On-machine measurement (OMM) is increasingly used to inspect freeform surfaces without unloading the workpiece from the machine tool. Compared to the mechanical probe deployed in many OMM processes, a laser displacement sensor has its advantage of high scanning efficiency. However, the accuracy has been a bottleneck limiting its application in precision inspection, due to the lack of a rigorously planned path. In this work, an error compensation model is established and verified considering laser triangulation error, misalignment from calibration, tooling error, and preevaluated error. Essentially, error modeling contributes to improve the measurement accuracy of laser triangulation OMM (LTOMM). After understanding these errors, a reliable measuring path is crucial to maintain the given accuracy of LTOMM. This path generated is capable of minimizing the measurement time at a given accuracy constraint. In a particular case study, a turbine blade surface was inspected using LTOMM following generated path against a built-in probe. The measurement time was reduced by 77.4% for a constraining accuracy of ±10 μ\textm. The time could be further reduced by 38.6%, for a constraining accuracy of ±13 μ\textm. This study has demonstrated that LTOMM could potentially replace the on-machine probe during measurement of freeform surfaces, toward more efficient industrial applications in the future.

When grinding hard-to-machining materials such as titanium alloys, a massive grinding heat is generated and gathers in the grinding zone due to the low thermal conduction of the materials. The accumulated grinding heat easily leads to severe thermal damages to both the workpiece and the grinding wheel. A novel oscillating heat pipe (OHP) grinding wheel is one of the solutions to this phenomenon. The oscillating heat pipe grinding wheel can transfer the grinding heat directly from the grinding zone to avoid heat accumulation and a high temperature rise. In this paper, the temperature field of the grinding Ti-6Al-4V alloy is investigated, via the oscillating heat pipe grinding wheel, by numerical analysis. The three-dimensional thermal conduction model is built accordingly, containing the grinding wheel, grinding zone and Ti-6Al-4V workpiece. Due to the enhanced heat transport capacity of the oscillating heat pipe grinding wheel, the highest temperature in the grinding zone and the temperature on the ground surface of the workpiece decrease dramatically. For example, under a grinding heat flux of 1 × 10⁷ W/m², when using the grinding wheel without OHP and with OHPs, the highest temperature in the grinding zone drops from 917 °C to 285 °C by 68.7%, and the ground surface temperature decreases from 823 °C to 244 °C by 71.2%. Moreover, the temperature distribution on the grinding wheel is more uniform with an increase of the number of oscillating heat pipes.