Renishaw To Highlight New Metrology Products At MACH 2014

Renishaw Sprint Scanning SystemFrom new technologies for pre-process machine calibration, to on-line and off-line post-process measurement. There will also be a significant focus on the company’s additive manufacturing (3D printing) systems.

Major new introductions include a high-speed contact scanning system for CNC machine tools, a family of products for the measurement of aerospace blades, a new range of modular fixtures for metrology applications, and new software for checking the performance of rotary axes. The company will also have active demonstrations of its Equator gauging system, including the first UK appearance of new process monitoring software.

For the first time, Renishaw will have two stands at the MACH exhibition, with an additional stand in the new 3D Printing Zone, created by the show organisers in recognition of the importance of this emerging technology to the manufacturing sector. Renishaw is the UK’s only manufacturer of a machine that ‘prints’ metal parts and visitors to both Renishaw stands will be able to see applications that demonstrate the capabilities of the company’s additive manufacturing technology, including the world’s first 3D printed metal bike frame.

SPRINT™ high-speed contact scanning system
Renishaw’s game-changing contact scanning system opens up completely new process control opportunities for high-value CNC machine tools. The SPRINT™ system incorporates a new generation of on-machine scanning technology that will deliver a step-change in the benefits of process control, enabling fast and accurate form and profile data capture from both prismatic and complex 3D components.

For blade manufacture, the SPRINT system provides unprecedented capability for blade tip refurbishment and root blending applications. For multi-task machining applications, the SPRINT machine tool scanning system offers users completely new process control capabilities, including exceptionally repeatable diameter measurement cycles.

Additional functionality offered by the SPRINT system provides a rapid health-check of a CNC machine tool's linear and rotary axes in seconds, making it possible to implement a daily machine monitoring regime with little or no operator involvement.

Powerful suite of high performance blade measurement and analysis tools
At MACH Renishaw is highlighting a developing family of high performance hardware and software products for co-ordinate measuring machines that are specifically designed to aid the measurement and manufacturing of aerospace blades. All products complement the multi-award winning REVO® 5-axis measurement system and include APEXBlade™ planning software for REVO sweep scanning and DMIS programming, MODUS™ aerofoil analysis for the calculation and reporting of blade section profile and aerofoil characteristics, and SurfitBlade™ to aid reverse engineering of the complete aerofoil.

Renishaw fixtures: the new single source for metrology fixturing
Following the acquisition of R&R Sales LLC in 2012, Renishaw has developed an extensive new range of modular fixturing designed specifically for co-ordinate measuring machines (CMMs), vision systems and its Equator™ gauging system. Visitors to MACH 2014 will see that the new range offers a wide choice of base plates and components available in M4, M6 and M8 thread sizes, and can be utilised for measurement applications across multiple industries, such as aerospace, automotive and medical.

New developments in understanding rotary axes performance
For visitors to MACH 2014 who use five-axis machine tools, Renishaw has further extended its solutions for checking the alignment and positioning performance of machine tool rotary axes with the launch of new off-axis rotary software for its XR20-W rotary axis calibrator. The new software for the highly successful XR20-W now allows it to be used to measure the rotary positioning accuracy of an axis on many configurations of five axis machine tools, where the XR20-W often cannot be mounted on the centre of rotation.

New process monitoring software for the Equator™ gauge
For visitors to MACH sourcing off-line measurement systems a new process monitoring window has been added to the shop-floor user interface for Renishaw's Equator gauging system. This instantly displays measurement results of inspected features to the operator on a bar-graph display. It also shows the history of measurement on each feature so that process trends can be seen. The system's re-mastering process can now be managed based on temperature limits, number of parts or time since last master.

MACH 2014 exhibition will take place at the NEC in Birmingham, UK, from 7 – 11 April. Renishaw can be seen in hall 5 - stand 5730