Precision inspection system for aircraft parts having very thin features based on CAD/CAI integration

In this paper, a precision inspection technique using CAD/CAI integration is proposed for parts having very thin and sharply curved features. The technique begins with feature reconstruction of turbine blades which have combined geometry, such as splines, and thin small radius circles. The alignment procedures consists of two phases — rough and fine phases: the rough phase alignment is based on the conventional 6 points probing on the clear cut surfaces, and the fine phase alignment is based on the initial measurement of the curved parts using the least-squares technique based on iterative measurement feedback. For the analysis of profile tolerance of parts, the actual measured points are obtained by finding the closest points on the CAD geometry by the subdivision technique developed. The Tschebyscheff norm is applied iteratively, giving an accurate profile tolerance. The inspection technique developed is applied to practical blade manufacturing, and has demonstrated good performance.