A novel way of squareness measurement on ultra-precision motion stage basing on the error separation

The precision of traditional squareness measurement on ultra-precision motion stage is mostly determined by the standard component, such as bare L-square and optical pentaprism, and the measurement precision is lower than the precision of the standard component. Based on the error separation, this paper presents a novel method of squareness measurement with an optical square brick. The angles between the guide and the four lines of the section of the brick are measured, and the squareness error distraction is achieved by the truth that the internal angle sum of a tetragon is 360°. A squareness measurement test is carried out on the coordinate measuring machine (CMM) by using an optical square brick with the squareness error of 0.3°. The results show that the local squareness and uncertainties between the X axis and Y axis of the CMM are 2.5arcsec and 0.5arcsec respectively. The measurement precision is higher than the precision of the brick and the feasibility and accuracy of the method are validated.