Design and operation of a double-fiber scanning system for surface profiling

Design and operation of an opto-mechanical system for surface profiling are reported in this study. The reported system consists of a double-fiber optical design and an electro-mechanical scanning system. In this arrangement one fiber transmits the source light to the object surface and the second one transmits the light reflected off the surface to a photodetector. By scanning the double-fiber assembly in one-direction, reflection properties of different curved surfaces are investigated. Reflection signals for the cylindrical surfaces made with different curvatures and materials are reported. In order to see the effect of the surface material, for a fixed radius cylinder, the surface is covered with thin paper materials of different colors and results are compared. Our results show that the reported system can be used effectively to monitor the object surface profiles of metallic and non-metallic materials. In another study to investigate the precision and sensitivity of the reported system the reflection result of the structured surface is compared with that of a smooth surface. The reported system provides a simple and accurate means for the object shape study and determination of different surface macrostructures through the optical reflection monitoring. The novelty of the reported system is the fact that provides a great potential to analyze the small features such as the holes and grooves on a target surface. The obtained results clearly show such ability and make the reported opto-mechanical system a suitable tool for object surface analysis in spite of the simplicity and low cost. ► Reflection signal amplitude depends on both the object surface material and radius. ► Curve bandwidth (FWHM) is increased by increasing the surface radius. ► In many industrial plants bottle liquid filling is used widely and thus inspection of such process is an important task. ► Reported system can be used to recognize metallic, non-metallic, or paper surfaces painted in different colors. ► Macro-structures such as holes or grooves can be easily recognized.