PTB-News 3.2024 – The deviations of rotary tables can be directly measured on coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) in all six degrees of freedom by means of a self-calibrating procedure using a ball plate. A new concept at PTB is intended to significantly reduce the required number of ball measurements at the specified angular resolution. This enables economical measurements at a higher angular resolution and without noteworthy drifts. For angular resolutions of 5°, a novel ball plate that has been adapted to the method has been manufactured at PTB. The measurement uncertainty will increase only slightly in comparison with the previous method.
