A measurement method for probe microsphere of micro-CMM with double SPMs

Probe tip of the Micro-coordinate Measuring Machine (Micro-CMM) is a microsphere with diameter of several hundred microns, and its sphericity is generally controlled at tens to hundreds of nanometers. Due to the small size and high precision requirement, the measurement of the microsphere morphology is difficult. In this paper, a measurement method for probe microsphere of Micro-CMM is proposed based on two SPM (Scanning Probe Microscope) probes, and a ruby microsphere of a Renishaw commercial CMM stylus is measured by the proposed method. In the experiment, the repeatability error of a maximum section profile is test, and the repeatability error is 41 nm (peak-to-peak value). Two perpendicular maximum section profiles are measured, and the corresponding diameter and roundness are estimated by the least squares method.