An industrial comparison of coordinate measuring machines in Scandinavia with focus on uncertainty statements

This paper describes an industrial comparison of coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) carried out in the Scandinavian countries from October 1994 to May 1996. Fifty-nine industrial companies with a total of 62 CMMs participated in the project and measured a comparison package with five items chosen to represent a variety of dimensions, angles, and other geometrical quantities. A tool holder, two gauge blocks, a straightedge, and a ring together with instructions on how to measure the items were produced and sent to each participant. Simple measurement tasks were observed to be carried out with good results for the majority of the participants; whereas, increasing the level of difficulty from simple length measurements to more complex geometrical quantities gave severe problems for some of the companies. This occurred even though the participants measured according to prescribed procedures. An important part of the intercomparison was to test the ability of the participants to determine measurement uncertainties. One of the uncertainties was based upon a "best guess" but nevertheless, many participants did not even report this uncertainty. Uncertainty budgeting was not used for measurements other than simple length. For each company, a comparison of their measurement ability with the reference laboratory and other Scandinavian companies was made possible. A network regarding CMMs was created in these Scandinavian countries. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.