Flatness Measurement on a Coordinate

Measuring Machine

Nermina Zaimovic-Uzunovic(&), Samir Lemes, Dzenana Tomasevic,

and Josip Kacmarcik

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Zenica,

Fakultetska 1, 72000 Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina
nzaimovic@mf.unze.ba

Abstract. Different aspects of surface measurement strategies on Coordinate

Measuring Machine (CMM) were varied and their influence on the flatness
deviation result was investigated. The CMM measurements were conducted
using single point and continuous scanning probing. The measurements were
performed with five different point densities in rectangular grid sampling
strategies and three different probe styli. The results showed a very significant
influence of a sampling size on a flatness deviation measurement result.

Keywords: Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM)
Flatness
Sampling

Measurement strategy

1 Introduction

Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMM) are widely being used to test the geometric
tolerances for different industrial parts [1]. Without the CMM, it is very hard to control
all the geometric requirements in modern industry. The measurement accuracy and
uncertainty of CMM results depends on the different features of the measurement
strategies: sample point number and distribution (sampling strategy), probe and styli
selection, probing technique and approach speed, data assessment method etc. There
are no exact rules for defining measurement strategies in coordinate metrology. An
appropriate strategy has to be defined for every individual measurement task; requiring
a reliable estimate of uncertainties of measurement results. Some standards
(ASME/ANSI, ISO, BS) define various methods for different measurements of
geometry. However, these standards do not define the accuracy of measurement results.
NPL collected the end user and CMM manufacturer experience on such measurements,
and published them recently in NPL’s Guide of best practices [2]. The Guide covers
some, but not all the deviations that could occur due to poor selection of measuring
strategy.
Flatness deviation measurement or tolerance control is common task in coordinate
metrology. The different aspects of flatness measurement strategy were widely inves-
tigated. Raghunandan and Rao [3] investigated influence of surface roughness on
accuracy of flatness inspection and concluded that roughness can be parameter for
definition of sample size. The same authors in [4] presented a method to determine an

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

I. Karabegović (Ed.): NT 2019, LNNS 76, pp. 165–172, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18072-0_19
166 N. Zaimovic-Uzunovic et al.

optimum sample size for industrial flatness measurements. The key influence of sample
size on uncertainty and accuracy of flatness measurement was discussed and showed in
many papers, i.e. in [5, 6]. In [7, 8] the knowledge on the manufacturing signature was
used as a tool for definition of an appropriate sampling strategy. The sampling
strategies were defined using models identified with modelling geometrical features by
Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). The implementation of statistical analysis for
sampling strategy design is considered in [9–11]. Zaimovic-Uzunovic and Lemes in
[12] investigated measurement strategy in CMM cylindricity measurement, where
beside a sampling strategy, the influence of a stylus tip size on CMM results was
shown. The highest deviation results were obtained with smallest tip styli, which was
explained with the mechanical filtering effect [13], dependent on stylus tip size.
Different characteristics of flatness measuring strategies were varied in this research
and their influences on a final flatness deviation result were investigated. The two
probing methods (single point and continuous scanning), three stylus tip sizes and
number of sampling points were varied in this research.

2 Flatness Definition and Measurement Strategies on CMM

The flatness is defined in ISO 1101 [14] as a distance between two parallel planes,
confining the surface, oriented in such manner that the distance between the planes is a
minimum possible value, Fig. 1.

Fig. 1. Flatness deviation

In order to perform the flatness measurement, it is necessary to define a finite

number of points and their position (distribution) on the surface to be extracted by
CMM measurement. The sampling strategy is one of the key parameters in flatness
measurement uncertainty budget, and it is necessary to trade between time (cost) and
accuracy (uncertainty). There are two approaches in defining number and distribution
of points [2]: application of predefined rules and detail analysis of the part to be
measured in order to define the form deviation distribution over the part and hence
establish an optimal sampling strategy. The first approach is recommended in different
standards and aims to achieve a nearly uniform distribution of probing points on the
surface. The second approach is more expensive and time consuming, but it can be
justified for parts measured routinely in industrial production. The predefined sampling
strategies for measuring flatness deviation were investigated here, namely the grid
method defined in ISO 12781-2 [15], Fig. 2. After the points defined by sampling
 Flatness Measurement on a Coordinate Measuring Machine 167

strategy have been acquired, a flatness deviation was calculated by CMM data pro-
cessing software. There are two criteria defined in different standards and used in CMM
software for evaluation of the flatness error: the least squares criterion (LSC) and the
minimum zone criterion (MZC) [16]. The least squares criterion is superior regarding
simplicity and calculation time [17]. It is widely used in industry and also in this paper.

Fig. 2. Rectangular grid extraction strategy (ISO 12781-2)

3 Experimental Setup

An investigation was performed in order to analyse the effect of different probe styli (tip
size) and different sampling strategies on the results of flatness measurement with two
different probing methods: single point measurement and continuous scanning mea-
surement. The experimental measurements were carried out on the top surface of the part
used for CMM training, made of stainless steel, produced by classical machining tech-
nologies, Fig. 3. The gross dimensions of the part top surface are 78  67 mm. The
experiment was performed on the CMM Zeiss Contura G2 (MPE_E = (1.8 + L/300 lm,
MPE_P = 1.8 lm), equipped with ZEISS VAST XT scanning probe and CALYPSO 4.8
measurement software [18], Fig. 4.

