Product category:
Form/co-ordinate, optical and vision instrumentation
News Release from: 3D Scanners | Subject: Freedom
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 08 August 2005
Robot CMM to increase true measurement
accuracy
3D Scanners is developing the world's first automated and portable robot CMM arm, due for launch in late 2006.
3D Scanners is developing the world's first automated and portable robot CMM arm, due for launch in late 2006 Commenting on the Freedom robot CMM announcement, the company's Chairman and Founder Stephen Crampton stated: "The articulated CMM arm segment is the fastest growing segment of the global CMM market, and Freedom is the first automated articulated CMM product to be announced"
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 17 May 2002 at 8.00am (UK)
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The innovation in Freedom is the elimination of the measurement variability introduced by the operator.
The result is a highly repeatable portable CMM that is not only accurate and articulated but automated as well.
Crampton explains: "Portable CMMs are now inherently extremely accurate but human operation significantly degrades the performance".
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"By eliminating the variability and error introduced by manual operators the Freedom robot CMM can dramatically increase true measurement accuracy whilst simultaneously reducing personnel costs and increasing productivity through automation".
This novel and versatile product offering will not only address existing applications in an improved way but will also open up many new applications.
As Crampton points out: "Companies presently planning to buy conventional CNC CMMs, portable CMMs or inline gauging cells, can benefit from the Freedom robot CMM for its enhanced flexibility of access and small footprint".
Portability is the key to many CMM applications and at just 28kg, the Freedom robot CMM can be easily lifted by two people and quickly and easily mounted adjacent to the product, structure or tool that needs measuring.
Freedom thus combines the automation benefits of the fixed-bed CMM with the flexibility and portability of a manual portable CMM; more rigorous quality control is achieved at a lower overall cost.
Ease of programming is a significant feature of the Freedom Robot CMM.
3D Scanner's Kube control and inspection software allows rapid CAD-based programming for short run inspection or simple teach-based programming for online measurement or components with unknown geometry.
Kube supports both standard contact probing and noncontact scanning in an integrated fashion whilst also allowing third parties to incorporate other probing technologies, such as ultrasound-based or capacitive-based, via a software SDK.
Freedom's hardware has been designed to be open and expandable.
Fully compatible with Renishaw probe devices using a TP-20 system, Freedom has also been designed to carry third party probing devices up to a weight of 1000g and incorporates spare capacity in it's signal/databus to avoid the need for external cabling.
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