Geometric Effects When Measuring Small Holes With Micro Contact Probes

A coordinate measuring machine with a suitably small probe can be used to measure micro-features such as the diameter and form of small holes (often about 100 μm in diameter). When measuring small holes, the clearance between the probe tip and the part is sometimes nearly as small as other characteristic lengths (such as probe deflection or form errors) associated with the measurement. Under these circumstances, the basic geometry of the measurement is much different than it is for the measurement of a macroscopic object. Various geometric errors are greatly magnified, and consequently sources of error that are totally irrelevant when measuring macroscopic artifacts can become important. In this article we discuss errors associated with misalignment or non-orthogonality of the probe axes, probe-tip radius compensation, and mechanical filtering.