The manufacturing sector makes widespread use of so-called coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) to precisely characterise all kinds of three-dimensional objects. But until now the highest precisions – down to nanometres – have only been achieved by custom-made instruments.

“If you want to control something that is micro-machined or micro-manufactured you need an instrument that is accurate at the nanometre scale,” says Prof. Dr Oscar Lázaro, of the Innovalia Association in Bilbao.

The EU-funded NanoCMM project set out to develop the technology needed for a universal CMM that could measure to an accuracy of 50 to 200 nanometres in all three dimensions over a volume several centimetres across. Such tolerances are now called for in the manufacture of precision components such as accelerometers, micro-gears, optical components and medical implants.

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