Development of a ball step-gauge and an interferometric stepper used for ball-plate calibration

We propose a new design artifact for the calibration of ball-plates, which are used to assess the performance of coordinate-measuring machines (CMMs) and to calibrate those. Though transferring a length standard is necessary for ball-plate calibration, gauge-blocks are usually used for it. We think that the gauge-blocks are not appropriate gauges for transferring the length standard because of their shape. Therefore, we develop a new artifact, which we call a ball step-gauge. The ball step-gauge consists of a steel bar having the shape of an H and seven ceramic balls. It is rigid and lightweight. In addition, it can be calibrated precisely using special equipment with a laser interferometer; thus it can be used as a transfer length standard in the ball-plates calibration; furthermore, we discuss the uncertainties in measurements using the new interferometric equipment we developed.