Software aside, new features for CMMs differ depending on the CMM developer and its customers' needs, but all of the new CMMs boast improved accuracy and usability.
An increasing interest in noncontact measurement is also leading to new CMM development. Werth distributes CMMs with touch probes, but the company mainly develops video and laser sensors. Werth's Fiber Probe is a fiber-optic thread microprobe made to detect tiny features using styli as small as 25 microns. The Werth Zoom for video measuring has linear guides, instead of traditional rotating helical movement, which can be programmed for variable working distances from 50 to 180 mm, allowing access to deep interior features not possible with conventional lenses. And, the company's Foucault Laser allows the user to integrate a laser into the primary video sensor rather than position it with an offset from the video sensor, resulting in no loss of range between sensors because they cover a common area.
In response to customers' needs to integrate several functions into one machine, Mahr Federal's new MarVision Multiscope 222 3-D CMM accommodates multiple sensing technologies, including touch-probe, vision and laser sensors.
Temperature control is also an important factor, which has recently led CEJohansson to develop thermal expansion sensors that can read the CMM's reaction to environmental changes in real time. "Conventional practice has been to limit the use of a CMM to a temperature- and humidity-controlled environment," notes Beth Graham, the company's marketing director. "By utilizing Invar rods--made from a nickel alloy material--and thermal expansion sensors, we are able to compensate for changes in temperature."
An increasing interest in noncontact measurement is also leading to new CMM development. Werth distributes CMMs with touch probes, but the company mainly develops video and laser sensors. Werth's Fiber Probe is a fiber-optic thread microprobe made to detect tiny features using styli as small as 25 microns. The Werth Zoom for video measuring has linear guides, instead of traditional rotating helical movement, which can be programmed for variable working distances from 50 to 180 mm, allowing access to deep interior features not possible with conventional lenses. And, the company's Foucault Laser allows the user to integrate a laser into the primary video sensor rather than position it with an offset from the video sensor, resulting in no loss of range between sensors because they cover a common area.
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