Simpler shop floor CMM
New Deltron design enables probe to go where it needs to be.
Machine shops stand to benefit in many ways from a different approach to measuring-machine design.
The innovative design is the brainchild of U.K.-based Aberlink Ltd. Another firm headquartered in the United Kingdom, Vision Engineering Ltd., is selling Aberlink’s device under the name Deltron. (Vision Engineering Inc. is in New Milford, Connecticut.) The shop-floor-hardened Deltron is a non-Cartesian coordinate measuring machine featuring a delta robotic mechanism.
Delta robots commonly are used to move objects quickly and accurately in pick-and-place operations, said Güven Türemen, group metrology manager at Vision Engineering.
“So Aberlink thought, ‘Why don’t we use that (technology) to move a probe?'” he said.
Deltron’s probe is held in place by three pairs of carbon-fiber rods. Türemen said the mechanism looks and operates nothing like a typical CMM.
“Typically, you have Cartesian machines where the probe moves in the x-, y- and z-axes individually,” he said. “With the Deltron construction, the probe just goes where it needs to be following the shortest route. It doesn’t have to move first in z, then x, then y.”
Featuring a delta robotic mechanism, the Deltron coordinate measuring machine is designed to be used on shop floors. Image courtesy of Vision Engineering
Deltron’s design offers maximum point-to-point speed and acceleration of 500 mm/s (19.7″) and 750 mm/s2 (29.5″), respectively, according to Vision Engineering.
It’s also a much simpler mechanism than traditional CMMs, Türemen said, which translates into a smaller footprint on the shop floor.
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