High-Speed 5-Axis Inspection System Introduced

High-Speed 5-Axis Inspection System Introduced

10/12/2005  Sir David McMurtry, inventor of the touch-trigger probe which made possible higher precision and ultimately automated part inspection, brings a new revolution of comparable magnitude to metrology. He is founder and chairman of Renishaw, world leader in probe inspection technologies. In September the company at EMO introduced industry's first ultra-high-speed 5-axis inspection system, delivering part inspection speeds 20+ times faster than current technology. The Renscan5 system uses the REVO two-axis, infinite-positioning probe head to perform scanning at 500 mm a second, while allowing the coordinate measuring machine (CMM) to move in a single axis at constant velocity. This effectively eliminates major sources of CMM dynamic errors that have restricted scanning speeds to 10-20 mm/sec. in conventional metrology practice. The low-mass REVO head performs most of the work in scanning part features, delivering speeds and accelerations well beyond CMM capabilities, while avoiding the dynamic errors incurred in moving the larger mass of the CMM at high rates of acceleration/deceleration. Renishaw expects ultra-high-speed scanning to transform measurement throughput and CMM productivity ?greatly reducing cycle times and enabling greater data coverage (10 times faster data point acquisition) to meet tighter part specifications. Renishaw says the ultra-high-speed scanning system solves a significant production bottleneck for makers of complex, high-value parts requiring large numbers of data points for process control and quality verification. Renishaw is installing a Renscan5 demonstrator CMM at its North American headquarters in Chicago and has begun taking Renscan5 orders for early 2006 delivery. A universal CMM controller developed by Renishaw allows Renscan5 and the REVO head to be installed on most makes of new CMMs, as well as existing CMMs. SOURCE: Renishaw