inspection: A reverse engineering approach

Abstract

Identifying theories and methods to link geometrical tolerances specification and inspection processes is a widely spread research topic. The growing use of virtual product models which not only represent the geometry information, but also collect attributes, notes, parameters, rules and procedures, can facilitate the digital simulation of many real processes. In the present work we are interested in using such technologies for the purpose of simulating the inspection process of manufactured products. In particular, we propose an approach for virtual inspection of geometrical tolerances based on a feature-based 3D CAD model coupled with a 3D points cloud data model. The 3D CAD model stores the tolerances specifications defined by the designer as well as the specification of the inspection methods. The points cloud model is a complete representation of the manufactured product and it is defined by the digital acquisition of the real product. The acquisition phase is performed with non-contact techniques to ensure high performances in terms of speed. The information stored in the CAD model is used to select and drive the different inspection procedures to be performed on the acquired data. © 2007 Springer.