Line-element based nonlinear adaptive piecewise compensating correction for LVDT sensors

In order to solve the linear variable differential transformer （LVDT） displacement sensor nonlinearity of overall range and extend its working range, a novel line-element based adaptively seg- menting method for piecewise compensating correction was proposed. According to the mechanical structure of LVDT, the output equation was calculated, and then the theoretic nonlinear source of output was analyzed. By the proposed line-element adaptive segmentation method, the nonlinear output of LVDT was divided into linear and nonlinear regions with a given threshold. Then the com- pensating correction function was designed for nonlinear parts employing polynomial regression tech- nique. The simulation of LVDT validates the feasibility of proposed scheme, and the results of cali- bration and testing experiments fully prove that the proposed method has higher accuracy than the state-of-art correction algorithms.

System integration for on-machine measurement using a capacitive LVDT-Iike contact sensor

In this study, an air-bearing capacitive linear variable differential transformer （LVDT）-like contact sensor with a rounded diamond tip was mounted to a desktop machine tool to construct an on-machine （OM） measuring system. The measuring system was capable of decoding the digital signals of linear encoders mounted on the machine tool and acquiring the analog signal of the contact sensor. To verify the measuring system, experimental examinations were performed on an oxygen-free copper （OFC） convex aspheric mold with a diameter of 5 mm and a curve height of 0.46 mm. The acquired signals were processed by the implemented Gaussian regression filter （GRF）, removing the tilt of measured profile, and compensating for the radius of probe tip. The profile obtained was compared to that measured using a commercially available device, and a maximum deviation of 14.6μm was found for the rough cutting. The compensation cutting was then performed according to the form error of OM measurement. As a result, the PV form error compared with the designed profile was reduced from 19.2μm over a measured diameter of 4 mm to 9.7 μm over a measured diameter of 3.1 mm, or a percentage improvement of 35.4% in form accuracy. Through the examination for aspheric machining, the effectiveness of the implemented OM measuring system was demonstrated, and the technical details of system implementation were presented. Further improvement was suggested to reduce the diameter of probe tip and measuring force.