The competition amongst manufacturers in today's world is primarily due to the extensive changes that have been applied to the quality assurance standards. Companies adhere to quality practices and are striving to deliver top-notch products by maintaining superior quality standards. Co-ordinate measuring machines are widely used in a variety of metrology applications and play a vital role in helping companies achieve exceptional quality products. The different mechanical parts of the CMM function together to measure the manufactured parts precisely and accurately. Stylus or probe is the first part of CMM that contacts the work piece under inspection. The different tips of a stylus need to be qualified before they can be used in a part inspection program. The probe qualification typically comprises of finding the effective radius of the probe tip, lengths and orientations of the stylus and errors associated with the probing system (coefficient of elastic bending of the probe). Probe qualification spheres are used to qualify the stylus used in part inspection programs. The form and Spherecity variation of the probe qualification sphere is critical for the CMM probe qualification process. The calibrated size of the sphere should be inputted to the CMM software during the probe qualification process. This paper studies the effects of probe qualification sphere size on the CMM measurements. A master ring gage and a hole plate was measured with a 3X55 mm size stylus tip which was qualified using different probe qualification sphere sizes and compared against each other for size variations. This paper addresses the dilemma "Is calibration of the probe qualification sphere essential?" that exists widely in the metrology industry.
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