GAUGING OF PRECISION HIGH-SPEED AIRCRAFT BEARING COMPONENTS

DIMENSIONAL GAUGING, WITH THE CURRENT GAUGE BLOCK BASED TECHNIQUES, IS RESPONSIBLE FOR OVER 50% OF THE COST OF PRODUCING PRECISION, HIGHSPEED AIRCRAFT BEARING COMPONENTS. IN THIS APPLICATION, THE GAUGING PROCESS IS SUBJECT TO ERRORS FROM BOTH THE INHERENT LIMITS OF THE GAUGE BLOCKS AND FROM THE MANUAL PROCESS OF "WRINGING" THE BLOCKS TO PRODUCE VARIOUS REFERENCE LENGTHS. THE COST OF PRODUCING BEARING COMPONENTS COULD BE REDUCED WITH A DIMENSIONAL GAUGE THAT ELIMINATES THE NEED FOR BOTH GAUGE BLOCKS AND OPERATOR SKILL. A BROAD DIMENSIONAL RANGE, HIGH-ACCURACY GAUGE WILL BE DEVELOPED IN THIS PROJECT, BASED ON THE USE OF OPTICAL HETERODYNE INTERFEROMETRY TECHNIQUES. WITH AN INHERENT ACCURACY DEPENDENT ON THE WAVELENGTH OF LIGHT, INTERFEROMETRY IS ONE OF THE NEW TECHNIQUES THAT IS CAPABLE OF LARGE GAUGING RANGES (OVER 3 INCHES) WITH A HIGH ACCURACY GAUGING RESPONSE (0.000001 INCH). THE FEASIBILITY OF AN OPTICAL HETERODYNE INTERFEROMETER WILL BE DEMONSTRATED IN A PHASE I TASK WITH A LABORATORY MOCKUP GAUGE. A PROTOTYPE GAUGE WILL THEN BE DEVELOPED IN A PHASE II EFFORT, BASED ON HIGH NEED AND HIGH PAYBACK APPLICATIONS DEFINED FOR A PRECISION BEARING PRODUCTION LINE. THIS PROTOTYPE SYSTEM WILL FORM THE BASIS FOR A COMMERCIAL DIMENSIONAL GAUGE WHICH WOULD HAVE APPLICATION POTENTIAL IN OTHER AREAS WHERE PRECISION DIMENSIONAL MEASUREMENTS ARE PART OF A PRODUCTION OR QA PROCESS.