Lab Capacity Increases With New Zeiss CMM! By: Dan Medford EXPANDED CONTACT SCANNING CAPABILITY for modeling and complex engineering measurements serving all industries. We at QCIS' Inspection Division are pleased and excited to announce our recent purchase of a brand new Zeiss Contura CNC CMM, which is available to you for your contract inspection needs. The measuring range on this new CMM is 1000/1600/600, or translated into inches in XYZ: 39" x 63" x 24". The stated maximum permissible error (MPE) calculates to .000025" over the entire Y-axis length! The software for our new Zeiss CMM is Calypso Curve measuring capabilities. We also have the IGES to SAT converter utility to handle IGES file generation. Calypso happens to be the software of choice for DaimlerChrysler, BMW, GM and Ford in their powertrain area. Calypso is characterized by three substantial advantages: easy generation of inspection plans, software and probe sensor flexibility during measurement and application-oriented results output. Not only will this new CMM handle standard touch probe applications with high speed and improved accuracy, it also has the capability to do continuous scan digitizing by obtaining XYZ points at an extremely fast rate of 72 points per second. Speed and density — Coordinate measuring machines with conventional single-point probing operate according to the "woodpecker" principle: each point is picked up as the probe repeatedly the contacts the part, lifts from the part, and then touches the next point. A relatively small number of points is obtained, due to time constraints, resulting in reduced accuracy. This means that you are running the risk, particularly in form measurement, of obtaining results that differ appreciably from the true value. What are the advantages of high-density continuous scan point data? High point density equals high data quality. Simply stated, the more points taken, the closer you will be to the true value of the feature. Measurements become more reliable and stable, yet throughput times (time needed to acquire points) become shorter. In a simple example of an internal diameter, it is possible to get significantly different results for size, form and location based on the data density and the applied math. Studies have shown differences in results when comparing high data density points with the conventional low data collection methods using least squares best fit formula. The same advantages apply when you are obtaining high-density continuous scan point data for the purpose of a surface scan or digitization. The end result of a high-speed, high-density surface scan is a much better and more accurate representation of the surface. We now have 8 CMMs — VIEW non-contact CMMs (2), Brown & Sharpe 7107 CMMs (2), Faro portable CMM, OGP non-contact CMMs (2) and now the Zeiss Contura CMM with Calypso software. We also have a Comet 250 (white light) surface scanning system that provides inspection and reverse engineering solutions. For more information on our CMMs, please go to www.qcinspect.com and follow the "Dimensional Lab" or "Engineering" link. Comment on this article