Gage Combines Production, Programmable Measurement
The Equator gaging system from Renishaw is designed to minimize purchase, maintenance and fixture costs. It can be programmed for multiple parts and reprogrammed in minutes for design changes.
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The Equator gaging system from Renishaw is designed for high-speed comparative gaging in the inspection of high-volume manufactured parts. It can quickly switch between parts, making it well-suited for flexible manufacturing processes and accepting parts from multiple machines. the company says.
Based on a scaleable and adaptable “parallel kinematic” structure, the gage enables high-speed scanning and rapid moves between features while retaining stiffness for point-to-point repeatability. It can be quickly reconfigured to accommodate part-design changes and to measure new parts, the company says.
The system is available with two levels of software: Programmable software enables production engineers to create DMIS programs, and a less-expensive, shopfloor system enables program execution, but prevents operators from making modifications.
The gage technology is based on the traditional comparison of production parts to a reference master part. Remastering compensates for changes in thermal conditions on the shop floor, enabling the gage to be used in factories with wide temperature variation.
Unlike a traditional gage, master parts do not need to be expensive or customized, the company says. A production part measured on a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) can establish feature variation from CAD or drawing nominals. The results can be configured to be used directly with the gage software.
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