Research on the measurement method of crankshaft coaxiality error based on three-dimensional point cloud

Abstract Aiming at the demand of rapid detection for coaxiality of crankshaft journal, a method of visual measurement of coaxiality error based on 3D point cloud is proposed. In this research, a laser scanner is utilized to obtain a 3D point cloud model of the part to be measured, and a circular method of rotary cutting is put forward to obtain equally spaced optimal slices of the journal. The center of the slice is then obtained using the Pratt circle fitting method optimized in this paper. After that, the center of the slice is used to obtain the common reference axis using the least squares method, which finally realizes the measurement of the coaxiality error. The experimental results show that the proposed method of getting the slices is more accurate, the maximum absolute error of the circle fitting method compared with the results of the coordinate measuring machine (CMM) is no more than 4.2 μm, and the maximum absolute error of the coaxiality detection results and the results of the CMM is 5.5 μm, which can satisfy the practical needs of fast and efficient measurement of the coaxiality error of crankshafts.