MEASUREMENT & INSPECTION
“We targeted it for gear grinders, but to our surprise many others became interested in it as well,” he said, citing turning machines as an example. It is faster than a touch trigger probe in these applications, since the LVDT displacement stylus is used to make quick comparison checks against profiles loaded in the measurement system.
“The real challenge for companies like ours today is to provide laboratory-quality measurements in shop-floor environments.”
“The number of machine tools that are fitted directly with some form of metrology systems are on the rise as well,” said Dave Bozich, product manager for Renishaw (Hoffman Estates, IL). “If a probe is priced right and easy to use, it is natural to find it on the shop floor” because of the benefits it provides. To make probes on machine tools easier to use, he notes the industry has almost exclusively moved to optical/IR or radio frequency technology. This enables the probe to be used like any other tool in the carousel. “Other key enablers are receivers that can talk to multiple probes, along with graphical user interfaces for easy programming” hiding the complexity of the programming language, he said. The next generation of on-machine tool probes, accord- ing to Bozich, is the company’s OSP60 scanning analog probe Sprint. While most on-machine tool probes to date are touch trigger probes, collecting single points of position data, the OSP60 collects up 1000 points/second with 0.1-μm resolution in three dimensions and scanning at velocities of up to 15 m/min. While not as inexpensive or easy to use as the standard touch trigger probes for today’s on-machine applications, he believes that the now-large installed base of touch trigger probes will pave the way for future scanning probes like the OSP60. Typical uses for the OSP60, he believes, are in free form or organic-shaped parts such as turbine blades. Renishaw provides software toolkits dedicated to a specific measure- ment task, for example a turbine blade toolkit geared specifi- cally toward blade tip refurbishment. “For parts like turbine blades, operators can use it for setup, to measure the part in the process of machining, or in postprocess measurements.” He noted that Renishaw has collaborated with third-party CAM developers for processing the OSP60’s analog output to automatically generate a part-specific CNC program allow-
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AdvancedManufacturing.org | January 2015
ing a turbine blade to be recycled. He also sees applications in automotive engines, scanning valve seats and guides for concentric valve sets.
Another innovation for on-machine metrology is the TC64-RG Surface Roughness Gauge from Blum-Novotest (Erlanger, KY). Designed to automatically test workpiece surfaces in machine tools, surface roughness measure- ments can now be done without interrupting the production process or removing the part from its fixturing. The inven- tors had to contend with harsh conditions prevailing within machine tools, such as vibration and exposure to coolants, to create such a device. “We developed this because customers were asking for it and, quite frankly, there has not been a product like this to check surface finish directly on a machine,” said John Kulikowski, president of Blum-Novotest North America. Applications can range from aerospace to medical, typi- cally on either vertical or horizontal milling machines where a particular surface finish is critical. “The application has to be analyzed to make sure it is a good fit,” he said. Standard milled, turned or ground surfaces can be tested
with micron precision in just a few seconds and analyzed in terms of the roughness parameters Ra
, Rx and Rmax . The
detected roughness values can either be documented for later use, output as a status value, or displayed via the GUI. “This is not meant to take the place of conventional metrology, like a profilometer—it is meant to be an in-process tool that will get you a close approximation for in-process control,” he said. The interesting thing about a number of applications is not that they need mirror-like finishes, quite the opposite. They need functional surfaces of precisely defined rough- ness to retain lubricant, for example. Free form as well as prismatic surfaces can be measured as well, according to the company.
? Blum-Novotest Inc. 859-344-6789 /
blum-novotest.us
Fowler Precision Engineering 617-332-7004 /
fowlerprecision.com
Helmel Engineering Products 716-297-8644 /
helmel.com
Jenoptik Industrial Metrology 248-853-5888 /
jenoptik.com Marposs
248-370-0404 /
marposs.com Renishaw
847-286-9953 /
renishaw.com
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