Vision measurement system for geometric parameters of tubing internal thread based on double-mirrored structured light

Abstract

Geometric parameter measurement of tubing internal thread is critical for oil pipeline safety. In response to the shortcomings of existing methods for measuring internal thread geometric parameters, such as low efficiency, poor accuracy, and poor accessibility, this paper proposes a vision system for measuring internal thread geometric parameters based on double-mirrored structured light. Compared to previous methods, our system can completely reproduce the internal thread tooth profiles and allows multi-parameter measurement in one setup. To establish the correlation between the structural and imaging parameters of the vision system, three-dimensional (3D) optical path models (OPMs) for the vision system considering the mirror effect of the prism is proposed, which extends the scope of the optical path analysis and provides a theoretical foundation for designing the structural parameters of the vision system. Moreover, modeling and three-step calibration methods for the vision system are proposed to realize high-accuracy restoration from the two-dimensional (2D) virtual image to the actual 3D tooth profiles. Finally, a vision measurement system is developed, and experiments are carried out to verify the accuracy and measure the three geometric parameters (i.e., taper, pitch, and tooth height) of typical internal threads. Based on the validation results using the reference system, the vision measurement accuracy and efficiency are 6.7 and 120 times that of the traditional system, which verifies the measurement effectiveness and accuracy of the vision system proposed in this paper.