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This paper gives an update on current work concerning the development of the method of Dynamic Length Metrology (DLM) to obtain accurate traceable measurements directly in the production. Three case studies are described dealing with diameter measurements with sub-micrometer uncertainty on metallic parts, and dimensional measurements on polymer parts, where the achievable uncertainty of after molding predictions is of a few micrometers.

This paper addresses the establishment of traceability of optical 3D scanner measurements on green sand mould in the production of quality castings. Optical measurements are subject to the influence of the workpiece material optical properties, which can be very different from those of conventional calibration artefacts, e.g. check boards, ball plates, etc. This means that an optical 3D scanner calibrated using a check board or a ball plate may give biased and unreliable results when used for dimensional measurements on a crystalline material such as sand. In order to use a tactile coordinate measuring machine as reference for optical measurements on a green sand mould, which cannot be probed directly, a hard furan sand cone plate was developed and substituted as reference workpiece for tactile as well as optical measurements. Systematic errors and measurement uncertainties were assessed for the optical measurements, and a maximum expanded uncertainty of 26 µm was estimated, which is acceptable for optical measurements on sand surfaces having single grains with an average diameter of 232 µm.

Throughout the years, it has become more and more important to find new methods for reducing friction and wear occurrence in machine elements. A possiblesolution is found in texturing the surfaces under tribological contact, as demonstrated by the development and spread of plateau-honed surface for cylinder liners. To prove the efficacy of a particular textured surface, it is paramount to perform experimental tests under controlled laboratory conditions. In this paper, a new test rig simulating pure sliding conditions is presented, dubbed axial sliding test. It presents four major components: a rod, a sleeve, a housing and a stripwound container. The rod and the sleeve are the two surfaces in relative sliding motion; the stripwound container maintains a constant, but adjustable normal pressure, and the housing serves as interface between the sleeve and the container. For carrying out the test, two machineries are necessary: a press to provide the normal pressure and a tensile machine to perform the axial movements. The test is calibrated so that the correspondence between the normal pressure and the containeradvancement is found. Preliminary tests are carried out involving a multifunctional and a fine-turned rod against a mirror-polished sleeve. Qualitatively, the multifunctional surfaces improve the friction conditions, but a more structured test campaign is required. It is furthermore assessed the repeatability of the test device, in order to rely on the results obtained. Ten repetitions made at the same pressure using the fine-turned rod displayed good repeatability of the force results both in terms of average values and trends.

The paper reports the latest outcomes of using design-based reverse engineering on turbine blades. For a long time, the focus of the reverse engineering methods has been the trend toward higher accuracies and faster measurements. Authors introduce a different viewpoint which focuses on design intent of a part. How to reverse engineer a complex shape like a turbine blade is the subject of current research. The attempt toward taking advantage of the construction geometry behind a sample heavy duty turbine blade is thoroughly discussed in three phases. First phase consists of 2D analysis of the reference sections. Then, the stacking axis is introduced as an important non-tangible feature which has the main role to connect the sections in 3D in lean and tilt directions. The third phase uses the concept of blade twist to provide a constraint to define rotational position of the sections with respect to neighbor sections. All the three phases have been applied to different types of original and non-original products which are available in the gas turbine market. The presented comparisons show clearly that the new method of reverse engineering incorporating construction geometry and design intent of the part is quite useful and recognizes many features behind the external geometry which is impossible to follow by the previous conventional methods. The turbine blade 3D model resulted from this new method will have a smooth arc-based surface, straight stacking line passing through turbine axis with maximum section tilt of 0.2 mm and maximum section lean of 0.3 mm to original equipment manufacturer parts and linearly increasing stagger angle from hub to tip which are some of considerable improvements compared to conventional method.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a new approach to process the data points measured from turbine blade airfoils in order to make a valid shape via reverse engineering method. Currently, preliminary B-rep models can be created by fitting surfaces to point clouds using a 3D laser scanner. In case of a turbine blade, due to high shape complexity, the resulting model is often unsuitable in practice. A small change in blade geometry can lead to a large change in turbine performance. Therefore, control of the blade shape is critical to the design process. Authors believe that the only way to capture the valid shape of a blade airfoil out of the many manufacturing deviations is to incorporate design key-points during reverse engineering. Implementation of the new method using segmentation and constrained fitting algorithm (SCFA) on a heavy-duty industrial gas turbine blade has been reported and discussed.

A RAP sample with five belts was manufactured covering the range of (11-169) μm Ra. The belts were measured using a stylus, a variable focus microscope and a white light interferometer (WLI). Results show that such a cylindrical sample manufactured using RAP is a potential reference artefact for traceability purposes.

