Monitoring coordinate measuring machines by calibrated parts

Coordinate measuring machines (CMM) are essential for quality assurance and production control in modern manufacturing. Due to the necessity of assuring traceability during the use of CMM, interim checks with calibrated objects carried out periodically. For this purpose usually special artefacts like standardized ball plates, hole plates, ball bars or step gages are measured. Measuring calibrated series parts would be more advantageous. Applying the substitution method acc. ISO 15530-3: 2000 [1] such parts can be used. It is less cost intensive and less time consuming than measuring expensive special standardized objects in special programmed measurement routines. Moreover, the measurement results can directly compare with the calibration values; thus, direct information on systematic measurement deviations and uncertainty of the measured features are available. The paper describes a procedure for monitoring horizontal-arm CMMs with calibrated sheet metal series parts.