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Precision roller with microstructures is the key tooling component in the precision embossing by roller process such as Roll-to-Roll to manufacture optical plastic plates or films with three dimensional (3D)-microstructures. Measurement and analysis of 3D-microstructures on a precision roller is essential before the embossing process is being undertaken to ensure the quality of the embossed surfaces. Different from 3D-microstructures on a planar surface, it is difficult to measure and characterize the 3D-microstructures on the cylindrical surface of a precision roller due to the geometrical complexity of such integrated surfaces such as V-groove microstructures on a cylindrical surface. This paper presents a study of method and algorithms for the measurement and characterization of 3D-microstructures on a precision roller surface. A feature-based characterization method (FBCM) is proposed to analyze the V-groove microstructures. In this method, a normal template is generated based on the design specifications, and the measured data is fitted with the feature points. Hence alignment and matching of the measured data to the normal template based on the derived feature points are undertaken. After that the V-groove is characterized by some feature parameters such as pitch, depth, angle of the V-grooves. The method also provides an approach for the analysis of burs generated during the machining of Vgroove microstructures. A precision roller with V-groove microstructures has been machined by a Four-axis ultraprecision machine and the machined surface is measured by a contact measuring instrument. The measured data are then characterized and analyzed by the proposed FBCM. The results are presented and discussed, and they indicate the dominant and regular machining errors that are involved in the machining of the V-groove microstructures on roller surfaces.
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