Measurement of flexible components in composite material by a 3-2-1 locating scheme

Abstract Thin components in composite material are of great interest in many fields, but the component deformation, known as spring-in and warpage, arise during the manufacturing process; so, it is really important to verify if deformations are within the indicated tolerances. However, the inspection of thin components can be difficult if it is carried out by a coordinate measuring machine because of their high flexibility. The aim of the present work is to present a method to inspect flexible components in composite material as rigid ones by means of a coordinate measuring machine with a touch probe. The proposed method foresees to acquire the probing forces and the clamping forces, due to the fixturing equipment, by force sensing resistor sensors and uses them in a finite element analysis to evaluate the corrections to be applied to the coordinates of points acquired through a coordinate measuring machine. The proposed method was applied to a L-shaped component and all results were compared with those due to a laser measurement system.