Speaker
Description
Future accelerators and fourth-generation storage-ring light sources impose increasingly stringent requirements for component positioning, stability, alignment, and uncertainty control.
Meeting these demands requires not only accurate instrumentation but also reliable and consistent measurement practices throughout the alignment chain.
To address these challenges collectively, an interlaboratory comparison (ILC) campaign was proposed at the 2025 European Workshop on Accelerator Alignment (EUWAA).
The campaign subsequently brought together eleven European laboratories to measure a common accelerator reference object.
This contribution provides an overview of the ILC, covering its objectives, organisation, measurand definition, measurement environment, and metrology systems employed by the participating laboratories.
It also presents the comparison methodology together with the reference dataset obtained from coordinate measuring machine (CMM) measurements.
As an example of the initial findings, the influence of geometric-feature construction on the realisation of the coordinate frame of the reference object is examined.
In particular, the analysis considers how point sampling, feature-fitting methods, underlying geometry quality, and measurement uncertainty affect the realised reference frame for coordinate comparison.
The study promotes knowledge sharing and greater consistency in terminology, measurement practices, and uncertainty reporting. Its findings will inform a best-practice guide for accelerator alignment, improve future interlaboratory comparisons, and strengthen confidence in high-precision alignment.
