Gaging System Enables Loading of Fixtured Parts

Renishaw’s Equator 300 extended height gaging system provides an extra 150 mm of fixturing space below the measuring volume. The additional space enables loading of parts that are still attached to the fixtures used during machining operations, and facilitates automated part handling with robots and conveyors. The system can inspect features on parts as tall as 300 mm, with rapid change-over to smaller parts using an extended fixture plate spacer. According to the company, the lightweight, repeatable gage can switch between parts in seconds, making it well-suited for accepting parts from multiple machines or flexible manufacturing processes in the automotive, aerospace, medical and electronic industries.

The Equator fixture plate can be easily exchanged for other plates, each mounted to the base using highly repeatable three-point kinematic seats. The plates can be exchanged for fixture plate spacers, enabling smaller parts on their own fixture plates to be gaged in the same measuring volume. A stylus-changing rack enables in-cycle changing of SH25 stylus holders. As many as six stylus combinations can be loaded into the rack at a time for use on a single complex part or multiple parts of varying geometries.

The gaging system is an alternative to traditional dedicated gaging capable of high speed comparative gaging for the inspection of high-volume manufactured parts. Rather than comparing production parts to a reference master part, the system can be remastered by measuring a production part on a CMM to establish the variation from CAD or drawing nominals. The CMM results can be configured to be used directly within the Equator software.