How to Use a Laser Interferometer for Machine Calibration
A laser interferometer measures machine positioning accuracy with sub-micron resolution. I use one for annual calibration of production deep hole drilling machines. The first time I ran a full laser calibration on a machine that was supposedly within spec, I found positioning errors of 0.08 mm per meter — four times the acceptable limit. The compensation corrected those errors and improved the hole position repeatability from 0.05 mm to 0.01 mm. ...