High-speed measurements of steel-plate deformations during laser surface processing

In this paper we present a novel approach to monitoring the deformations of a steel plate's surface during various types of laser processing, e. g., engraving, marking, cutting, bending, and welding. The measuring system is based on a laser triangulation principle, where the laser projector generates multiple lines simultaneously. This enables us to measure the shape of the surface with a high sampling rate (80 Hz with our camera) and high accuracy (+/- 7 mum). The measurements of steel-plate deformations for plates of different thickness and with different illumination patterns are presented graphically and in an animation. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.