Radiant energy – Photocells; circuits and apparatus – Photocell controls its own optical systems
Patent
1985-02-01
1987-10-06
Nelms, David C.
Radiant energy
Photocells; circuits and apparatus
Photocell controls its own optical systems
356400, 250561, G01V 120
Patent
active
046984917
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to apparatus for determining whether shafts arranged in tandem are aligned.
Devices of this type are used mainly in order to be able to accurately align two machines, whose shafts are to be coupled together rigidly, before these shafts are joined.
It is an object of the invention to provide a device for the purpose stated in the characterizing clause of claim 1, with which, while employing relatively little effort for constructions, a very high measuring accuracy is achievable and which moreover makes it possible to work rapidly and to recognize immediately any parallel or angular misalignment errors as well as the magnitude of the particular error. The alignment error, with which the central axes of the shafts cross one another at a distance, should be indicated in such a manner, that the error is resolved immediately into a strictly parallel misalignment component and a strictly angular misalignment component, so that both types of error can be identified separately by a single measuring process in the form of rotating the shafts through 360.degree. and can then be eliminated by a single process in which one machine is aligned relative to the other.
For the inventive device, the parts of the device, which are to be arranged on the individual shafts, are optically coupled together, so that there are no projecting support rods, which, under the influence of gravity, could cause errors in the measurement. In the course of jointly rotating the shafts through 360.degree. by one of the two alternatives described above, possible alignment errors in the shaft manifest themselves at the additional measurement receiver as a change in the distance of the light-beam incident point from the fixed reference point on the shaft, the component of the change in distance, radial to the first shaft, corresponding to the strictly parallel misalignment and the component vertical to the first shaft corresponding to the angular misalignment. The latter comes about owing to the fact that three special properties of a rectangular reflecting prism are utilized simultaneously in the invention. One of the properties consists therein that a tilting of the prism about the apex line lying at its 90.degree. angle has no effect on the reflection of the light beam to the additional measurement receiver. The second property consists therein that a rotation of the prism about an axis, perpendicular to the aforementioned apex line and parallel to the plane of its hypotenuse, expresses itself in an angle between the incident beam on and the reflected beam from the prism, which is twice as large as the angle of rotation about this axis, so that the component of the change in the distance, perpendicular to the radial direction, corresponds directly at the additional measurement receiver to the strictly angular misalignment between the two shafts. And the third property finally consists therein that a displacement of the prism parallel to itself in the direction of the last mentioned axis, which runs perpendicular to the apex line and parallel to the plane of the hypotenuse, leads to a change in the distance between the incident light beam and the reflected light beam that, measured in the displacement direction, is twice as large as this displacement and so describes a parallel misalignment. Two groups of readings, in the form of the two components of the change in distance, are therefore obtained with the inventive device in the course of rotating the shaft through 360.degree.. One of these groups, which encompasses the change in the distance component of the light beam incident point from, for example, the reference point radial to the first shaft, indicates the strictly parallel misalignment, while the other, which encompasses the change in the distance component perpendicular to the first shaft, describes the strictly angular misalignment. From this, it is easy to determine the values by which one machine must be shifted relative to the other, for example in height and towards a side and possibly to a different extent
REFERENCES:
patent: 2703505 (1955-03-01), Senn
patent: 3603691 (1971-09-01), Hamilton
patent: 3775012 (1973-11-01), Ling et al.
patent: 3923402 (1975-12-01), Turcotte
patent: 4097157 (1978-06-01), Lill
patent: 4117319 (1978-09-01), White
patent: 4518855 (1985-05-01), Malak
Fiddler Robert W.
Nelms David C.
Pruftechnik Dieter Busch & Partner GmbH & Co.
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