Surface plate



A surface plate is a solid, flat plate used as the main horizontal reference plane for precision inspection, marking out (layout), and tooling setup. The surface plate is often used as the baseline for all measurements to the workpiece, therefore one primary surface is finished extremely flat with accuracy up to 0.00001 in or 250 nm for a grade AA or AAA plate. Surface plates are a very common tool in the manufacturing industry and are often permanently attached to robotic type inspection devices such as a coordinate-measuring machine. Plates are typically square or rectangular. One current British Standard includes specifications for plates from 160 mm x 100 mm to 2500 mm x 1600 mm.