Measurement Uncertainty Analysis of the Stitching Linear-Scan Method for the Measurable Dimension of Small Cylinders

A stitching linear scan method is proposed for roundness and diameter measurement of small cylindrical workpieces instead of the conventional rotary scan method due to the crucial alignments of eccentricity and inclination. To verify the reliability of the proposed method, by which the coordinates of the cross-sectional circle of a small cylinder is divided into several equal parts to be obtained and reconstructed, the diameter and roundness measurement uncertainties of the small cylinders with a diameter 1.5 mm are evaluated to be 0.047 μm and 0.095 μm, respectively, which can meet the uncertainty target of 0.1 μm. To investigate the measurable dimension by the proposed method, measurement uncertainty analysis of the small cylinders with various dimensions has been conducted according to the previous evaluation, since all the procedures are the same except for the uncertainty of X coordinates, which changes with the measured dimension’s change. The results show that the small cylinders with a diameter range from 0.01 mm to 50 mm can be measured by the proposed method when the position error θZ is reduced to the corresponding value. There is no measuring limitation set by the proposed model theoretically in the case of θX = θZ = 0.1°, while the machine has a measuring limitation.