Laser head integrated chromatic confocal system for coaxial measurement of deposited clads

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a coaxial measurement of the height of a cladding structure using an optical system integrated with a laser head for laser metal deposition. The developed system was designed based on numerical analyses. An analysis of the interaction of the components of the system’s optical path on its functional parameters was carried out. An algorithm based on the lognormal model was proposed to process the acquired spectral data. In addition, the factors having a significant impact on the obtained values of the functional parameters were analyzed, i.e. the inhomogeneity of the material surface and the low repeatability of the positioning of the robot arm. The metrological evaluation of the system in terms of measurement range, trueness, linearity, precision, accuracy and resolution was presented. Finally, the developed system was validated by comparing the measured heights of deposited clads with those obtained by a laser triangulator system.