Standardised Reference Data Sets Generation for Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) Software Assessment

Rapid and accurate in-process measurement has recently become more common in product cycles, especially for producing parts having 3D contoured shapes. As a result, the ability to analyse large quantities of dimensional data requires today’s coordinate measuring machines (CMM) to employ their extreme functionality. With the increasing demand for performance of the software supplied for a CMM, the testing methods for these software packages must be rigorous, stable, and efficient. Motivated by the aforementioned demand, this work is intended to design and develop an algorithm and computer code to generate the reference data sets representing the coordinates of Gaussian associated features for CMM measured parts. These reference data sets can be used to test the CMM software submitted for approval to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). A generic algorithm for the development of the data sets is proposed and the program code is designed and developed by employing object oriented concepts. Dynamic errors during measurement are also accounted for, using Fourier harmonics representing the form errors and noise in the measured data. The data sets, being an integral part of the proposed International Standard – ISO 10360, will become a significant step towards the standardisation of software testing procedures for coordinate measuring machines.