Warm-Up Effect and Warm-Up Time of a Laser Tracker

Abstract

The warm-up effect is a well-known phenomenon, which occurs in all types of laser trackers. The series of experiments was performed to determine the influence of warm-up effect on measurement and a warm-up time of device – the time after the temperature inside the tracker is stable. In this paper, the tested tracker was Leica AT960-MR. Results showed that the warm-up effect could cause errors up to tenths of millimeters, and a warm-up time of instrument is around two hours, which is similar to the other researches.

Error sources and models of the laser tracker without a beam steering mirror

“…To reduce the warm-up effect, the measurement should be performed after the temperature inside the device has been stabilized. The time interval after which the temperature stabilizes is called the warm-up time and generally could be given by [20].…”