Method for determining the position of a first moving component relative to a second component and device for applying said method

A device for determining the position of one of two components in relative motion, with respect to each other, said device comprising:

• a light source attached to one of said components and configured to emit at least one light beam therefrom;
• a diffractive support attached to the other component, said diffractive support operative to generate an optical signal indicative of the relative position of said support in response to said at least one light beam impinging thereon,
• wherein the optical signal is generated by the diffractive support in transmission and/or in reflection, and wherein the optical signal includes information indicative of its quality;
• processing means operative to detect and read at least one optical code formed by said signal, which corresponds to a unique position of the diffractive support relative to the beam, and which code includes information indicative of the quality of the signal, said processing means operative to
• assess the quality of the signal,
• assign a position to each detected optical code, and
• generate and transmit an output signal indicative of said position to a user,
• wherein each detected and read optical code is compared with electronic codes stored in a memory table for determining the position of the diffractive support, and
• wherein each optical code corresponding to a position of the diffractive support includes at least one optical synchronization structure, the detection of which allowing the triggering of the reading phase of the optical signal integrating the code of a position of the diffractive support relatively to the beam.