The employment of surface texturing for improved tribological contacts has spread over the years. The possibilities of designing and manufacturing textured surfaces with predetermined geometries have multiplied as well as the need of performing experimental laboratory tests before applying the surfaces in an industrial context. In this paper, a number of experimental tests were performed using a novel test rig, called axial sliding test, simulating the contact of surfaces under pure sliding conditions. The aim of the experiments is to evaluate the frictional behavior of a new typology of textured surfaces, the so-called multifunctional surfaces, characterized by a plateau area able to bear loads and a deterministic pattern of lubricant pockets. Six surface typologies, namely three multifunctional and three machined using classical processes, were chosen to slide against a mirror-polished counterpart. A number of experiments were carried out at different normal pressures employing for all specimens the same reciprocating movement and the same lubrication. The measured friction forces were plotted against the incremental normal pressure, and the friction coefficients were calculated. The results comparison showed clearly how employing multifunctional surfaces can reduce friction forces up to 50 % at high normal loads compared to regularly ground or turned surfaces. Friction coefficients approximately equal to 0.12 were found for classically machined surfaces, whereas the values were 0.06 for multifunctional ones. All the specimens were characterized before and after testing. Wear occurrence was not detected on the tested surfaces except for the mirror-polished one which underwent all the experiments.

Thin film coatings are extremely interesting for industries, where there is a need to protect a highly accurate surface which has tight dimensional tolerances. The topic is important both in the production of new metallic tools and repair applications. In both applications it is vital to have a specific knowledge about coating thickness and roughness. In the present paper a novel application of a transparent HSQ coating is presented. Furthermore the thickness and roughness of the transparent coating with nominal thickness of 1 μm is measured in the presence of surface roughness of the substrate. Measurements were done using AFM and a precision 3D mechanical stylus instrument.

The paper discusses a novel application of a thin layer coating on a metallic machined surface with particular attention to roughness of the coating compared to the original surface before coating. The coating is a nominally 1 μm film of Hydrogen Silsesquioxane (HSQ) which is commonly used in the semiconductor industry in the manufacture of integrated circuits. The work piece is a fine peripheral-milled tool steel surface which is widely used in industrial applications. Roughness improvement after the application of HSQ coating is reported.

An increasing number of industrial sectors are considering the potential of additive manufacturing as an asset to improve their production. Indeed, additive manufacturing enables the fabrication of very complex geometries and inner cavities that cannot be manufactured with conventional techniques. However, in critical sectors such as aerospace, defence and medical, the parts need to be certified, which requires parts to be non-destructively characterised in terms of flaws, geometry and dimensional accuracy. X-ray computed tomography is the only current 3D volumetric technique, which is suited for the non-destructive analysis of internal flaws, geometry and measurements of internal dimensions and roughness. However, regardless of its huge potential, Xray computed tomography is not as mature a technology for dimensional metrology as compared to conventional tactile coordinate measuring machines. In most cases there is no traceability to SI units in the dimensional domain. Recently, numerous reference standards (i.e. physical artefacts) addressing X-ray computed tomography dimensional accuracy have been published, but they do not necessarily address the calibration of XCT system in connection with AM parts. In this work, a new and improved standard in three different materials has been designed with a dual purpose: Fully calibrating X-ray computed tomography for dimensional measurements while being representative of additively manufactured parts in terms of flaws and material, meeting the needs of the industry. These standards will be used to metrologically validate X-ray computed tomography for the inspection of additively manufactured parts.

Throughout the years, it has become more and more important to find new methods for reducing friction and wear occurrence in machine elements. A possible solution is found in texturing the surfaces under tribological contact, hence the development and spread of plateau-honed surface for cylinder liners. To prove the efficacy of a particular textured surface, it is paramount to perform experimental tests under controlled laboratory conditions. In this paper a new test rig simulating pure sliding conditions is presented, dubbed Axial Sliding Test. It presents four major components: a rod, a sleeve, a housing and a stripwound container. The rod and the sleeve are the two surfaces in relative sliding motion; the stripwound container maintains a constant, but adjustable normal pressure and the housing serves as interface between the sleeve and the container. For carrying out the test, two machineries are necessary: a press to provide the normal pressure and a tensile machine to perform the axial movements. The test is calibrated so that the correspondence between the normal pressure and the container advancement is found. Finally, preliminary tests are carried out involving a multifunctional and a fine turned rod against a mirror-polished sleeve. Qualitatively the multifunctional surfaces improve the friction conditions, but a more structured test campaign is required.