Design and characteristics of a new aerostatic bearing stylus sensor for surface measurement

Stylus profilometry is extensively employed in practice due to its wide measurement range and praiseworthy stability. However, its lever structure will cause nonlinear errors and mitigated precision. Given this context, this paper proposes a new aerostatic bearing stylus sensor (ABSS) for surface measurement, which inherits the stability and large-scale measuring range while avoiding the structural nonlinear errors of the conventional stylus profilometry. The designed ABSS is composed of a magnetic levitation control system and an aerostatic bearing device in the vertical and horizontal directions, respectively. Furthermore, the bearing capacity and the radial dynamic characteristics are analyzed to ensure stylus? scanning stability and rapid response. Template experiments with different scanning velocities of the stylus are performed to verify the natural frequency and obtain the critical velocity. Finally, the surface two/three-dimensional topographies reconstruction validates the repeatability and accuracy of the proposed ABSS compared to a commercial conventional stylus profilometry.

Automated summary

The paper introduces a new aerostatic bearing stylus sensor (ABSS) for surface measurement, which inherits stability and large-scale measuring range while avoiding structural nonlinear errors of conventional stylus profilometry. Analysis of bearing capacity and radial dynamic characteristics ensures scanning stability and rapid response of the stylus. Template experiments verify the natural frequency and critical velocity of the ABSS, with surface topographies reconstruction validating its repeatability and accuracy compared to a commercial conventional stylus profilometry.