Standards Development

Scope

This document defines the language of symbols used in the ISO 10360 series of documents to identify metrological characteristics of coordinate measuring systems (CMSs) and their maximum permissible errors (MPEs) or limits (MPLs).

Purpose

The ISO 10360 series of documents is widely used in industry for the acceptance and the reverification testing of CMSs (Coordinate Measuring Systems). It includes several documents addressing different CMS technologies. These documents are designed to ensure the highest possible degree of internal consistency in spite of their diversity.

This and other documents of the ISO 10360 series with Part numbers in excess of 100 (e.g. ISO 10360-102) describe the commonalities of the ISO 10360 series. The purpose is to provide a reference for the development of future ISO 10360 documents and the revision of existing ISO 10360 documents as well as to disclose the commonalities to the wider public and to improve awareness and understanding overall.

The ISO 10360 series of documents defines metrological characteristics – typically error parameters – and their specifications (MPEs or MPLs) of CMSs. Symbols are associated to them for convenience and ease of reference. The association of symbols to corresponding metrological characteristics and their specifications is conventional and any is valid in principle, provided that it is unambiguous (i.e. the correspondence is one-to-one) and in conformity to the requirements of ISO 80000-1. In practice, the increasing number of ISO 10360 documents and of metrological characteristics therein would result in a chaos of symbols without a systematic rule in assigning and interpreting them.

The symbols in the ISO 10360 series of documents follow an underlying language, named G3, comprising the semantics and grammar to create valid and consistent symbols. Annex B recalls the evolution of the symbols of the ISO 10360 series and the underlying language generations. Mastering the details of such language of symbols is the responsibility of standard makers; familiarizing with it (by understanding its foundations, goals and main characteristics) is important for standard users too, to avoid confusion or puzzling (symbols are sometimes long and complex) and to take advantage in reading, interpreting and comparing.