Abstract: In order to overcome the constraints of the traditional manufacturing method of diamond turning tool that the fabrication process relies on the operator’s skill and experiences and needs repeated offline measurements, an online image measurement method is used to replace the offline measurement in the traditional manufacturing method. According to the information of cutting edge shape and location, the grinding system automatically drives the diamond turning tool to grind the edge contour pertinently through optimal processing strategies. The optimal image processing methods for obtaining the center of diamond turning tool cutting edge and center of rotation of the grinding system are determined through a comparison of the efficiency and accuracy of the three methods for obtaining tool cutting edge. By adjusting the distance between the center of diamond turning tool cutting edge and center of rotation of the grinding system on real time, the initial clamping error which influences the precision and efficiency of cutting edge processing is eliminated. An image measurement system suitable for measuring micro-round nose diamond turning tool is developed. The experiments show that the obtained information of cutting edge contour using the developed online image measurement system is more accurate, accurate, and the highly efficiency, high precision, low-cost and stable manufacturing of micro-round nose diamond turning tool is guaranteed.

Key words: Diamond turning tool, Grinding, Image processing, Online measurement