A tool from the past turns into a useful tool for presice point stake out in industrial geodesy applications

In the world of precise measurements using industrial total station and laser tracker the localization of a point can be carried out with great ease and accuracy of a few μm (microns). Stake out (and mark) the points easy and fast is always a great challenge. The process of the stake out as well as the required equipment can be divided into two mechanisms. The first one is related to the system which produces the coordinates for the point (total station/laser tracker/reflectors) and the second mechanism, is related to the marking of the point (small nails, engraving holes, punch marks, use paint). In this work, the influence by each of the two mechanisms in the final uncertainty of the stake out of the points in the field of the industrial geodesy applications is presented. Focusing on the second mechanism, a tool (poinçon) for engraving/punching holes on the drawing paper, used by surveyors in the past during the process of creating survey plans, has been modified with the help of an adapter, in order to serve the needs of precise stake out. In this paper, the geometric characteristics of the adapter are described as well as the procedure by which the final uncertainty of point stake out (using the adapter) has been estimated. For this purpose, measurements have been carried out both with a portable coordinate measuring machine (PCMM) and with its combination with the non-contact functionality of a laser line probe (LLP). However, the use of this type of adapter entails certain risks in terms of uncertainty, so at the end of this work, the limitations of its use are presented.