Data analysis for surface plate calibration

Abstract

A surface plate is used to establish a reference plane used for making precision dimensional measurements. Ideally, the surface should be perfectly flat. Since it is impossible to create a perfectly flat surface, surface plate are calibrated to determine how much they deviate from a perfectly flat surface. Once a surface plate is calibrated, the user can determine if the plate is flat enough for use in a particular application. The currently accepted method of data analysis for surface plate calibration, the Moody method, does not give optimum results because of the arbitrary way in which the reference plane is chosen. The exact solution, wherein the reference plane is located in the optimum position, has been worked out and is given in a step by step procedure along with all of the necessary equations. The amount of calculation involved in a typical example proved to be prohibitive even for a computer, so an alternate solution using a least squares criterion for locating the reference plane was developed. Results were comparable with those from Moody`s method with values being smaller or greater depending on the shape of the plate.