Inspection system outperforms CMMS

The Maxos solution includes a noncontact light probe, a bridge or horizontal gantry, a turntable option, installation, custom programming, training and maintenance.

NVision has released the Maxos a turnkey, noncontact inspection solution in North America.

The Maxos outperforms co-ordinate measuring machines (CMMs) by an average of eight to one in terms of inspection speed and also offers greater accuracy.

The Maxos solution includes a noncontact light probe, a bridge or horizontal gantry, a turntable option, installation, custom programming, training and maintenance.

The Maxos system is designed for automated high-speed production inspection.

It can inspect polished and unpolished metal, plastics and glass.

Applications include turbine blades, pump components such as impellers, medical components such as implants, and other high-precision components.

The Maxos system is much faster than traditional CMMs because, unlike CMMs, the measurement speed is not limited by the need to make physical contact with each point that is measured.

The Maxos collects individual points at a rate of 100 per second.

By measuring with a single point of light, the system eliminates the inaccuracies inherent in contact measurement on very small radii or extremely sharp edges.

Additionally, since the Maxos has no ball probe and is not limited by ball-offset geometry, it can inspect radii of less than 0.1mm.

The Maxos provides accuracy of +/-2um on matt surfaces and +/-10um on polished metal.

It can achieve a point spacing resolution of 0.2um without pausing.

Another key advantage of the Maxos system is its ability to measure highly polished surfaces and mirror-finished surfaces without a coating.

Coatings introduce dimensional inaccuracy, take time, and raise the risk of contaminating the work environment.

The Maxos system uses up to seven axes.

All of the axes can be controlled simultaneously to ensure smooth and fast movement.

This allows all of the points to be measured even on difficult horizontal geometry and blade platforms.

The Maxos will create its own alignment for the measurement of a part based on an alignment file which typically compares cross-sections and features to a pre-defined design intent.

A complete inspection report is output in real time at the end of the measurement routine.

One company already using the Maxos is Centrax, a producer of gas turbines and turbine components.

"We originally planned to purchase several touch probe CMMs to keep pace with production during a ramp up of our blisk (blade integrated disk) manufacturing programme", said Kevin Vickers of Centrax.

"But we discovered that the Maxos system is so much faster than the other machines we had considered that a single Maxos handles our planned output".

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