University of Jordan

School of Engineering

Industrial Engineering Department

Metrology and Engineering Measurements Lab (0936442)

Experiment number: 6

Experiment title: autocallimater

Date of submission: 16/12/2020

Section: Wednesday

Student number Student name

0185153 Lujain Nazzal

0171305 Raghad Mughrabi

0173260 Aya AL-Momani

0164491 Tali Qasrawi

0171881 Rama Qawasmi

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 Auto Collimator
An autocollimator: is an optical instrument for non-contact measurement
of angles. They are typically used to align components and measure
deflections in optical or mechanical systems.

Objectives:
- To measure straightness of a beam with the use of Autocollimator.
- To identify the principle of Autocollimator device.
- To be able to draw conclusions about straightness error using graphical
methods and least square method.

Apparatus:
1) auto collimator
2) straight edge with 100mm marked intervals.

Principles of operation of an autocollimator:

The auto collimator projects a beam of collimated parallel light .
An external reflector reflects all or part of the beam back into the instrument
where the beam is focused and detected by a photo detector.

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It measures the devotion between the emitted beam and reflected beam because
it uses light to measure angles.

Digital vs Visual Autocollimators

Visual Autocollimators

Visual autocollimators rely on the operator's eye to act as the photo detector. The operator views the
reflected pinhole images through an eyepiece. Because the human eye acts as the photo detector,
resolution will vary among operators. Typically, people can resolve from 3 to 5 arc-seconds.

Digital Autocollimators

Digital autocollimators use an electronic photo detector to detect the reflected beam. The detector
sends a signal to a controller which digitizes and processes the signal using proprietary DSP-based
electronics. The processing creates a calibrated angular output. The angular data is retrieved using a
digital LCD display.

 Applications:

 Calibrating rotary tables.

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  Checking angle standards.

 Remote or long term angular monitoring.

 Measurements of flatness or straightness.

 To provide angular feedback in servo-controlled systems,

How to Calculate Tilt of 1 sec of Arc of the Reflectors

When

θ :The angle taken when after adjusting the micrometer properly (in sec).

h: is the vertical distance (to be found) .

L: is the length of the reflector Carriage which is 0. I m in our case.

𝑡𝑎𝑛𝜃 = ℎ/𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑢𝑠

𝑡𝑎𝑛𝜃 = ℎ/𝑙

Assume θ= 1 sec

1 𝜋
1𝑠𝑒𝑐 = ( ) = 4.8 ∗ 10−6 𝑟𝑎𝑑
60 ∗ 60 180

ℎ = 4.8 ∗ 10−6 m

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Principles of operation
The autocollimator projects a beam of collimated light. An external reflector reflects all or part of the
beam back into the instrument where the beam is focused and detected by a photodetector. The
autocollimator measures the deviation between the emitted beam and the reflected beam. Because the
autocollimator uses light to measure angles, it never comes into contact with the test surface.

Visual autocollimators rely on the operator's eye to act as the photodetector. Micro- Radian visual
autocollimators project a pinhole image. The operator views the reflected pinhole images through an
eyepiece because the human eye acts as the photodetector, resolution will vary among operators
typically. People can resolve from 3 to 5 arc-seconds Because the human eye is able to discern multiple
images simultaneously.

Visual autocollimator sample applications

1. Measurement of non-parallelism in windows, laser rod ends

2. Measurement of squareness of an outside corner by aperture sharing

3. Angle comparisons by aperture sharing

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4. Checking right angle prisms for angular and pyramid error

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Reflection when reflector is square to the beam of light

A light bream is reflected due to the tilt angle of the reflector

Procedure
1. Clean the surface plate or table

2. Position the auto-collimator in line with the reflector. Switch on the lamp in the autocollimator,
the alignment between the auto-collimator and reflector should be checked at both extremes of
the operational distance to make certain that the target graticule is contained within the
eyepiece filed.

3. Fix the guide strip to control of the horizontal displacement of the reflector and minimize the
movement of the target graticule.

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 4. Mark off the positions along the surface plate equal to the pitch positions on the reflector base
(in this case 100mm) column 1 should indicate this position.

5. At the initial position takes the reading and tabulates (column 2)

6. Move the carriage (reflector) to the next position and again tabulate the reading

7. This method is to continue until the final outward position is recorded to improve the accuracy
and ensure no errors have been introduced. Readings should also be taken on the inward run. If
the exercise is followed then the error of the two readings is to be shown in column 2

8. The remainder of the table should be filled by adopting the following procedure:

 Column 3 this is the variations of the tilt occurring between the position at which the
reading is taken and the original position.

 Column 4 the angular position in column 3 is converted into a linear measure (1 second=
.5 micro m). insert a zero at the top of the column to represent the datum.

 Column 5 this is the cumulative algebraic sum of the displacements. Calculate the mean
displacement this is the amount by which the displacement must be adjusted to relate
them to the zero datum.

Plot the values of column 5 versus column 1.

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Calculations

Use data of position (150-200) of Autocollimator reading -33

 Difference from first reading (sec)= Reading-first reading

=-33-28= -61min
 Delta y = Δ 𝑦 (micrometer) =0.25 * difference from first reading
=0.25 *-61=-15.25 𝜇m

 Cumulative y = -3.5+(-15.25) =-18.75 𝜇m

𝐿
 Adjustment requirement = −𝑛∗𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑛𝑜.
=-(3.25/10) *4= -1.3
 Error = cumulative y+ adjustment requirement
=-18.75+ -1.3= -20.05 𝜇𝑚

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Graphs

position-error
20

10

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
-10
error

-20

-30

-40

-50
x

Figure (1): position-error

position-y
10

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
-5
delta y

-10

-15

-20

-25

-30
x

Figure (2): position-y

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