High-resolution 3D shape measurement on specular surfaces by fringe reflection

Accurate 3D shape measurement is of big importance for industrial inspection. Because of the robustness, accuracy and ease of use optical measurement techniques are gaining importance in industry. For fast 3D measurements on big surfaces fringe projection is commonly used: A projector projects fringes onto the object under investigation and the scattered light is recorded by a camera from a triangulation angle. Thus, it is possible reaching a depth resolution of about one by 10.000 of the measurement field size (e.g. 100 μm for a 1 m sized field). For non- or low scattering objects it is common to put scattering material like particle spray onto the object under investigation. Objects where this is not allowed are often regarded as problematic objects for full field non-coherent optical measurement techniques. The solution is to switch from fringe projection to fringe reflection. The fringe reflection technique needs a simple setup to evaluate a fringe pattern that is reflected from the surface under investigation. Like for fringe projection the evaluated absolute phase identifies the location of the originating fringe. This allows identifying the reflection angles on the object for every camera pixel. The results are high resolution local gradients on the object which can be integrated to get the 3D shape. The achievable depth resolution compared to fringe projection is much better and reaches to a depth resolution down to 1 nm for smooth surfaces. We have proven the ability, robustness and accuracy of the technique for various technical objects and also fluids. A parallel paper of this conference 'Evaluation Methods for Gradient Measurement Techniques' picks up further processing of the evaluated data and explains in more detail the performed calculations. This paper mainly concentrates on the fringe reflection principle, reachable resolution and possible applications.