Uncertainty analysis and variation reduction of three dimensional coordinate metrology. Part 1: geometric error decomposition

In this paper our study focuses on the uncertainty analysis and variation reduction of coordinate system estimation using discrete measurement data and is associated with the applications that deal with parts produced by end-milling processes and having complex geometry. This paper consists of three parts. Since the uncertainty of the estimated coordinate transformation arises from the geometric errors on a part surface, Part 1 is devoted to the study of surface geometric errors. In this study, according to the characteristics of end-milling processes the sampled geometric error is divided into two components, and a decomposition procedure is developed for geometric error decomposition. The results of surface geometric error decomposition will be used in Part 2 for uncertainty analysis and in Part 3 for variation reduction. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.