Fig. 3. Measurement of the top surface. Fig. 4. CMM Zeiss Contura G2.
168 N. Zaimovic-Uzunovic et al.

Rectangular grid sampling strategies were implemented for the measurements, and
five different sample sizes were implemented for each probing method. The rectangular
grid strategy definition was used and automated in CMM software. The sample size
was defined by the number of lines in two directions of a grid for single points, and by
the number of parallel lines (variation of rectangular grid) for scanning probing.
Densities (sizes) of all sampling strategies used in this investigation, together with a
number of actual sampling points are given in Tables 1 and 2, for single point and
continuous scanning measurement, respectively.

Table 1. Definition of strategies used Table 2. Definition of strategies used for continu-
for single point measurement. ous scanning measurement.
Name Grid size Number of points Name Number of parallel Number of
Points 1 44 13 lines points
Points 2 66 18 Lines 1 6 155
Points 3 10  10 47 Lines 2 10 423
Points 4 15  15 96 Lines 3 15 666
Points 5 20  20 170 Lines 4 20 888
Lines 5 25 1147

The graphical representation for two selected single point strategies and for two
selected continuous scanning strategies are given in Figs. 5 and 6, respectively. The
scanning measurements were carried out with arbitrarily slow scanning speed of
5 mm/s in order to avoid dynamic effects on results. Hence, no filter or outlier elim-
ination algorithm options for data filtering [16] available in CMM software were
applied. Number of points extracted from the scanning lines is defined with the step
width of 0.5 mm.

Fig. 5. Single point measurement sampling strategies grids: (a) 6  6, (b) 15  15

Measurements for every strategy were performed using the three different probes
with different styli and stylus tip diameters, Table 3.
 Flatness Measurement on a Coordinate Measuring Machine 169

Fig. 6. Continuous scanning measurement sampling strategies grids: (a) 10  10, (b) 20  20

4 Results

Figures 7 and 8 show the graphical representation of the results. The results reveal the
great influence of sampling size on flatness measurement results, similar to the findings
in [8, 9]. This is especially noticeable because the part used in measurement was not
produced with high quality of finishing i.e. the flatness deviations had relatively high
values. All results were in range from 101.6 lm to 162.2 lm. The deviations from
maximum result obtained with identical probing type and stylus, depending on the
sample size, were from 24.0% to 34.6%. The maximum flatness deviation result, and
maximum values for different styli, were obtained with scanning probing, which is
expected because more points were extracted with measurements, analogue to the
results in [8]. It is noticeable that the continuous scanning measurement results con-
verge, and the single point measurement results diverge. However, the maximum

Table 3. Styli used for measurements [19].

Stylus A

Stylus B

Stylus C

Feature

DK 2 mm 5 mm 8 mm
L 44 mm 50 mm 114 mm
DG 11 mm 11 mm 11 mm
ML 19 mm 40 mm 101 mm
DS 1.5 mm 3.5 mm 6 mm
Weight 5g 4g 10 g
170 N. Zaimovic-Uzunovic et al.

results from single point measurement strategy are close to maximum scanning results,
therefore it is believed that the further increase of sample size would not vary the single
point probing results significantly, i.e. the obtained maximum results are in a converged
range. One can notice that strategies defined with rectangular grid of 15  15 size for
single point (Points 4) and strategies with 15 parallel lines for continuous scanning
measurements result (Lines 3) are in range of approximately 10% deviation from the
maximum result obtained with identical probing type and stylus.

Fig. 7. Graphical representation of single Fig. 8. Graphical representation of continuous

point flatness measurement results. scanning measurement results.

The result deviation values due to different styli (tip size) are comparable with the
ones in [15]. The maximum deviations observed are under 10 lm. As expected, the
highest results are mostly obtained with the stylus A with the smallest tip size. Sur-
prisingly, there are three results obtained with scanning measurement where the
maximum flatness was measured with medium size stylus B. The deviations are rel-
atively small here and no clear explanation could be provided, besides some random
and unconsidered influences on the measurement process.

5 Conclusions

The results showed and confirmed the great influence of sampling size on accuracy of
CMM flatness measurement. For the measured part, the rectangular grid sampling
strategy with size of 15 lines provided results with small deviation from the referent,
maximal values, hence this strategy can be recommended for the common measure-
ment tasks.
 Flatness Measurement on a Coordinate Measuring Machine 171

Continues scanning and single point probing provided similar results and due to
scanning advantages regarding speed and number of acquired points, its expected
superiority for common measurement tasks was confirmed.
The experiment also showed the influence of stylus tip size on the measurement
result (mechanical filtering), but for the flatness deviation values of the inspected part
these result deviations were much smaller and less significant, comparing to the ones
due to sample sizes.

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