Is my Touch/Scan Trigger Module junk?

[Scott Meyer]

Global 9-12-8 PH10MQ SP25M/SM25-2

So upon Hexagons yearly calibration completeion we started the auto cal program we have always used to calibrate all the tips in our probe rack with DCC+DCC. However when it got to the third tip 2mm x 100 mm, as it was scanning the tips at T1A7.5B-180 it would only scan about half of the sphere and when it proceeded to go up and over the top of the spehere it was mashing the tip into the sphere so hard that it would deflect flipping the tip off or trip the overload. We then went to tip edit and pressed measure and said the sphere has moved even though DCC+DCC isfinding the sphere before it starts the calibration. it still proceeded to mash the tip. It appears as though the touch force is not reading correctly and continues to drive it into the sphere. All lengths and settings on tips are correct and everything is as it was before, however, it keeps burying the tip module until it trips as it scans. We skipped the 7.5 degree tips on this probe and everything else ran fine. We did figre out a work around to at least create the tip deflection error in the results for that tip. We simply would skip that scan n the calibration and continue on to the next error each timewhen the tip cal was complete it would give you the error message that your tip cal is out would you like to rerun the tip, say yes to it and the tip would run fine after that. This only happened to about 3 tips between B-180 to B-90. I have ran a verification program on all the tips at multiple anglesonknown good parts and the recordings and results are correct now, just unclear as to why it was pushing so hard. Is the path defined by the calibration program based upon where the sphere prehit points ssay the sphere is located and hardlined movement regardless of tip pressure? I don't believe this to be true this is why I believe my Scan module is fubar. Any ideas would appreciate the help.

[Wes Cisco]

Pc-Dmis is nothing if not quirky. It might be a corrupt probe file and the only solution is to delete and recreate.

Sometimes I get a probe angle that won't qualify correctly, (even though it has in the past), with DCC+DCC but if I do a MAN+DCC it straightens itself out and will then qualify with DCC+DCC again.

With the TP20 (Yes I saw you are asking about the SP25, this is for other's reference), I sometimes have to just manually qualify a tip with 5 hits and then after that it will DCC qualify.

I would not suspect the module is going bad unless the number of tips it won't qualify increases or there are other signs it may be failing. I would do some testing with known items, (i.e. qual sphere, gage blocks, rings, pins, ets) to make sure the numbers it was reporting are still accurate.

HTH

[Scott Meyer]

I wrote a program awhile ago that uses the cal sphere with multiple angles and numerous hits to verify that all the wrist moves are reporting correctly and we are also usoing a known ring gage, plus a 1",3" and 4" gage block to verify the calibrations. unfortunately we have multiple users of our machines, on multiple shifts and things tend to get sketchy sometimes, so this was my way of covering my behind. When numbers on parts I know tend to look different I run this program to verify tip corelations. I know they have added tip verification to the calibration, as an option now, I just have not had time to play with it yet, has anyone else worked with it yet?

As far as the tips not calibrating easy I was able to get it to calibrate trhough, the work around was simply to check the box for setting tips back to theoreticals before calibratiing and that worked, but, that still does not explain as to why my tip was grinding over the top of the sphere to the point of tripping the overload.

[Wes Cisco]

I wrote a program awhile ago that uses the cal sphere with multiple angles and numerous hits to verify that all the wrist moves are reporting correctly and we are also usoing a known ring gage, plus a 1",3" and 4" gage block to verify the calibrations. unfortunately we have multiple users of our machines, on multiple shifts and things tend to get sketchy sometimes, so this was my way of covering my behind. When numbers on parts I know tend to look different I run this program to verify tip corelations. I know they have added tip verification to the calibration, as an option now, I just have not had time to play with it yet, has anyone else worked with it yet?

As far as the tips not calibrating easy I was able to get it to calibrate trhough, the work around was simply to check the box for setting tips back to theoreticals before calibratiing and that worked, but, that still does not explain as to why my tip was grinding over the top of the sphere to the point of tripping the overload.

Tip verification has been around for a long time. I use it sometimes, mostly if a tip gets over traveled or if I am seeing results so far from what I expect that I question the qualification and I want to make sure I don't need to requalify. Verification is much faster and gives you a reassurance that the tip can measure the sphere accurately, essentially the same as your cal sphere program.