Patent ID: 7738121

Claim:
A method for optically measuring geometric dimensions of a part having a part axis at an inspection station, the method comprising: supporting a plurality of light sources at the inspection station, the light sources generating a plurality of beams of light having a circular or nearly circular initial shape in cross section, the number of light sources being equal to the number of beams of light; supporting sets of optical components at the inspection station, each set including a plurality of beams shaping components for converting the initial shape of one of the beams of light into a single plane of radiation which has a generally rectangular desired shape in cross section; directing each of the generated beams of light at a corresponding set of the supported optical components to optically convert each of the generated beams of light having the initial shape into a single plane of radiation which has the desired shape, each of the planes of radiation having a split line which splits the plane of radiation into left and right portions wherein all of the split lines substantially intersect at a common central axis and wherein each of the planes of radiation is substantially perpendicular to the common central axis; linearly moving the supported light sources and the sets of optical components in unison relative to the part along a stage axis so that each of the planes of radiation is substantially perpendicular to the part and stage axes and the part occludes each of the planes of radiation to create a corresponding array of unobstructed left and right planar portions of the planes of radiation wherein each of the unobstructed left and right planar portions contains an amount of radiation which is representative of a respective geometric dimension of the part; and measuring the amount of radiation present in each of the unobstructed left and right planar portions on the left and right sides of the split lines, respectively, to obtain measurements wherein the split lines define zeros for the measurements.